Big batch

I have some buddies that are moving home and would like to have a big brew day upon their return. Cross country moving has caused them to ditch much of their brew ware.

My hope is to brew a 15 gal batch for us all (3 of us) to have something to take home. I have a 20 gal kettle but only one cooler mash tun. Can I do several runs in one tun? Or should I make a second? I'd like to keep it cheap, or reduce the batch size.

I haven't done my homework on a recipe yet but would likely do a simple SMaSH of some sort.

Just a thought at this point. Any suggestions are welcome

Thanks,
Pills

 

If you were to brew a high gravity mash then sparge with enough to get your preboil volume needed you should be able to do an average ABV brew.

You might need to work out what you can fit in the mash tun then do some calculating to see how diluted it gets.

 

If by several runs in one mash tun you are implying back to back runs I say YES! I do that all the time. Get the first batch drained into the kettle and clean the mash tun for the second batch while the HLT is heating up. If you have 2 kettles to boil in this process works pretty well... just gets real busy during the overlap period.

If your are talking about several runs in one mash tun to get one big pre-boil volume... sorry I can't help you here.

 

How big is your cooler? 15 gallons shouldn't be too much issue

 

You should be able to do 15 gallons using a batch sparge. If needed you can sparge 2 or even 3 times to get to your boil volume.