70-quart Maxcold Ice Cube for MLT?

Anyone have thoughts on this?

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...85617&pg=4&parentPage=family&searchId=2285617

I've got a GC to Dicks and am looking at coolers to convert.

I'd looked at the 58-quart Ultimate Xtreme but then saw the Ice Cube and it caught my eye.

We'll probably be mashing inside, so the wheels, while nice, aren't an absolute necessity.

We're doing 5 gallon batches, so would the Ice Cube provide a little deeper grain bed? Or would the grain bed issue in the 58-quart cooler be negligible?

We're not in any hurry to go AG, but are planning to in the near future, so we're trying to pick away at the purchases we'll need to make.

Thanks!

I would recommend taking a look at the spigot on the 'Cube. I've got a standard Ice Cube, and I tried putting a bulkhead / SS braid in it, and the angle cause the braid to stick up at a 45 degree angle, so there was a LOT of tun space that I couldn't drain with a braid.

Chances are, if you get the Ice Cube, you'll need to design a manifold to avoid losing ~1gal of wort when you lauter.

I kind of figured it would come down to the spigot, etc...

so I'm still leaning toward the regular cooler, unless the Ice Cube doesn't present any issues

anyone else with thoughts?

I bought a big ice cube, but didn't convert it after looking at it more closely at home. There were be a HUGE dead space at the bottom (the space between the wheel well), and also, I think the grain bed would be too shallow for most beers that I do. I ended up with a 10 gallon igloo round cooler with a false bottom. I did use the ice cube (just like the one pictured) as a redneck lagerator, though.

I think the_bird used a cooler from Dick's or someplace like that, though. I think it was something "extreme" and maybe smaller and that worked for him. He gave me complete directions in a thread, but I can't find it at the moment.

Bird- if you read this, what kind of cooler was that again? Thanks!
Edit- I found the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17659&highlight=dick's+cooler

He got his cooler at Dick's.

Thanks Lorena! This place is so very helpful.

Hey Bird... so the 36 quart is plenty big for 5 gals, and possibly for 10 gal batches?

I doubt we'll move to 10 gal batches anytime soon, but it would be nice to know we could.

I prefer the red 60 qt wheeless version. It will hold 40#'s of grain if you fly sparge. The fitting isnt anything thats a big deal on it as the sidewall allows for a normal weldless bulkhead. I also prefer manifolds better than braids. Oh, you will need to go to igloo.com to find them.

Just to put another idea on the table if you batch sparge. I have Ice Cubes, and used a Zymico Kewler Kitz with a straight Bazooka tubes. Works excellent, stays rigid, doesnt stick up, and drains perfectly. My 2 cents.

That looks like a nice cooler since its cube shaped. However, I recently bought a 5 gallon Gott style cooler from home depot for $19. That's only 20 quarts, but most sources say you can get enough grain in there for a 5 gallon brew of almost any style, minus things like barley wine. Since that cooler is almost $50, you could probably fine a bigger Gott type for less. Not really sure on that though. However, the Gott style gives you an advantage for grain bed height because of its shape.

BTW, I got that cooler from Home Depot.

Blktre said:

I prefer the red 60 qt wheeless version. It will hold 40#'s of grain if you fly sparge. The fitting isnt anything thats a big deal on it as the sidewall allows for a normal weldless bulkhead. I also prefer manifolds better than braids. Oh, you will need to go to igloo.com to find them.

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I got a 48Quart at BIG 5 for 39.00 and it came with a sixpac cooler for road sodas...I converted mine with a manifold too, I find that I have about 1.5L of dead space. I like it a lot...and it works great for 10+ Lbs grain bills, I bet you could max it out to 25, for 10 gal batches, but I have not graduated to 10 gal batches...

thedaler said:

That looks like a nice cooler since its cube shaped. However, I recently bought a 5 gallon Gott style cooler from home depot for $19. That's only 20 quarts, but most sources say you can get enough grain in there for a 5 gallon brew of almost any style, minus things like barley wine. Since that cooler is almost $50, you could probably fine a bigger Gott type for less. Not really sure on that though. However, the Gott style gives you an advantage for grain bed height because of its shape.

BTW, I got that cooler from Home Depot.

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I have to disagree with you that the Gott style design is an advantage for grainbed depth vs width. Its actually a disadvantage as the height makes the bed deeper vs equal to width. This is where the IceCubes design is superior. The grain bed depth vs width is more symetrical. This is more important for fly spargers than batch spargers. I used a 10g rubbermaid for years. Got good use out of it. But when i switched to a 48qt. IceCube w/ manifold, my dough in times and ease were better, no more slow or sticky sparges, and my eff. went up using the same technique. Ill gladly pay the extra cash for the IceCube design, which is what i did went i bought the wheeless 60qt. Cube.

That's only 20 quarts, but most sources say you can get enough grain in there for a 5 gallon brew of almost any style, minus things like barley wine

Click to expand...

I would suggest to go with at least 10 gallon cooler. I have a 10gal igloo that I use for 5gal batches and now have a 70qt igloo extreme rectangular cooler for 10gal batches. The 10gal size will give you more room for almost any size 5gal batch and let you change your grain/water ratio if you batch sparge.