I've been doing all grain brewing for about a year using a 5 gal Rubbermaid cooler with a false bottom as a mash/lauter tun (with great success). I want to make some higher gravity beers so I just purchased a new 10 gal cooler. I was going to salvage the hardware from the 5 gal cooler (except the false bottom) to make the conversion but I am wondering if I should keep both sizes of mash tuns. In other words is there a problem with using the 10 gal cooler to make average or lower gravity beers and have a lot of head space above the grain bed?
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Mash Tun Sizes
- Thread starter Paindoc
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
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Many brewers I know use 10 or 12 gallon coolers for 5 gallon batches. I only make 5 gallon batches with a 12 gallon cooler. There aren't any issues with using a larger mash tun. Fermenting is supposed to be a different story.
I like the higher bed depth with the smaller cooler size for 5 gallon batches. I have both a 5 and 10 gallon igloo - either can both be used as a mash tun simply by moving the stainless mesh drain hose. Whichever one is being used for the mash, the other serves as my hot liquor tank for sparge water, etc. Just a personal preference.
