hopbrad
Well-Known Member
I am looking for suggestions on me and my buddy's homebrewery build.
I currently have a 12.5 gallon pot, 15 gallon pot and 5 gallon pot. Everything is pretty simple and it works great.
We just upgraded and bought 2 30 gallon pots to do bigger batches. it seems like at this level, alot changes, more equipment is needed to move beer around, cool it, etc and I am trying to wrap my head around the whole process.
The beers that we drink alot of we plan to fill a a 55 gallon barrel with about 40 gallons. We don't have the setup to fill it in one shot but a double batch day seems like it would get us there or close. When we do a single batch on it we'll probably just fill up a few 5 gallon carboys.
we also will be outfitting a fermenting room 7x5ft with an AC unit to keep it in the low 60's.
My current plan is to outfit both 30 gallon pots with ball valves and atleast 1 with a bazooka tube to use as a mash tun.
We have 1 blichmann burner and a 2nd burner. i forget the btu's on the 2nd burner but its decent just not quite as powerful as the blichmann so we are thinking to use it for mash/sparge water.
My main questions are:
1- In a 30 gallon boil kettle, what is the biggest batch i could do? my current 15 gallon pot allows us to do 9-9.5 gallons batches and i usually top off the fermentor with a few quarts of water to get an even 10.
2- Will a Blichmann therminator chill this much liquid? or any other plate chiller suggestions? (ground water is around 75). open to get something better incase we get a 55 gallon pot one day. and i assume ill need a pump to recirculate back into the kettle and use ice water to help get it in the 60's.
3- Should i outfit both kettles with bazooka tubes or just 1? i was thinking both to help filter before going thru the plate chiller.
4 - should i include and outfit any of my old 3 pots to help with this operation?
5 - what kind of pump is needed for this? We could keep the burners on the ground/single tier and pump everything or do a small build an have part of it gravity fed (thinking mash tun to boil kettle gravity, then pump the boil kettle wort thru the plate chiller into the fermentor)
6 - best way to get the beer out of the fermenter? mostly into kegs, but if we want to bottle some, we'll put some in a bottling bucket, prime and bottle.
its a plastic food grade 55 gallon blue drum. we were planning to wheel it in and out of the cold room. would i need to stick a spigot on the bottom, if so, about how high up?
thanks!
I currently have a 12.5 gallon pot, 15 gallon pot and 5 gallon pot. Everything is pretty simple and it works great.
We just upgraded and bought 2 30 gallon pots to do bigger batches. it seems like at this level, alot changes, more equipment is needed to move beer around, cool it, etc and I am trying to wrap my head around the whole process.
The beers that we drink alot of we plan to fill a a 55 gallon barrel with about 40 gallons. We don't have the setup to fill it in one shot but a double batch day seems like it would get us there or close. When we do a single batch on it we'll probably just fill up a few 5 gallon carboys.
we also will be outfitting a fermenting room 7x5ft with an AC unit to keep it in the low 60's.
My current plan is to outfit both 30 gallon pots with ball valves and atleast 1 with a bazooka tube to use as a mash tun.
We have 1 blichmann burner and a 2nd burner. i forget the btu's on the 2nd burner but its decent just not quite as powerful as the blichmann so we are thinking to use it for mash/sparge water.
My main questions are:
1- In a 30 gallon boil kettle, what is the biggest batch i could do? my current 15 gallon pot allows us to do 9-9.5 gallons batches and i usually top off the fermentor with a few quarts of water to get an even 10.
2- Will a Blichmann therminator chill this much liquid? or any other plate chiller suggestions? (ground water is around 75). open to get something better incase we get a 55 gallon pot one day. and i assume ill need a pump to recirculate back into the kettle and use ice water to help get it in the 60's.
3- Should i outfit both kettles with bazooka tubes or just 1? i was thinking both to help filter before going thru the plate chiller.
4 - should i include and outfit any of my old 3 pots to help with this operation?
5 - what kind of pump is needed for this? We could keep the burners on the ground/single tier and pump everything or do a small build an have part of it gravity fed (thinking mash tun to boil kettle gravity, then pump the boil kettle wort thru the plate chiller into the fermentor)
6 - best way to get the beer out of the fermenter? mostly into kegs, but if we want to bottle some, we'll put some in a bottling bucket, prime and bottle.
its a plastic food grade 55 gallon blue drum. we were planning to wheel it in and out of the cold room. would i need to stick a spigot on the bottom, if so, about how high up?
thanks!