10 gallon brew setup?

[LuciferSam]

I would like to build a mash tun out of a cooler able to do all grain 10 gallon batches. I am currently creating a keggle to be used as a boil kettle, what else do I need for all grain?


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[divrguy]

Kinda depends on your list of what you have now doesn't it? Lol

 

[Beernik]

Get a second keg and convert it to a mash tun. At least that's my plan.

Also, 10 gallons of water = 83lbs. Empty keg = 30lbs. That's 113 lbs to lug around. If you add grain to that plus mash water, your upwards of 160lbs. Think about some pumps and/or a brew structure.

 

[acidrain]

The reality is, keggles don't work that well for mash tuns. It's what I have, so I have no bias.
They are the wrong shape (curved bottom), the wrong material (ss looses heat fast), and are not easily insulated.
A 10 gallon round cooler is obviously too small.
A rectangle cooler is what I would use.
You could easily make a gravity system, but a single tier with pump(s) is the direction I would work towards.

 

[LuciferSam]

When brewing 10 gallon batches you really want 11 gallons when going into the fermentor? Right, to account for trub? Therefor would I need a mash tun 11+?, or could I brew in a 10 gallon cooler and add water?


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[bbrim]

Personally I think a 10g cooler is plenty for brewing 10g batches. I can brew up to 1.060 beers and keep a thin mash in my 10g cooler. I have two coolers and a keggle. Also, you will need a powerful burner. You can do it with just these and your extract tools. I also have tubing, a pump, and a RIMS setup but these are luxuries.

 

[helibrewer]

At a mash thickness of 1.25 qts/lb you can mash 23 pounds of grain (that leaves about 1 gallon of room to spare) in a 10 gallon Igloo.

 

[LuciferSam]

what about this, for a mash tun?can I get a false bottom for this style? I normally brew IPA/wheat/ales, but want the option to do more.
would I also need a 2nd for an HLT?
To reiterate I want to start brewing all grain asap and I want to start building what I need.
http://www.biglots.com/p/igloo-ice-cube-48-quart-cooler

 

[acidrain]

what about this, for a mash tun?can I get a false bottom for this style? I normally brew IPA/wheat/ales, but want the option to do more.
would I also need a 2nd for an HLT?
To reiterate I want to start brewing all grain asap and I want to start building what I need.
http://www.biglots.com/p/igloo-ice-cube-48-quart-cooler

That looks like a good option to me. You would need to make a custom FB for fly sparging, or if you're going to batch sparge, just go with a home-made drain manifold.

 

[LuciferSam]

Can you briefly explain which would be better/easier batch or fly?
And what is a custom FB and drain manifold?


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[LibertyBrewer]

FB = false bottom and well, drain manifold is the drainage system under the false bottom, which moves the wort out of the mash tun, while leaving the grains in the tun.

 

[MedicMang]

I have a 72 qt Coleman Xtreme and I love it. I can do 5 or 10 gallon batches of my choosing in it. I had 27 lbs of grain in it for a partigyle brew that I did. Worked just fine.


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[Hello]

I can do 10 gallon batches in my 10 gallon cooler but I am limited to about 23-24 lbs of grain which is about 1.060-1.070, depending upon thickness. One limitation for me now is wanting to do no sparge and having to account for the extra grain which means for me, no sparge is only really possible on beers around 1.060 & 5 gallons. Give or take.

I think it is very important to figure out if you want to do 10 gallons all of the time or some of the time and what beers do you like to brew? I can do a great RIS, but I believe I would be limited to 5 gallons.

The burner is important to. I have the Bayou Classic SP-10. This is fine for my 17" diameter 15 gallon kettle. Of course you have to be careful to make sure you have the kettle centered.

As for a keggle MT, I don't like them. The weight alone is enough to deter me but then there is the heat loss. I see all of these keggles wrapped up like little pigs in a blanket when they're being used. I just cannot see myself fussing so much to retain heat. It may not matter in the dead of summer in some locations, but it matters in the winter for sure.

Your alternative is to find perhaps an Igloo Ice Cube, which is nice and big then rig up your own false bottom or braid system.

 

[WileECoyote]

When brewing 10 gallon batches you really want 11 gallons when going into the fermentor? Right, to account for trub? Therefor would I need a mash tun 11+?, or could I brew in a 10 gallon cooler and add water?


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Yes you want 11 gallons to account for trub loss.

+1 to the 70qt Colman Extreme Cooler as a mash tun over a 10 gallon round cooler for several reasons, both can do 5 or 10 gal batches, a stuck sparge is super easy to fix by running my mash paddle on edge gently through the grain bed, and I can do a mash-out/batch-sparge on a 10 gallon batch without draining the mash tun first, also I can use a large scoop to get the grain out after brewing, and a lot more room to stir in grain, you could also easily pull off a 20 gallon batch in a 70 qt mash tun if you ever wanted to, also it cost a lot less than the round cooler.

I wrap my cooler in a moving blanket and only have a 1 deg loss in temp over a 75 min mash.

Mash tun Manifold is not soldered so its easily taken apart for cleaning.

Here is my jerry rigged setup for now, Im going to build a 3 tier stand soon with 2 burners in it.

3rd pic is a 10 gallon batch, mash-in and mash-out together without sparging, its right at 14 gallons going into the boil pot to account for boil off and grub loss, I get 2 five gallon batches out of it.

Hope this helps !

Cheers

 

[RmikeVT]

I made the jump from 6g to 12g batches a few months ago. I originally thought my 10g Rubbermaid MLT was going to get the job done, and it did on beers smaller than 1.060, but it was difficult. I went out and got a 70qt coleman extreme and Im very happy I did. It does lose heat at a faster rate than the round cooler, and Im still trying to get that dialed in. I also made myself a DIY counterflow chiller and got a SS chugger pump, both save a lot of time and back aches.

 

[WileECoyote]

Can you briefly explain which would be better/easier batch or fly?
And what is a custom FB and drain manifold?


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Batch Sparge is easier and quicker, but not necessarily better, the both have pro's and cons, doing fly sparge you need to pay a lot more attention and it takes longer but IMO you will get better efficiency, so its all kinda a trade off.

You have to figure out what will work best for you and the way you want to brew!

Cheers

 

[WileECoyote]

I can do 10 gallon batches in my 10 gallon cooler but I am limited to about 23-24 lbs of grain which is about 1.060-1.070, depending upon thickness. One limitation for me now is wanting to do no sparge and having to account for the extra grain which means for me, no sparge is only really possible on beers around 1.060 & 5 gallons. Give or take.

I think it is very important to figure out if you want to do 10 gallons all of the time or some of the time and what beers do you like to brew? I can do a great RIS, but I believe I would be limited to 5 gallons.

The burner is important to. I have the Bayou Classic SP-10. This is fine for my 17" diameter 15 gallon kettle. Of course you have to be careful to make sure you have the kettle centered.

As for a keggle MT, I don't like them. The weight alone is enough to deter me but then there is the heat loss. I see all of these keggles wrapped up like little pigs in a blanket when they're being used. I just cannot see myself fussing so much to retain heat. It may not matter in the dead of summer in some locations, but it matters in the winter for sure.

Your alternative is to find perhaps an Igloo Ice Cube, which is nice and big then rig up your own false bottom or braid system.

Hello,

I agree the burner is very important too, I have the KAB-6 with a 30psi regulator and it is whisper quiet even boiling 14 gallons, in 12 min its to a boil, I can only turn it up to around 1/2 throttle with my 15 gallon pot or it will start rolling flames up the sides, Im very impressed with this burner, so much so that Im ordering another one this week.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

 

[WileECoyote]

I made the jump from 6g to 12g batches a few months ago. I originally thought my 10g Rubbermaid MLT was going to get the job done, and it did on beers smaller than 1.060, but it was difficult. I went out and got a 70qt coleman extreme and Im very happy I did. It does lose heat at a faster rate than the round cooler, and Im still trying to get that dialed in. I also made myself a DIY counterflow chiller and got a SS chugger pump, both save a lot of time and back aches.

Hello,

I let my water heat the 70qt cooler for around 3 to 5 min before I mash-in and I wrap it in a moving blanket the entire time I'm using it, I only have a 1 deg loss in temp over 75 min most of the time, I also only open the lid during the mash at 30 min to stir and again at 10 left to go, these things seemed to help greatly in keeping temp loss to a minimum.

Also when I do a 5 gal batch in it (or its not close to full) I put foil on top of the mash to help keep the heat in the mash, works like a charm.

Cheers

 

[Marc77]

I started typing up a response and just thought the heck with it I'll make a thread. I've tried to detail my travels from extract to all grain in a thread. Take a look and see if it's helpful in any way, if not make suggestions and I'll modify as needed.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/breaking-into-all-grain-whats-really-necessary-473326/#post6103898

 

[LuciferSam]

Awesome Marc ! Thanks


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[catdaddy66]

At a mash thickness of 1.25 qts/lb you can mash 23 pounds of grain (that leaves about 1 gallon of room to spare) in a 10 gallon Igloo.

I did a scotch ale with 18#'s of grain in my ten gallon mash tun. I was going for a full boil (7 gal) to get 5.5 gallons fermented but easily could have done a two stage mash out to get a 10 gallon batch.


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[old_tx_kbb]

I decided to upgrade to 10 gallon batches recently.

My first 5 gallon batch rig in the early 90's used a 5 gallon bucket with a gazillion holes drilled in the bottom fitted inside another 5 gallon bucket(it was called a Zapap mash tun that Charlie described in his 1st book) with a spigot and an 8 gallon ceramic coated canning pot.

My 2nd rig for 5 gallon batches used two Rubbermaid cooler and a Blichman 10 gallon.

My third rig included a brewstand and two 10 gallon Polarware Economy Pots for an HLT and a BK. I used a 10 gallon Blichman w/ FB for my MLT, 2 pumps, and a therminator.

This is my new setup, two 15 gallon megapots for HLT and MLT and a 20 gallon megapot for my BK. I use the same brewstand and pumps. I ordered he pots with the holes only, no thermometers or valves. I had an extra hole punched in my MLT for a return valve as this new setup is a direct-fired RIMS...and had an extra hole punched in my BK for a whirlpool setup. 3 piece ball valves were $12 each and I added the adjustable Blichmann thermometers ( a little more expensive, but I don't have to bend to see the temps.

Everyone is going to make beer their own way...It doesn't take thousands of dollars to make great beer. use a system that works best for you....it's more about the process than the equipment. The pumps save my back(I've had 4 spinal-fusions) and the therminator cools my 11 gallons of wort in 5 minutes to pitching temps. My brew day is about 6 hours from setup to cleanup. I just made a ten gallon batch of 1.080 IIPA....and a 5 gallon RIS with an OG of 1.105.

 

[Reaver]

You need to evaluate what you want out of your equipment and where you think you'll be going. I will tell you that it's probably more efficient to go 10gal if you're going All Grain. The cost differential from 5-10gal when first upgrading is really not alot. Spend a couple weeks reading all the threads on brewstands, and systems that people have built. You'll get the pros/cons out of those threads. It's worth the time reading!

What I did was get a good burner to handle the larger boil (I splurged for a blichmann) in a Keggle. And 2x 10gal coolers. 1 false bottom for MLT one with a diptube for HLT. Next you will need some type of Chilling.
It's mandatory for good beer. You can buy or make a nice immersion chiller.
You'll need 2 fermenters or +10gals fermentation space. And since you're producing more beer....
It might be time to upgrade to Kegs at this point too. Now bottling day requires twice the work.
All of this stuff is a progression based on what you feel you want out of your brewday and beer.

It's taken me 3 years to grow.
I started with this...

Evolved to this....

Now up to here...

 

[LuciferSam]

I would like to brew a batch of. 26+ pounds of grain ... I am going to make a mash tun , is a 70 qt Coleman extreme good ? What's the best way to build a false bottom ? Cooper or ss braided line , or ???


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[WileECoyote]

I would like to brew a batch of. 26+ pounds of grain ... I am going to make a mash tun , is a 70 qt Coleman extreme good ? What's the best way to build a false bottom ? Cooper or ss braided line , or ???


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At 26Lbs of grain you will over flow the 70 Qt mash tun if you are trying to brew a single infusion without sparging.

if you do empty the mash then sparge you will be just fine with the 70Qt colman.

I made a copper tubing setup in my 70 Qt and love it.

2nd pic is 21.5 Lbs of grain and 58 Qts of water.

Cheers

 

[LuciferSam]

Is single infusion better (more efficient) than sparging? After the initial 60 min mash is transferred to the bk, at how much time do I sparge ( rinse/mash the remaining grain ) ???
And is the sparge at a different temp than the initial mash was?
Is the copper tube false bottom easy to disassemble and clean?


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[WileECoyote]

Is single infusion better (more efficient) than sparging? After the initial 60 min mash is transferred to the bk, at how much time do I sparge ( rinse/mash the remaining grain ) ???
And is the sparge at a different temp than the initial mash was?
Is the copper tube false bottom easy to disassemble and clean?


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Single infusion is a bit less efficient than sparging.

when I batch sparge, Drain the 1st mash into the boil kettle, I add the water, stir, and let it sit for 10 to 15 min, then add that to the boil kettle too.

Yes, it can be at a different temp depending on what your making, often I will batch sparge and at the same time do my mash-out at 168 deg.

Yes, i did not solder any parts together, so they all just pop apart, if one gets stuck I put the larger end in warm water and then it comes apart.

Cheers

 

[LuciferSam]

I usually brew IPA s but would like to brew a double IPA 10 gallon batch. I've been brewing a zombie dust clone, but 5 gallons is gone too fast. I need to go all grain and 10 gallon batches.... My mash temp is 152.


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[BonzoAPD]

You need to evaluate what you want out of your equipment and where you think you'll be going. I will tell you that it's probably more efficient to go 10gal if you're going All Grain. The cost differential from 5-10gal when first upgrading is really not alot. Spend a couple weeks reading all the threads on brewstands, and systems that people have built. You'll get the pros/cons out of those threads. It's worth the time reading!

What I did was get a good burner to handle the larger boil (I splurged for a blichmann) in a Keggle. And 2x 10gal coolers. 1 false bottom for MLT one with a diptube for HLT. Next you will need some type of Chilling.
It's mandatory for good beer. You can buy or make a nice immersion chiller.
You'll need 2 fermenters or +10gals fermentation space. And since you're producing more beer....
It might be time to upgrade to Kegs at this point too. Now bottling day requires twice the work.
All of this stuff is a progression based on what you feel you want out of your brewday and beer.

It's taken me 3 years to grow.
I started with this...

Evolved to this....

Now up to here...

What type of false bottom do you use?


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[Reaver]

Perferated metal plate, can't remember, but I think it was from Morebeer. They have a 12" that looks right. I have the 10 gal cooler. I put split hose around it, so it doest scratch the cooler. I've yet to have a stuck sparge. Runs clear in no time.