10 Gallon Rubbermaid Coolers

[mika]

I would have thought that capacity was too small for an AG brew ? I thought you'd need close to 60L to make it worth while.

If 37lt is OK...Screwtop, who are BCF ??

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Boating camping fishing BCF .. might just be QLD chain not sure Mika...

:beer:

 

[Pumpy]

go metal

http://www.texanbrew.com/index.php?topic=mt

the way to go !!!

Pumpy

 

[Screwtop]

I would have thought that capacity was too small for an AG brew ? I thought you'd need close to 60L to make it worth while.

If 37lt is OK...Screwtop, who are BCF ??

[post="126605"][/post]​

Same Guy/Company as Supacheap Auto (Boating Camping Fishing Surerstores) like big Daryl Beafsteak says "THEY'RE H U G E). Stores are planned to go national, thought they were in most states but WA at present.

Igloo ones are 36L I think. Mine is plenty big enough for single batches, can even fit first sparge water on top of the mash.

 

[mika]

Ahhh, all makes sense. So if I wanted to do ~25 litre batches, of even high gravity beer, the rubber maid cooler is good enough ?? :unsure:

I'd love to go metal Pumpy, but can't find the kegs over here. Was thinking of getting a thin pot from an Asian store (~50L), but then I'd have to weld the fittings in and insulate i, so the coller starts to look like a value for money proposition.... if it's big enough to get the job done.

 

[Pumpy]

Ahhh, all makes sense. So if I wanted to do ~25 litre batches, of even high gravity beer, the rubber maid cooler is good enough ?? :unsure:

I'd love to go metal Pumpy, but can't find the kegs over here. Was thinking of getting a thin pot from an Asian store (~50L), but then I'd have to weld the fittings in and insulate i, so the coller starts to look like a value for money proposition.... if it's big enough to get the job done.

[post="127153"][/post]​

Mika_Lika The 'Rubbermaid' are expensive but like the DA said the '38L Keep Cold 'is a good one for the price I have that one .

Pumpy

 

[GMK]

Ahhh, all makes sense. So if I wanted to do ~25 litre batches, of even high gravity beer, the rubber maid cooler is good enough ?? :unsure:

I'd love to go metal Pumpy, but can't find the kegs over here. Was thinking of getting a thin pot from an Asian store (~50L), but then I'd have to weld the fittings in and insulate i, so the coller starts to look like a value for money proposition.... if it's big enough to get the job done.

[post="127153"][/post]​

i have a 36ltr Rubbermaid.
I have brewed almost 40ltrs of 1115 Gravity Barley wine.
i have had 15kg of grain in there.
But you will need to fly sparge .

Therefore, 25ltrs of high gravity beer will be a dodle.

 

[mika]

Cool, that sounds like the go. I'm not keen on getting into double batches yet, though that may change. I'll have a look on the w/end and see what I can find, this will be the start of the all-grain purchases, start of a new era.

 

[T.D.]

I brewed a double batch in my 36L KeepCold cooler last night and it worked fine. It was 9kg of grain and was getting up there towards the brim but was no probs. I mashed at 2.8:1 so you could go way lower than that if you needed to fit more in (which I am assuming GMK did in the barley wine he mentioned). At 2.8:1, which is my standard ratio I work off, I would not go much more than 10kg of grain, if for no other reason but the fact you can't lift the bloody thing with that much grain and water in it!!

 

[Batz]

I brew double batches in my 10 gallon igloo all the time

Easy azz !

Batz

 

[mika]

Looked in the shops tonight. So far can only find the 57Ltr version which in the Keep Cold range costs $149.
But I'm conflicted nw as most people appear to be having trouble with the stainless braid, and the shape of the Kepp Cold cooler as discussed with T.D. doesn't lend itself to a Phalse Bottom.
Might end up going for the pot yet.

 

[T.D.]

Did you have a look inside the 57L cooler? Does the tap assembly protrude out from the inner wall like it does in the 36L version?

If you are keen on using a false bottom like they sell at G&G, a pot might pose problems too. Most pots that are a reasonable size (40-50L) are a lot wider in diameter than the widest false bottom that is available (12").

You may be able to modify the G&G false bottom so it fits into the 36L KeepCold cooler. I'm sure I have read a post on here somewhere where somebody did that. Hopefully if they see this they may offer some advice.

Good luck with it.

 

[T.D.]

Of course, the other thing is you don't NEED the false bottom to perfectly fit the inside diameter of the mash tun. A mate of mine uses a really small false bottom (8" maybe???) in his MLT and he gets better efficiency than I do!

A 10" false bottom may fit in the Keepcold cooler without modification and with only minimal loss in coverage.

See the following very dodgy drawings to illustrate. One is what my false bottom looks like, so it fits quite tightly around the protruding tap housing, and the other is what I reckon you might be able to do if you buy a 10" false bottom (don't quote me on that size, I can measure my cooler at home and report back if you want).

 

[roach]

A mate of mine uses a really small false bottom (8" maybe???) in his MLT and he gets better efficiency than I do!

[post="129221"][/post]​

i use a 10 gallon keep cold cooler with a false bottom(10" IIRC) without any modification.

BTW, false bottom/braid etc does not affect efficiency, but rather keeps the husks at bay when lautering

 

[T.D.]

I would think it could affect efficiency if fly sparging. A tiny little false bottom sitting in the centre of a mash tun will tend to only draw wort from the grain directly above it, hence potentially decreasing efficiency.

Batch sparging's a different story though of course...

 

[thunderleg]

I bought a 10gal rubbermaid for $125 from Gibsons and Patterson in Osborne Park (Herdsman business park). 12" Phils's false bottom is designed to fit this cooler. I've had 12kg of grain in mine without any problems.

Gibsons & Patterson

 

[thunderleg]

I would think it could affect efficiency if fly sparging. A tiny little false bottom sitting in the centre of a mash tun will tend to only draw wort from the grain directly above it, hence potentially decreasing efficiency.

Batch sparging's a different story though of course...

[post="129234"][/post]​

Are you saying that batch sparging efficiency will always be bad?

 

[T.D.]

Sorry, no I meant that things like channelling are not an issue for batch sparging. So the size of the false bottom is much less important. Some batch spargers have just a 6 inch piece of stainless braid as their "false bottom". Its a much less important issue when batch sparging.

In fly sparging, since you are slowly drawing the wort from the grain bed, in theory efficiency would be improved if you have an even and equally distributed run-off from the grain bed. If you fly sparged with a 6 inch piece of braid and nothing else, the wort would be drawn from only a small section of the grain bed, with other areas where the sugars are not being drawn off the grain. Basically the geometry of a false bottom is much more important if you fly sparge. If you batch sparge it doesn't matter nearly as much.

 

[smashed jaffa]

Howdy folks,

I have a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler and also have the 12" Phalse bottom from G&G. It's a great setup, although I am having trouble hitting my effiency. :angry:

I have done 2 AG's so far and are using Beersmith, and have set the equipment settings at 0.5 litre for losses to mash and 1 litre for losses to trub etc.. effiency set at 65% although I am getting lower than this in reality. I think this is where my problem exists as I am getting less wort than expected into my fermenter than what Beersmith is telling me I should get. Also I end up with a lot less wort after boiling and I have the loss to boil set at 20%!! :huh:

Can anyone tell me what kind of effiency they are getting out of their 10 Gallon rubbermaid, and what settings are they using in Beersmith for this setup? ie; losses in Mash tun, and percentage loss to boil.

Muchos gratsies. :chug:

Broken Aisle Candy.

 

[T.D.]

I have the KeepCold cooler but they are much the same. Do you fly sparge or batch sparge? I fly sparge and get 80% efficiency with JW malts and 70% with Powells.

I would doubt the losses in the mash tun would be any higher than 1L. I can't actually remember what mine is set to.

I am also still having trouble with my equipment settings in Beersmith (and I have done over 30 AG batches using the program! ). Every time I slightly modify my equipment (new boiler, different brand of grain etc etc) or change my batch size, it screws around with my settings. Even brewing a hoppy beer or not dramatically affects the results (losses in the boiler increase as more hops are used). I'm going to try the Craftbrewer Hop Sock for tomorrow's brew so hopefully that will solve the hop trub problem.

I think you just need to play around with your system for a few consecutive brews and once you calculate the equipment settings that work, just stick with that and don't change a thing!