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HoppyMcHopster

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Who out there owns a Blichmann Boilmaker? Which size(s) do you own and typically how many gallons do you brew and at what ABV? What method of sparging do you use (fly, batch, no-sparge) and how many lb's of grain have/can you fit?

I am purchasing my first Boilmaker with the intention of getting all 3 and I am unsure of the size or final setup I want. I am only interested in brewing 5 gallon batches but I generally like the bigger beers. Will the 10/10/10 be good for this situation? I'm can pretty much know for show my BK only needs to be 10G but I'm unsure of MLT sizing depending on my sparge method (Not sure what would be best for starting out)?

Any help would be appreciated. Oh yea.. feel free to post some pics of your swag :mug:

Other vendors: please no hijacking :cross:
 
I have a 15 gal, that I use as my MLT. I'd be leary of staying with the 10 gal setup, to be honest. I said i'd only brew 5 gal batches. I do a mixture of both. For big gravity beers, I can only do 5 gal, but for my house pale ale (1.050-1.060 beers), i do 10 gal at a clip. For a double black IPA (1.100) I can only do a 5 gal brew, as the 15 gal MLT will be filled with malt (roughly 30 -ish lbs of grain).

If you're buying all three of them, I'd at least step up the size. Then again, you should be able to make most of your money back on them if you do upgrade.

That all said, I wouldn't personally spend that much on all three. I like my 15gal, but couldn't justify that price for one to be used as just a HLT, and I wanted to drill more holes in my BK which made me cringe when thinking of the Boilermaker price (and whether a future owner would want the same fittings I wanted). I bought two Penrose kettles (one a BK, one a HLT), with fittings, for what my 15 gal Boilermaker cost. Just food for thought.
 
dfess1 said:
I have a 15 gal, that I use as my MLT. I'd be leary of staying with the 10 gal setup, to be honest. I said i'd only brew 5 gal batches. I do a mixture of both. For big gravity beers, I can only do 5 gal, but for my house pale ale (1.050-1.060 beers), i do 10 gal at a clip. For a double black IPA (1.100) I can only do a 5 gal brew, as the 15 gal MLT will be filled with malt (roughly 30 -ish lbs of grain).

If you're buying all three of them, I'd at least step up the size. Then again, you should be able to make most of your money back on them if you do upgrade.

That all said, I wouldn't personally spend that much on all three. I like my 15gal, but couldn't justify that price for one to be used as just a HLT, and I wanted to drill more holes in my BK which made me cringe when thinking of the Boilermaker price (and whether a future owner would want the same fittings I wanted). I bought two Penrose kettles (one a BK, one a HLT), with fittings, for what my 15 gal Boilermaker cost. Just food for thought.
Click to expand...

Do you find that thermometer probe isn't fully submerged in your MLT when doing 5 gallon batches without that much grain? Same goes for BK with a 15G kettle. Like I said I don't believe I would really need 15 gallon BK for 5 gallon batches so then my setup would be 10/15/10.. kind of strange no?
 
dfess1 said:
Then again, you should be able to make most of your money back on them if you do upgrade.
Click to expand...

That's what i'm hoping and one of the reasons i'm thinking not to go immediately for the 15 "just to be safe incase I want to do 10 gallon batches".
 
I only use the temp probe to get my strike water heated. After that, i find it to be pretty useless. I made up another temp probe (since my rig is not automated, and I don't have any electrical temp sensors) that hooks up to my pickup , and then another hose hooks up from it to the pump. It's more accurate than the MLT thermo.

in terms of a BK, what do you need a thermo for? It's either boiling, or it isn't.
 
dfess1 said:
I only use the temp probe to get my strike water heated. After that, i find it to be pretty useless. I made up another temp probe (since my rig is not automated, and I don't have any electrical temp sensors) that hooks up to my pickup , and then another hose hooks up from it to the pump. It's more accurate than the MLT thermo.

in terms of a BK, what do you need a thermo for? It's either boiling, or it isn't.
Click to expand...

It's nice to known when I can pitch after cooling down via immersion cooler but yes you are mostly correct.. its not too useful.

My main concern is if I get a 15G now will it be too big for 5G normal gravity beers as a MLT later? Also is it odd to have a MLT thats bigger than BK?
 
I have a 20 gallon Boilermaker that I use mostly as a boil kettle for 5 and 10 gallon batches. It works great for both, although the thermometer is too high on 5 gallon batches. I use the kettle as a MLT for high gravity 10 gallon batches with 30 or more lbs of grain. And I've used it once as an MLT for a high gravity 5 gallon batch and it work fine(i.e. it's not too large). You should probably go with the 15 gallon kettle if you're going to be doing almost all 5 gallon batches. And if you want to do medium gravity 10 batches you could use it as a MLT. When I purchased my boilermaker I couldn't decided between the 15 or 20 gallon, and the price difference is pretty small, so I went with the larger size. If you can't decide between 10 and 15, just pay the little extra and get the 15. Plus the bigger the kettle is the more awesome it looks!
 

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