I need an opinion.

I am going to be making 25 gallons of beer for my sister's wedding. I am obviously going with extract since I would be brewing for 3 days straight if I tried to go all grain. Just for knowledge, I have a 15 gallon pot with a propane burner. My question is this, how would you go about doing it? I was going to do 2-10 gallon batches and a 5 gallon batch, full volume boil, but then I was talking to a friend of mine that suggested I do a partial boil and top off with water. I do know that if I do a partial boil, I will need to buy more hops since the utilization will be less. This is the recipe I will be using.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/wild-dog-days-summer-ale-80530/
Any thoughts, words of advice, etc?

All I can say is good luck

I would recommend the full boil only because since you are preparing it for a wedding and it is a lot of brewing I assume you want to be as consistent as possible with receipe that you are presenting us (which calls for a 4.5gal boil and a .5gal topper.)

Also if you have anyone helping you out it would make it easier as well.

I would do full boils instead of topping off. I think it makes for better beer. Also, this might sound like a pain in the arse, but do them all in the same day. Back to back to back. Get batch 1 boiling, start on batch 2. Cool batch 1, boil 2, start 3..... You'll probably need an assistant or two an experienced brewer would be better naturally. Then again, how many times do you tell someone you brew and get the 'i've always wanted to try that' response? Good way for someone to try it out, as long as they understand what you are doing isn't exactly normal.

Once all the beer is brewed, I'd mix it all together as much as possible and then divide it up into the fermenters and pitch. By doing that, the beer will be consistent across the batches. I know its a royal pain and a major undertaking, but its a special event and like any of us would, I'm guessing you want to bring your A game for it.

Best of luck to you.

I sometimes make a 1 gallon starter and cook up 13 gallons of wort on a 15 gallon pot, this gives me 14 gallons in the fermentor, and maybe 13 or so gallons of beer between 3 carboys. In your case, I might fill 6 carboys half way and than add your second batch 24 hrs into ferment. Essentially pitching your second batch into a high krausen!

Salmonhouse said:

I sometimes make a 1 gallon starter and cook up 13 gallons of wort on a 15 gallon pot, this gives me 14 gallons in the fermentor, and maybe 13 or so gallons of beer between 3 carboys. In your case, I might fill 6 carboys half way and than add your second batch 24 hrs into ferment. Essentially pitching your second batch into a high krausen!

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Sounds like a good idea to me. Brew 12.5 gallons the first day, split it between 5 or 6 carboys, then brew the next 12.5 gallons the next day and top off the carboys. I would probably go with 6 carboys so you don't have to worry as much about blowovers.

are you brewing all 1 type, or different styles? if different styles, i'd brew 10g 1 type and 5g 1 type same day, and the other 10g next day. that's a helluva brew day to pack into 1

This sounds like a perfect excuse to get a big conical fermentation tank!

If you have the gear to do it all in one day that seems like that would be the best. I am making 20 gal for a late August wedding and have gear to do 10 gal at a time. I will brew two batches two weeks apart and then will mix after fermented in cornys (have 9 of those and will mix corny to corny) for consistancy.

If you do two brews in one day you could 'harvest' the water off your wort chiller for your second mash.

Drink a boatload of coffee.

I did 30 gallons in 8 hours on Memorial Day.
Borrow a second brewpot and fryer! You can mash while one beer is boiling!!
Good luck!!

Salmonhouse said:

If you do two brews in one day you could 'harvest' the water off your wort chiller for your second mash.

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:rockin:

This works like a charm

Shaneoco1981 said:

I am going to be making 25 gallons of beer for my sister's wedding. I am obviously going with extract since I would be brewing for 3 days straight if I tried to go all grain.

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You make it sound as thought brewing for 3 days straight is a bad thing.

jburk said:

You make it sound as thought brewing for 3 days straight is a bad thing.

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Barring all other life commitments, this sounds like a great three days.

"Uh, yeah boss, just came down with the flu outta no where"
"What's that roaring sound in the background?"
"Just the TV. Oh crap, gotta go, boiling ov- um, throwing up!"

But anywho, that 2x 12.5 gal batches then mix sounds like a great idea, since I'm guessing consistency is important in this case.