Found a cooler in my buddies garage... MLT question...

So i found a decent 42 qt cooler in my buddies garage, but its quite nasty... Any concerns if I give it a good bleach and oxyclean bath?? A larger one is on sale near my home for only 15 bucks, but I wasnt sure if using an old nasty cooler for my MLT would be a bad idea...

Thoughts?

I think you answered your own question...

Spend the $15 rather than risking off flavors.

since free is such a good price i would do the cleaning routine and then see if it passes the sniff test.

i thought the sniff test only applied to women...

rod said:

since free is such a good price i would do the cleaning routine and then see if it passes the sniff test.

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+1 give it a really good cleaning and see how it ends up. At worst you're out a few cents in cleaner, some elbow grease and some time. If that's worth more than $15 to you, go with the new one.

Yuri_Rage said:

I think you answered your own question...

Spend the $15 rather than risking off flavors.

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I would have to agree for whatever that is worth. I like to start fresh on some things.

my mlt smells like mashing grains.... hmmm.

ya 15 dollars doesnt seem horrible to me. The cooler still had sand and dirt in it. Who knows how many scratches, etc could be in there...

Any benefits of a rectangular cooler vs. a cylindrical one?

NoClueBrewMaster said:

ya 15 dollars doesnt seem horrible to me. The cooler still had sand and dirt in it. Who knows how many scratches, etc could be in there...

Any benefits of a rectangular cooler vs. a cylindrical one?

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If you batch sparge, there isn't much difference. If you want to fly sparge, there are some merits to a cylindrical (or at least taller, less wide) cooler.

NoClueBrewMaster said:

i thought the sniff test only applied to women...

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And now my computer screen has coffee on it... Thanks for the laugh

any time sir...

NoClueBrewMaster said:

the cooler still had sand and dirt in it. Who knows how many scratches, etc could be in there...

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none of those things are bad. mlt's don't need to be scratch-free. they're used pre-boil. boil = no infection.

+1 to try some oxyclean overnight, let it dry, then sniff it. your nose will tell you the answer. after all, $15 buys you a copy of papazian's book. way more useful than a new cooler.

Yuri_Rage said:

If you batch sparge, there isn't much difference. If you want to fly sparge, there are some merits to a cylindrical (or at least taller, less wide) cooler.

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I have been working my way thru the brewing networks archived broadcast and there was a pro brewer on there (back in 05) that talked about how a thinner grain bed was better. Really if you think about it, the grain bed just filters it. As long as the bed is thick enough to fiter you are all good.

I would clean the cooler and use it. $15 is your first AG brew. :rockin:

chriso said:

none of those things are bad. mlt's don't need to be scratch-free. they're used pre-boil. boil = no infection.

+1 to try some oxyclean overnight, let it dry, then sniff it. your nose will tell you the answer. after all, $15 buys you a copy of papazian's book. way more useful than a new cooler.

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I already have them both...

I ended up with a 48 quart rubbermaid... It was 20 bucks at kmart. I was gonna go for a 60 quart, but after the comment above regarding grainbed depth, etc, I thought that something in the middle would work fine for me...

I'm going to be making my manifold, etc later this week. I'll post with pics, etc.