Mash Tun

[Tuzlo]

I am gathering all the equipment for my Brew stand. I plan on having a Brew Kettle using a cut open Sanke Keg. For my mash tun I am planning on doing Batch sparginging, is a 55 qt rectangular cooler large enough to accomodate the size of the brewws I can do with a Sanke Keg?

 

[Boleslaus]

You can use the green bay rackers website and the "can I mash it" calculator to see.

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[Golddiggie]

What's the biggest brew you'll end up making (size and ABV)?? Depending on how much grain you'll need to mash will determine if the cooler is a good size or not. You'll be hard pressed to get 35# of grain in that cooler/mash tun with 1.25qt/#... Actually, depending on what you use for a screen/manifold in the mash tun, you'll probably not want to mash more than ~34# in it... If that's enough grain for what you'll be brewing, then go for it. If not, then look to get a larger cooler to convert...

Of course, you could just start with that cooler, then when you need a larger one, designate the old one as where you hold your mash wort, or hot water for sparging...

 

[Tuzlo]

What's the biggest brew you'll end up making (size and ABV)?? Depending on how much grain you'll need to mash will determine if the cooler is a good size or not. You'll be hard pressed to get 35# of grain in that cooler/mash tun with 1.25qt/#... Actually, depending on what you use for a screen/manifold in the mash tun, you'll probably not want to mash more than ~34# in it... If that's enough grain for what you'll be brewing, then go for it. If not, then look to get a larger cooler to convert...

Of course, you could just start with that cooler, then when you need a larger one, designate the old one as where you hold your mash wort, or hot water for sparging...

BUt 34-35 Pounds of grain would equate to 15 Gallon brews, correct? Sorry I am new to AG brewing and am not at home where all my software and recipes are.

 

[Golddiggie]

BUt 34-35 Pounds of grain would equate to 15 Gallon brews, correct? Sorry I am new to AG brewing and am not at home where all my software and recipes are.

34# of grain could make a decent 10 gallon batch, or a lower OG 15 gallon batch...

We used 26.5# of grain for a 10 gallon cream ale that had an OG of just 1.065... Increasing it to 34# total, would have moved the OG to ~1.083... A decent old ale, or a light barley wine...

Personally, I'd rather have more capacity than I'll need 90% of the time, so that for those other 10% of my brews, I'm still good with my existing gear. I'll be mashing ~22-25# of grain for my first all grain barley wine recipe... That's for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

So you plan on doing 10 gal batches in the sanke keggle I assume? A 55 qt will probably get you by. If you want to be more sure about it.....figure out the average and the maximum amount of grain you plan to mash and then take a look at Blichmann's website. It has a mash tun capacity chart based on volume that you can use to figure out what size you need to shoot for. Here's the link.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/boilermaker/boilermaker.html

 

[Tuzlo]

I think 10 Gallon brew is the best I can do from a Sanke Keg. That being said Blichmann's website informs me I need a 10 gallon Mash Tun, Correst? Remember I am a beginner at this.

 

[Schwind]

Tuzio, I'm not sure how much beer your trying to brew at a time but my keggle works great for 10 gal and 5 gal batches I have a 10 gallon cooler MLT that I hit high 70s low 80s in efficiency depending on the amt of grain in the cooler. I can make 10 gallons of my IPA with 26# of grain at 1.070 @ 78 ish % efficiency. Your 55 qt MLT( almost 14 gal) should definitely get a big beer in a 10 gal batch. Once you know your average efficiency it will help with the planning of future beers. If your really worried about making big beers you can do smaller batches and boil down to whatever gravity you need. I made a 5 gallon batch of barleywine 3 years ago that we still haven't finished.
Good luck man, making the best out of what you've got is one of the fun things about this hobby.