I brewed 12 gallons of Pliny the Elder clone from BYO back in late November.
Normally I'd do 10 or so but I knew the hops would soak up a lot so I decided to make 12 gallons. Still only ended up with around 10.5 gallons in the fermeters due to the 21 oz of hops used in the boil (and another 4 in the mash).
I don't think I would have tried this without a HopStopper. The amount of hop sludge was incredible!
Some pictures of the kettle and the hopstopper after I drained:
It's hard to see in the photos but the hop sludge is about 1.5-2" deep in the bottom of the kettle, and about the same piled up on the hopstopper. I have to say the hopstopper is amazing. No problems draining - you just need to make sure to not go too fast once you get down near the end to avoid sucking air in through various channels which would then stop the flow of wort (a problem I had in the past when I drained really fast).
The recipe from BYO scaled up to 12 gallons and my efficiency if anyone's curious:
Pliny the Elder clone (106)
14-C Imperial IPA
Size: 12.0 gal
Efficiency: 92.91%
Attenuation: 85.0%
Calories: 253.86 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.077 (1.070 - 1.090) (was targeting 1.073)
Color: 8.29 (8.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 8.63% (7.5% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 260.5 (60.0 - 120.0)
Ingredients:
1.0 ea Campden Tablet - added to 20 gallons in HLT
23.29 lb Standard 2-Row (La Quebecoise)
0.55 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
1.67 lb Carapils®/Carafoam®
2.4 lb Corn Sugar
4.08 oz Chinook (11.5%) - added during mash
6.7 oz Warrior (15.4%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
1.27 oz Chinook (11.5%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
2.4 oz Simcoe (11.9%) - added during boil, boiled 45 min
2.45 oz Columbus (14.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
6.14 oz Centennial (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
2.4 oz Simcoe (11.9%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
26.0 g Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
26.0 g Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
7.8 oz Columbus (14.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
4.2 oz Centennial (8.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
4.2 oz Simcoe (11.9%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
Notes
25.5 lbs of grain.
Added campden tablet day before to 20 gallons Ottawa tap water.
Mash with (25.5 x 1.25)/4 = 8 gallons of strike water.
Single infusion mash @ 151F for 90 minutes. (Should be able to get the FG close to 1.010 - 1.011 with this low mash temp).
Mash out at 168F.
Sparge at 168F.
GU = 74 x 12 = 888. Pre-boil gravity should therefore be 888/14.75 = 1.060 (at 72F)
Collected 14.75 gallons. Measured 1.040/150F which is ~1.058/72F.
Added corn sugar (before boil). SG was 1.042/150F which is ~1.060/72F so right on target.
Boil for 90 minutes.
Got 10.5 gallons at 1.077/68F into fermenters. Lost a lot to hop absorption.
Ferment at around 68F using ~20 g of US-05 per 5.25 gallons.
Dry hop for 2 weeks
I racked it to the secondary a couple of days ago and it's slowly clearing now. I'll be kegging once it's clear in hopefully a week or two.
Kal