15 gal vs 5 gal lauter tun

I'm about to make to the transition from extract to all grain. Can you make barleywines or stronger ales in the 5 gallon coolers or should i just get the 15 gal one. I prefer making the high octane brews.

doodlevon said:

I'm about to make to the transition from extract to all grain. Can you make barleywines or stronger ales in the 5 gallon coolers or should i just get the 15 gal one. I prefer making the high octane brews.

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Welcom to the forum... and AG brewing. This is a pretty frequent question here. BobbyM has a chart on gravity you can expect out of your mash-tun based on efficiency and size. See thread.

I've got a 5 gal myself and I'm limited to about 5 gal batches w/ OGs of ~1.055. That was at about 75% efficiency. Personally I'd go big. I really wish I'd held out for a larger mash-tun and now I'm looking at spending another $50 for a 72 qt cooler so I can do some REALLY big brews.

Yea if your gonna to big beers go with bigger than a 5 gallon.
All i have is a 5, and about 12 lbs of grain is about it.

A 10 gallon MLT will get you 5 gallons of barleywine or 10 gallons of 1.060 beer. That's a pretty good deal but 28-52 quart is even more versatile.

Home Depot has a pretty popular "gatorade" style round drink cooler for about $38. Not sure if you have HD around, but I'm pretty happy w/ mine. It's 10 gallons and can handle any 5 gallon grain bill.

thanks, I am actually going to buy the kit off of ebay, the 15 gallon one

I have a 50Quart and would want NOTHING less. Once you go Ag, you'll realize 10G batches take MAYBE an extra hour over 5G. took me 3 5G AG bathes to start doing 10G instead!