Why you don't do 12 gallon batches without...

a brew stand. This may be my last attempt at a double batch, at leasts without help. Nailed (almost) my strike temp. Shooting for 150F

Pumping sparge water into mash tun.

Trying to fit first and second runnings into old boil kettle.

Pumping first and second runnings into brew kettle.

Just about to boil.

The finished product.

The best reason to homebrew, being able to taste the fruits of your labor!:cross:

I thought the pump would save me time, it took me almost 8 hours to do what normally takes 5 hours. It did save my back from lifting 80+ pounds of sparge water. I don't think i'll do this again unless I get everything in line on a cart of some sort. Stupid pump would not prime, even though it was always way below pumping source. Burned all fingers and lips trying to prime pump. All in all a brewing nightmare! I think I learned that simple is best.

looks like you need a keggle. to bad your in TN i have an extra.

Sounds like a successful brewday to me. Sure it took you longer than you thought it would but your just learning the pump. I regularly make double batches and don't have a brew stand, pretty much have what you do. 2 keggles and a cooler MLT. Before I got my pump I used to move water from my HLT a gallon at a time with a pitcher.

Looks Delicious, May have taken some time. But it is well worth it.

Thanks for the pictures! I would think a pump would be labor saving, but didn't think about it not being a time saver. I would love to do 10 gallon batches, but I just don't think I'm physically able to do it very often. Maybe I'll try one, just to see how I do.

Thanks again for the pictures!

Interesting post. I've been thinking about how to pull off 10 gallon batches without a stand of some kind. Not sure if I can/want to do that yet.

Beerthoven said:

Interesting post. I've been thinking about how to pull off 10 gallon batches without a stand of some kind. Not sure if I can/want to do that yet.

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It's definitely possible, I just wish I had a pot big enough (besides BK) to hold the sparge water.

congrats on 500 posts!

aekdbbop said:

congrats on 500 posts!

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Thanks, and I try not to post whore, except for this one.

I do double batches all the time without a brewstand. I'd like to make one in the future, but for now it's just a couple of coolers for HLT and MLT, and my big kettle on a turkey fryer.

Jester369 said:

I do double batches all the time without a brewstand. I'd like to make one in the future, but for now it's just a couple of coolers for HLT and MLT, and my big kettle on a turkey fryer.

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How do you heat the water in your cooler/hlt?

wildwest450 said:

How do you heat the water in your cooler/hlt?

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I heat it in the kettle, then put it in the HLT.

I've been doing it for a while now. I use a table for my MLT and my kettle burner is on two cinder blocks. It drains to two bucket fermenters. I use a graduated bucket to lift water to my MLT on the table. That's it and it works great.



Eventually, I will have my single tier setup in the brewhaus and will be able to brew in air conditioned comfort during the dog days of summer.

Thanks for the ideas Jester and Ed. It looks like there may be a new big ole cooler in my future.

i have to say that moving a keggle with 10+ gallons in it is hard on the back and should not be attempted when drunk.

Beerthoven said:

Interesting post. I've been thinking about how to pull off 10 gallon batches without a stand of some kind. Not sure if I can/want to do that yet.

Click to expand...

I don't consider my old or current setup to be a "stand" setup.

I don't have a pump (yet) so I do have to hand ladle the water out of the liquor tank into the mash tun. A step ladder is handy.

No biggy though. The only heavy lifting is dealing with the empty mash tun (those wet grains are heavy).
Old garage set up:



Current Brewshop Setup:

BierMuncher said:

I don't consider my old or current setup to be a "stand" setup.

I don't have a pump (yet) so I do have to hand ladle the water out of the liquor tank into the mash tun. A step ladder is handy.

No biggy though. The only heavy lifting is dealing with the empty mash tun (those wet grains are heavy).

(photos omitted for brevity)

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Thanks for the pics. I don't have a pump either, but I do have a two level deck on the back of my house so I'm thinking a gravity driven system would be easiest to implement.

But first, I have to start kegging. No way am I bottling 10g batches...

I only brewed four 5 gal extract batches before I built my 3 tier stand and went to AG 10 gal batches. I would not want to brew without a brewing rig. But I'm lazy and like to drink.

Use your older, smaller kettle to heat your sparge water. Get it hot, set it somewhere off the burner and put your big kettle on the burner under the MLT so you can just do first runnings with gravity. Then just use your pump or ladle to txfr the sparge to the MLT and you can start heating while the bed settles. This is how I did it the other night.
I think you have the same kettle as I do. Is yours exactly 15 inches tall? Did you notice the nice bonus of that? You can use a yardstick or tape measure to very accurately measure the volume... 1in/gal. I was marking up a measuring stick and got to 2.5 gallons before it hit me.

Did you ever feel a boilover was imminent? In my head, when I bought it, I thought "15 gallons for a 10 gal batch, that's plenty!" I was surprised when it filled up within 3 inches of the top. I think the surface area keeps the foam from building up though. I was relaxed by about 1/2 way through.

I was planning on adding a sight glass to my HLT, but Edwort's method of just using a graduated bucket sounds pretty simple.

Oops, just noticed you have two burners... so it is even easier with the sparging.

Germey said:

Use your older, smaller kettle to heat your sparge water.
I think you have the same kettle as I do. Is yours exactly 15 inches tall? Did you notice the nice bonus of that? You can use a yardstick or tape measure to very accurately measure the volume... 1in/gal. I was marking up a measuring stick and got to 2.5 gallons before it hit me.

Did you ever feel a boilover was imminent? In my head, when I bought it, I thought "15 gallons for a 10 gal batch, that's plenty!" I was surprised when it filled up within 3 inches of the top.

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My old kettle will only hold 8.5 gallons to the top, not enough to sparge 10+ gallons. But I did just get another cooler so problem solved. My kettle is 17" to the top, it's 20 gallons, and yes it would still boil over if I didn't watch the heat.

get bigger silicon hose for your pump, it looks like your using 3/8 hose

Linc

missing link said:

get bigger silicon hose for your pump, it looks like your using 3/8 hose

Linc

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They are 1/2" i.d.