150qt Coleman Xtreme Mash Tun

[ScrapRoomBrewer]

Hey all. I do 10 gallons batches currently, and I use the "mash in a bag" technique with a Coleman 70qt Xtreme cooler, and it works great. I'm looking to move to 20 gallons at a time to not brew so often, and I was checking out the Coleman Xtreme 150qt coolers. Anyone have any experience with these? Any drawbacks to just doubling the mash tun size? Thx.

 

[Riot]

Trying to get the bag out of the tun and drained off isn't a great time once batch size goes bigger. If you were to do a sparge you can do 10 gallon batches in a 70qt cooler pretty comfortably

 

[ScrapRoomBrewer]

Thx for the response. I'm already doing the 10 gallon batches with the 70 qt cooler. Love it.

I had considered the extra weight for the 20 gallon batches, but I've got a pulley system that can handle up to 250 pounds, as I recall. While heavy, I think I can manage that part.

Any other downsides?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Why do you need to lift and hoist the grain bag, just let it drain out the bulkhead?

With a decent pulley, hoisting a 20 gallon batch shouldn't be a big deal if you want to do that. Jmo

 

[AkTom]

Or use 2 bags.

 

[ScrapRoomBrewer]

The lifting is more of a concern after the mash, just for clean up. But as I said, I'm sure my current pulley system can handle it.

So it seems that as long as I make a large enough batch with enough grains (to maintain proper temp), and as long as I can deal with the weight of the wet grain post-mash, then it'll be no different than my existing 70qt mash tun set up.

Thx for the help and input!