1/2 barrel system ?

[RasMouSein]

Good day people!!

So the story is, imma slowly upgrade my system to properly fill three keg, and my new to me 1/2 barrel (17gals) chronical fermenter.

I always felt the keggle was a bit tight even for my 10 gallon batch, so I'd upgrade that one first.

The question is what size kettle would you recommend people ? Thinking between 20 or 30 gallons, as those are the most common around the size needed.

Tri-clad worth it ?
200 vs 304 ??

Thanks for reading and helping with your thoughts on the matter.

Have a nice day.

 

[eric19312]

I'm using this one

https://spikebrewing.com/products/20-gallon-brew-kettle-2-vertical-couplers

And liking how it works. I aim for 17 gallons into the fermentor to provide some volume for dumping trub, yeast and getting absorbed by dry hops.

 

[RasMouSein]

I'm using this one

https://spikebrewing.com/products/20-gallon-brew-kettle-2-vertical-couplers

And liking how it works. I aim for 17 gallons into the fermentor to provide some volume for dumping trub, yeast and getting absorbed by dry hops.

Cool cool!! What's the pre-boil volume in the kettle ?
And how close to the edge ?

Thanks for your time

 

[eric19312]

My preboil volume is 20 gallons. Plenty of room but I will use a couple drops of defoamer just to be sure.

I like to leave about 2 gallons of trub and hops in the kettle. That little ledge designed into the Spike kettle works great and I've been pretty happy with ability to whirlpool a decent hop cone. Before I got my conical I was doing half barrel in a spiedel tank and that only fit 16 gallons. My conical holds closer to 18 and I am trying to get at least 17 in there. I am still figuring that out but last brew what I did was sparged to 20 gallons in the brew kettle and then continued collecting another couple gallons in a side kettle. I threw that on a burner and let it boil and then added some "top up boiled wort" to the main kettle near the end of the boil. I ended up with about 19 gallons in the kettle at end of boil, this shrunk with chilling to 18.5 and I got just about 17 gallons into the fermentor.

I could probably boil 21 gallons in the Spike but my garage floor is sloped enough that I'd be uncomfortably close to the rim on the downhill side.

 

[Moose_MI]

I have the 20G BrewEasy and do 15G batches. I really like it. It’s a 30G BK and 30G MLT. Room to do a 20G batch if I want. With a little patience you can find these pop up for sale used and they are pretty reasonable for a 1/2bbl+ system...IMHO.

Finding good ~17g fermenters Has been tricky but I’ve pretty much just resigned myself to using 3 bucket fermenters. It does give me the opp to play with different yeast, dry hops, and other things...so not all bad news.

Good luck