max grain bill in 5 gal cooler?

Just a quick question - how big of a grain bill can I do in a 5 gallon rubbermaid cooler? I'm looking at a recipe that takes 13 pounds of grain, but the most I've done in my cooler is 11 pounds. 11 was getting close to full, but there was still a bit of space. Hoping I can do 13 or even 14 (??)

tranceamerica said:

Just a quick question - how big of a grain bill can I do in a 5 gallon rubbermaid cooler? I'm looking at a recipe that takes 13 pounds of grain, but the most I've done in my cooler is 11 pounds. 11 was getting close to full, but there was still a bit of space. Hoping I can do 13 or even 14 (??)

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There is a "Can I Mash It?" Calculator here
Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators

Or convert your 5 gallon into an HLT and go get a 10 gallon cooler.

I get about 12 lbs with a fairly thick mash. Wouldn't go much past that. If you're hurting for space, you can take your specialty grains and steep them in your kettle for a little while. Specialty grains don't need to be converted through mashing, just steeped.

MikeRLynch said:

I get about 12 lbs with a fairly thick mash. Wouldn't go much past that. If you're hurting for space, you can take your specialty grains and steep them in your kettle for a little while. Specialty grains don't need to be converted through mashing, just steeped.

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Good idea. I like this. I am mash space limited as well and planning a dubbel as my next batch. I thought I might have to resort to some DME but not with this split method.

Any down side? Do I get the full effect from the specialty grains?

I've mashed 13# grain in a 5g cooler at 1 qt per lb, and still had just enough room left for a mash out with boiling water (I was fly sparging).
Bigsnake's link is great. I can confirm (and so can many others) that the mash calculator is accurate.

-a.

And this is why I always say get the bigger cooler/mash-tun. In the end you will want to anyway.

dontman said:

Good idea. I like this. I am mash space limited as well and planning a dubbel as my next batch. I thought I might have to resort to some DME but not with this split method.

Any down side? Do I get the full effect from the specialty grains?

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As long as you're taking into account the volume of water you're using for the steeping, you should be fine. That can get a little tricky with grain absorbtion, so if you're in a pinch I would do it this way. If you've got the 40 bucks lying around, get a 10 gallon. I have two 5 gallon coolers which I can do good session beers in (what I like) and I can brew two seperate beers at the same time with the two coolers. If I need to make a really big beer, I split the grain bill between them and run out to one pot. Just personal preference really.

I have an IPA recipe that I've brewed twice that has 13lbs of grain. It worked quite well but I definately had a thicker mash and I did my sparge in two rounds.

Another think you could try is to reduce your brew volume a bit. You can still make high gravity beers but only a make a 4 gallon batch. It's not ideal but I did it with a doppelbock and it worked quite well.