52 Qt. Coleman Xtreme mash tun, capacity question

[Silver_Is_Money]

Will I be able to fit 18 Lbs. of grist and 39 Qts. of mash water into a 52 Qt. Coleman Xtreme cooler (with bag) for a no-sparge mash, while still having sufficient room to occasionally stir the mash aggressively, and also to get the lid down to retain heat without burping it?

Looking to yield 7.5 to 7.6 gallons of wort pre-boil for a Scotch Wee Heavy.

What's the most grist and mash water you have ever gotten into one of these coolers 'comfortably' while doing a no-sparge batch?

 

[bob1852]

Not sure how accurate it is, but this calculator has a mash volume function...

https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[lump42]

Also not sure on accuracy, but this calculator is supposed to give you the amount of grains that can fit in the mash tun at specific water/grist ratio...
https://manskirtbrewing.com/calculators.aspx

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Both of these tools are quite helpful! I will need to measure the actual capacity of my cooler. I recall reading somewhere wherein coolers of this type often have only about 85% of their marked capacity. If that holds true, then I'm only good for 44 quarts overall.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I believe the 52 qt is actually a 48 qt, but they call the domed lid good for 4 added quarts.

If your close to capacity, especially on a heavy beer, why not ad a simple batch sparge step to your process?

Mash in w/ say 70% total water, measure first runnings and sparge with the balance needed to make pre boil volume.

Will help with extraction, wort volume accuracy and simplify your process rather than being set on a full volume mash?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I believe the 52 qt is actually a 48 qt, but they call the domed lid good for 4 added quarts.

If your close to capacity, especially on a heavy beer, why not ad a simple batch sparge step to your process?

Mash in w/ say 70% total water, measure first runnings and sparge with the balance needed to make pre boil volume.

Will help with extraction, wort volume accuracy and simplify your process rather than being set on a full volume mash?

This would certainly solve my "big beer" mashing dilemma.

 

[Totally]

I used to mash in a 52qt Coleman Xtreme.

The biggest beer I made at that time was a 10 gallon Kölsch. I did a batch sparge at the time, but it was 22lb of grain with 8 gallon infusion and then 8 gallon sparge. 8 gal is only 32 quart but I recall that it was pretty full, I think you could squeeze a few more quarts in but 39 might be pushing it.

That's the best I can recall, hope it helps.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

After some fiddling with the 'Green Bay Rackers' required mash volume calculator, it appears that the formula they use to calculate required mash volume in quarts is as follows:

Quarts of mash water + (0.32 * Weight of Grist in Lbs.) = Total quarts of occupied mash tun volume

So for 18 Lbs. of grist doughed into 39 quarts of mash water this becomes:

39 + (0.32 * 18) = 44.76 quarts of space occupied by the mash

So, if as was stated above, the 52 Qt. Xtreme is actually an honest 48 Qt. cooler, this mash should fit, and the lid may actually close as a bonus.