5 gallon cooler vs. 10 gallon cooler

I have been brewing extract with the addition of specialty grains for several years and I want to try my hand at all grain.

I have found contradictory information in regards to the size of a mash/lauter tun. I would like to use an igloo/rubbermaid cooler for this purpose. I will be sticking with 5 gallon batches for the foreseeable future.

So I have heard that I should go with the 5 gallon cooler because it will make optimum bed depth, and that if I go with a 10 the grain bed might not be deep enough. I have also heard that I should go with 10 so that I have room to grow and that the bed depth will be fine for all styles. I will occasionally be brewing beers with SG over 1.060, which I saw in Palmer's book (IIRC) is the limit for using a 5 gallon cooler to make a 5 gallon batch.

So with all of that in mind any suggestions or experiences any of you are willing to share.

Thanks.

I've used both and found that a 10g cooler works fine for a 5g batch but here is a link to a handy chart to help you with your decision.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/

I had the same dilemma when I bought my initial equipment. I went 5g, and wish I had gone 10g, because I want to make big beers. As it stands I have to add DME to get to higher gravities.

That is what I was a bit worried about as well. I think I might go with 10 and see who things go.

IMO, 5 gallons is too small, especially if you batch sparge. I had a 5g and had to use a smaller ratio of water to grain during the mash. I have also heard that grain bed depth does not matter, but I do not have anything to back that up.
I have also heard that if you brew in cold weather, too much air space above the bed will cool your mash. I brew in my garage in Minnesota and have only dropped a degree or 2 over the hour mash even in 10 degree weather. My cooler is a 10 gallon round home depot cooler and I brew 10 gallon batches. My beers are 5 gallon batches, usually pale ale or porter with OGs of about 1.060 or less.

I had been using a 5-gal cooler for a couple years and just switched to a 10-gal cooler last weekend. I noticed two big improvements.

First, I was able to stir the mash better since it wasn't filled up nearly to the top. And second, I was able to run off the mash and sparge water more quickly.

I crush my own grains pretty fine, and while I get pretty good effiency (~80), I would often get a stuck sparge in my 5-gal cooler. I didn't come close to that last weekend, probably because the grain bed wasn't nearly as thick. The temperature didn't hold as well, but that's a trade-off I can live with.

I'm currently using a 12 gallon cooler and it's been great from low gravity batches all to the way to 1.068 batches or so. I personally wouldn't go any less than that.

I started with a 5g cooler and found that it worked well for lower gravity beers. When I wanted to start making higher gravity brews, I quickly realized that my mash tun didn't have the space to do it. I now have a 10g cooler that meets all my needs. It did take a brew or two to dial in the strike water temp to hit my mash temps, but I've found that I don't really lose much heat during the mash, even in Chicago winters. I keep my 5g cooler to use as a HLT when sparging. It only cost me $5 (after rebates), so I'm not out much if I don't use teh 5g.

I have both a 5 and a 10 gallon cooler. The majority of my beers go in he 5 gallon cooler. You can fit around 12.5 lbs of grains in the 5 gallon cooler which gives you an OG of 1.060. So for most beers a 5 gallon cooler works fine. I break out my 10 gallon one a couple times a year for IIPA's, a Barleywine and an RIS. I find that the 10 gallon cooler when only filled with 13 or 14 lbs of grains looses more heat than the 5 gallon with no empty head space.

I double batch sparge so sparging in the 5 gallon cooler works great. 2 gallons per sparge fits perfect. I typically get 78% efficiency on my system with crushed grains from Northern Brewer.

I was thinking of perhaps getting one of each. I that way if the 5 ends up being too small I can use the 10 for the mash tun and use the 5 for the HLT.

You will want 10 gal for mashing. You don't want your mash tun to limit the beers you make, and you don't want to be forced to double batch sparge. Grain depth makes very little difference if you are batch sparging. The only operational disadvantage of a larger tun, then, is a little extra heat loss. There are methods to reduce this, if needed.

One more point that you may not have considered: Because my equipment allows, I generally make 6 gal batches instead of 5 gal. That's 20% more beer with almost no extra work. I would not be able to do that with a 5 gal mash tun.

swmalone said:

I was thinking of perhaps getting one of each. I that way if the 5 ends up being too small I can use the 10 for the mash tun and use the 5 for the HLT.

Click to expand...

Jmo. I have always felt a cooler HLT is kinda silly, why not just get a kettle you can heat liquor in....rather than transfer to a holding tank....just more work IMO.

Now stick an electric element in a cooler HLT and that's a horse of a different color.

I jumped straight into brewing all-grain and picked up a 10 Gallon cooler conversion kit. Only complaint I have is the placement of the thermometer when doing 5 gallon batches. It's a bit too high in the mash tun and won't read the temps. Wish they would have tapped the hole just a few inches lower...otherwise perfectly happy with it.

You know what a 5 gal drink cooler is good for? (In case you already bought one.) Cold crashing a yeast starter. My 5 liter erlenmeyer flask won't fit in the fridge, so I use one for that.
HLT? No, use a pot.
MLT? No, too small.

I just built a cooler MLT and I went with a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler so I would never limit myself on 5 gallon batches (don't really plan to brew 10 gallon batches for the foreseeable future). My only concern was heat loss due to all of the empty headspace that will be in a 10 gallon cooler when mashing average gravity 5 gallon batches. I plan to combat this by getting a sheet of that rigid pink foam insulation and cutting it to size and just putting that inside my cooler right above the mash level; I figure this will virtually eliminate the headspace, and saves me from having to fill the lid of the cooler with expanding spray foam.

I'm going to +1 the 10 gallon. At the time I was only boiling 4 gallons and topping up with water, I knew that one day I'd want to try higher gravity brews or 10 gallon batches. Going with the bigger cooler keeps options available.

FWIW now that I've got 10 g capabilities I almost never look back to 5 g. Unless of course I'm going with some massive RIS or something.

I think to many people get hung up on batch size vs required equipment.

Easy guide for homebrew size is that the vessel volume should be twice the batch size, for any vessel. This means HLT, Mash, Boil.

I see a 10 gallon cooler as the minimum for normal 5 gallon batches and more volume is better in almost every case.

Preheat the cooler and heat loss is not an issue. Throw a blanket over it for extra insulation. Have a bigger cooler and high gravity, higher volume is never a concern.

Coolers used for HLTs are a silly waste of money. Not only that but you are then adding another variable for heat loss. "All-grain kits" with 2 coolers are only useful to the people selling them

Whatever you heated your water in is your HLT. If that happens to be your boil kettle, simply sparge into another container until the kettle is free again to be the boil kettle.

I've been using an igloo 12 gallon cooler which has been suiting my beers from low gravity to at least 1.064+. More than enough room to batch sparge for a 5 gallon batches. I think I may be able to do 10 gallon low gravity batches in it, however I haven't tried it yet.

I had a 5 I was gonna use for my first 5 gallon AG batch. My grain bill was 17#. When I put the dry grain in the 5 gal it literally filled the whole thing. So I went out and got a 48 qt coleman from Dick's Sporting Goods for $20 (best price trust me). I use a stainless piece from a water supply line as the filter. Works awesome, I do lose just a little more heat when I mash-in with the big cooler though. I use the 5 gal for smaller batches.

I too have a 12 gallon (old coleman 48qt). No problems with 5 gallon batches. I recently upgraded my boil kettle to a 15 gal and of course bumped up to 10 gallon batches. So far the 12 gallon tun has handled everything I've thrown at it (biggest being a 10 gallon 1.070 IPA...so far).

10g for sure. You'll regret it if you go smaller. I just brewed a 1.070 beer and the grain with my mash water was a few inches from the top of my 10g.