[mattybrass]

Im going to be upgrading my mash tun soon from my 10g igloo cooler. I want to be able to do higher gravity brews for my 10 gallon batches.

Would people recommend going to a keggle or buying a larger rectangular cooler?

I will be upgrading to a e-HERMS or e-RIMS system in the future.

[micsager]

Im going to be upgrading my mash tun soon from my 10g igloo cooler. I want to be able to do higher gravity brews for my 10 gallon batches.

Would people recommend going to a keggle or buying a larger rectangular cooler?

I will be upgrading to a e-HERMS or e-RIMS system in the future.

I know many folks use coolers with great success.  I use a boilermaker, so my vote would be for the keggle.  The way my RIMS system (tower of power) works, you couldn't do it with a cooler, as there is a burner under the mash tun. 

[Stevie]

What gravity are you looking to get? A keggle may not be large enough to do 10 gallons of very big beer. At 1.25 qt/lb you can get about 35 pounds in a keggle with room for the false bottom and liquid above the grain, maybe less.

[mattybrass]

What gravity are you looking to get? A keggle may not be large enough to do 10 gallons of very big beer. At 1.25 qt/lb you can get about 35 pounds in a keggle with room for the false bottom and liquid above the grain, maybe less.

thats a good point, maybe i need to formulate a high gravity recipe to see how much grain i might be using.

[kramerog]

I use a 50 qt rectangular cooler for my 10 gal system, which was a big improvement over my 10-gal round cooler.  I can do 7% beers no problem.  Above that, I generally do parti gyle or use sugar for drier big beers.

[Stevie]

I use this tool all the time to see what I can and cannot do. http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml


My Imperial stout is about 23.5 lbs of grain. To do a double batch at 1.25 qt/lb (slightly thick in my opinion) I would need at least a 75qt (18.75gal) cooler, I have a 70 qt now so could maybe go extra thick and push it, but it would be very full.



Nothing wrong with going as big as you can and adding extract to the kettle.


In my opinion, it is best to get the vessel that will work for your needs 90% of the time and adjust for the other 10%. For this reason I have two cooler tuns, one about 40qt and the other 70qt.


I do think it is best practice to brew a large amount of big beers. 5 gallons tends to go too fast and I never was able to drink a proper 3-7 year old bottle. Right now I do have one bottle of 6 year old imperial stout that is stashed in a box at the bottom of a pile. I have sense re-brewed it so I am not tempted to drink it.

[mattybrass]

that's a good idea to keep my old cooler and have a second bigger one. that way i wont get a lot of unnecessary heat loss due to excess empty space in the MLT for when I do lower gravity 10g batches.

I haven't done too many very high gravity beers but id certainly like to start cellaring some bigger barleywines/stouts etc.

[koop3700]

I use 70qt coleman extreme have done a very nice scotch ale came in at .090 with 38 lbs and 14 gallons of mash water she was full but did the job very nicely. Could have use a 2 step mash out i feel with a BIG beer.