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partial mash cooler
I am thinking of getting a cooler to use for doing partial mashes in. I am not sure what size to get though. I've seen some people online that used a small 2 or 3 gallon one, the kind for holding beverages. While this would work for partial mash, it would be too small for all grain if I ever upgraded to that. I could get a 10 gallon one, and have it for use in all grain, but I'm not sure if using it for small partial batches would work. There would be a lot of air space in it, would that affect its ability to hold temp?
also, is there any brand that works a lot better than others, or does anything they sell at wally world or wherever work just as good as the next one? Any input would be appreciated.
Yes the additional head space in a 10 gallon cooler will affect temperature stability but probably not a whole lot if you pre heat it. It would be the best choice if planning on upgrading to all grain in the near future. One of my buddies uses a five gallon cooler for all grain batches. He does max out his capacity quite often but is very successful in brewing 5 gallon all grain batches in his 5 gallon cooler mash tun.
Here's a pretty good article on Counter Top Partial Mashing on the BYO website. The article focuses on mashing 4lbs of grain in a 2 gallon cooler.
I started partial mashing with a 5 gallon Rubbermaid cooler mash tun with 7-8 lbs of grain. A 5 gallon Rubbermaid cooler with run you 20 bucks at Walmart or Home Depot/Lowes. Once I got a new kettle and a propane burner I was able to start brewing all grain and could max out a 5 gallon mash tun with 12-13lbs of grain. Last year I bought a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler and was able to pull everything out of the smaller cooler and coverted the 10 gallon cooler without having to buy any new parts.
You could just as easy partial mash in a stock pot. Then build a lautering device that you could dump it in to sparge. You could do a simple bucket in a bucket lautering tun, or you could put a stainles braid in the bottom of a your bottling bucket. That would work fine too.
I used to do partial mashes in a 2 gallon beverage cooler. To sparge I had a stainless steel mesh strainer thing with a long handle I got at my LHBS. It fit over my brew kettle and I ladelled in mash until it was pretty full. Then I poured a quart of warm water over it t sparge. I'd dump it and then ladel more mash until done. Worked pretty good.
I do partial mases in a stock pot. If using a stock pot use one that will be almost full with grains and water in it. It keeps the temperature stable t hat way. I also put my stock pot on an oversized bread board and wrap it in a bath towel to help maintain mash temp for required time. Works fine.
DC
I do partial mashes in my bottling bucket with a paint strainer. The spigot works great.
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