15 Gallon batch on a keggle setup.

I'd like to be able to brew a 15 gallon batch of a run-of-the-mill pale ale to fill a commercial sanke keg. Just want a little feedback on my thought process.

In theory, I'm pretty sure that if I do a 15 gallon boil of a stronger beer, add equal amounts of top off water to 3 fermentors, and then just go about normal fermentation and rack them all into the keg, it should work, correct? Just like the extract days. I'd just like to know if I'm thinking about this correctly.

Here's the recipe that I'd like to do:

Batch size: 16.5
Boil size: 14
Amount to collect: 11, split into 3 carboys then topped off with water
Boil length: 90 minutes
Expected efficiency: 75%
IBUs: 42

Recipe:
29# Canadian 2 row
2# Crystal 60

2 oz Columbus (15.2%) @ 60
1 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 15
2 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 10
2 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 5
6 oz Cascade (6.2%) Dry hop for 8 days (2oz/ fermentor)

US 05

Primary @ 62* for 2 weeks
Secondary with dry hops for 8 days, at day 5, cold crash and add gelatin to each fermentor.
Rack to keg at day 8

Also, I'm curious about force carbing a sanke keg. I generally pump 30 psi for 36 hours, then lower to 12 for a week and I get a good carb, but I'm not sure how a 15 gallon keg affects this.

Thoughts? Thank you all!

Make sure you check your IBUs for an 11 gallon batch size at the higher gravity, rather than a 15 gallon batch size, i.e. the utilization of the hops will be different due to the higher gravity.

usfmikeb said:

Make sure you check your IBUs for an 11 gallon batch size at the higher gravity, rather than a 15 gallon batch size, i.e. the utilization of the hops will be different due to the higher gravity.

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I plugged my recipe into Brewers Friend (online brew calculator) and I accounted for a 14 gallon boil size, so I think I'm covered on that aspect, but I may cut the IBUs down a bit anyhow so my BMC friends don't get turned off of this beer... It's a constant battle...

How do you plan on having a pre-boil volume of 16 gallons in a 15.5 gallon keggle?

What about the mash tun keggle? With that much grain, you likely wont have much room for water in the tun for a 15 gallon boil.

With a closely watched keggle, you can get pretty close to your target. On occasion, I've done a pale ale that had 14 gallons go into the fermenter. Boil 14.75 gal in the keggle, watch like a hawk, and then add more sparge water from your HLT as the boil progesses, to still end with 14.5 gal.

dbennett78 said:

How do you plan on having a pre-boil volume of 16 gallons in a 15.5 gallon keggle?

What about the mash tun keggle? With that much grain, you likely wont have much room for water in the tun for a 15 gallon boil.

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My preboil will be 14 and I should be collecting about 11-12. I will split this evenly into my 3 fermentors and top off with water. I just listed my batch size as 16.5 as that will be what I end up with to start out in my fermentors.

My mash tun is a 70 quart cooler, so I have no issues fitting the grain in there.

EDIT

Actually, my 31# of grain @ 1.5 qt/lb would take up about 14 gallons, so I'd be fine even if I did have a keggle mash tun

NoCornOrRice said:

With a closely watched keggle, you can get pretty close to your target. On occasion, I've done a pale ale that had 14 gallons go into the fermenter. Boil 14.75 gal in the keggle, watch like a hawk, and then add more sparge water from your HLT as the boil progesses, to still end with 14.5 gal.

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I'd be afraid of getting some DMS off flavors from that, especially since I'm using a 2 row that really should be boiled for 90 minutes.