Contemplating a huge jump!

I have 3 AG batches under my belt. All went fairly well. I am getting tired of running out of beer so fast.

I am thinking about doing a ten gallon batch. Is it going to be anymore difficult.
I have the means to do a full boil for ten gallons, i have the couterflow chiller. All of the equipment i have.

Is it any different than the 5 gallon batchs?

I know this may sound like a stupid a question but is there anything i am not thinking about before i ruin a bunch of grain?

Only difference is that if you need to move 10 gallons worth of hot wort, you better have someone there to help you.


But its just as easy to do 10 as it is 5.

I have had to change it up a bit for 10 gallon batches. I mash in a 10 gallon Igloo cooler. I heat my strike water up in my keggle. I add my strike water then start heating my sparge water. I heat the sparge to 180, and then I have two seperate 5 gallon Igloo coolers I put the sparge water into. This holds that 180 temp really well. I sparge twice afterwards, using a full coolers worth of sparge water each time. Make sense?


Not that theres is a correct and incorrect way to do it, I just found this to be the easiest for my current setup.

If your mash tun and boil pot can handle the extra volumes then you are set to go to 10 gallon batches. I did my first 10 about 2 weeks ago and it went fairly well. I didn' hit my final og but I was not too far off.
I have a 10gal igloo cooler and it was at its limit with 20# of grain and the sparge water. I need a bigger cooler if I am going to 10 gallon batches on a regular basis.
Give it a try and find out. You can always adjust for the next batch based on your equipment.

I am wondering if i should go ahead with my scheduled dopplebock for the first 10 gallon batch or if i should go with some thing that uses less grain and a proven recipe (first dopplebock) incase i "F" something up

If you are doing all-grain, I say make at least 10 gallons. It is a lot of work for 5 gallons. Basically it is the same work for a 5 gallon batch as it is a 50 gallon batch. Just more to lift, stir, chill and clean. Take the leap with faith Rev!

That's awesome, Reverend! My experience is simply that my stirring arm gets more of a workout with ten gallons. I mash in a kettle and heat as I go, so I've got the thermometer in one hand and the long spoon in the other... tiring, but in a good way!

I've also found that the second five gallons is better than the first, probably due to additional aging... with five gallon batches, I'm getting through the batch before it's ready.

cheers, p

i agree with rev but i would say - go 15 - 20 gallon batches.

the only time i do 5 gallon batches is for some of our club's bi-monthly challenges...fopr instance brewing with fruit. well i'm not big on fruity brews so i scaled it back to 5 gallons.

you might think, 15 or 20 gallons of one paticular beer seems excessive. who says the whole 20 gallons has to be the same?

recently we did a very big Double Daddy IPA. we jamed as much grain as we could in the mash tun which turns out to be almost 50 lbs. then when we had done the runnings into the main kettle - we did a second running from the mash tun and made a lite esb. there was enough left in the grains after the first running to make a decent esb from. the grain bill was similar enough.

there are all different kinds of ways to approach it but essentially i would go with as big a batch as you can.

I think 10 is as big as i can go right now. I have two keggles, one for boiling/hot liquor tank(dual usage) and the other for mash tun. I may be able to squeeze a 12 gallon batch out of it but since i keg 10 gallons seems like the best choice(2 cornys)

Chimone-I have been told that I could go to 25# of grain and mash at a 1.25gt/lb ratio. I went with 1.5qt/lb and I was fine for the mash. I was hoping to sparge with all the water I needed and would have been better off just doing 2 sparges to get enough wort. I collected about 12 gallons and with my brew pot I boil off a lot so I would have needed 12.5. I ended up with about 9.5 gallons in the fermenters.

Rev-I would recommend doing a proven recipe or one with less amount of grain just see how your system will work. You can always go bigger on the next one with more cofidence.