Coleman xTreme 70qt Cooler Mash Tun or old cooler?

Hello,

I bought the Coleman xtreme 70qt cooler to use as a mash tun (cheaper than the 52 qt version). 

However, it's such a nice cooler, I almost hate to use it for this purpose because I also camp and this is bigger and would keep ice longer I am assuming than my old cooler.

My old cooler is a @50qt rubbermaid.

My question is, will the old cooler work fine as a mash tun?  I wonder how much extra heat I am able to hold with the 70qt Coleman xtreme vs the old 50qt Rubbermaid. 

I will only ever be doing 5 gallon batches.

Other than insulating, is the recessed channel drain on the extreme a big advantage as well?

Thanks!
gunrock

I just bought the 70 Qt. Xtreme a couple weeks ago to replace my 48 Qt. Coleman Ice Cube only because I want to make 10 Gal. batches occasionally. Some say the 70 Qt. is too large for 5-gal batches but others say it's fine - we'll see in a few weeks. My 48 Qt. held temp. well if I first heated it with a couple gal. of hot water from the sink for 20 min. or so. If you are going to stick with 5-gal I suggest the 50 but if you make a lot of big beers or thinking about 10 gal batches use the 70.

The Xtreme was very easy to modify. I made one for myself and a friend at work in about an hour and could have been quicker but I needed to bore out a few washers with my Dremel:





Mike

Nice pictures Mike!
R, Slurk

Yeah nice photos thanks.

Unless someone thinks there is significant advantage of the xtreme over my old rubbermaid (other than size), I think retiring the old rubbermaid to life as a mash tun is a good job for it.

The old rubbermaid is big enough.  I just wanted to make sure there was no major advantage to having the channel drain or using the Coleman xTreme to hold temps better.

The Coleman is bigger and hopefully will hold ice longer, so would be great for camping, so if the old Rubbermaid will work, Rubbermaid mash tun it is (and yes, it's clean and still looks like new).

Thanks!

I use the exact same cooler. It works great for 5 and up to 12 gallon batches. I built a nice cpvc drain system in mine, it helped alot.

I used the 52 quart Rubbermaid for years and it worked just great for me.  I upgraded to the Coleman xTreme 70 quart and it's fantastic, especially as was mentioned, for 10 gallons batches.  But it works just fine for 5 gallon batches too.  Super versatile.

The short answer?  52 qt is sufficient for any 5 gallon batch of bere you might want to make, up to an OG of 1.200 (or so).  It should hold upwards of 30+ lbs of grain and the needed water.

Here's the basic rule of thumb:

An MLT the same volume as your batch size will make a beer with an maximum OG of 1.060.
An MLT 2x the volume of your batch size will make a beer with an maximum OG of 1.120.