Hello fellow brewers. I’m new to the site and new to home brewing. I have 4 extract brews under my belt. I’ve done two pale ales and 2 AIPA’s. I feel like my next step is going all grain.
My question is what is better, a round igloo container or a rectangular ice-chest style to convert to my mash tun? Does it matter? Is one better/more effective than the other? From what I have read/watched online, AG is no big thing…just an extra step in making the beer that YOU want and to not be boxed in by limitations of extract. I’m looking forward to making this next step. I just want to do it right the first time so I am not going back and re-doing stuff (although I know that is probably bound to happen anyway).
I’ve never used a round cooler, although I have a 10 gallon one we use for camping. It looks to me like it would be tough to stir if it were filled up with grain, there’s more surface area in a rectangular cooler thus a shallower grain bed. That said, I think the round coolers would be more conducive to fly sparging and the rectangular coolers for batch sparging, though you could do either with both.
That brings up another question. To fly sparge or batch sparge? It seems like fly sparging would be more efficient. No?
I was leaning toward doing a rectangular cooler…but it might make doing a filter system at the bottom more complicated. I was thinking of doing a false bottom in a round igloo. But I have heard that they get clogged easily if you drain to quickly.
[quote=“totalbuzzkill”]That brings up another question. To fly sparge or batch sparge? It seems like fly sparging would be more efficient. No?
I was leaning toward doing a rectangular cooler…but it might make doing a filter system at the bottom more complicated. I was thinking of doing a false bottom in a round igloo. But I have heard that they get clogged easily if you drain to quickly.
Thanks for all of the advice![/quote]
No, fly sparging is not necessarily more efficient. I average 83-85% batch sparging. If fly sparging was more efficient I wouldn’t have batch sparged 435 batches! Before you spend too much money pr get too complicated, take a look at www.dennybrew.com. It works so well that the AHA just made a video based on my equipment and process.
I also average in the lower 80s in efficiency batch sparging. I would add too that fly sparging takes longer, it may take up to an hour to sparge, whereas with batch sparging once the first runnings are drained you just close the valve, dump your water in, stir and drain again (after vorlaufing of course). It usually take around 20 minutes to get my first and second runnings collected.
I use a 10 gal. round cooler with a bazooka screen. I won’t claim it’s better than a rectangular cooler, but it’s at least as good any 5 gallon batch or standard gravity 10 gallon batches. If you plan to do 10 gallon batches of >1.060 OG, you’ll want a larger cooler.
My experience since nailing down my procedure, which was actually pretty fast:
85%+ mash efficiency consistently
Normally holds temp the entire time. At worst, one degree loss.
Never a stuck sparge even when using a very high percentage of wheat
No problems stirring. I don’t see why people think that would be a problem
I would agree with the above comment regarding less heat loss due to lower headspace. A round cooler would also be more flexible, because you can use it for batch or fly sparging.
[quote=“S.Scoggin”]I use a square 62qt cooler. I’ve done both batch and fly sparing with it.
Either one will work fine. If you’re worried about heat loss, then wrap it in blankets[/quote]
Whatever the shape of your cooler, I think most AG brewers on this forum would agree that fly sparging is more trouble than it’s worth for homebrewers.
IMO you’re better off buying an appropriately sized cooler than buying one with much more space than you need just because the price per quart is better. In the end, the added hassle of swaddling your cooler to prevent heat loss negates the small amount of money “saved.”
If you’re only doing 5 gallon batches you don’t need more than ~40 quart (10 gal.) capacity–and even then you really don’t “need” more than 5 gallon capacity unless you’re doing a high gravity batch or unless your efficiency is so poor that you have to use a lot more grain to hit your OG target.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”]
Whatever the shape of your cooler, I think most AG brewers on this forum would agree that fly sparging is more trouble than it’s worth for homebrewers.
IMO you’re better off buying an appropriately sized cooler than buying one with much more space than you need just because the price per quart is better. In the end, the added hassle of swaddling your cooler to prevent heat loss negates the small amount of money “saved.”
If you’re only doing 5 gallon batches you don’t need more than ~40 quart (10 gal.) capacity–and even then you really don’t “need” more than 5 gallon capacity unless you’re doing a high gravity batch or unless your efficiency is so poor that you have to use a lot more grain to hit your OG target.[/quote]
I agree. Just saying what I use. I started with a 40qt cooler for 5 gallons, but I soon needed to upgrade for big beers and the occasional 10g batch. So I ended up spending more on 2 mash tuns. Even with my 40qt I wrapped it in blankets, so it wasn’t an “added” hassle. If you never plan to make bigger batches, then 40qt is all you need
Sometimes I like to fly sparge; not because it’s more work or because it’s “better”… Just because it’s fun to mix things up. And it’s good practice that happens to be reminiscent of what we do where I work
Thanks for all of the good info. I think I am going to go round. I am only doing 5 gallon batches right now and I will probably remain at 5 until I build a more permanent setup (need to clean the garage first :? ). I’m looking to build a 3 tier system. Nothing too crazy. I think my initial question of to go round or rectangular now has turned to what kind of filter system to go with? False bottom? SS mesh hose? Manifold? I plan to do batch sparging…not sure if that matters or not.
IMO you’d be better off going with a Bazooka screen
or (as described on Denny’s site) a stainless steel water supply line braid. False bottoms are much more expensive and I’ve heard quite a few people complain about stuck sparges.
In case you had not already decided on what what type of valve and fittings you will use: You can go cheap and easy as shown on Denny’s site if you want. If you go with a ball valve, I recommend spending a couple extra dollars on a 3 piece valve so you can easily disassemble it for cleaning every now and then (they get pretty nasty inside). Also, there are some economical places out there to get stainless valves and fittings if you want to go that route.
