Cooler Mash Tun Size Question

[sullydavid]

I am soon going to be moving up to all-grain. I am also in the process of moving up to 10 gallon batches. I am wondering if anyone has recommendations on a size of cooler to use as a mash tun.

[chris1kanobi]

I prefer the 10 gallon round beverage cooler ($50), only because of storage size and grain depth. A 48 qt. flat cooler will work just as well. I have seen them at Wallyworld for $15. Then all that you need is a manifold and you can make strong 10 gallon batches or average 15 gallon batches. Are you going to batch sparge or fly sparge? What are you going to use for a boil kettle?

[sullydavid]

I recently converted a 15.5 gal keg to my new kettle. I am not set on a type of sparging yet. I suspect that I will end up doing whatever is the easiest/fastest as I am more concerned about time and such than efficiency or hitting exact gravities.

[chris1kanobi]

IMO it is easier to fly sparge in a round cooler and batch sparge in a flat cooler. Batch sparging is easier and faster for me. This is a simple drawing of how I batch sparge.

http://www.freewebs.com/homebrew/process.htm

[Brownbeard]

Love that page Chris. It is the reason I am and AG brewer now. After seeing that, I saw the Dennybrew setup. That was it for me.