10 gallon extract

[razz]

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to home brewing. I've been doing 5 gallon extract kits for about a year and have done seven five gallon batches. I was hooked after the first one for sure. Recently my father in-law purchased a Minibrew 15 gallon conical fermentor for me to use for in his words, "to make him lots of beer...". I will be using a 40 or 60 quart ss stock pot so I'll be using a burner outside. My main question is this......say his favorite batch so far has been extract ale kit *****. When I do a double batch what changes? Normally the recipe calls for 2.5 gallon boil and then add water after the boil to reach 5 gallons. If I plan on boiling double does the recipe stay the same? Meaning boil 5 gallons and add the ingredients according to the 5 gallon recipe, and then add water to get 10 gallons after the boil?

 

[razz]

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to home brewing. I've been doing 5 gallon extract kits for about a year and have done seven five gallon batches. I was hooked after the first one for sure. Recently my father in-law purchased a Minibrew 15 gallon conical fermentor for me to use for in his words, "to make him lots of beer...". I will be using a 40 or 60 quart ss stock pot so I'll be using a burner outside. My main question is this......say his favorite batch so far has been extract ale kit *****. When I do a double batch what changes? Normally the recipe calls for 2.5 gallon boil and then add water after the boil to reach 5 gallons. If I plan on boiling double does the recipe stay the same? Meaning boil 5 gallons and add the ingredients according to the 5 gallon recipe, and then add water to get 10 gallons after the boil?

 

[northernlad]

You can scale a beer recipe simply by doubling or tripling, etc. all of the ingredients. It seems like you are asking if you can make a ten gallon batch by adding 5 gallons of water to your batch of five gallon ingredients, but I am sure thats not what you mean...
If you have a 60 qt pot you would do well to do full boils. This however WILL decrease the amount of bittering hops you need.
Your boiloff rate is not likely to make a dramatic change so if you are doing a five gallon full boil and starting at 6.5, you would not double the preboil volume for a 10 gallon batch, just add the same amount for boil off, 1.5 gallons.
It also takes more time to cool.

And, welcome to never wasting your time with 5 gallon batches again.

 

[Turlian]

Yes, extracts especially are suited to scaling up or down lineally.

One suggestion though - if you have a 60 quart pot, why not do a full 10 gallon boil? Your beer will thank you.

 

[razz]

That was going to be the next question.....thanks!!!!

 

[razz]

I planned on buying two five gallon recipes and basically doubling everything, as well as boiling the full batch. In 100% agreement that 5 gallon batches are for the birds.

 

[Scubasteve1976]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't he want to double ALL the ingredients if making a 10 gallon batch. If you simply add an extra 5 gallons of water to the ingredients for a 5 gallon batch wont you just end up with 10 gallons of extremely watered down beer?

 

[razz]

I plan on doubling everything....

 

[Scubasteve1976]

Ok. Just wanted to make sure that you planned to do that.

 

[Yooper]

A full boil and doubling the ingredients sounds like the perfect solution. A couple of minor thoughts- one is that doubling the ingredients doesn't exactly give you the exact same hops utilization. Now, that's not a big deal if you're planning on 50 IBUs and you get 55 or vice versa. But for a delicate low IBU beer, you may want to double check your recipe through some brewing software. A 12 IBU cream ale wouldn't be the same beer with 25 IBUs, for example. I don't think this is really much of an issue, but it's worth checking if you have certain recipes you want to exactly duplicate.

Second, chilling 10 gallons of wort can be a job if you don't have a big enough chiller. You may want to think about the chilling method you're using. A 25 foot immersion chiller can work, especially if you gently stir during cooling, but it may be more efficient to get a bigger chiller or even a different type of chiller if what you have now is barely adequate or nonexistant.

I wish I had someone encouraging ME to do 10 gallon batches all the time! I'd be in heaven with a conical!

 

[cruckin78]

Yeah I wish I could go to 10 gal. I need a bigger brew pot LOL

 

[ibbones]

I planned on buying two five gallon recipes and basically doubling everything, as well as boiling the full batch. In 100% agreement that 5 gallon batches are for the birds.

I'll be doing that this week for my first time. I bought two of the Austin Stormcastle Brown Ales and am going to try it as one big kit. I do have a keggle for a brewpot.

 

[MrInternet]

A 12 IBU cream ale wouldn't be the same beer with 25 IBUs, for example. I don't think this is really much of an issue, but it's worth checking if you have certain recipes you want to exactly duplicate.

If he's doubling the hops in double the volume of the same gravity wort, won't the IBU's be the same? I want to make sure I follow, I hadn't considered this before...