First 10 Gallon Batch

Well, I finally stepped up and did my first 10 gallon batch. I'm VERY glad my neighbor happened to be home to give me a hand because I greatly underestimated how much 12 gallons of wort + a 30lb SS pot weighs. Needless to say it took 2 of us to pour the wort into the primaries. I started with about 12 gallons and ended with 10 gallons, slightly underestimated by burn off rate as it was my first time with the burner (Blichmann Burner). I think I'm going to do 10 gallon batches from now on, it took me the same amount of time as a 5 gallon batch did so why not?

My question is how do you guys transfer these 10 gallon batches? I can't be lugging around pots that weight 130lbs.

A ball valve on the kettle is very handy. Before I had a valve I used to siphon to the fermentors.

The kettle I bought doesn't have a ball valve, how easy is it to add one?

Would have never dreamed of doing 10G without a ball valve.

Check out Bargainfittings.com. They have weldless kits or you can have a welder attach a 1/2" coupler to the pot. Either way.

The reason to not ALWAYS do 10G batches......10G of the same beer gets old quick.

I'm wanting to do 10 gallon batches. The burner and the weight of things are what's holding me back.

ibbones said:

I'm wanting to do 10 gallon batches. The burner and the weight of things are what's holding me back.

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With my setup now, I don't lift any brewing water until I move the fermentors. I have water plumbed into my electric HLT and gravity feed the rest of the way. Before I had all this in place we did one 10gal batch and realized the need.

A good burner is definately important. Luckilly we started with a good one.

Just think the process through well first. It really doesnt take much more to go to 10 gallon. And you make a lot more beer:rockin:

ibbones said:

I'm wanting to do 10 gallon batches. The burner and the weight of things are what's holding me back.

Click to expand...

What kind of burner do you have? I just picked up the Blichmann 72k BTU and it's great for 10 gallon batches. Took me all of 20 minutes to get 9 gallons of tap water (70F) to 190F for sparging.

I think I'm going to look into getting a ball valve in my pot, what does it take to drill through stainless steel?

Brett3rThanU said:

What kind of burner do you have? I just picked up the Blichmann 72k BTU and it's great for 10 gallon batches. Took me all of 20 minutes to get 9 gallons of tap water (70F) to 190F for sparging.

I think I'm going to look into getting a ball valve in my pot, what does it take to drill through stainless steel?

Click to expand...

I used a step bit. A hole saw would probably work also. I used a weldless fitting on my kettle but when building my HLT I started soldering in my fittings. Here is a good thread if you think you might want to try soldering.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/soldering-stainless-steel-155782/

Do you have any problems with leaks on your weldless fittings?

Brett3rThanU said:

Do you have any problems with leaks on your weldless fittings?

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No, I don't now. Although the O-ring that my kit came with did leak at first. I noticed some of the kits have a slot in the washer to hold the ring in place. Mine didn't and when I tightened it in the ring would just squirt out the side of the washer. I just made my own rings with a piece of high temp 1/2 id tubing and it worked great.

You will also need to set up some sort of dip tube as the wort below the ball valve will need to siphon out. I just soldered together a copper male, elbow and short piece of pipe.

Yeah, I was looking here for the ball valve and the pickup tube.

Brett3rThanU said:

Yeah, I was looking here for the ball valve and the pickup tube.

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That may be where I got mine. It is hard to tell from the pictures but it looks like it may have a concave washer. It's not a big deal. Like I said I fixed mine with an 1/8-in piece of tubing.

Weldless works great.

Also, I rigged up an electric winch to eliminate any heavy lifting in my process. See the link in my sig for the details. Cost ~$100 and was worth every penny.

Even with another to help, 10 gallons is more than I want to risk sloshing around. I got a ball valve on my keggle but not my big aluminum pot. For my pot i use a racking cane, why not for 10 gallon batches? They make stainless racking canes or you can get a thicker soft copper to make one yourself.

I use a pitcher to transfer the wort from the kettle to the carboys. Put the pitcher into the kettle for the last 10 minutes of the boil to sanitize it, remove it at flame out and place on a sanitized surface while you're chilling the wort.

Been doing this for several (10-15) 10gal batches and no problems!

Brett3rThanU said:

What kind of burner do you have? I just picked up the Blichmann 72k BTU and it's great for 10 gallon batches. Took me all of 20 minutes to get 9 gallons of tap water (70F) to 190F for sparging.

I think I'm going to look into getting a ball valve in my pot, what does it take to drill through stainless steel?

Click to expand...

I've got an elcheapo from Acadamey that is about 10-12 inches off the ground. Unless I can figure a way to get it up higher and feel safe about it, I am a little bit scared. 10 gallons is a lot of weight to have a burner set up on cinder-blocks.

ryan_george said:

I use a pitcher to transfer the wort from the kettle to the carboys. Put the pitcher into the kettle for the last 10 minutes of the boil to sanitize it, remove it at flame out and place on a sanitized surface while you're chilling the wort.

Been doing this for several (10-15) 10gal batches and no problems!

Click to expand...

I use a pitcher also, but I just sanitize it well with StarSan. Pour it high into the Ale Pail for oxygenation of wort and all is well.

Ball valve with pickup tube and an electric bowl lift.