Cooler size for 5 & 10 gal all grain?

[Swine]

I am thinking more of going from extract to all grain. Well, Dave got me thinking... And I didn't think of all the questions to ask him last night.
I have a great burner, a 50' immersion chiller, and an old keg I can cut the top off for a kettle.
I would like to do cooler BIAB I think. Or should I do cooler and a screen?
What size cooler would be best?
Can I use the same cooler for 5gal and 10gal? I guess question here is, will the extra air space when doing 5Gal be an issue? I will be starting with 5gal, not completely sure when/if 10gal, but would like option if possible.
I like IPA and IIPA, brew mostly the IPA, and brew IIPA when I am getting low. Do other beer to please others too.

Thanks for the input in advance.

[Keith]

I've done bag and screen in a cooler. IMO both worked well very similar in terms of efficiency. However the Bazooka screen cleaned up a lot easier.
As for cooler size a 75 quart cooler would be suffice, and on the big beer's you would need only a small amount of sparge water. Worked well when I did 5 or 10's.

[ivorm]

I just recently started all grain brewing so others would probably have better advice than I would. I bought a 70 quart coleman cooler from Walmart, link below and a bag from Becky. I've done a 5 gallon full volume mash DIPA in the 70 quart and everything fits fine. I've done one 10 gallon IPA and like Kieth mentioned you need to sparge since all the water and grain won't quite fit, so the 70 quart can do both. I bought a valve from Dave for it and it fits right in. Make sure you get an elbow to put on the inside of the cooler if you BIAB, my bag gets sucked into the ball valve and plugs without it. Cleaning the bag is an extra step I suppose but I've never used a screen so I can't really compare the two.

http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/coleman-70- ... 0083047993

[Bizlair]

I use an 11 or 12-ish gallon gallon cooler as my mash tun. It was laying around here for years unused before I got into brewing. I measured, but can't remember exactly what the volume was.

Anyway, I've only been doing 5 gallon batches, but know I have room for 10 gallon batches (which I'll likely start doing this sooner). I use a SS braid. The headspace hasn't been an issue.

I lost a fair amount of temperature on my first batch, but then I switched to preheating it with boiling water while my mash water is heating and I haven't had an issue.

I'll use a thinner mash sometimes, to fill it up a bit more, but haven't done a full volume mash.

[Swine]

Thanks for the advice guys!
Looks like I will be kijiji and flyer surfing for the next while.

[mumblecrunch]

For the record I have a 9 gallon (34 L) Coleman Xtreme cooler and a bag from Becky and I'd recommend that if there's any chance at all you might want to do 10 gallon batches in the future that you find something bigger. Being able to do full volume on 5 gallon batches can also save you a bunch of time. I've done as big a batch as 8 gallons in my setup and 3-4 sparges sucks on toast. I previously had a 12 gallon (45 L) regular cooler and I made the switch for the sake of the extra insulation in the Xtreme (I brew outside year round). I'm not so sure I made the right decision there. I do prefer the bag to a bazooka; no need to vorlauf and I find the bags really easy to clean. I understand they start getting unwieldy once you start moving up to 10 gallons though.

[Swine]

Is there is a danger in going too big of a cooler?
For instance 150qt?
My plan is still to do 5 and 10 gal batches of most beer (IPA are what I brew most of) and then when i do a IIPA I would only do 5gal.
I will start with 5 gal of IPA for the first couple of batches at least to make sure I can get a good process before moving to more ingredients, therefore more money if i should mess things up...
My concern is too much head room in the cooler would be a bad thing for heat loss even if I pre heat the cooler with some hot water.

[Celiacbrew]

Is there is a danger in going too big of a cooler?
For instance 150qt?
My plan is still to do 5 and 10 gal batches of most beer (IPA are what I brew most of) and then when i do a IIPA I would only do 5gal.
I will start with 5 gal of IPA for the first couple of batches at least to make sure I can get a good process before moving to more ingredients, therefore more money if i should mess things up...
My concern is too much head room in the cooler would be a bad thing for heat loss even if I pre heat the cooler with some hot water.

Evaporative heat loss is an issue if you open it to stir a couple times during the mash but you could lay some foil down on top of the mash to limit it. I have a cooler half that size that would cool a few degrees over an hour on small batches . Once I stopped opening it during the mash to stir it the temp drop was minimal. You can also mash thinner to fill it up more.

[Buccaneer]

In my own experience, if the container is too big, you lose a lot of heat.

[Keith]

I had a Coleman extreme which I used for 10-20 gal batches. 10 gallons lost a ton of heat, however most of the conversion is done early in the mash. IMO of your aiming for 5-10 gal batches aim for a 75quart vessel.