how much malt in the tun?

I just about start brewing with all grain and i wanted to know. How many pounds of barley can you put in a 5 gallon mash tun?

I see a lot of recipes that have 10 12 even 15 pounds and don't want to buy one that will not fit in the tun.

Boob! Prost!

have you bought and converted a 5g cooler yet? if not, i'd go for the 10g instead, so you can use it for 10 gallon batches later when you move to them. as far as answering your question, you'll top out at about 13 lbs if you use 1.2 qts/lb

depends on your water to grain ratio. if you use 1 quart of water per pound of grain, then 15 pounds of grain will take up ~5 gallons in a cooler. if you use 1.5 quarts of water per pound, then 11 pounds of grain will take up ~ 5 gallons in a cooler.

just made a 5gal tun. i just needed an ideal so i don't get something that won't work... that would sux balls.

i had an EXTREME problem with brewhouse efficiency when i was using an 11 gallon rectangular cooler. i was only getting 44% to 69% efficiency. i just bought a 5 gallon round/tall cooler and i'm going to start fly sparging. i am hoping to get up to the expected 70% to 80% range.

it is true that if you are going to brew 10 gallon batches soon, you should get the 10 gallon cooler, but if you're going to stick with 5 gallon batches, i would suggest a 5 gallon cooler. you will spend $20 instead of $40 or $50 for the cooler, and you can keep a nice tall column of water and grain.

like dogphish says. i hear those are best for 5g batches, and are supposed to have great efficiency for sparging

that's what i read too

I bought a cheap 60qt Igloo Ice Cube cooler from Target for 19 bucks, added the ball valve and stainless braid. I batch sparge and mill my own grain, I have been getting 87% eff on most every batch for quite a while now, when I do 10 gallon batches I usually need to watch my grainbill and ratio so I dont run out of room, I would pop for the 10 gallon one just to be on the safe side, its better to start with a bigger capacity than to have to upgrade later.

Dogphish said:

depends on your water to grain ratio. if you use 1 quart of water per pound of grain, then 15 pounds of grain will take up ~5 gallons in a cooler. if you use 1.5 quarts of water per pound, then 11 pounds of grain will take up ~ 5 gallons in a cooler.

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You will probably have to fly sparge with 15lbs of grain in the mash tun.
Not much room for batch sparge additions.

Check out the "can I mash it?" calculator here: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

It doesn't take into account any space under your false bottom, but it is pretty accurate otherwise!

A 10 gallon round will do everything you need for 5 gallon batches and allow you to do some normal gravity 10 gallon batches if you go that route. I used a 5 gallon Igloo for years and was limited to somewhere in the 1.06's. I repurposed my wifes old 48qt cooler for 10 gallons; however, I tried to do a 10 gallon Union Jack clone and it didn't have the capacity for the extra water to raise the grain from 148 to 155 (or whatever it was) so my clone isn't exactly a clone as it ended up pulling a decoction to raise the temp. Anyway, the point being, take a long think about what your brewing plans are down the road and base your decision off of that so you don't end up being wasteful.

i only plain on 5 gal baches for a bit so i think i'm ok