Fair warning.... I read the entire thread of the sticky "This is how big your Mash Tun needs to be" and still have some questions.
So here's where I am... A couple of friends and I jumped straight into AG and tried a really big IPA (The Stone Enjoy By recipe posted by scottland). We brewed a double batch, and things went pretty well. We're on the last dry hop and are gonna be bottling in a few days. Go big or go home, right? We had some borrowed equipment, and lots of help from a seasoned veteran home brewer friend from afar.
We have a fair bit of equipment, but borrowed a mash tun for this batch. We're wanting to build one, are planning to batch sparge, and want to build a copper manifold for it. We're planning on doing 10 gallon batches normally, but want to have the flexibility to do 5 gal. I think I've narrowed it down to two cooler styles, the Coleman 70 qt (interior dimensions 24.5" x 10" x 14" high) that many folks recommended on the sticky, and something more squarish, like this Coleman 75 qt. (inside dimensions 11" x 17" x 15.5" high). Here are my questions:
1. I know that you need an adequate grain bed depth (IIRC, Palmer mentions min 4" for batch sparging) to produce clear wort. If we're doing a big 10 gal batch, the 70 qt is plenty sufficient. If we're doing the same in the 75 qt, is the bed going to be too deep? If we're doing a 5 gal batch, will the 70 qt be to shallow? I know most folks say that grain bed depth doesn't matter for batch sparging, but that's hard to totally believe... there must be limits to this.
2. The 70 qt is nicer since you have more room to be able to stir. Is there any other reason the 70 wins over the 75? It would seem that the more squarish one would be better as far as heat retention, due to a smaller lid surface area and shorter length of where the lid contacts the body of the cooler.
Is there anything else I need to be considering?
Sorry for the long post, and sorry if these questions have already beed answered. Thanks for the help!
So here's where I am... A couple of friends and I jumped straight into AG and tried a really big IPA (The Stone Enjoy By recipe posted by scottland). We brewed a double batch, and things went pretty well. We're on the last dry hop and are gonna be bottling in a few days. Go big or go home, right? We had some borrowed equipment, and lots of help from a seasoned veteran home brewer friend from afar.
We have a fair bit of equipment, but borrowed a mash tun for this batch. We're wanting to build one, are planning to batch sparge, and want to build a copper manifold for it. We're planning on doing 10 gallon batches normally, but want to have the flexibility to do 5 gal. I think I've narrowed it down to two cooler styles, the Coleman 70 qt (interior dimensions 24.5" x 10" x 14" high) that many folks recommended on the sticky, and something more squarish, like this Coleman 75 qt. (inside dimensions 11" x 17" x 15.5" high). Here are my questions:
1. I know that you need an adequate grain bed depth (IIRC, Palmer mentions min 4" for batch sparging) to produce clear wort. If we're doing a big 10 gal batch, the 70 qt is plenty sufficient. If we're doing the same in the 75 qt, is the bed going to be too deep? If we're doing a 5 gal batch, will the 70 qt be to shallow? I know most folks say that grain bed depth doesn't matter for batch sparging, but that's hard to totally believe... there must be limits to this.
2. The 70 qt is nicer since you have more room to be able to stir. Is there any other reason the 70 wins over the 75? It would seem that the more squarish one would be better as far as heat retention, due to a smaller lid surface area and shorter length of where the lid contacts the body of the cooler.
Is there anything else I need to be considering?
Sorry for the long post, and sorry if these questions have already beed answered. Thanks for the help!