Moving to 10 gallons!!

Finally moving up to 10 gallon batches!! Do my boils increase at all?? How does that change the OG?? If I only boil for 1 hour then my batch would be less concentrated than if I boil a 5 gallon batch for an hour. How does this affect my batches and gravities??

I'm assuming you got a larger boil kettle? You'll need to figure out your boil off rate-each pot is different. That will determine your starting volume. Since you are doubling the size
Of the batch, you will need to increase the amount of grain/extract you are using. This is where gravity comes in to play.

Yep, new BK. can I evaluate my boil off with just water or is it not the same as wort?

Btw, I use iBrewMaster to develop recipes so I would imagine that would account for changes for me as well.

Switching to 10 gallons is easy. Just dealing with more of everything so things take longer when heating and getting to boil. Otherwise you can take a 5 gallon recipe and just double it. I have noticed that if you just double the recipe the beer will tend to come out a little more bitter than the same 5 gallon recipe, so you can back off the bittering hops by 5-10%.

Boil off rate can be tested with water, but it may vary slightly when you have actual wort in the pot. Water is probably best to get a starting point though.

Should I boil for a certain time or volume then?

dukes7779 said:

Should I boil for a certain time or volume then?

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Your recipe software should account for this stuff, I would think. Basically if you boiloff 1g/hr. then that plus trub/hop absorption would mean about 1.5-2g. depending on the grain bill and hop schedule. So your finished batch size plus this is your preboil volume.

Spit-balling here, 12g. boil should yield close to 10-10.5g. into the fermenter. As was mentioned, hop utilization increases with volume, so don't just double the hops on your 5g. batches. Double the grain but scale the hops up to 190% or so (10% less than double). Again, the software usually calculates IBU's based on boil volume.

Still a 60m. boil though. It will just take longer to get to boiling.

For the time it would take you to boil water, you could better use that time and actually make beer!

I would aim on the low side of your pre-boil volume, calculate what you boiled off in 60 minutes, and if you are low just add back some water. This strategy might impact your beer if doing an IPA where hop utlization would be an issue, but most other beers you should be OK

Alternatively, if you have too much volume, you can still calculate the boil off at 60 minutes and just continue the boil until you are at volume. In this situation, you would want to adjust your timing on the aroma/flavor hop additions.

Either way, I wouldn't bother with a "pilot" run with water. Just make some beer instead and adjust on the fly.

broadbill said:

For the time it would take you to boil water, you could better use that time and actually make beer!

I would aim on the low side of your pre-boil volume, calculate what you boiled off in 60 minutes, and if you are low just add back some water. This strategy might impact your beer if doing an IPA where hop utlization would be an issue, but most other beers you should be OK

Alternatively, if you have too much volume, you can still calculate the boil off at 60 minutes and just continue the boil until you are at volume. In this situation, you would want to adjust your timing on the aroma/flavor hop additions.

Either way, I wouldn't bother with a "pilot" run with water. Just make some beer instead and adjust on the fly.

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Couldn't agree more, along with all the other great feedback on this posting!

You know dukes if things don't work exactly like they do with your 5 gallon batches the worst thing you will end up with is beer:cross:

Mash it, boil it, ferment it, then come back and tell us how you did!!

Good luck

For all grain, I boil for 90 minutes. My starting volume is 14.5 gallons (boiling in a keggle). After evaporation, spillage, and losses in the brewpot and lines, that puts about 11 gallons in the fermenter. After I lose a gallon of space from trub, yeast, etc, I end up with right at 10 gallons of drinkable beer.

True!! Don't know why I'm reinventing my wheel and forgetting basics...... Thanks!!

Brewmasters Warehouse said:

Switching to 10 gallons is easy. Just dealing with more of everything so things take longer when heating and getting to boil. Otherwise you can take a 5 gallon recipe and just double it. I have noticed that if you just double the recipe the beer will tend to come out a little more bitter than the same 5 gallon recipe, so you can back off the bittering hops by 5-10%.

Boil off rate can be tested with water, but it may vary slightly when you have actual wort in the pot. Water is probably best to get a starting point though.

Click to expand...

It really depends on the style. Most of your regular strength beers you won't have to alter - unless you're doing darker beers, then you'll want to scale back the darker, more roasted grains. When it comes to pale ales, I just double the recipe and it comes out almost identical. For really hoppy beers, though, follow Brewmaster's advice and scale back the hops a little. You'll get it nailed down after a few batches. Also, if you want to experiment a little, you could pitch different yeasts to get two different beers. You could experiment with partigyle brewing (something I have yet to do but I've been researching a lot and I'm close to trying it). And when you're asked to brew for a party or a gathering, you can keep half for yourself.