15 gallon batches

[Owen]

I tried searching this, but got nothing. looking for information on brewing 15 gallon batches for Sanke kegs. Any help is appreciated.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I don't mean to sound condescending, but you basically multiply by 3

To be more specific, you need kettle, mash tun and HLT with larger capacity. At least 20 gallons on the kettle, at least 15 on the MT and HLT. Note that you'll have trouble getting above the 1.070-1.075 range unless you get a mash tun larger than 15 gal.

You'll need burners powerful enough to boil it all. Bayou Classic SQ14 can do it. And you have a lot more volume to cool, so am immersion chiller might not cut it.

Oh, and the weight goes up, so you either need pumps or a three-tier stand, because you're not going to want to move anything.

And a ~20 gallon fermenter, or multiple carboys.

In principle, there's really not much different. But as you see above, scale does make a few things harder...

 

[1977Brewer]

I don't mean to sound condescending, but you basically multiply by 3

To be more specific, you need kettle, mash tun and HLT with larger capacity. At least 20 gallons on the kettle, at least 15 on the MT and HLT. Note that you'll have trouble getting above the 1.070-1.075 range unless you get a mash tun larger than 15 gal.

You'll need burners powerful enough to boil it all. Bayou Classic SQ14 can do it. And you have a lot more volume to cool, so am immersion chiller might not cut it.

Oh, and the weight goes up, so you either need pumps or a three-tier stand, because you're not going to want to move anything.

And a ~20 gallon fermenter, or multiple carboys.

In principle, there's really not much different. But as you see above, scale does make a few things harder...

Glad you did it, because I would have been condescending as eff.

 

[Owen]

You obviously have never done a 15 gallon batch. Things get more complicated than that and the techniques for handling them vary. There is a lot to learn from other people who actually do large batches on a regular basis.

 

[orangehero]

You obviously have never done a 15 gallon batch. Things get more complicated than that and the techniques for handling them vary. There is a lot to learn from other people who actually do large batches on a regular basis.

Welcome Owen! You're off to a great start!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

You obviously have never done a 15 gallon batch. Things get more complicated than that and the techniques for handling them vary. There is a lot to learn from other people who actually do large batches on a regular basis.

I personally did 15 gal batches for a few years, but I've scaled back to 10 as I didn't like my fermentation solution. I ferment in a Sanke now, because the cost of a big conical is astronomical and the Sanke fits in my fermentation fridge so I don't need to run glycol.

But really, large batches aren't much different.

I did forget about the yeast, though... Need a BIG starter or a lot of dry yeast...

 

[Owen]

Welcome Owen! You're off to a great start!

Yeah, x3, oh so helpful.

 

[Gavin C]

Any help is appreciated.

Clearly not based on your second post. You might want to calm down a little bit. The only diffence is in scale between 1,5,10,15,100 gallon batches.

All scale related factors, most previously mentioned

• Greater Volumes of kettle, MLT, HLT
• Greater energy needed to heat them
• Pumps needed as lifting is out
• Fermenting in 1 or multiple vessels and temperature control for such a large single volume is trickier and needs to be looked at.
• More yeast, so bigger starters
• More hops
• More grain
• More water minerals to be added
• Cooling with IC is less practical, CFC or plate chiller are obvious solutions
• *Greater efficiency in the brewhouse as constant deadspace losses remain unchanged but are a smaller percentage of the batch size.

Unchanged

• Recipe formulation (*except for an adjustment in BH efficiency to account for the above)
• Mash profiles,
• Fermentation schedule
• Packaging issues all remain identical

HBT is choc-full of info on all of these seperate topics if you care to look. You will find many folks ready, willing, and able to help you out if you can try to cool your jets a little.

 

[Owen]

First thing I said was that I used the search feature and as most of these forums, they don't work well. I don't mean to be condescending, but.....
Your comment was even less helpful, more of everything, really. This would have been a helpful comment. (actual numbers are made up because I hanen't done it yet)

I do 15 gallon batches and here is a link to a good discussion that might help. For me, I use a 25 gallon boil kettle for big beers, if you just do low gravity beers you could probably get away with 20.
To heat that much water you're gonna need at least 100,00 btu's, (125,000 would be better) which means a high pressure burner.
I used a 120 qt cooler to mash and that worked will, but you will need a hand truck to move it after it's wet.
A 30 gallon conical fermenter would be best, but you can still break that out into (6) 6 gallon carboys.
Unless you're going to use Sanke kegs, it's a lot easier to do 10 gallon batches for 2 corny kegs, ymmv.

See, If I had experience doing 15 gallon batches, this is how I would comment, so that it would actually be helpful and start a conversation that might help that person and anyone else that might have been thinking about it. There I feel better.

 

[brew_ny]

First thing I said was that I used the search feature and as most of these forums, they don't work well.

this will not help you do 15 gallon batches as I only do 11.5 gallon batches
but...


up by the search function here at HBT there is a arrow pointing down by where type in you search

select Google custom search and it works so much better

also I am glad you feel better and welcome

all the best

S_M

 

[bruteforce]

Not much I can really help with here, but I'll stick my nose in anyway. I've done a couple 15 gallon batches with friends. They tripled the ingredients, had a massive burner, and bigger equipment, though a little small for what they were doing, especially the mash tun. Had to do two mashes back to back to get enough into the boil kettle for anything over 1.055. We used a 20ish gallon plastic (HDPE) trashcan that had never been used for anything else as a fermenter, stored in an upright freezer.

Now, i have done some BIG (for most of my homebrew club) batches at 3 bbl a pop. Those, we had a 250k btu jet burner, 3bbl conicals, and a 3bbl brite tank, and all the other stuff sized appropriately. Pitched a truly massive starter, at least 5 gallons, and had a nice glycol unit to keep things at the right temp. Even at this size, we didn't have to really scale the recipe much. Hop utilization wasn't much different, and the specialty grains were contributing about the same, just a few minor tweaks with lower percentages of hops and grain, but very small.

 

[chickypad]

Yeah, x3, oh so helpful.

But that's not all he said. He gave recommendations on the size of your vessels, a burner, fermenter, chiller, about a stand or tier and pumps to avoid moving things. I think you would get better advice if you asked more specific qustions rather then "help me brew 15 gal". People on here are generally pretty helpful but the quality of your answers will reflect the quality of the question. It's kinda like when folks post in the beginner's forum, "how do I brew beer?" Well, what do you know already and what do you need? Also, just my opinion but kind of a good idea not to get too snotty with folks trying to help.

 

[Gavin C]

Your comment was even less helpful, more of everything, really. This would have been a helpful comment....

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

As an example of an easy search for one facet of your problem you could google

"How big does my mash tun need to be"


I've linked a useful site for handling this question. Again the information on sizes is all scalable from what you may already be using.

Heating big batches is easily solved but we know nothing about your budget or desires in the final product. Heres another great site to explore that side of things. Heating big batches no problem. Again all scale related solutions.

Not really sure what aspects of bigger batches are not scale related. The solutions to those issues are so obvious. Not sure what you are looking for. There is no conceptual, chemical or biological differences between 1,5,10,15, 100 gallon batches.

Anyway. Best of luck with it. Hopefully others will be able to overlook your earlier snarky posts and provide some insight that I am clearly unable to provide.

 

[peterj]

Here's a link for you: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site:homebrewtalk.com+how+to+brew+15+gallon+batches

Maybe you can read through some of those and find out how to not be a ****** on a forum.

 

[Owen]

I put up a post with a legitimate question and first person basically says, stupid question, but I'm so generous, I'll divulge a bit of info. The second person, says no way I would be really condescending and offers nothing. So who's the ******? Thanks for the link by the way and the back handed insult. I'm really beginning to like this place?

 

[LandoLincoln]

You obviously have never done a 15 gallon batch. Things get more complicated than that and the techniques for handling them vary. There is a lot to learn from other people who actually do large batches on a regular basis.

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo. You can tell when a man's done 15 gallon batches before. He's got that look in his eyes. And you don't have that look.

There I was, in my basement brewery. I was just getting ready for a nice 10 gallon batch of an RIS when my brew partner came down and said, "Lando, we've got a beer festival comin' up. They be wanting THREE corny kegs of beer fer it!" I was gobsmacked. "THREE?" I says. "Yea. THREE." says he. So I look over at my 25 gallon pots. Then I look over at my stacks of grains. Then I think about the hops I have in my freezer. And I says to him, "Okay then. Let's get to work."

So we get to heating up the strike water in the boil kettle and the sparge water in the hot liquor tank. We filled that hot liquor tank up to the very brim as God is my witness. As the water heated, we measured out the grains. "There's no way we'll ever be able to fit this much grain in the mash tun, let alone adding water to it!" my partner says. I smacked him rightly across the mouth with the back of me hand and I says, "that'll be the end of that kind of talk today, you hear me? We've got a job to do and we're gonna do it!" He glared at me but soon went to pouring the grains into the hopper for grinding.

Oh, how the grain mill drill groaned that day! Halfway through the milling the drill started to smoke! My partner says, "ease up on the drill! Give it a chance to cool down!" And I says, "ta hell with it! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" and I lay down on the trigger even more. By God, we did finish milling the grain that day, but that drill never spun again after. She did her job and that's all I could ask of her.

So the strike water is hot enough for the devil himself and we get to mashing in, with my partner feeding in the grains and me at the mash paddle. I paddled and paddled and the grains just kept on coming. My partner had a worried look about him and truth be told as did I. But by God, we did get mashed in with 1.25 quarts per pound of grain! 'Twas a glorious sight to see the mash tun filled up nearly to the very brim! And then we began to recirculate. And then we waited.

It gets lonely during the mash, even when you're with a partner. You're just alone in yer head thinking about things that might go wrong and what you'll do to fix 'em if they do. Lift the lid, check the recirculation, check the hot liquor tank, everything is fine. The beer gods were smiling on us, at least during the mash. After the hour was up, we began to drain into the boil kettle. Or at least that's what we planned. But the grains had a different idea. We turned the valve on the mash tun after hooking up the hoses, but nothing happened. Not a drop came out.

"We shoulda done two batches instead of jus' one!" My partner wailed as he ran about the brewery tossing things into the air. He was downright hysterical. I lunged at him and we wrestled on the ground. He punched me a good one in me gut and I put him in a headlock until he was almost passed out. "Calm down, ya fool! We'll fix it!" I yelled at him. He crawled into the corner and whimpered like a puppy. I grabbed the hose off of the hot liquor tank and attached it to the mash tun valve and turned on the water pump as I opened the mash tun valve. Rumblings from the bottom of the mash came to the top and the mash threatened to spill over the sides, but I managed to keep it in. Then we tried to drain the mash tun again and this time we got the flow we were looking for. My partner just stared agape at my skills that he only wished that he had.

So we drained that glorious black-as-yer-soul wort into the boil kettle as we drained the sparge water into the top of the mash tun. My partner did the math for us. "Let's see here...we want 15 gallons of finished beer, and we're draining into three carboys. We lose about a half-gallon of beer in each carboy to trub and testing, so that means we'll need 16.5 gallons of beer going in to the carboys. We'll lose about a half gallon of wort to the bottom of the boil kettle and the pump and hoses, so that's 17. We'll lose about 2.25 gallons to boil-off, so that's 19.25. Add 4% for heat expansion and that means we'll need about an even 20 at the beginning of the boil." He's good with calculations, I'll give him that.

It seemed to take days to get all of the wort that we wanted since we were only fly sparging a quart per minute, but we persevered. We checked the gravity and my partner's eyes brightened and he says, "Lando, we're right on the money!" So I says to him, "Yer damn right we are! That beer fest is gonna get the best 15 gallons of beer they've ever laid eyes and lips on!"

The boil was rancorous but we kept her steady. Down and down the volume went as the beer got muddy from the hop additions. At the end of the day, tired and wet, we sat with our backs against the brew rig and we knew that we had given this rig the ride of her life and we came out as the victors.

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo, the likes you'll never see. Or maybe you will, but you won't come out the other side like we did.

 

[Owen]

That was awesome!

 

[peterj]

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo. You can tell when a man's done 15 gallon batches before. He's got that look in his eyes. And you don't have that look.

There I was, in my basement brewery. I was just getting ready for a nice 10 gallon batch of an RIS when my brew partner came down and said, "Lando, we've got a beer festival comin' up. They be wanting THREE corny kegs of beer fer it!" I was gobsmacked. "THREE?" I says. "Yea. THREE." says he. So I look over at my 25 gallon pots. Then I look over at my stacks of grains. Then I think about the hops I have in my freezer. And I says to him, "Okay then. Let's get to work."

So we get to heating up the strike water in the boil kettle and the sparge water in the hot liquor tank. We filled that hot liquor tank up to the very brim as God is my witness. As the water heated, we measured out the grains. "There's no way we'll ever be able to fit this much grain in the mash tun, let alone adding water to it!" my partner says. I smacked him rightly across the mouth with the back of me hand and I says, "that'll be the end of that kind of talk today, you hear me? We've got a job to do and we're gonna do it!" He glared at me but soon went to pouring the grains into the hopper for grinding.

Oh, how the grain mill drill groaned that day! Halfway through the milling the drill started to smoke! My partner says, "ease up on the drill! Give it a chance to cool down!" And I says, "ta hell with it! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" and I lay down on the trigger even more. By God, we did finish milling the grain that day, but that drill never spun again after. She did her job and that's all I could ask of her.

So the strike water is hot enough for the devil himself and we get to mashing in, with my partner feeding in the grains and me at the mash paddle. I paddled and paddled and the grains just kept on coming. My partner had a worried look about him and truth be told as did I. But by God, we did get mashed in with 1.25 quarts per pound of grain! 'Twas a glorious sight to see the mash tun filled up nearly to the very brim! And then we began to recirculate. And then we waited.

It gets lonely during the mash, even when you're with a partner. You're just alone in yer head thinking about things that might go wrong and what you'll do to fix 'em if they do. Lift the lid, check the recirculation, check the hot liquor tank, everything is fine. The beer gods were smiling on us, at least during the mash. After the hour was up, we began to drain into the boil kettle. Or at least that's what we planned. But the grains had a different idea. We turned the valve on the mash tun after hooking up the hoses, but nothing happened. Not a drop came out.

"We shoulda done two batches instead of jus' one!" My partner wailed as he ran about the brewery tossing things into the air. He was downright hysterical. I lunged at him and we wrestled on the ground. He punched me a good one in me gut and I put him in a headlock until he was almost passed out. "Calm down, ya fool! We'll fix it!" I yelled at him. He crawled into the corner and whimpered like a puppy. I grabbed the hose off of the hot liquor tank and attached it to the mash tun valve and turned on the water pump as I opened the mash tun valve. Rumblings from the bottom of the mash came to the top and the mash threatened to spill over the sides, but I managed to keep it in. Then we tried to drain the mash tun again and this time we got the flow we were looking for. My partner just stared agape at my skills that he only wished that he had.

So we drained that glorious black-as-yer-soul wort into the boil kettle as we drained the sparge water into the top of the mash tun. My partner did the math for us. "Let's see here...we want 15 gallons of finished beer, and we're draining into three carboys. We lose about a half-gallon of beer in each carboy to trub and testing, so that means we'll need 16.5 gallons of beer going in to the carboys. We'll lose about a half gallon of wort to the bottom of the boil kettle and the pump and hoses, so that's 17. We'll lose about 2.25 gallons to boil-off, so that's 19.25. Add 4% for heat expansion and that means we'll need about an even 20 at the beginning of the boil." He's good with calculations, I'll give him that.

It seemed to take days to get all of the wort that we wanted since we were only fly sparging a quart per minute, but we persevered. We checked the gravity and my partner's eyes brightened and he says, "Lando, we're right on the money!" So I says to him, "Yer damn right we are! That beer fest is gonna get the best 15 gallons of beer they've ever laid eyes and lips on!"

The boil was rancorous but we kept her steady. Down and down the volume went as the beer got muddy from the hop additions. At the end of the day, tired and wet, we sat with our backs against the brew rig and we knew that we had given this rig the ride of her life and we came out as the victors.

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo, the likes you'll never see. Or maybe you will, but you won't come out the other side like we did.

That. Was. ....Awesome!!

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I'm gearing up to do a 15.5 batch for a sankey for a wedding. I'll be using two 5G biabs and dunk sparging both bags in the second kettle while the first is filled with both first runnings. I can get close to 75% efficiency this way for 23#'s of grain. I should be able to make 12G of 1.040 wart for my two 6 G fermenters. I'll blend in 3.5G of from a 1.090OG batch that is finishing up(same recipe, but not diluted). I don't want too high an abv for a wedding crowd. I used some extra hops to account for lower utilization from a concentrated boil.
I've been pondering fermenting in a Sankey, but my sample cider batch in a corney didn't turn out great..I'll try again with better juice, but I don't want to risk a whole batch of beer before I can verify the results.

 

[peterj]

I put up a post with a legitimate question and first person basically says, stupid question, but I'm so generous, I'll divulge a bit of info. The second person, says no way I would be really condescending and offers nothing. So who's the ******? Thanks for the link by the way and the back handed insult. I'm really beginning to like this place?

The question you posted was pretty vague. How can people be expected to read your mind and know all of the precise parameters and formats that you expect to get answers back in? Multiply x3 was a simple answer to a simple question, and because it was so simple he said he didn't mean to sound condescending. He then went on to give a lot of helpful tips and relevant information. If you want more specific answers then ask more specific questions, and don't get butthurt and lash out every time someone makes a joke. This is the internet, people make jokes on the internet.

That was awesome!

That. Was. ....Awesome!!

Also, same time! That was crazy!

 

[Brewenstein]

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo. You can tell when a man's done 15 gallon batches before. He's got that look in his eyes. And you don't have that look.

There I was, in my basement brewery. I was just getting ready for a nice 10 gallon batch of an RIS when my brew partner came down and said, "Lando, we've got a beer festival comin' up. They be wanting THREE corny kegs of beer fer it!" I was gobsmacked. "THREE?" I says. "Yea. THREE." says he. So I look over at my 25 gallon pots. Then I look over at my stacks of grains. Then I think about the hops I have in my freezer. And I says to him, "Okay then. Let's get to work."

So we get to heating up the strike water in the boil kettle and the sparge water in the hot liquor tank. We filled that hot liquor tank up to the very brim as God is my witness. As the water heated, we measured out the grains. "There's no way we'll ever be able to fit this much grain in the mash tun, let alone adding water to it!" my partner says. I smacked him rightly across the mouth with the back of me hand and I says, "that'll be the end of that kind of talk today, you hear me? We've got a job to do and we're gonna do it!" He glared at me but soon went to pouring the grains into the hopper for grinding.

Oh, how the grain mill drill groaned that day! Halfway through the milling the drill started to smoke! My partner says, "ease up on the drill! Give it a chance to cool down!" And I says, "ta hell with it! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" and I lay down on the trigger even more. By God, we did finish milling the grain that day, but that drill never spun again after. She did her job and that's all I could ask of her.

So the strike water is hot enough for the devil himself and we get to mashing in, with my partner feeding in the grains and me at the mash paddle. I paddled and paddled and the grains just kept on coming. My partner had a worried look about him and truth be told as did I. But by God, we did get mashed in with 1.25 quarts per pound of grain! 'Twas a glorious sight to see the mash tun filled up nearly to the very brim! And then we began to recirculate. And then we waited.

It gets lonely during the mash, even when you're with a partner. You're just alone in yer head thinking about things that might go wrong and what you'll do to fix 'em if they do. Lift the lid, check the recirculation, check the hot liquor tank, everything is fine. The beer gods were smiling on us, at least during the mash. After the hour was up, we began to drain into the boil kettle. Or at least that's what we planned. But the grains had a different idea. We turned the valve on the mash tun after hooking up the hoses, but nothing happened. Not a drop came out.

"We shoulda done two batches instead of jus' one!" My partner wailed as he ran about the brewery tossing things into the air. He was downright hysterical. I lunged at him and we wrestled on the ground. He punched me a good one in me gut and I put him in a headlock until he was almost passed out. "Calm down, ya fool! We'll fix it!" I yelled at him. He crawled into the corner and whimpered like a puppy. I grabbed the hose off of the hot liquor tank and attached it to the mash tun valve and turned on the water pump as I opened the mash tun valve. Rumblings from the bottom of the mash came to the top and the mash threatened to spill over the sides, but I managed to keep it in. Then we tried to drain the mash tun again and this time we got the flow we were looking for. My partner just stared agape at my skills that he only wished that he had.

So we drained that glorious black-as-yer-soul wort into the boil kettle as we drained the sparge water into the top of the mash tun. My partner did the math for us. "Let's see here...we want 15 gallons of finished beer, and we're draining into three carboys. We lose about a half-gallon of beer in each carboy to trub and testing, so that means we'll need 16.5 gallons of beer going in to the carboys. We'll lose about a half gallon of wort to the bottom of the boil kettle and the pump and hoses, so that's 17. We'll lose about 2.25 gallons to boil-off, so that's 19.25. Add 4% for heat expansion and that means we'll need about an even 20 at the beginning of the boil." He's good with calculations, I'll give him that.

It seemed to take days to get all of the wort that we wanted since we were only fly sparging a quart per minute, but we persevered. We checked the gravity and my partner's eyes brightened and he says, "Lando, we're right on the money!" So I says to him, "Yer damn right we are! That beer fest is gonna get the best 15 gallons of beer they've ever laid eyes and lips on!"

The boil was rancorous but we kept her steady. Down and down the volume went as the beer got muddy from the hop additions. At the end of the day, tired and wet, we sat with our backs against the brew rig and we knew that we had given this rig the ride of her life and we came out as the victors.

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo, the likes you'll never see. Or maybe you will, but you won't come out the other side like we did.

Am I the only one that read that with a Billy Dee Williams voice in my head? :cross:

 

[Gavin C]

For me it was more like a pirate or grizzled old man with some Scotty from Startrek thrown in at the appropriate times. Just marvelous stuff.

And with the inclusion of measures and techniques it fits in perfectly to a technical thread. Nice job @landolincoln . Tremendous prose.

 

[Gavin C]

I wonder did @Gary_Oak have an older brother or middle name beginning with O?

 

[normonster]

X3. Nothin more for you to know.

 

[chickypad]

Am I the only one that read that with a Billy Dee Williams voice in my head? :cross:

It's Lando, man!

 

[Psylocide]

For me it was more like a pirate or grizzled old man with some Scotty from Startrek thrown in at the appropriate times. Just marvelous stuff.

And with the inclusion of measures and techniques it fits in perfectly to a technical thread. Nice job @landolincoln . Tremendous prose.

I read it in Quint's voice from Jaws.

Real sloooow like.

 

[ultra_cas]

Nice post Lando. Reminds me of our 65 gallon brew weekend, 24 gallons on day 1, and 40 gallons on day 2. Double mashes, combined to one kettle, split to multiple carboys, and repeat. We did not come out the other side the same.

But to the OP: go for it, when your done, you'll have this "I did it" feeling afterwards!

 

[LandoLincoln]

For me it was more like a pirate or grizzled old man with some Scotty from Startrek thrown in at the appropriate times. Just marvelous stuff.

And with the inclusion of measures and techniques it fits in perfectly to a technical thread. Nice job @landolincoln . Tremendous prose.

Thank you, thank you all. I did have a combination of Quint from Jaws and maybe some 1800's pirate thrown in there.

 

[jtratcliff]

So who's the ******?

It'd still be you, my friend...

Lot's of helpful folks on this forum. Some even continued to try to offer suggestions even after you got all pissy.

From my perspective you went nonlinear over some minor stuff.

Might be your style, we don't know you, But more flies with honey and all that...

I know that I personally won't be too quick to offer you any suggestions knowing I might get "thanked" for being "so helpful".

Good luck.

 

[geoffey]

Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo. You can tell when a man's done 15 gallon batches before. He's got that look in his eyes. And you don't have that look.



There I was, in my basement brewery. I was just getting ready for a nice 10 gallon batch of an RIS when my brew partner came down and said, "Lando, we've got a beer festival comin' up. They be wanting THREE corny kegs of beer fer it!" I was gobsmacked. "THREE?" I says. "Yea. THREE." says he. So I look over at my 25 gallon pots. Then I look over at my stacks of grains. Then I think about the hops I have in my freezer. And I says to him, "Okay then. Let's get to work."



So we get to heating up the strike water in the boil kettle and the sparge water in the hot liquor tank. We filled that hot liquor tank up to the very brim as God is my witness. As the water heated, we measured out the grains. "There's no way we'll ever be able to fit this much grain in the mash tun, let alone adding water to it!" my partner says. I smacked him rightly across the mouth with the back of me hand and I says, "that'll be the end of that kind of talk today, you hear me? We've got a job to do and we're gonna do it!" He glared at me but soon went to pouring the grains into the hopper for grinding.



Oh, how the grain mill drill groaned that day! Halfway through the milling the drill started to smoke! My partner says, "ease up on the drill! Give it a chance to cool down!" And I says, "ta hell with it! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" and I lay down on the trigger even more. By God, we did finish milling the grain that day, but that drill never spun again after. She did her job and that's all I could ask of her.



So the strike water is hot enough for the devil himself and we get to mashing in, with my partner feeding in the grains and me at the mash paddle. I paddled and paddled and the grains just kept on coming. My partner had a worried look about him and truth be told as did I. But by God, we did get mashed in with 1.25 quarts per pound of grain! 'Twas a glorious sight to see the mash tun filled up nearly to the very brim! And then we began to recirculate. And then we waited.



It gets lonely during the mash, even when you're with a partner. You're just alone in yer head thinking about things that might go wrong and what you'll do to fix 'em if they do. Lift the lid, check the recirculation, check the hot liquor tank, everything is fine. The beer gods were smiling on us, at least during the mash. After the hour was up, we began to drain into the boil kettle. Or at least that's what we planned. But the grains had a different idea. We turned the valve on the mash tun after hooking up the hoses, but nothing happened. Not a drop came out.



"We shoulda done two batches instead of jus' one!" My partner wailed as he ran about the brewery tossing things into the air. He was downright hysterical. I lunged at him and we wrestled on the ground. He punched me a good one in me gut and I put him in a headlock until he was almost passed out. "Calm down, ya fool! We'll fix it!" I yelled at him. He crawled into the corner and whimpered like a puppy. I grabbed the hose off of the hot liquor tank and attached it to the mash tun valve and turned on the water pump as I opened the mash tun valve. Rumblings from the bottom of the mash came to the top and the mash threatened to spill over the sides, but I managed to keep it in. Then we tried to drain the mash tun again and this time we got the flow we were looking for. My partner just stared agape at my skills that he only wished that he had.



So we drained that glorious black-as-yer-soul wort into the boil kettle as we drained the sparge water into the top of the mash tun. My partner did the math for us. "Let's see here...we want 15 gallons of finished beer, and we're draining into three carboys. We lose about a half-gallon of beer in each carboy to trub and testing, so that means we'll need 16.5 gallons of beer going in to the carboys. We'll lose about a half gallon of wort to the bottom of the boil kettle and the pump and hoses, so that's 17. We'll lose about 2.25 gallons to boil-off, so that's 19.25. Add 4% for heat expansion and that means we'll need about an even 20 at the beginning of the boil." He's good with calculations, I'll give him that.



It seemed to take days to get all of the wort that we wanted since we were only fly sparging a quart per minute, but we persevered. We checked the gravity and my partner's eyes brightened and he says, "Lando, we're right on the money!" So I says to him, "Yer damn right we are! That beer fest is gonna get the best 15 gallons of beer they've ever laid eyes and lips on!"



The boil was rancorous but we kept her steady. Down and down the volume went as the beer got muddy from the hop additions. At the end of the day, tired and wet, we sat with our backs against the brew rig and we knew that we had given this rig the ride of her life and we came out as the victors.



Oh, I've done 15 gallon batches, boyo, the likes you'll never see. Or maybe you will, but you won't come out the other side like we did.

Maybe the best post I've ever read on this forum. Thank you!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I put up a post with a legitimate question and first person basically says, stupid question, but I'm so generous, I'll divulge a bit of info. The second person, says no way I would be really condescending and offers nothing. So who's the ******? Thanks for the link by the way and the back handed insult. I'm really beginning to like this place?

I guess you missed the smiley face behind the "multiply by three" comment signifying a joke.

 

[geoffey]

You obviously have never done a 15 gallon batch. Things get more complicated than that and the techniques for handling them vary. There is a lot to learn from other people who actually do large batches on a regular basis.

so . . . you clearly already know so much about brewing 15 gallon batches. What the hell are you asking about then?

 

[broncosmoker]

Ok so read over and just ignoring most of the drama and will try to help you out.

I brew 15g+ batches on a routine basis and have learned a few things that I will pass onto you.

I brew with a herms system and coolers. For doing larger 15g+ batches this is something a highly recommend doing. It will help immensely with your efficiency and clarity of beers. It will also help with even temperatures across and throughout the entire cooler. With that said I will start with some basics.

The Herms tank. I would go with 1/2 copper coil, minimum 25 feet on a 9" diameter. You can do this in a keggle but if you have a 20g pot that would be better as you will use the water in there for sparge. Circulate from the bottom and go up.

For coolers you can do a 72 qt, but i recommend either a 120 or 156 for 15g batches as with those you can cover just about every gravity level of beers, the 156 can cover some really high high beers. In my coolers I run loc line with drippers throughout to help with even temps and recirc flow. If you make a home variety in, make sure it covers from end to end and edge to edge with good coverage.

In the coolers for batches of this size you are going to want to hake a solid copper slotted manifold. Those wire/screen manifolds are going to crush really easily in big batches. I assume you could do a CPVC, but i prefer copper.

For your boil you can get away with a 20 but I would deff go 25. 20 is tight for you with hop additions and boils, especially 90 minute boils. So do yourself a favor and go big or go home.

You are going to want a whirlpool on you BK. A simple elbow system works. Come up about 6-8 inches from the bottom and install it. Turn it to where it is just up a little bit and not parallel with the bottom of the BK.

You can chill with an ic. Cool with water first, then use a submersible pump in a cooler with ice water. A plate chiller using the cooler/pump combo works better. I had a counter flow and ended up hating it in larger batches.

For burners go with a BG-14 on the boil or a 32 tip jet burner for the BK. On the HLT you can go with whatever as you are usually maintaining temps a few degrees above your mash depending on how often you are opening cooler and other minor variables.

You can do this system with one pump. It is a pain in the arse though and 2 makes your life easier, especially on the cleaning stages.

On the BK you are going to want a large hop spider or something similar. You can do the painters bags but they really become difficult to use on large batches, especially on IIPA's with many additions.

An 8x14 is a nice size or again go bigger if you can depending on pot style/size.


Fermenting is a huge challenge unless you have a large conical (20+) You can do multiple smaller fermentation devices and blend, but you will be enhancing the chances of infections or oxidation. That and you could possibly get 3 different fermentations numbers and the beer would be hard to replicate down the road.

Not sure what other advice I can give that you will take, but feel free to ask or pm me if you want.

Have you looked at carbing in a sanke before? Little trickier than doing ball/pin lock kegs.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Wow, I came into this thread to give you a hand. But nevermind. I brew 10-20 gallon batches in my 30 gallon kettles with a eHERMS style control system. So clearly I am unqualified to help you.

So yes, just add more ingredients. Do some trial and error. And stop asking question around here. You don't listen to the responses you get.

 

[Psylocide]

For me it was more like a pirate or grizzled old man with some Scotty from Startrek thrown in at the appropriate times. Just marvelous stuff.

And with the inclusion of measures and techniques it fits in perfectly to a technical thread. Nice job @landolincoln . Tremendous prose.

I read it in Quint's voice from Jaws.

Real sloooow like.

Thank you, thank you all. I did have a combination of Quint from Jaws and maybe some 1800's pirate thrown in there.

What do we win?

On topic for the OP: Just multiply everything by 3.

 

[Gavin C]

3 times more than we otherwise would have.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Hey I tried to help, but check out my new signature.