First 10 Gallon batch in Home Depot cooler with........26.8lb's of grain

[duffman123]

I am planning on doing my first 10 gallon batch this weekend. I picked a nice surly furious clone recipe, ordered the grain, and then realized.... maybe my 10 gallon cooler won't be able to mash almost 27 pounds of grain with a 1.25 quart of water per lb of grain ratio..... If I drop the ratio to around 1 quart of water per lb of grain should I be ok or will my efficiency be awful? Also should I mash at a lower temperature say 151 degrees F or boil longer to increase efficiency? I was thinking of trying to mash for a long period of time overnight.

 

[adworld]

I use an 8gal ss pot to mash in and the max I can do is 15lbs at 1.25qts/lb

Even at 1qt/lb your looking at 6.75gals of water before you even add any grain. maybe someone who mashes w a 10gal cooler can better answer but seems like 27lbs would be a bit much.

 

[jagg]

27# of grain at 1.0 quarts per pound will put you at 8.91 gallons, you can swing that.You can mash at whatever temp you want, depending on what you want out of your beer, 1 hour is plenty of time to convert, no need to mash overnight unless you just want to.

 

[Squeek]

I mash in a 15 gallon keg and after 25lbs of grain at 1.25qt per pound and there is about 4 gallons of space left. I think it will be tight if it fits.

 

[triangulum33]

I did a RIS that had 22# of grain and at 1.25 qt/lb it filled my 10G Home Depot cooler pretty much to the top.

 

[duffman123]

Thanks for all the replies! I am going to do 1 quart of water per pound of grain and give it a go. If I get bad efficiency I am going to add a bit of corn sugar to bump it up.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for all the replies! I am going to do 1 quart of water per pound of grain and give it a go. If I get bad efficiency I am going to add a bit of corn sugar to bump it up.

If you have a false bottom, it won't fit. I have a round 10 gallon orange rubbermaid cooler with a false bottom, and I max out totally at 25 pounds. If you miss your temp and you have to add water, you'll really be in a fix. Maybe you could try mashing less grain, and make up the fermentables with two pounds of DME?

 

[duffman123]

No false bottom just a bazooka tube... This is going to be cutting it close I guess. I figure I will pre heat the cooler with 180 degree water then pour it back into the kettle. Add the grains to the preheated cooler then add as much of the strike water as possible and adjust my two sparge volumes to compensate incase I can't quite add the total strike volume...

 

[hafmpty]

Why not do two mashes? It'll extend your brew day a bit, but the mash is the easiest part. You're sitting, drinking beer, and waiting. Divide the grain in half, mash at 1.25qts per pound and let it sit. After 60 minutes, sparge. I assume you batch sparge because of the bazooka tube. That means sparging will go pretty quick. After you drain all the wort, dump the spent grain, and start another mash. Keep the wort you collect in your brew pot and keep it covered. It'll be fine. No worries about contamination because you haven't boiled yet. After your second mash is done, you're good to go as normal. It's the big grain bills like this that caused me to buy a second 10gal mash tun.

The other option would be to ask a friend if you can borrow their mash tun. Just a suggestion.