Going big - 20 gal in a day. Any tips?

With time at a premium this summer, I can't seem to get enough brewing in. i used to brew every week, 5-10 gal. I'm switching now to a once-a-month paradigm, 20 gallons in a day. A month later, those go from primary -> keg and I brew 20 more.

Equipment - 15 gal cooler MLT, keggle, 7.5 gal HLT, ONE BURNER, 4 carboys.

My plan is:
Dough in
Mash
Sparge 1, Sparge 2
Heat strike water for next batch
Boil batch 1
Dough in Batch 2 and mash
Chill and transfer batch 1 to carboys
lauter, sparge 1, sparge 2 batch 2
Boil batch 2, chill, transfer, pitch.

Any tips for those who brew batches back to back? I batch sparge, and my HLT isn't big enough to handle both sparge water doses at once, so I have to heat each at a time...

Just looking for tips on how to make tomorrow go smoothly.

I'm on the same plan, brewing 20 - 30 gallons at a time.

You will need to use the keggle as the HLT, then after sparging is done switch it to a BK.

You'll need to collect your runnings into some homer buckets.

With my set-up I don't think I can pull it off without a second burner, but I have been trying to figure out a way to do it other than back-to-back brews without some overlap (that makes a long brew day REALLY long).

you can find turkey fryers for cheap now and then, ~$50, including a 30qt kettle. Go buy 2 or 3

I've done two 10 gal batches back to back on two occasions. Here's my notes with times from one of them.
-----------------------------------------------
I had milled the grain for the first batch on the previous day, no other prep was done.

8:30 torched HLT with heat stick
10:00 dough-in complete 154

11:033 1st runnings 4.8 gallnos

11:50 2nd runnings 9.7 gallons


12:30 Boil ~14.1 gallons total

1:32 flame out
1:40 started chilling
1:56 down to 78 - used stirrer the whole time

final Brix 16 = 1.065 - efficiency = 89%

Put into fermenters F1 and F4, onto cakes from Batch 17
-----------------------------------------
BATCH 2
12:58 - started adding strike water to MLT
1:09 mash=in complete, temp 155
2:27 start 1st runnings
2:36 1st runnings 4.9 gallons
2nd 10 gallons, Brix 12.4

3:20 Boil & hot break

. . . and thats the end of my notes. Assuming I was finished by 5:00 w/ clean up etc. thats 8.5 hours for 2 batches, 20 gallons.

carp said:

I've done two 10 gal batches back to back on two occasions. Here's my notes with times from one of them.
-----------------------------------------------
I had milled the grain for the first batch on the previous day, no other prep was done.
[cut]
. . . and thats the end of my notes. Assuming I was finished by 5:00 w/ clean up etc. thats 8.5 hours for 2 batches, 20 gallons.

Click to expand...

Nice...I'm starting now, so here goes nothing...

BTW, are you on reddit? I'm wondering if I'm talking with you in two threads :fro:

All I know is to expect the unexpected, cause on paper its always a lot smoother than you think.

Nope, I'm not on reddit.

Good luck with your brew. I'm planning a 20 gal day tomorrow myself. Kegging previous batches today, and hopefully milling my grain & weighing salts.

carp said:

Nope, I'm not on reddit.

Good luck with your brew. I'm planning a 20 gal day tomorrow myself. Kegging previous batches today, and hopefully milling my grain & weighing salts.

Click to expand...

Ah, I was getting a similar brew schedule from a guy on Reddit as well...must be a bunch of us crazies.

Yeah, I kegged 3 batches today while mashing in, and now I'm busy cleaning carboys to hold the currently boiling stout and soon to be mashing ESB. Fun times!