How much grain, 10 gallon Igloo Cooler

My intent is to do 10 gallon batches.
My feeling is, if I have to do all of that extra work (vs. extract), I may as well get bigger batches out of it.

Today I was working on converting one of my favorite extract recipes to AG. It looks like I'll need about 32lbs of grain! Can a 10 gallon Igloo cooler handle this?

No, at 1.25 qt per pound you're looking at 12.56 gallons. Google is your friend.

Today I was working on converting one of my favorite extract recipes to AG. It looks like I'll need about 32lbs of grain!

Click to expand...

What's the recipe- maybe someone can help you convert it. A 10 gallon cooler tops off at about 25 lbs of grain. You could use DME to provide the rest of the fermentables if need be.

You can do it IF you use 1.25 quarts water to 1 lb grain and make a 7.5 gallon batch. That's about 24 lbs grain instead of 32 and it will fit in the mash tun. If you get beersmith and play with the numbers then you learn what you can and can not do with any size mash-tun.

3# per gallon sound like a heck of a lot of grain. Are you intending to make rocket fuel? I think 20 pounds will make a Dubbel.

Here is my original recipe:

Bombsight Oatmeal Stout

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract 62.50 %
1 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 12.50 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.30 %] (45 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
1.00 oz Target [11.00 %] (45 min) Hops 20.0 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Oats (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale


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Here is how BeerSmith converted that:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
15 lbs 14.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.89 %
2 lbs 6.3 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 11.56 %
1 lbs 3.1 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.78 %
1 lbs 3.1 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5.78 %
1.08 oz Target [11.00 %] (45 min) Hops 19.2 IBU
1.08 oz Centennial [10.30 %] (45 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
2.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2.00 lb Oats (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale


(I'm wondering a bit why it didn't increase the hops amounts more.)

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I sent the recipe to a friend who tried their hand at converting it to AG. Here's what they came up with:



Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
81.5 26.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
6.2 2.00 lbs. Crystal 80L 1.033 80
3.1 1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 475
3.1 1.00 lbs. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.029 575
6.2 2.00 lbs. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.30 38.5 45 min.
2.00 oz. Wye Target Pellet 11.00 41.1 45 min.



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I'm aware that the gravity is pretty huge, though in BeerSmith the estimated gravity seems within the guidelines for a 16-C

If you use scale recipe then Beersmith should keep the alcohol the same. If you make a mistake and adjust the water by itself then it will ruin the calcs. Just changing the scale should keep the hops correct because remember that the full boil volume affects hop utilization. You get more effect from bittering when your boil volume is increased by beersmith so it compensates for that.

WBC said:

If you use scale recipe then Beersmith should keep the alcohol the same. If you make a mistake and adjust the water by itself then it will ruin the calcs. Just changing the scale should keep the hops correct because remember that the full boil volume affects hop utilization. You get more effect from bittering when your boil volume is increased by beersmith so it compensates for that.

Click to expand...

That's just it. These hops amounts are what I got when I converted the extract recipe using BeerSmith. The hops IBUs seem pretty close to the same, it just seems odd.

32 Pounds of grain for a 10 gal batch, that is a lot. Given that you were using some extract before you sure that is the correct amount?