pounds of grain to the gallon ratio?

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BrewBeemer

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With some of the stouts I read up to 19 pounds grain for a 5 gallon batch.
Is there a general rule on ratios of how many pounds of grain displace a gallon of liquid by volume? This before adding 1.25 quarts water per pound of grain.
Reason asking is to brew a 10 gallon batch the 15.5 gallon MLT keg would sound too small, if it could handle it the fly sparge would be above the keg watering the floor.
 
There is an online calculator that I use that will tell you how much volume the grain and water will take up. Here it is.
 
do a batch sparge, but do several sparges. i bet a thick mash and two sparges would get you to your final volume.
 
What I am asking is what would a one gallon plastic milk container weigh in pounds and ounces on average after it has been filled to the top one gallon by volume with dry crushed grain minus the tare weight of the plastic container?

I would think that after the mash the wet grain would displace less volume than the one gallon by volume of dry grain started with.

Reason asking after watching my first AG at a local brew supply he made a 10 gallon batch in a 50 litre MLT container (13.21 gallon) which called for 32 pounds of grain and had less than two inches above the grain to top of the MLT.
Should I make a 10 gallon batch with a 15.5 gallon keg MLT that requires more pounds of grain I do not want to be limited by MLT size.
Once I know the weight of grain per gallon volume dry I can design a MLT to handle the maximum grain by volume I would ever encounter and still have space above. I now realize the starting thread was hard to follow, hope this explains more clearly what I am asking.

jdoiv; now that I posted the above that I ran across your reply.
Many thanks as that is exactly what I was looking for.
I can not thank you enough bro.

Once I find out the volume in gallons (should be less) a 12" false bottom screen reduces the MLT volume I can start to design.
I already have 15.5 gallon and 7.5 gallon kegs, was thinking about cutting the top of the 15.5 and bottom of the 7.5 and welding them together for a larger MLT volume. Design and thinking stage here, no kegs have been hurt so far.
 
If you are worried that the converted keg MLT will be to small get yourself an 82qt Colman extreme cooler and use that for athe MLT.
I can hold up to 50# of grain and 1.25qt/pound mash. Granted I am now limited by my 15 gallon kettel.
 
FSR402 said:
I can hold up to 50# of grain and 1.25qt/pound mash. Granted I am now limited by my 15 gallon kettel.
Click to expand...

:eek:

Stir that with a boat oar I imagine.
 
Well, if you are looking at it from a design a MLT stand point, I think you should consider what you are most likely to brew in it, not necessarily what the biggest grain bill will be. You may find that the excess space you've planned for not getting used very often.

I have a 14 gallon MLT and have gotten as much as 34# of grain in it. It wasn't easy and I probably won't do it again, but circumstances brought it about. In that instance, we needed 14 gallons post boil. If I were just trying to make a really big beer, I think I would shoot for a 5.5 gallon batch or smaller instead of the usual 11 gallon batch I normally do. Or do what the belgians do and add sugar into the kettle. What I'm saying, is that you don't necessarily need the biggest MLT you think you do, and there are other ways to get the job done.
 
jdoiv said:
Well, if you are looking at it from a design a MLT stand point, I think you should consider what you are most likely to brew in it, not necessarily what the biggest grain bill will be. You may find that the excess space you've planned for not getting used very often.

I have a 14 gallon MLT and have gotten as much as 34# of grain in it. It wasn't easy and I probably won't do it again, but circumstances brought it about. In that instance, we needed 14 gallons post boil. If I were just trying to make a really big beer, I think I would shoot for a 5.5 gallon batch or smaller instead of the usual 11 gallon batch I normally do. Or do what the belgians do and add sugar into the kettle. What I'm saying, is that you don't necessarily need the biggest MLT you think you do, and there are other ways to get the job done.
Click to expand...

He does have a point.
As with mine, most of my grain bills run from 20 - 30#s but that's because I do 12 gallon batches. If I want to do a brew that's a 1.07 or larger I have to drop down to a 6 gallon batch because of the boil size.
The 20 gallon cooler works great for me but there is no way to add heat without adding water or building a steam system. I'm fine with that for now and who knows maybe I'll never need that. How about you?

What do you want to do with this? 12 gallons? 5 gallons? step mashes? 1.08 brews and bigger? Figure it out, then build.
 
FSR402 said:
He does have a point.
As with mine, most of my grain bills run from 20 - 30#s but that's because I do 12 gallon batches. If I want to do a brew that's a 1.07 or larger I have to drop down to a 6 gallon batch because of the boil size.
The 20 gallon cooler works great for me but there is no way to add heat without adding water or building a steam system. I'm fine with that for now and who knows maybe I'll never need that. How about you?

What do you want to do with this? 12 gallons? 5 gallons? step mashes? 1.08 brews and bigger? Figure it out, then build.
Click to expand...

Yes I would like to be able to brew 1.07 and larger in the 10 plus gallon batches without having to drop down in batch size. Why limit myself before I even build it and avoid that kind of problem like you have. No I'm not getting on your case here.
This is why I was thinking of cutting tops off 15.5 kegs and bottoms of 7.5 kegs then welding together, was aiming for 18-19 gallon total capacity for the MLT. I am only talking about a 5" taller keg when done adding 6 to 6.5 gallons more capacity. If necessary I was thinking of making the boil pot taller as well. I have all the kegs that were free, my labors free plus I have the equipment to weld it. I was also thinking about making a mini brew system out of 7.5 gallon kegs, great for the short people in the world.
 
That makes sense. I brew and drink mostly session beers and rarely do big beers. Biggest one I made last year was 1.072 for a tripple and I did do 10 gallons of it. It'll probably take me a year to drink it all.

Why not look at a 20 gallon pot and put a false bottom in it. You should be able to do some fairly large beers in it and would probably be an efficient system allowing you to use less grain.
 
BrewBeemer said:
Yes I would like to be able to brew 1.07 and larger in the 10 plus gallon batches without having to drop down in batch size. Why limit myself before I even build it and avoid that kind of problem like you have. No I'm not getting on your case here.
This is why I was thinking of cutting tops off 15.5 kegs and bottoms of 7.5 kegs then welding together, was aiming for 18-19 gallon total capacity for the MLT. I am only talking about a 5" taller keg when done adding 6 to 6.5 gallons more capacity. If necessary I was thinking of making the boil pot taller as well. I have all the kegs that were free, my labors free plus I have the equipment to weld it. I was also thinking about making a mini brew system out of 7.5 gallon kegs, great for the short people in the world.
Click to expand...

My MLT is 20 gallons and that's not what holds me back on the big beers, it's the boil kettle. My kettle is 15 gallons and my normal 12 gallon batches max it out so if I want to go big I have to go smaller. I was looking around last night and I found some 140qt aluminum pots on Ebay for about $150 shipped. Once I have some other things I want to change like making my fermenting room larger, finish my 2 15 gallon stainless fermenters, then I'll look at stepping up to the larger pot.
 
FSR402 said:
My MLT is 20 gallons and that's not what holds me back on the big beers, it's the boil kettle. My kettle is 15 gallons and my normal 12 gallon batches max it out so if I want to go big I have to go smaller.
.

This is what I want to avoid hence making a taller boil kettle as well the MLT.

I was looking around last night and I found some 140qt aluminum pots on Ebay for about $150 shipped.
Click to expand...

Nice idea but again i'm not a fan of aluminum pots not alone spending $150 more when I already have a free stainless steel keg collection to work from.
That money could go towards a couple needed March pumps.

Thanks for all your replies.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Welding kegs together end to end has been tried before. It does not work well because it will not boil properly because width to height ratio is wrong. You should look into a 20 gallon pot for 15 gallon batches. These pots have a larger OD. If you want 20 gallon batches then you need a 25 to 27 gallon pot.

The best mash tuns are round with a false bottom. This design works well with batch sparging or fly sparging. I use a 10 gallon cooler/mashtun which will make 10 to 12 gallon batches. To go larger to 15 gallons the square ICE Cube brand works well with a false bottom. As far as I know there are no larger round coolers made so then you either have to use a rectangular mash cooler/tun which does not work as well for fly sparging due to channeling when smaller batches are made but is OK for batch sparging. Larger batches would require that an insulated 30 to 50 gallon container be fabricated with a false bottom and a 3/4 inch to 1 inch ball valve.
 

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