Do I need a 5gal or 10gal cooler?

Hi All

I want to get into all-grain brewing and I am trying to decide whether I should but a 5gal or 10gal cooler. For now I will be brewing 5/6 gallon batches at a time but one day I would like to graduate to 10 gallon batches.

I have read that you need to be careful when choosing a cooler size because you need to ensure that you have enough grain bed depth to have an effective lauter.

What experiences have you guys had?

Thanks

cootr_brn said:

Hi All

I have read that you need to be careful when choosing a cooler size because you need to ensure that you have enough grain bed depth to have an effective lauter.

Click to expand...

Grain bed depth is irrelevant if you are batch sparging, which I would advise for a first timer.

A five gallon cooler will max out at 12 -13 pounds of grain i believe. Any heavy brew will usually require more than a 5 gallon MLT. IMO a cheap 28 qt rectangular can be had for around 15 bucks and will get you started quite nicely. If you have higher aspirations, get a 36 - 48 qt rectangular. Or for 40 bucks you can get a nice ten gallon cylindrical cooler at the depot.

You may already have a picnic cooler that will work well? IMHO a cooler is a cooler is a cooler. No big deal!

A 52qt "icecube" cooler will get you 10 gallon batches of about 1.060 beer or 5 gallons of 1.100. That's a pretty realistic size.

A good rule of thumb is a 10 gal. cooler for 5 gal. batches, a 15 gal cooler for 10 gal. Sooner or later, you're probably going to want to try a beer that's big enough that you'll be sorry if you go smaller.

I don't want to hi-jack your thread, but I was looking for an answer to this same question...except I need it for 15 gallon batches. What size cooler? 60qt?

I would error on the side of too big. A 10 gallon cooler works great for my 10 gal batches, and allows me to do 5 gal high gravity brews. If you get a 5 gal cooler you will just end up needing to upgrade eventually anyway.

A 5 gallon cooler would be a bad idea. You can always make a smaller beer in a big mash tun by minding the temperatures closely, mashing thin, and batch sparging. But, when a small tun is maxed out, it's maxed out. I've got a 48 qt cooler, even though I only make 5 gallon batches and rarely do big beers.

I have both a 5 and 10 gallon MLT cooler. I almost never use the 10gal. In fact I think I've only used it once, and lost a lot more heat than i expected.

but, I don't exceed 1.060 for OG on 5 gallon batches, so I don't have a big use for the 10 gallon setup.

I also have a 5 and a 10. my 10 never gets used anymore. I had it when my efficiency was bad forsome of my higher grav beers, but I can fit mos tof my normal beers into the 5 gal without a prob.

Using a Coleman X-treme 70qt for 10 gallon batches...

i have both a five and a ten gallon mash tun. i use them as a three tier setup so which ever one i am mashing in i use the other one for a hot liquor tank. just an idea it really works well for me

I started with a 5.

Moved quickly to a 10.

Sometimes wish I had a 15 so I could do 10 gallon batches of an IPA recipe instead of 5.

Go big.

I love my coleman extreme 52 qt. Use it for 5 & 10 gallon batches, and I don't lose more than 1F over an hour for either one.

Go with the 10. I have a 5 and am looking to upgrade. The 5 did me well though. Did about 15 brews over 2 years with it.