Not enough room in lauter tun?

[kaj030201]

I am thinking of brewing a Doppelbock where I will need 17lbs. of grains, and I am afraid I dont have enough room in my 10 gallon Igloo cooler lauter/mash tun. What can I do?

Thanks!

 

[eriktlupus]

ya should be fine with 17#. i fit 12-13# in my five gallon cooler

 

[Funkenjaeger]

ya should be fine with 17#. i fit 12-13# in my five gallon cooler

I agree - I try not to go above 11-12# in my 5gal, but you should have more than enough room for 17 in a cooler twice the size.

 

[kaj030201]

wait- I guess mine IS a 5 gallon. What should I do??

 

[CBBaron]

wait- I guess mine IS a 5 gallon. What should I do??

In that case use 12# of grain and DME to make up the difference. Or you can do 2 mashes and combine them in the brew kettle. 17# of grain will not fit in a 5gal cooler with a reasonable amount of mash water.
Craig

 

[RICLARK]

You should be able to fit around 20# in a 10 gallon

 

[cclloyd]

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but.... how full does 12 or so lbs of grain fill a 5 gallon round cooler? I have converted one and have been using it to mash 4-5 lbs for each of my last several batches and it fills up between a third and half of the volume at one quart of water per pound of grain - you are successfully mashing 12 lbs + ? I would like to go all grain or at least minimize the DME/LME I use. Any input is appreciated.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

12lb is pushing a 5gal cooler close to the brim. If I mash that much I have to drain some wort before I can even think about adding boiling water to mash out.

Using the handy "Can I Mash It?" calculator:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
12lb of grain at 1.25qt/lb mash thickness will take up about 4.71 gallons of space.

 

[shafferpilot]

Split it up into two mashes of 8.5lbs a piece. You'll have plenty of room. Be careful to avoid oversparging the first mash and undersparging the second or vice versa.

 

[shunoshi]

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but.... how full does 12 or so lbs of grain fill a 5 gallon round cooler? I have converted one and have been using it to mash 4-5 lbs for each of my last several batches and it fills up between a third and half of the volume at one quart of water per pound of grain - you are successfully mashing 12 lbs + ? I would like to go all grain or at least minimize the DME/LME I use. Any input is appreciated.

I mash 4-5 lbs. of grains in my 2-gallon MLT. There's a lot more room than you think.

 

[ajf]

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but.... how full does 12 or so lbs of grain fill a 5 gallon round cooler? I have converted one and have been using it to mash 4-5 lbs for each of my last several batches and it fills up between a third and half of the volume at one quart of water per pound of grain - you are successfully mashing 12 lbs + ? I would like to go all grain or at least minimize the DME/LME I use. Any input is appreciated.

I use 1 qt water per lb, and can mash 13 lbs grain in a 5g cooler, leaving enough space for 1g mash out water. (I could probably fit another lb grain in there without overflowing, but I've never tried it.)
With the 13 lbs grain, I fly sparge (which requires very little extra space in the cooler). I don't want to think how many additions it would take to batch sparge.

-a.

 

[CBBaron]

I use 1 qt water per lb, and can mash 13 lbs grain in a 5g cooler, leaving enough space for 1g mash out water. (I could probably fit another lb grain in there without overflowing, but I've never tried it.)
With the 13 lbs grain, I fly sparge (which requires very little extra space in the cooler). I don't want to think how many additions it would take to batch sparge.

-a.

Thats the reason I limit myself to just over 12# in my 5 gal. With 2 additional sparges to the brim I get about 6.5 gal which is the right amount of pre-boil volume for my system to give me 5.5gal in the fermenter. Any more grain and either I end up shy or have to sparge a 3rd time. With 12# and 1.25qt/# I have just enough room to stir the mash and the sparging works out well also. With some tricks you may fit more buts its not worth it in my opinion.
Craig