Why do 10 gallon batches?

I am currently doing 5 gal extract batches with partial boils, but I intend to step up to all grain in the future. Given that stove top ranges do not do great 5 gal boils, I intend to upgrade to either gas or electric. The basis of my quandary is that I do not know the benefits and detractors of 10 gallon batches over 5 gallon batches (not including having more beer).

And this brings me to the title of the thread: Why do 10 gallon batches?

Is it cost?
Will the beer be better?
Go big or go home?

I have searched and found nothing, so hopefully I can get some advice and opinions.


Thank you in advance!

 

You get double the beer at effectively the same amount of work. You can also experiment a bit w/ it and try different yeasts on different fermenters if you want. Ultimately, I've found that it is no different in time to brew 10 gallons vs 5 and means in the end less work!

 

Some brewers will split their 10 gallons with 1/2 kegged and 1/2 bottled or some other ratio. One thing to think about if you were to move up to this size will be the weight and size of your brew kettle. Many brewers use a 15 gallon size kettle or keggle in order to finish with 10 finished gallons of beer. This may also be very heavy to left so have an idea of how you might be wanting to move/transfer the beer to your fermentors.

 

I like a variety of beers and don't drink much so I would be feeling so swamped with a ten gallon batch. I even feel overwhelmed a bit with a 5 gallon batch so I've started doing 2 1/2 gallon batches. it still takes almost as long as a bigger batch so my time/bottle is almost double, but this time of year, I have spare time anyway.

 

Moar beeeeer!!!!

 

+1

Twice the product same amount of time and effort.

 

I've got a brew buddy. We each take 5.

 

Economies of scale

 

I have a 15 gallon fermentor, I gotta fill it with something.
I have a couple brew buddies who split batches with me, so I usually only keep 5 gallons at a time. But for my stand-by beers I'll occassionally brew 10 gallons just for me.

It only cuts down on the cost because we buy everything in bulk.

 

Thanks for the replies so far!!!

Unfortunately I don't have a brew buddy, and it's just me and SWMBO drinking the beer - well mostly me (and the occasional friend).

My schedule at work precludes me from drinking most nights. So I think that having a larger volume of beer would be more difficult to work through.

On the other hand, you have a good point about splitting bottles and kegging (kegs are another planned updgrade).

Would I be able to do similar trials with hops, oak, or other things you would put into secondary?

 

Positives:
Same time, more beer
more beer, easier to part with (gifts)
more beer, saving some for next year (aging)
more grain, better prices

Negatives:
bigger equipment, bigger investment
double beer, double kegs

I just brewed 20gal this weekend with a friend. It only took us 6.5hrs total. Quicker time then my current 5 gal setup, with 4x the beer! Now I want to upgrade.

 

Also keep in mind, what is not consumed can be put aside for additional bottle seasoning which would only result in even better beer later. Go big and put a case or two in the corner, you will be rewarded 6 months later.

 

I hadn't considered aging my beer long term before now. Granted I haven't done that many brews, but I am curious as to how much the flavors change over time. Is this better to do with bigger beers or will all beers get better with age?

Also, if I go with a 10 gallon system will I be able to brew smaller batches if I want to. For instance, if I want to experiment with Imperials, Belgians, or Barley Wines, could the system do 5 gallons? How about 2.5?

Thanks for the continued responses!!!

 

You can brew a 5 gallon batch in a 10 gallon system.

 

+1 to this. We brew together, it is really convenient to have an extra pair if hands. then he takes his beer home with him in his fermenter. Half the work, twice the company while brewing.

 

I opted to make the move from a 5 gallon to a 10 gallon system for a few reasons and some of those are named above. Namely experimenting with different yeasts, different temperatures, different dry hop additions, bottle vs keg conditioning, etc.

It's a fairly good size investment to get the equipment set up but I am lucky enough to have a few co-workers that offered to donate to my brewery to cover the cost of ingredients if I agreed to share the spoils. If I was only able to brew 5 gallons at a time, I would be left with a six pack or less. Their contributions should cover just about all of the ingredients for my batches, so it's just my time. I actually worked out a trade with the guy that got me the steel tubing for my single tier system - I'm paying for the steel in beer.

 

That's what I'd call lucky! I presume that you are building a rig/sculpture for your system. While that may be in the cards at some point for me, I'm not sure I'd be able to make that jump first time around.

Is it possible to start with a kettle, a mlt, and kinda jury-rig things around to make it work initially and expand as finances allow?

 

If I had friends, I'd probably do bigger batches like those other guys................

I like to try different beers so much, that I regularly drink 3 or 4 different beers a session. I have 12+ different beers in the fridge now. I still have octoberfest beers to drink! So five gallons of one kind is going to last a while since I will keep making different beers until I am out of bottles.

 

You can. I don't use a brew rig, just a kettle, HLT, MLT and burner. The HLT is the kettle I used for 5 gallon batches.

 

10 gallon batches do take longer. Heating the strike, crushing the grain, filling the MLT, draining the MLT, bringing it to a boil and chilling all take longer. All those things do add up.

I do one 11 gallon batch and a 4.5 because that is what fits in my freezer. I can do a proven recipe and a experiment. I don't have any problems getting it drank.

 

People who do 10 gallon batches must not bottle.

 

Definately not bottling...... 2 kegs is all I want to clean.... if I want to bottle I can from the kegs..... but for the most part I leave everything on tap.... I like being able to brew 10 gallons.....I usually do 5 gallons of a recipe first and if I like it I will make 10 gallons later..... time wise it doesnt take a whole longer to make 10 gallons as opposed to 5.... maybe an extra hour or so.....setup to cleanup it takes about 5 - 6 hours for a 10 gallon batch for me.

 

I've bottle many. Now I usually keg half.

 

+1

 

I would like to step up to 10 gallons at some point in the future. However, my challenge is that I like to have more than one beer ready to drink along with more than one beer fermenting at a time. I have maybe 60 or so bottles saved up along with one corny keg, so that can be a challenge with 10 gal batches. Splitting brews with friends sounds like a viable option though.

 

Overnight I somehow came up with more questions about the viability of 10 gal batches. My favorite beers are porters and stouts, and I can always add vanilla beans, cocoa powder, or the like at secondary.

I am curious about how I could change up part of the grist if splitting the batch (i.e. adding oats for just 5 gal)?

How about changing the hop bill as well? Making a pale ale and IPA at the same time?

I appreciate the continued advice and opinions!!!

 

Whould a 15gal pot size work for 10gal batches?
I currently use a 10gal pot for 5gal batches and it is just enough for a good full boil.

 

There two reasons I will brew a 10G batch and they're both based on the fact that it takes MAYBE an extra hour over a 5G batch because of heating times.
1) If I'm planning on taking a beer to an event, I might as well make enough to have a keg for myself at the house.
2) Me and a buddy that lives an hour away get together a few times a year to brew. He'll brew 10G of recipe A, I'll brew 10G of recipe B, we each take 5G of both.

Those are my two scenarios that I brew large batches for.

And yes, a 15G pot (or keg) is enough for a 10G batch.

 

AS far as splitting the grist, keep the mash simple for a pale ale and collect all your runnings. Then steep remaining grains for the second darker/more robust beer.

 

A 15 gallon pot works well for 10 gallon batches. Allot of people here including myself use 15.5 gallon kegs for both 5 and 10 gallon batches.

 

I'll echo whats been said here - brew buddies are priceless. I've only done 2 five gallon batches. We typically brew 20 and 30 gallon batches, depending on who's "in" that day. when your brew buddies are all on the same page, its amazing how fast and efficient everything goes.

edit - it only takes one drunken brew buddy to complicate things though

 

I hadn't considered about taking beer to events/parties either. I guess that it'd be worthwhile to not bring my only 5 gal to a party.....

I take it that steeping the extra grains won't give off a lot of fermentables, but then again character malts don't have a lot of sugars, right? In essence I would do slightly more work this way, but can end up with two seperate 5 gal batches?

In a setup, would I be able to use 2 converted kegs for HLT and BK and do an igloo conversion for MT? I'm thinking in terms of my ability to acquire this piecemeal.

I really do appreciate the continued advice and interest

 

Or if you get a few parties in a row you can bring 5 and keep 5 so you don't mess up the pipeline.

Check out Partigyle

You sure can. You can also use the Kettle as a HLT as long as you have a transfer vessel for the wort.

 

I would rather brew more often and try different recipes that have 10 gal of the same beer despite using different yeasts. I even do a lot of 3 gal batches. I drink 95% of my homebrew though so it would take me forever to polish off a 10 gal batch.

 

I'm sure we all would, but unfortunately, some of us have children/other duties that prevent us from brewing as often as we'd like. I only brew 5-10 times a year max.

 

That's exactly what I have.

 

This seems like a really cool way to get three types of beer from the same grist. If I've read it properly, I can get the imperial stout from the first runnings, a regular stout from the second, and a sessionable one from the third. Would this also eliminate the sparge? And beginning water volume calculated based upon having x volume at end and y water loss in the process?

How much grain/liquor can you get into the MLT? Curious if there is room to hit the % extract needed in the partigyle method. I've seen Bobby M's thread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/, but am not clear which set of numbers to look at at one time.


In the course of the last day or so, I've gone from wanting to do BIAB to 5 gal batches, to 10 gal batches, and now on to a mix of 10 gal batches and partigyle (possibly up to 3 runnings). Does this make sense??

 

I've done 2 beers from a partigyle with a brew buddy. I think we could have gotten 3 beers, but we only had enough equipment to brew 2.

We added specialty grains to the MLT for the second runnings to try and make a porter. It came out like an Imperial Brown, but still good. I under calculated the amount of dark malts needed.

You could do smaller beers as a partigyle with a smaller MLT. You can also add some DME if the gravity is low.

Homebrewing is highly addictive

 

The sparge would be the second and/or third beer. Depending on single or double batch sparge. You won't lose much sparge water to soaked grains. If you add grains on the second or third sparge you should account for them. About .12 gallons per pound. Calculate the sparge to be your pre boil volume.

 

I think that having the equipment would be key. I'd have to move around my fermenters to allow for three primaries at the same time.

Homebrewing is most definitely addictive. SWMBO isn't entirely thrilled about opening pandora's box.

That's sweet!!! I would then just need to keep more liqour (or add more) in the HLT throughout my brew day.

Is there anything else I am missing, should consider, be aware of, before moving ahead with a 10 gal system (not including equipment)?

Thanks to all who have posted!!! :rockin: