What size mash tun?

[CraigT]

I am looking into getting into all grain. I'm planning on buying a cooler to convert into a mash tun. What size would you recommend for doing 5 gallon batches?

 

[ChoochNW]

Go big or go home. 10 gallon at a minimum. If you go with the 5 gallon tun you won't be able to brew high gravity beers. With the larger tun you can do high gravity beers and also knock out some lower gravity 10 gallon batches if you feel like it.

I just got into AG and went with a 50 qt Coleman that I converted and am already thinking about doing some 10 gallon batches of the go to brews.

Tons of good info on here about building your own MLT, I used this wiki:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a_mash_tun

note: I used 1/2" CPVC instead of copper for the manifold, much cheaper these days and it holds up to the mashing temps just fine

 

[Golddiggie]

If you ever plan on making a big brew, in 5 gallons, or 10 gallon batches, get the largest F'ing cooler you can... I have a 70qt that I already had (bought it years ago at Sam's Club) that I've converted... I can mash up to ~45# of grain in it at one time. So, I'll be able to brew just about anything I could want in either 5 or 10 gallon batches... I could even make some 15-20 gallon batches if I really wanted to (and had the kettle to boil it in)...

+1 Go big or go home...

If you don't want to be looking to get another cooler to convert later WHEN you start brewing bigger batches, or bigger brews, you should get the largest cooler you can... I wouldn't go with anything under ~50qt...

BTW, for the manifold, you have plenty of options... If you look at 10 different brewer's cooler mash tuns, chances are you'll see just as many different manifold constructions.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Whoa boys, hold up a sec!!! It really depends on what you brew and how you plan to sparge. I would never mash a 5 gal batch of 1045 brew in a 70qt cooler...way too thin a grain bed.

I (and MANY others) use a 10 gal rubbermaid/ gott style round cooler. It is plenty big for most brews though I would be pushing it for really extreme grain bills...I'm OK with that! I use a 3/4" stainless braid because I batch sparge. If I wanted to fly sparge I would go with a manifold or a false bottom to avoid channeling.

I would not go with a 5gal cooler as many run into major limitations when they go too small.

So rather than go big or go home, I say go reasonable and brew on

 

[redalert]

Whoa boys, hold up a sec!!! It really depends on what you brew and how you plan to sparge. I would never mash a 5 gal batch of 1045 brew in a 70qt cooler...way too thin a grain bed.

I (and MANY others) use a 10 gal rubbermaid/ gott style round cooler. It is plenty big for most brews though I would be pushing it for really extreme grain bills...I'm OK with that! I use a 3/4" stainless braid because I batch sparge. If I wanted to fly sparge I would go with a manifold or a false bottom to avoid channeling.

I would not go with a 5gal cooler as many run into major limitations when they go too small.

So rather than go big or go home, I say go reasonable and brew on

+1 No need to get a 70 quart if all you're ever going to brew is 5 gallon batches. That's not practical.
I use a rectangular 48 quart coleman that I can do really big beers @ 5 gallons and small to medium beers @ 10 gallons. Though sometimes I wish i had a gatorade style round cooler. I think for small to medium beers @ 5 gallon batches, these provide insulation (heat retention) better and allow for easier stirring. The round coolers are less cumbersome if you have to move it.

 

[Golddiggie]

My OG is never that low...

Besides, using a cooler I had on hand made more sense than getting another one... The cooler wasn't being used, and hadn't seen daylight in more than a few years... Plus, I'm ready for big 10 gallon batches right now. I could also do partigyle batches with my setup without much effort at all...

I guess it comes down to what you're comfortable with, and if you want to not need to replace it later, or get another mash tun/cooler when you outgrow the smaller one...

BTW, I know of another brewer that does 5 gallon batches in a 48qt cooler MT... We tried to do a 10 gallon batch in it, but the thing was too small for the grain bill... If we had mine at the time, it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

[redalert]

BTW, I know of another brewer that does 5 gallon batches in a 48qt cooler MT... We tried to do a 10 gallon batch in it, but the thing was too small for the grain bill... If we had mine at the time, it wouldn't have been an issue.

Yeah the first one I tried was a disaster. 27lbs. of grain and I had to do a decoction simply cause I ran out of space though looking back if I mashed with less water I would have been ok.

 

[Golddiggie]

Our recipe was 26.5# of grain... Had to put the balance into a nylon bag and use my 32 quart pot to mash/sparge it... Will know pretty soon how it came out.

That OG was only 1.065 too (72% efficiency)... I want to be ready to make an all grain BIG barleywine... Planning for NO DME/LME additions at all. :rockin:

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I use a Keggle to mash (15 gallons). I'm able to do average 10 gallon batches with ease and can do extreme 5 gallon batches no problem too (Strong Scotch Ale ~ 1.15 OG and 25 pounds of grain). I never have a problem getting ~75% efficiency out of all my mashes. The one thing that I AM able to do is direct fire and recirculate my mash from bottom to top of my MT.

If you're going out to buy a cooler, then I would size it for the type of brewing you intend to do. A 10 gallon cooler can accomodate average to strong 5 gallon batches with ease. If you plan on going bigger than 5 gallons, consider going bigger on the cooler. As TANSTAAFB mentioned, be concerned about the grain bed depth, manifold design and maintaining temperatures.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Whoa boys, hold up a sec!!! It really depends on what you brew and how you plan to sparge. I would never mash a 5 gal batch of 1045 brew in a 70qt cooler...way too thin a grain bed.

I (and MANY others) use a 10 gal rubbermaid/ gott style round cooler. It is plenty big for most brews though I would be pushing it for really extreme grain bills...I'm OK with that! I use a 3/4" stainless braid because I batch sparge. If I wanted to fly sparge I would go with a manifold or a false bottom to avoid channeling.

I would not go with a 5gal cooler as many run into major limitations when they go too small.

So rather than go big or go home, I say go reasonable and brew on

I wouldn't make 5 gallons of a 1045 brew in a 70 qt cooler either- for a beer that small I always go 10 gallons.

But you have a point. A 10 gallon round cooler, though more expensive, is more versatile. One thing is certain- a 5 gallon cooler DEFINITELY is very limiting in what you can brew.

 

[CraigT]

So a 50 qt cooler should be big enough for pretty much any 5 gallon batch then? I think im planning on going with the stainless braid way of filtering. Or is it better to built a pvc manifold?

 

[Gridlocked]

I would suggest a 10gallon Gott cooler. That is what I purchased after much research and have been REALLY happy with it for my 5 gallon system. It wasn't THAT much more expensive than a 5 gallon cooler and I think that I'll be hanging onto it even though I just completed single-tier system where I'll mash 10gallon batches in a converted sanke keg.

This was a 16# grain bill and I didn't have much extra room, even at 1.5qts/lb.

 

[jedgeco]

I recently picked up the 70-qt Coleman Xtreme from Amazon, mostly because, at $40, it was the cheapest Coleman cooler they had. Even for 5-gallon batches it's been a good size. It's not overly wide, so the grain bed isn't too thin (and I batch sparge anyway), and the Xtreme line of coolers is so well insulated that I don't really lose any heat despite the unused volume.

 

[Boston85]

I also have the 70 qt Xtreme. Have not dont an AG batch yet, been way to cold up in new england, but planning to in the coming weeks once it gets a bit warmer and I can be outside the whole time. So far I have only been doing 5 gallon extract brews, so a bit worried about having such a large cooler, but we will see how it goes. I may also pick up the 52 qt one and use that if the 70 is too large, although I really don't think there is that much of a difference between 52 and 70.

 

[Golddiggie]

Boston85, it's not too cold... Time to man-up... I used my setup, outside, on the 10th... I was still getting over a chest cold too. You don't need to be outside for the entire time, unless you have no way to get back in and watch things. Hell, we brewed outside on 2/26 for the entire day (from 10am until closer to 7pm)...

I also don't see much of a difference between the 52qt and 70qt coolers. I think you're better off just using the 70. I mashed just over 13# of grain in my cooler/MT last time... Grain bed was plenty thick enough for the mash...

The only drawback on using a propane burner this time of year is when frost forms on the tank after running it for a few hours. I'm thinking about getting a small space heater to bring up the air temp in the area the tank is, for those days. Once it's warmer, probably in the April/May time frame, it shouldn't be necessary. Well, unless we get a cold snap that is.

BTW, as Gridlocked picture shows, the 10 gallon cooler/MT can easily hit a grain limit that my cooler/MT would laugh at... At 1.5qt/# I should be able to fit about 38# of grain in my cooler/MT... 44.5# if I go with 1.25qt/#... :rockin: So when I go to mash my barleywine (5 gallon batch) I'll have zero issue mashing 22-26# of grain, with 1.5qt/#...

 

[Boston85]

I have actually done an extract DFH 60 clone outside with my propane burner, but it was rather windy and tough to keep it going the whole time. Considering we are supposed to get another 5 inches of snow today, winter is still well alive in new england, but outdoor time is near.... The next nice saturday or sunday I will certainly be out there.

 

[flabyboy]

I have a 5 and a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler mashtun. I use my 5 for session beers. It will hold up to 12.5 lbs of grain + strike water. I use the 10 gallon for anything bigger. I think its nice to reduce the headspace a little bit. Seems to hold the temp a little better

 

[Golddiggie]

Depending on your burner, you might need to do something to protect it from higher winds... We used some pallets on 2/26 since it was an outside brew day...

Just looked at the weather sites... Expecting 2-5" of snow... That's laughable to me... If we were talking about a foot (or more) then I might be concerned... I say bring on the snow... I think we need a good solid blizzard to hit before May... :rockin:

I'm just working out my brewing schedule with a buddy, since I need to brew not in my place (******* LL)... Hopefully, we'll be able to brew within the next couple of weeks. I need to get over to his place before next weekend so that I can dry hop the batch fermenting over there. Then it goes a week before it gets bottled up...

I do hope to get in at least one brew-day a month moving forward. I'd love to do two a month, but don't see that happening as often as I would like. When I move to the next place, I'll be kicking off a brew-day every other weekend... :rockin: Don't care what the weather is, even if I need to have someone holding an umbrella for me while I take care of things... Of course, you can just heat the strike water, and mash inside... Just need to boil the wort outside...

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I also have the 70 qt Xtreme. Have not dont an AG batch yet, been way to cold up in new england, but planning to in the coming weeks once it gets a bit warmer and I can be outside the whole time.

Cold? Maybe we should go over to Mamby Pamby land where its a little warmer.
Mashing and boiling outside in winter isn't so bad and the 62 qt. Extreme cooler kicks ass. I've brewed 5 times since New Years Eve. Michigan winters are just too long to not be brewing.

 

[CraigT]

i ended up going with the 10 gallon gott style with a half inch stainless braid. i found this and it was so easy and just under 50 dollars!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

 

[jafo28]

When I went all-grain I could only find the 5 gallon round cooler, it has it's limits. Just this morning i picked up the 10 gallon cooler at home depot, so now I have two.:rockin: