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Hey guys,

In celebration of buying a grain mill I am also buying a cooler (MT). Is it better to go with the 100qt, or is 70 sufficient?

Forgive me if this has been answered in the past. I did a search but got lazy after the 3rd page of results.

G

As I mentioned to you the other evening I'm planning on going with 100qt when I finally get around to picking a cooler up. I based my decision on this chart from that "other" brewing forum:
My reason for going 100qt is that I want to have the ability to do 10gallon batches of high gravity beers (barleywine, RIS, etc.). My thinking is that there can't be that much more heat loss over an hour with the 100qt even if it's not really full for every batch I brew and I don't want to put myself in the position of wishing that I had bought something larger if I go with a smaller cooler.

jeffsmith wrote:As I mentioned to you the other evening I'm planning on going with 100qt when I finally get around to picking a cooler up. I based my decision on this chart from that "other" brewing forum:

mltsizetable.gif

My reason for going 100qt is that I want to have the ability to do 10gallon batches of high gravity beers (barleywine, RIS, etc.). My thinking is that there can't be that much more heat loss over an hour with the 100qt even if it's not really full for every batch I brew and I don't want to put myself in the position of wishing that I had bought something larger if I go with a smaller cooler.

according to that chart, you could do ten gallons of 1.077 beer with a 52 quart mash tun. That means your 100 quart cooler would be half full at that gravity level. I think the heat loss would be pretty significant when half of what you're keeping warm is air, which has a tendency to escape. just my opinion

CorneliusAlphonse wrote:

jeffsmith wrote:As I mentioned to you the other evening I'm planning on going with 100qt when I finally get around to picking a cooler up. I based my decision on this chart from that "other" brewing forum:

mltsizetable.gif

My reason for going 100qt is that I want to have the ability to do 10gallon batches of high gravity beers (barleywine, RIS, etc.). My thinking is that there can't be that much more heat loss over an hour with the 100qt even if it's not really full for every batch I brew and I don't want to put myself in the position of wishing that I had bought something larger if I go with a smaller cooler.

according to that chart, you could do ten gallons of 1.077 beer with a 52 quart mash tun. That means your 100 quart cooler would be half full at that gravity level. I think the heat loss would be pretty significant when half of what you're keeping warm is air, which has a tendency to escape. just my opinion

That's what I was wondering too. Especially if I do some experimental 5g batches now and then.
I wonder what sparging technique that table calculates for. I would like to experiment with no-sparge so bigger is better in that case.

CorneliusAlphonse wrote:according to that chart, you could do ten gallons of 1.077 beer with a 52 quart mash tun. That means your 100 quart cooler would be half full at that gravity level. I think the heat loss would be pretty significant when half of what you're keeping warm is air, which has a tendency to escape. just my opinion

That's a good point as well—I had thought that maybe wrapping it in blankets during the mash would reduce the amount of heat loss. I guess the question is then what's the best cooler-based (size and shape) mash tun you can buy to accommodate both 10 gallon and 5 gallon batches?

FWIW I use a 70qt igloo cold max cooler for both 20 and 40 litre batches. I found that at my 70% efficeicy the cooler usually tops out at around 1.082 at 2.8l/kg on a 40 litre batch.

LiverDance wrote:FWIW I use a 70qt igloo cold max cooler for both 20 and 40 litre batches. I found that at my 70% efficeicy the cooler usually tops out at around 1.082 at 2.8l/kg on a 40 litre batch.

Good info to have.

Sounds to me like 70qt is probably a better size then, and for big beers, make a small(er) batch.

Exactly Jeff! and you don't really have to worry about the lost of heat on the smaller batches when it's one of the cold max ones.

LiverDance wrote:Exactly Jeff! and you don't really have to worry about the lost of heat on the smaller batches when it's one of the cold max ones.

I'll keep my eye out, thanks! Any advantage to the Igloo over Coleman's Xtreme 5 series?

And sorry Graham, kinda hijacked your thread here.

Actually that's my bad, I have the coleman xtreme 5, not the igloo brand. I had 2 70qt and gave one to KMck and still have the other. We also have a 95L coleman extreme but that is for our 60l batches.

jeffsmith wrote:And sorry Graham, kinda hijacked your thread here.

No worries, I asked because you and I were talking about it the other night and it got me thinking.

LiverDance wrote:Actually that's my bad, I have the coleman xtreme 5, not the igloo brand. I had 2 70qt and gave one to KMck and still have the other. We also have a 95L coleman extreme but that is for our 60l batches.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. It's looking like I'm going to shoot for the 70qt one now after all this. The majority of the batches I brew with my brother in law (10 gallons) are going to be relatively moderate in gravity anyway, so 70qt should suffice. If we're brewing a really big beer, we'll just have to deal with a smaller volume. Thanks for saving me some cash! (and possibly headaches with heat retention)

jeffsmith wrote:

LiverDance wrote:Actually that's my bad, I have the coleman xtreme 5, not the igloo brand. I had 2 70qt and gave one to KMck and still have the other. We also have a 95L coleman extreme but that is for our 60l batches.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. It's looking like I'm going to shoot for the 70qt one now after all this. The majority of the batches I brew with my brother in law (10 gallons) are going to be relatively moderate in gravity anyway, so 70qt should suffice. If we're brewing a really big beer, we'll just have to deal with a smaller volume. Thanks for saving me some cash! (and possibly headaches with heat retention)

You can always borrow mine in the rare case that you will want to brew something you can't handle in one.

When ever I brew a really big beer I use about 25% extract so I don't have to take the hit on efficiency and it's alot easier to manage.

LiverDance wrote:Actually that's my bad, I have the coleman xtreme 5, not the igloo brand. I had 2 70qt and gave one to KMck and still have the other. We also have a 95L coleman extreme but that is for our 60l batches.

That's exactly what I plan on buying when I figure its time to build a new MT. Besides the capacity & insulation, I like the drainage channel at the bottom which should reduce my dead space a bit.

Somebody here says conversion is pretty much done after 5 minutes (for fully modified grains), so heat loss won't be a big issue. Nailing the mash temp is a bigger priority than heat loss.

mr x wrote:Somebody here says conversion is pretty much done after 5 minutes (for fully modified grains), so heat loss won't be a big issue. Nailing the mash temp is a bigger priority than heat loss.

That's what I was going to say, but with a bunch of f-bombs.

So where did you guys find your 70qt coolers?

Jimmy wrote:So where did you guys find your 70qt coolers?

Canadian Tire

jeffsmith wrote:

Jimmy wrote:So where did you guys find your 70qt coolers?

Canadian Tire

+1

+ a big piece of foil for Jeffs trick of keeping in the energy when you don't have it full.

do u guys use the 70qt for 5 gallon batches?

Yes, even for small beers. It works fine with the foil trick.

Graham.C wrote:Yes, even for small beers. It works fine with the foil trick.

^ This.