Moving up to 10 gallon batches

Now that Saturdays will be consumed by football (Roll Tide), my brewing opportunities will be further apart. I want to step up and do larger batches. I am all grain and I use a 10 gallon cylindrical cooler for a mash tun and kegs for HLT and kettle. Equipment will be adequate. Fermentation will be split between carboys.

Now the questions...
1. Should I simply double my proven recipes? I'm not expecting exact IBU and gravities. Just bigger quantities.

2. Will the wort stratify during a 20 minute whirlpool rest, causing a variation in OG between the primaries if they are filled sequentially?

3. How much time does a 10 fallen batch add to your brew day if the same process is used? I'm expecting laughter and cast to take longer. Any other steps that add much time? Conversion slower or faster?

The only differences in time come from heating more water, and cooling more wort.i think it added half hour to forty minutes when I switched to tenners. Now I do two seperate batches so my brew days are even longer

10 gallons takes me about the same time as 5 gallons did but that is because I don't chill my wort . It is just a little more transferring and takes longer to get your temps up but as mikey said, it doesn't add a whole lot of time.

Mostly, it just adds more weight to lift... heating water... dumping out the mash tun... lifting the kettle up prior to gravity-fed cooling... As a result of all the extra heaving around, it just *feels* like it takes forever.

Chriso said:

Mostly, it just adds more weight to lift... heating water... dumping out the mash tun... lifting the kettle up prior to gravity-fed cooling... As a result of all the extra heaving around, it just *feels* like it takes forever.

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I love my pumps. I have to raise my empty hand only high enough to flip a switch. Dumping and disposing of spent grains will be heavy.

Don't double the hops, they'll be utilized greater due to larger volumes. Use software/calculations there. Grain, yeah, scale it up. Water, most things will double except boiloff unless your equipment is vastly different like double-wide pot or something.

I fill two fermenters sequentially and don't have a lot of issues with varying OG.

I think my trial batch will be my Willamette SMaSH that was about 25 ibu. I'll double that recipe because it could stand to be a little Hoppier. Which addition tends to get more utilization? Early bittering or later additions?

tre9er said:

Don't double the hops, they'll be utilized greater due to larger volumes. Use software/calculations there. Grain, yeah, scale it up. Water, most things will double except boiloff unless your equipment is vastly different like double-wide pot or something.

I fill two fermenters sequentially and don't have a lot of issues with varying OG.

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Is this true about the hops? Sure there's more volume but more sugars as well. I'm pretty sure that when I scale recipes in beer Smith from 5 to 10 gallons is up scales the hops too. Bottom line is that your 5 gal and 10 gal ibus should be the same.

If you do big grain bills your 10 gallon cooler is going to be a little cramped.

Also...when I fill 2 fermenters I switch back and forth between them a few times to balance the amount of trub in them.

chumpsteak said:

Is this true about the hops? Sure there's more volume but more sugars as well. I'm pretty sure that when I scale recipes in beer Smith from 5 to 10 gallons is up scales the hops too. Bottom line is that your 5 gal and 10 gal ibus should be the same.

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The same recipe will have the same gravity during the boil, no matter the batch size, if the grain was scaled up, using the same equipment (ie. boiloff is the same and thus pre-boil volume is scaled proportionally).

I just plugged in 0.54oz. of Centennial 10.5% hops into a 4.5g batch, 13.7 IBU's

If I simply double that quantity to 1.08oz. I get 20 IBU's.

I know I remember reading this in a few places, I think in Papazian's book (NCJOHB).

I'm using a 10 gallon cylinder, so the upper limit is 24#. My SMaSH recipes are 10# of Maris Otter, so I should be fine. I'm not trying any new process variations, just looking to brew a bigger batch.

My 5 gallon version is 10# Maris Otter, mashing at 152. Hops are all 1oz additions at 60, 10, 5, and flameout. Preboil volume is 7.5 gallons, 90 minute boil. That gets me 5 gal in primary at 1.065. Last two I did got down to 1.007. One was Willamette, the other was Columbus. Both very tasty. Might do Cascade on this one.

tre9er said:

The same recipe will have the same gravity during the boil, no matter the batch size, if the grain was scaled up, using the same equipment (ie. boiloff is the same and thus pre-boil volume is scaled proportionally).

I just plugged in 0.54oz. of Centennial 10.5% hops into a 4.5g batch, 13.7 IBU's

If I simply double that quantity to 1.08oz. I get 20 IBU's.

I know I remember reading this in a few places, I think in Papazian's book (NCJOHB).

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Ok, i thought you were implying that he shouldnt change the hop bill at all. I agree that software or calculations to scale the hops for the recipe is a must.

chumpsteak said:

Ok, i thought you were implying that he shouldnt change the hop bill at all. I agree that software or calculations to scale the hops for the recipe is a must.

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Ack, I just realized I didn't double the grain when I did this. Gravity was way lower with the larger batch. My numbers aren't right but I know more volume gives more IBUs. I have the formula just not in front of me.

That said, its virtually undetectable difference at homebrew quantities. Now, if scaling up to 10 BBLs...you'd not want to just proportionaly increase hops as the difference gets much larger.

I'm a big fan of BeerSmith. The software will convert your 5 gallon recipes to 10 gallon. Great brewing software... IMO.
When I incorporated a pump into my 10 gallon system, I knocked off quite a bit of time from the brew day, particularly cooling. When I recirculate during the chilling process (using IM chiller) I can take approximately 10 gallons of wort from boiling temp to pitching temp in about 20 minutes.
I also coverted my propane setup to electric... very efficient and I can brew indoors.
Moving to 10 gallon batches added only 1/2 hour to my brew day because of the changes I made to my system.
Go for it!