How much grain in a 5 gallon cooler?

How much grain will fit in a 5 gallon cooler?

I understand that you need a 10 gallon cooler to do 5 gallon AG batches, but I have an old 5 gallon cooler, which makes the price about right.

Go ahead and use it. I find that you will run out of room at some point depending on how strong you like to brew and grain to water ratio. Use the Can I mash it calculator on this page to see if your recipe will fit in the cooler.
Edit: Most likely you can get 13 lbs of grain in there @ 1.18 quarts per pound.

What is mash thickness?

jldc said:

How much grain will fit in a 5 gallon cooler?

I understand that you need a 10 gallon cooler to do 5 gallon AG batches, but I have an old 5 gallon cooler, which makes the price about right.

Click to expand...

I've got a 5 gal. cooler MLT that I use for 5 gal batches. I just did a batch this weekend that used almost 11 lbs. of grain, and it fit just fine.

I've also got a 5 gallon round cooler. I find that it maxes out at 13 lbs of grain at 1.25 gal/lb. And this ratio leaves a little bit of space to make small temperature adjustments, if necessary.

If I want a stronger beer, I just make up the difference with extract.

I've done Yooper's DFH 60 min clone in a 5 gal MLT. The grain bill was 14 lbs. It was a real tight fit and I mashed pretty thick but it worked out. Last night I used 12lbs and used a 1.25 qts/lb mash and it all fit perfectly with about 1/2" to spare at the top.

The green bay rackers calculator is great...

I have crammed 14 pounds of grain using a tad over 1 quart/gallon mash water (I think it was 1.06 quarts according to the calculator) and using biermuncher's sparge bucket to sparge with...Actually irc, I think I drained the tun, then filled the cooler with half the water, closed it up for 20 minutes, then put the bucket on top, and pseudo flysparged the rest of it....

WBC said:

Go ahead and use it. I find that you will run out of room at some point depending on how strong you like to brew and grain to water ratio. Use the Can I mash it calculator on this page to see if your recipe will fit in the cooler.
Edit: Most likely you can get 13 lbs of grain in there @ 1.18 quarts per pound.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that link, that is a sweet site.

My guys at the LHBS told me I could probably fit around 12lbs of grain in my 5 gallon cooler, maybe a tad more.

Thanks for all the replies, especially the link to the calculator.

I upgraded to a 15g cooler the first time I had 14lbs of grain, I was fine until then.

smokysalsa said:

What is mash thickness?

Click to expand...

That would be the ratio of the amount of water in quarts, to the amount of grain in lbs. 1qt Water/1lb Grain being thick, 2qts water/1lb grain being thin.