20 gallon Blichman Mash Tun question

How much water is underneath the false bottom?

Would it be feasible to make 5 gallons of 3.5% beer in the 20 Gal when the mash volume would only be 3.32 gallons or so? I'm mostly referring to the water to grain ratio?

Thanks

 

Don't know but easy to figure out.....

Take a 1 gallon container of water and keep adding until it comes over the false bottom, then you'll know exactly

Water ratio should be 1.25-1.5g/lb and the size of the tun really shouldn't be an issue as long as you can maintain prior mash temp.

 

I don't own a 20 gallon Blichman so that's why I'm asking.

The water to grain ratio matters if there is 2 gallons of space under the false bottom when doughing in at 1.25 qts with 8.5 # of grain.

 

Ah, got it, correct, may not be feasible....

 

In mine it's about a half gallon, not much at all.

 

I have both a 10 and a 20 gal Boilermaker that i use then for 5 and 10 gal batches, respectively. They both work great. There are several reasons not to use a 20 gal Blichmann for a 5 gal batch:

The larger surface area will make the grain bed very thin with little filtering ability.

The large volume of the pot in relation to the amount of water and grain makes maintaining temps more difficult.

The Brewmometer will be to high above the mash to be useful.

 

I batch sparge and direct fire rims with a temp gauge on the out of the spigot, so in your opinion would that even matter?

 

It would work but with such a thin but wide grain bed you may have trouble keeping uniform temps. If you are doing mostly 10 gal batches, I'd just get the 10 gal Boulermaker.

My $.02