Maximum grain capacity for 10 gallon igloo 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.

petry121

Active Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Does anyone know what the capacity grains/pounds is for the 10 gallon home depot MLT.

I am doing my first 10 gallon batch and my grain bill is going to be roughly 40 pounds, will that work with this MLT?
 
Nope. I tried 33# one time and it was . . . rough. The most I am willing to put in is 28#, and it is a really thick mash. Sparging is also a PITA when the MLT is so full.
 
You can always reduce the base malt and make up the difference with some light extract.
 
Awesome! This all great insight. Maybe reducing the grain bill and adding extract is the way to go.
 
Yeah I tried 33 lbs one time not thinking that doubling the recipe would provide too much grain. Ended up with 30 pound in there but flooded the mash tun once. Beer ended up fantastic.
 
I have a 48qt cooler and 30lbs is right at the limit I can get in there. So 40 lbs in a 10 gallon cooler would not work.

If my grain bill is over 30lbs I take out some 2-row and add some light DME during the boil to compensate the gravity.
 
Yep, I'm thinking of doing a partial mash with extract for a stout due to my small mash tun. As long as most of the GB is grain, it won't hugely affect the beer.
 
And if you have time in the brew day, you could always do 2 mashes? It'll add probably about 2 hours on to what you're doing, but I've done it before.
 
Back
Top