15 gallon batch set up

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Mainah1

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I am hoping someone is able to offer some advice. A group of us are looking into purchasing a equipment to brew 15 gallon batches. Just wondering if anyone has done this and what would be the equipment needed to brew at this size. Are 25 gallon pots large enough for mash tun and boil kettle. Would a 20 gallon HLT work or should that be 25 gallons as well. Would you recommend pumps? Would one be enough? What about cooling? Plate chiller or something else? Or can I get away with a home built tower of some kind and use gravity. I know false bottoms and fly sparging would be needed. I have the blichmann burner, would that be enough to boil this volume? It has no issues with 5 gallon batches. Am I missing any other equipment needed? Just looking at the boiling process at this time. Thanks for any information in advance.
 
Its all about how you want it to work for you and what you want to brew. I do 10 gallon batches occasionally on my 15/15/20 system and it is smooth for all but the biggest beers. I could see 10 gallons of a 1.100+ beer being an issue in a 15g Mash Tun. The rule of thumb is double your volume for a desired batch size however I think for most situations 25 gallon would be fine.

As for pumps with that volume I think you would be hating life without a pump. The HLT assuming a full 20 gallon kettle would weigh 167 lbs not including the kettle or the burner. Moving that amount of water sounds terrible to me and my back.

I would look at a single tier system with at least 1 pump.
 
25 gallon kettles should be OK. I personally use 20/20/30 for 15 g batches.
As far as the other questions, its a matter of logistics and budget.
 
You can get by with 20 gal for BK and HLT. For the MT I recommend 25. 25 for BK might be nice to reduce boilover risk...

Pumps are very nice when dealing with these batch sizes. And yes, a plate or counterflow chiller is huge.

I like my single tier 2 pump system as it allows my to circulate ice water through the CFC while pumping wort to get down to lager pitching temp.
 
You may want to consider a 30/30/20 set up if you want high gravity beers. Barley wines and imperial stouts will really stress out your mash tun with only a 20 gallon capacity. Our last really big brew was an imperial stout with a 1.129 OG. It was a 78 lb grain bill and my 20 gallon could only handle about 51 lbs of grain. So we needed to use a second mash tun and split the grain bill into two separate batches of 10 and 5 gallons. A 20 gallon HLT should be enough for your needs.
 
The additional cost for a 20-25 gal HLT and BK is negligible. I would go with the larger to ensure that no matter what style you brew you are covered. Depending on how you set it up, I would recommend 1 but probably 2 pumps. Lots of options for chilling.
 
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