Mash tun size...

Here's the question guys. Finally decided to pull the trigger and go all grain, and in doing so decided to look at coolers for it.

I was going to go with a 36qt Coleman Xtreme, but after looking at one, I'm not so sure...it seems tiny!

So, here's my question, for those with coolers in the 36-40qt and bigger ones like the xtreme 52qt:

1.) I'm only going to be doing 5-6 gal batches, most of which will be in the 1.060-1.070 range. My house staple is a version of BM's Cent. Blonde. Will a 52qt be too big for a 6 gal batch that only calls for 8lbs of grain? That's only about 3 gallons of strike water, which makes me think the grain bed would be too shallow.

2.) For those using a 36-40qt cooler: how full does it get with a 14-15lb grain bill? I keep looking at one thinking its way to small for a IIPA or something similiar but I'm worried about going too big. Is it possible to have too deep a grain bed?

Maybe if someone posted some pictures, I could get an idea of how full a "X" sized cooler looks with "Y" lbs of grain? It's hard to get an idea of size when you have nothing to base it to.

Thanks for the time!

i use a 5g(20qt) cooler for almost all the beers i make and generally it will hold anything up to a 13-14# grain bill depending on mash rates. if i need a bigger bill i use a 10g which admitedly doesn't happen very often.


and no deep is not a bad thing with grain beds it's shallow you want to avoid

Yeah I read that....I guess I was just worried about having it always filled to the brim and worry about it spilling out while stirring. Guess that shouldn't be an issue!