How much grains can I fit in a 5 gal gott cooler?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Willsellout

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
913
Reaction score
0
Location
Oregon coast
I wanted to do a California Common but the recipe I found uses 13 pounds of grains. Would this be too much for it? I plan on single infusion and batch sparging this one.


Thanks!


Dan
 
Dude said:
13 will work--but it will be pushing the limit. You don't wanna go much higher than that, especially if you batch sparge.

Yeah I plan on adding a 10 gallon pretty quick but this cooler was on sale and I figured I'd use it on any PM recipes I do, or as a HLT.


Dan
 
Now this info is from B3 but they are pretty good.

1.1qt/lb=14.5lbs grain
1qt/lb=16lbs grain
.9qt/lb=17lbs grain

this is what they give with there 5gal cooler. Hope this helps
 
ranger13 said:
Now this info is from B3 but they are pretty good.

1.1qt/lb=14.5lbs grain
1qt/lb=16lbs grain
.9qt/lb=17lbs grain

this is what they give with there 5gal cooler. Hope this helps

Right--that doesn't include room for more water, though. If you fly sparge, you could mash those amounts. For batch sparging, you need room for more water. As Dude, says, if your grains and strike water are nearly maxing out your tun, you're going to be doing multiple batch sparges.
 
Good point I don't batch sparge so I did not think about that, sorry mybad
 
Yeah I think the limit I will stick with is 11 lbs of grains. I will be buying my 10 gal cooler here fairly quickly so I won't have to worry about it.


Dan
 
I've done 13 lbs in my 5 gallon cooler. It is about as much as I would do in the 5 gallon. It only took 2 batch sparges to get 6.5 gallons out, but the mash and both sparges totally filled the cooler. The beer turned out great, btw.

I'll be getting a 10 gallon the moment Home Depot has any in stock, but I say go ahead and do the Cali Common.
 
gruntingfrog said:
I've done 13 lbs in my 5 gallon cooler. It is about as much as I would do in the 5 gallon. It only took 2 batch sparges to get 6.5 gallons out, but the mash and both sparges totally filled the cooler. The beer turned out great, btw.
What he said....
 
To up the capacity a bit, has anyone tried batch sparging using a 5 gallon cooler mash tun maxed out to 12 or 13 lbs, and used an unmodified cooler to handle any leftover grain? I would think you could drain off a couple gallons of wort and then dump the unmodified cooler into the mash tun, vorlauf again and drain the rest.

Thanks,
Doug
 
Back
Top