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ameadrat

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I pushed the limits of my 15 year old 10 gal cooler. 41 pounds one ounce of grain. held at 150 within 1/4 inch from lip. okay so I had some run over.

Produced 50 quarts for boil. ended up with 7.5 gals of 1.092 Scottish ale in fermentation. Was really tricky adding heated h2o to maintain heat. Target was 9.5 gallons. good have continued adding 2 more gallons water during sparge. I love cooler brewing because of the extremely lower costs of equipment. 1 40 qt cooler ($20), 2 burners($90), 2 conning kettles($40),
11 5 gal Carboys @ $12 and 5 2.5 gal carboys a2 $ 10. 11 cases swingtops@
$10 each. That is my actual costs. I could sell everything today at a profit.

This recipe is myversion of traiqar house ale. cost per bottle $10.00
7.5 gallons equals 3 cases appx times 24 = 72 Times 10 = $720 not including
tax. my costs $65 = 5.42/ six pack plus .50 for lp gas(.18) and misc item(.32) = 5.92/ 6 pack. Local home brewers said you couldn't save money and home brew.$ 6.00 divided by 6 = $1.00 per bottle. wow he's right, It cost me $72. 720-72= $648 divided by 6 hours. I only got paid $108 per hour to make beer. WOW
 
I pushed the limits of my 15 year old 10 gal cooler. 41 pounds one ounce of grain. held at 150 within 1/4 inch from lip. okay so I had some run over.

Produced 50 quarts for boil. ended up with 7.5 gals of 1.092 Scottish ale in fermentation. Was really tricky adding heated h2o to maintain heat. Target was 9.5 gallons. good have continued adding 2 more gallons water during sparge. I love cooler brewing because of the extremely lower costs of equipment. 1 40 qt cooler ($20), 2 burners($90), 2 conning kettles($40),
11 5 gal Carboys @ $12 and 5 2.5 gal carboys a2 $ 10. 11 cases swingtops@
$10 each. That is my actual costs. I could sell everything today at a profit.

This recipe is myversion of traiqar house ale. cost per bottle $10.00
7.5 gallons equals 3 cases appx times 24 = 72 Times 10 = $720 not including
tax. my costs $65 = 5.42/ six pack plus .50 for lp gas(.18) and misc item(.32) = 5.92/ 6 pack. Local home brewers said you couldn't save money and home brew.$ 6.00 divided by 6 = $1.00 per bottle. wow he's right, It cost me $72. 720-72= $648 divided by 6 hours. I only got paid $108 per hour to make beer. WOW

I'll drink all of that for free, you won't even have to pay me so you can keep the $108 an hour. Deal?
 
I pushed the limits of my 15 year old 10 gal cooler. 41 pounds one ounce of grain. held at 150 within 1/4 inch from lip. okay so I had some run over.

41 lbs ?!? Holy cow, what was that like 0.6 qt per lb? You must have had almost no first runnings. Or did you actually manage to fly sparge that thing without getting stuck. Looks like a pretty big efficiency hit, about 47% I think. That will bump the cost up too.
 
Chickypad,

My goal was 9.0 Gallons at 1.090. So as far as efficiency is concerned I was on my target except for I only got 7.5gal at 1.092. I got 2.0 gal first running.
Then I added 2.5 Gal H2O until I had 50 Qts. I normally only do 30 Qt
sparges but to save time I tried a 50 qt sparge. This pushed my capacity to the limit. I do not ever consider the efficiency of my brew. I have been doing this for 15 years. I am more interested in my cost per 6 than some number that is built into my cost. This brew cost me $70.00 plus gas and misc expenses for 7.5 gal. I add .50 cents per 6 pack .32 for misc and .18 for lp gas. The grain was ground 4 week ago. This would account for some decrease in efficiency. I also don't use rice hauls. I have only one stuck sparge in 15 years. If your interested my drain pipe is pvc. The slits were cut by hand with a modeling saw. I just bought another from Hobby Lobby. I also have to take my valve apart to make sure its clean. If your in the Toledo area in December, Let me know and we'll swap bottles. Please note Don't take offense, I don't post well. Besides I made my first brew in1973, so I'm an old rat.
 
Racked a full 2.5 and a full 5.0 Gravity was 1.022. to the 5gal I added
8 oz of dark toasted French oak that has been soaking in Johnnie walker Red since January. Drained and tasted the Red actually liked it better.
Will bottle in November for drinking in December. Note the chips were very wet. Flavor was on target. next year I will hold the black and the chocolate until I have ran down the first runnings. As I under stand Chocolat and Black add flavor and color, this solves my capacity problems.
 
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