5 Gallon Rubbermaid MLT

[Tubbster85]

What are some limiting factors when using a 5 gallon MLT vs a 10 gallon? I am considering venturing into all grain and I was just comparing prices of the two coolers. I could buy two 5 gallon coolers for the price of one 10 gallon.

 

[frazier]

Buy the 10 gallon. There's a limit to how much grain you can mash in a 5 gal cooler. Not sure what it is, but my grainbills are generally 11 to 13 pounds, and they seem to take up more than half of my 10 gal cooler.

 

[ashplub]

With a 5 gallon you are (effectively) limited to an OG of about 1.060 for 5-6 gallon batches. That leaves out alot of the beers that make home brewing fun and worth it in my opinion. No RIS, barleywines, DIPAs and partigyles is no life for me. You can run a very think mash or add some ME but that’s goofy. I went with a 10 gal round cooler when building mine. That said, I f I could go back I would have went with a square cooler since these can be had for much cheaper (free) if you look around and I could have saved that $48 to brew some beers.

 

[Greenbasterd]

you can fit about 14lbs of grain in a 5gal. if your not into big beers your fine.

 

[Tubbster85]

Thanks for all the info. Does anyone use the 10 gallon for a MLT and a 5 gallon for a HLT??

 

[ajf]

Thanks for all the info. Does anyone use the 10 gallon for a MLT and a 5 gallon for a HLT??

Yes, I do and it works fine. I used to use 2 * 5g.
If you fly sparge effectively, you can make 5g batches with an OG of up to 1.075 with a 5g MLT. That was the max I ever achieved, but I did it several times each year for about 12 years.
If you fly sparge, the 5g cooler gives a greater grain bed depth which results in slightly higher efficiency (5% in my case). If you batch sparge, the grain bed depth doesn't matter.
I find I can fly sparge faster with a 10g cooler vs the 5g. Again, this would not matter if you batch sparge.
You will have more dead space in a 10g cooler than a 5g. This will slightly affect your efficiency.
A 10g cooler is more lightly to warp when adding the strike water. My 10g cooler warped the first time I used it (but that's purely cosmetic, and hasn't caused any real problems).

-a.

 

[Gartywood]

I started with a 5g and added a 10g later I like having the ability to select the tun that has the best properties for the mash that I am doing and if I ever decide to go to continuous sparging I have the 5g for an HLT.

 

[billf2112]

I do smaller batches and the 5 gallon works great for me, temp control is better with less air space. If cost is the issue, you will need two sets of hardware for 2 five gallon tuns.

 

[BradleyBrew]

I use a 5 gallon mash tun and can squeeze up to 13lbs of grain. If need be I just add extract to make up the difference.

 

[kh54s10]

I would definitely skip the 5 gallon tun and go for 10 gallons. You can fit an average grainbill in the 5 gallon but with the 10 you can stir like crazy and not worry. You should still be looking at only about $10 - $20 difference.

I use a turkey fryer burner and a valved 10 gallon pot with a sightglass for my HLT. I put enough water in there for the mash and sparge.