I am wondering if I can brew beer in a cooler?

I am wondering if I could warm the water up in 2 or 3 smaller pots(about 5 gallons) and pour in in a cooler and put the grains MO, crystal malt, cartel malt,etc and let the conversion happen there with the hops and after the required time, sparge, cool and then pour the wort in the fermenter, pitch the yeast and that's it.

Any ideas?

kinda need to boiil the wort for a bit.

Yes, boiling is important for several reasons, most importantly to steralize the wort, and also to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops to provide the actual bitterness to cut the sweetness of the wort.

Revvy said:

Yes, boiling is important for several reasons, most importantly to steralize the wort, and also to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops to provide the actual bitterness to cut the sweetness of the wort.

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Thanks for the answer. What do people do in coolers then? Just the "infusion" and sparge part and then they boil the wort?

Elysium said:

Thanks for the answer. What do people do in coolers then? Just the "infusion" and sparge part and then they boil the wort?

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Yes. Rather than using LME or DME you would make your own wort from the grains and then boil after with the hops.

BansheeRider said:

Yes. Rather than using LME or DME you would make your own wort from the grains and then boil after with the hops.

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Ok, thanks. Do you think it would be possible to make 5 gallon of wort in a cooler and then boil it in 2 different pots (since I only have 3 gallon pots), dividing the necessary amount of hops between the 2 pots, and then pouring the contents of the two 3-gallon pots in the big fermenter?

Yup. When I'm feeling lazy -- indoor no-chill -- I do a split boil on my stovetop (6.5 gallons starting volume divided in two 5 gallon pots).