10 gallon pot or 15 gal keggle as hwt

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balto charlie

balto charlie

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Hey folks: I currently have 1-10 gallon pot and 2 kegs. Currently brewing 5-6 gallon batches. Thinking about converting kegs and go to 10-11 gallon batches. Using a Rubbermaid cooler as a mash tun. It is starting to warp so decided to go to a SS mash tun(either my 10 gal or converted keg). Would it be best to use my 10 gallon pot as a hot water tank or a mash tun? I saw Bobby Ms chart and see that my max beer will be a 1.060-68 beer using the 10 gal pot as mash tun. How limiting is the pot as a HWT? Seems smaller beers require a larger sparge volume. Thoughts appreciated. Thanks Charlie
 
I do 10 gallons batches. 10 gallon HLT is pretty small. I use a keggle and wish I had more room. I would use a keg as a BK, keg as a HLT and a 70qt cooler as your MLT and sell you 10 gallon pot or fill it full of oil and drop a turkey in it :)
 
milldoggy said:
I do 10 gallons batches. 10 gallon HLT is pretty small. I use a keggle and wish I had more room. I would use a keg as a BK, keg as a HLT and a 70qt cooler as your MLT and sell you 10 gallon pot or fill it full of oil and drop a turkey in it :)
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to stay away from plastic since my last one started to warp. But I did like the turkey idea:D
 
The size of the MLT is way more limiting than the size of the HLT, so of the choices you gave I'd suggest using the larger keggle for the MLT and 10 gal pot for the HLT. The suggestion by milldoggy is also a good one. Whether the 10 gal HLT is big enough for you depends entirely on your system and process. If you batch sparge it should be big enough for 10 gal batches. The only time it wouldn't be is if you used a thick mash on a low gravity beer, but in that case topping off the boil with water isn't going to hurt your efficiency. If you fly sparge and the 10 gal HLT isn't big enough, the solution (other than buying a larger vessel) is to use the BK for first part of the sparge water, and drain the first runnings into a spare container (bucket, corny keg, etc). Once the BK is empty it can then hold the runnings and sparging/brewing continues as normal.
 
JuanMoore said:
The size of the MLT is way more limiting than the size of the HLT, so of the choices you gave I'd suggest using the larger keggle for the MLT and 10 gal pot for the HLT. The suggestion by milldoggy is also a good one. Whether the 10 gal HLT is big enough for you depends entirely on your system and process. If you batch sparge it should be big enough for 10 gal batches. The only time it wouldn't be is if you used a thick mash on a low gravity beer, but in that case topping off the boil with water isn't going to hurt your efficiency. If you fly sparge and the 10 gal HLT isn't big enough, the solution (other than buying a larger vessel) is to use the BK for first part of the sparge water, and drain the first runnings into a spare container (bucket, corny keg, etc). Once the BK is empty it can then hold the runnings and sparging/brewing continues as normal.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. I batch sparge so I guess I am better off if I stick with this system. I will stick with 5-6 gallons with really big beers. If I need a little extra sparge I can heat some on our stove.
 

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