28 Quart Cooler for Grain Mashing

smata67 · Sep 23, 2011

Would this be adequate to begin all grain brewing? I will be doing 6 gallon batches. I'd like to be able to do beers under 7%.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Island-Breeze-28-Quart-Personal-Cooler/16437966

Or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W4TFX2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

smata67 · Sep 23, 2011

Do I need a drain plug or will I be drilling my own?

jsled · Sep 23, 2011

It will be adequate. But for ~$10 more, get a ≥40qt cooler, which will be good for higher-gravity 5g batches and will let you scale up to 10g batches when the time comes.

day_trippr · Sep 24, 2011

smata67 said:
Do I need a drain plug or will I be drilling my own?

Right there is a good reason to not buy that cooler.

There are humongous threads covering everything you'd ever need to know about more popular cooler mash tuns, particularly the 5 and 10 gallon round Rubbermaid coolers (which can be bought fairly cheaply at Home Depot)...

Cheers!

wilserbrewer · Sep 25, 2011

smata67 said:
Would this be adequate to begin all grain brewing? I will be doing 6 gallon batches. I'd like to be able to do beers under 7%.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Island-Breeze-28-Quart-Personal-Cooler/16437966

Or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W4TFX2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Yes! IMHO thats a great cooler to start AG. A bit more room than the 5 gal round coolers and half the price...you will need to drill a hole, but if you didn't realize that...i can't help ya :mug:

Now if you think you are going to ten gallon batches or monster size grain bills anytime soon, then obviously the 28qt is not a fit for you.

Again IMHO and IME I think it is a little silly mashing say 9lbs of grain in a 52 qt "extreme" cooler...you don't need that!

smata67 · Sep 25, 2011

Yes, I figured I would be drilling my own hole. Is there any reason not to drill that hole at the bottom? I will be using the braided SS approach to prevent it getting clogged. I know fist fights have broken out over this, but it appears to me that with a larger rectangular cooler I can better achieve my 2" or so grain depth than with the rounds. I think I'm looking at 15-18 pound batches.

I'm going to admit I do not plan to switch to grain, I think the extract method is already too time consuming, this would be for, at best, ocassional use (2 or 3 batches a year).