dan6
Member
I am currently in the process of trying to upgrade my brewing process from a stove top/pot/strainer mini mash brewer to a higher grain percentage,though not necessarily all grain brewer. I see most of the posts I read about beverage cooler type mash tuns seem to use 10 gallon rubbermaid coolers. Checking out local prices, I see that 5 gallon Igloos are less than half the price.I have ready access to all the valves,fittings and stainless braid I need to do the conversions that I see being done in these,and other homebrew type forums. This being the case, I was thinking that it might be to my advantage to build two 5 gallon tuns as opposed to one 10 gallon tun. My thinking is that a 5 gallon tun would be large enough for most of my 6 gallon batches, and on the occasions that I wanted to brew a real high gravity ale I could use both and do double duty that day. It seems to me that this setup would offer me the most flexibility ay the same cost. My question- Is there something that I'm missing? Is the 10 gallon size inherently better(depth of grain bed,better sparge etc.) that I'm not, through inexperience, taking into account? Or maybe I should only build one 5 gallon setup and use it twice on brewing days? Or just make up any necessary adjustments with more extract? I"m trying to do this thing up right,but I am planning on doing more brewing upgrades so money is,at least in my case, an object. The old infinite wants/finite resources dilemma.(or maybe my daughters don't really need those damn phones-but I digress). Any input from those of experience and knowledge about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.