Imperial IPA question

[truckpoetry]

Is it worth even bothering trying to do an all-grain Imperial IPA with a single-mash infusion setup? Seems like it would be 24 lb or more of grain to get what I was looking for to replace my extract recipe. Not even sure I can fit all of that in my 10 qt cooler and get any sort of decent extraction (which might even lead to MORE grain).

Should I bother? Or just go partial mash and extract to boost it up?

Thanks,
Cameron

[Jimmy Orkin]

I can just get 27 lbs of grain in my 10 gallon Gott cooler tun. The Pliney the Elder recipe in Zymury only uses about 15 lbs of grain for a 6 gallon batch at 75% efficiency. If you really have only a 10 quart cooler and not a 10 gallon cooler I would guess your max is about 7 lbs of grain.

[truckpoetry]

Thanks, and yes, mine is a 10 gallon Igloo cooler, not quart.

Thanks, and perhaps I'll give it a shot.

[BigWally]

You may want to have some dry malt extract avaiable in case you miss your starting gravity.

[truckpoetry]

Thanks - dry malt would have been good because I did come up a bit short on my boil gravity - good thing is that it was supposed to be imperial, now it's more standard IPA so it should still be fine.

I also learned three fun facts with little penalty on this beer but good to keep in mind for next go around: 1) I think I am sparging too quickly. Slower sparge will probably help my extraction %. and 2) I lose a LOT of water in a boil. I was calculating like a gallon an hour, but it seems like closer to 1.5-2 gallons in my big kettle - probably due to surface-to-air ratio... and 3) check the weather forecast on brew day to make sure it isn't going to try to rain right as you are draining your wort into the fermenter (or worse - earlier).

[BigWally]

My boil evaporation rate is about the same 1.5-2 gallons per hour. I use a converted 15.5 gallon commercial keg.