Change in setup need help

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

So I'm an apartment brewer. I have been doing 1 gallon AG and Partial Mashes and have had issues hitting efficiencies so I'm going to move into a cooler setup for them. I believe either a 2 or 3 gallon cooler should do the trick but what I was curious, how much loss would I be at risk of having if I had a 5 gallon cooler? My thinking is that I can push my 5 gallon PM to being cheaper. But I don't want to ruin my 1 gallon efficiencies because of that. I may push my 1 gallon to 1.5 gallons. but I feel like only a few pounds of grain would be at risk in a cooler that large.

 

[Leithoa]

[url="http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD.html]Palmer[/url] says you should have a minimum of 4" grainbed depth for good results. Aside from poor filtering and perhaps channelizing of your grainbed(resulting in low efficiency) I'm not sure of the impacts of having a shallow mash tun are.

supplementary reading from a quick search:
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue3.4/palmer.html
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer.html
http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=5386.0
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17-2.html

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

Thanks for the tips! For when I start I'm just gonna BIAB in the cooler. I'll convert it later most likely. I just seem to be losing too much heat no matter what I do with my kettle I'm using. Only time I didn't lose heat was putting it in a warm over where it mashed way too hot and my Kolsch wound up all kinds of screwy because of it. Last 2 batches were big misses. My AG was supposed to be a barley wine and hit more like a lower end IIPA. My last IIPA hit like a regular IPA and that was PM. Judging by the FG (and it fermented for over a month) it had way too many unfermentable sugars.

Right now I'm more concerned about the lost heat than the grain bed. I have a ton of access to wheat and corn hulls that I can use for filtration. Or I'll just up my brewing size. I'm just musing because right now I can get a 5 gallon cooler cheaper than a 2 or 3.

 

[jCOSbrew]

For 1 gallon batches could you maintain temp by sticking your stock pot in a preheated oven?

If you are currently maintaining temps properly for 60 minutes than try double crushing your grains or changing your sparge technique to improve efficiency.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

I have been getting them double crushed, should tweak with sparging but temperature plays a part. The problem with the heated oven is I can't keep it in there all of the time or screws up my mash temp. And I have had issues with making sure it's in there at the right time.

 

[jCOSbrew]

Heating oven to 150-175 deg F and turning off should keep the temp pretty stable for 60 minutes.

If you lose a few degrees over an hour it is not a big deal.

If you mash temp is above 158 or below 149 it will effect your efficiency and fermentability of the wort.

What is your current brewhouse efficiency for small batches? Small changes in volume (+/- a quart) will signficantly effect your SG on a 1 gallon batch.