Maximum grain bill in my mash tun

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pdickerson

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I have the typical 10 gallon Orange igloo cylinder mash tun. Just curious as to what the biggest grain bill you guys, and gals, have jammed into one and still had a successful mash. Looking at doing a RIS with a grain Bill of close to 20 pounds. Could I split the bill between 2 tuns, mash and sparge in each one then combine the runnings for my 5 gallon batch?
 
Ok, thanks for the link and info. Any thoughts on splitting a mash between 2 tuns?
 
You certainly can, if you exceed your cooler. Haven't done that, yet, but I'm sure someone on here has.
 
I mashed 16lb at 1.25qt/lb in my orange Igloo yesterday with loads of room to spare. The only issue you'll run into as grain bills get bigger is that more water volume comes from mashing and less volume is available to sparge. Worst case you lose a few efficiency points or spend a little more time boiling off extra volume. You can mash a little drier to compensate. It's no big deal, just something to plan for.
 
I dont go past 24 Ibs.

The one time I had 33 Ib grain bill, I split my mash into two separate fly sparges. Worked out great but it was a long day. Id like a 20 gal fermentor but I like the portability of the 10 gal orange coolers.
 
Ok, thanks for the link and info. Any thoughts on splitting a mash between 2 tuns?

I had to do this last week. I completely overestimated my ability to mash over 25lbs. I saw that it required an 11.5gal mash tun and it didn't register for some reason.
I ended up splitting between my 10gal igloo mash tun and mash-in-a-bag in a keggle. I had no problems hitting my target OG, but can't say just yet how well the beer will turn out. I guess I'll know in about a week.
 
Additionally. Mash water to grist ratio does in some way affect the pH of the mash. On darker beers where you have lower pH than desired, you will need to adjust your water's pH.

I did this in a Keggle with a 36lb+ grain bill and unfortunately my gravity and pHa suffered a bit. I fell 8 points from my desired OG. Take this with a grain of salt though, I also added too much water in the sparge and was unable to boil off an additional 1/2-3/4gal of wort to concentrate further the desired finished wort.
 
Ok, thanks for the link and info. Any thoughts on splitting a mash between 2 tuns?

No, you can't do that. The wort from the different tuns would not speak the same language once they got into the boil kettle and then they'd constantly fight. And then the yeast would get in there and the two wort tribes would demand that the yeast pick a side and the yeast would be all, "but you're all just sugar! Can't we all get along?" And then both wort tribes would become enemies of each other AND the yeast and you wouldn't get any fermentation.

I wrote a scientific paper about it if you'd like me to send it to you.
 
Anecdotal data point: I had no trouble doing a couple of 19.125-pound brews in one of those coolers last month. The main sacc rest was at about 1.3 qt/lb; ended up at about 1.6 qt/lb after adding the mash-out water, and still had a little headspace to stir without sloshing over the edges.

The one piece of advice I will give you is, get a mash paddle! Or, at least a ludicrously large spoon. Using normal kitchenware to try and stir all the way to the bottom of a tun that full is a recipe for parboiled human hand, well-done. I ordered one between the first and second über-batch I brewed.
 
Sounds like I'll be able to do some decent sized brews. My flimsy little plastic mash paddle might bite the dust in the end though. I eventually want to brew a barley wine, and I know that's going to be a huge grain bill. 48 qt square cooler handle this, or should it be bigger?
 
I eventually want to brew a barley wine, and I know that's going to be a huge grain bill. 48 qt square cooler handle this, or should it be bigger?

Dude... http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml ... scroll down to "Can I Mash It"

No one can definitively answer that question. Depends on your grain bill. Once you know how many lbs of grain in your recipe, the mash calculator will give a good estimate based on your desired mash thickness.
 
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