Mash Tun Help

Hello,

I bought a 36 qt. rectangular cooler. The dimensions are about 10" w x 21" l x 10 " deep. (i just got to build a copper mainfold this week for continuous sparging)

I plan on trying my first AG batch soon - with on OG of about 1.050ish..with a yeild
of about 35-40 litres (8 gallons)...which is about 15 lbs or grain. (roughly).

The next size up for the cooler was 52 qt...but thought it may have too shallow of a grain bed.

Any feed back regarding size/grain bed depth/max lbs. of grain, etc would be helpful..

Thanks.

Signed

Tryin to get it right the first time.....

I am pretty new to AG. One thought I had is that you might want to stick with a standard for your first batch. 8 gallons... 15 pounds.... not all that common. All I'm saying is that for your first batch it helps a lot when you have a good referance point. You know like... everyone does 5 gal batches... everyone uses 8 to 10ish pounds. If you start there you will at least know that it did work for someone and he/she got these results. Might be a little easier for your first one.

I'd say what you've planned would work ok. Plan on 10-11 gallons for the total runnings. Why don't you post the recipe?

Thanks for the advice!

I just need to find a stainless steel kettle..and its AG time !

Cheers.

You shouldn't have any trouble at all. I have a 36qt Coleman Extreme that I recently did a 10g batch in with just >20# of grain. I batch sparge and had to do a main mash + 2 batches as opposed to my usual mash + 1 batch, but no biggie. Efficiency was ~75% which is fine with me.

I am planning on brewing with a buddy,,and I just picked up 4 X19L glass carboys for free...so I was looking forward to a bit bigger batch....I usually brew 10-11 gallons from extract and am thinking that 5 hours of brewing for 5 gallons is kinda
on the small side (considering that I am splitting this with a brew buddy).
I still haven't found a recipie, but just picked up the book Brew Clones by the
Szamkurvas....or something...and have plenty of possibilties.

Cheers.