Advice needed! Kettle size

[bionut]

After a few years of moving from a city to another and a baby in my familly i can finally return to my electric brewery.
I was going to make a 3 vessel HERMS system based on Kal's controller, with 100 liters pots (25 gal?). In the meantime i had the oportunity to buy a 160 liters pot ( 40 gal?). Now a have two pots, 160 l and 100 l pot. I will buy another 100 liters pot for the system, but i don't know how to integrate the bigger 160 l one.

What would you do, use the big pot for boiling, HLT or mash tun?

If i make a boiler will the 100 l mash tun be big enough to make enough wort? For smaller and pilot batches i have my 50 liters biab ekettle. I have a lot of friends but not always the time to brew.
The power isn't a problem because i will have 3 phases 380V.

I can buy another 160 liters pot if needed, but i am afraid this way i will be forced to make the third one 160 L too...

 

[kyt]

When you ask if the 100 l (26.4 gal) is big enough to make enough wort, we'd need to know what your intended batch size is, and approximately how much grain you are expecting to put in it.
20L (5.3 gal) of light adjunct lager? Way too big.
95L (25.1 gal) of barley wine? Way too small.


Personally, I would default the 160 to an HLT.
or... set all of the pots up with the same port configuration, then move the 160 (42.3 gal) around to be whatever you need it to be. You can easily cap ports that aren't being used.
Making a big beer? Use it as a mash tun!
Making a double size batch? Use it as a boil kettle!

...why didn't I think of this sooner..hmm

 

[Dland]

If you stick with the 100L kettles, use the 160L for BK and you will not have to worry much about boil overs.

 

[kyt]

If you stick with the 100L kettles, use the 160L for BK and you will not have to worry much about boil overs.

but his boil off rate would increase

 

[TechFanMD]

but his boil off rate would increase

How do you know that without knowing the shape of the kettle. It might be the same approximate diameter, but taller.

 

[kyt]

How do you know that without knowing the shape of the kettle. It might be the same approximate diameter, but taller.

You are right, I'm making an assumption. Its doubtful that a kettle of 60% more capacity is only going to be taller and not wider. But you're right, could just be a blichmann-like kettle with a sleeve stuck on top of it.

 

[Dland]

but his boil off rate would increase

Boil could be shortened and save energy, I guess. Anyone who has their boil time timed and calibrated to BK open surface area is a much more precise brewer than me.

Brewers (and cooks, bakers & ice cream makers) who are slaves to a recipe never will master their craft.

 

[bionut]

All the pots have the same diameter as the height, so the 100 l is ~50 cm x 50 cm and the 160 l one is ~60 cm x 60 cm. I tend to go with the bigger BK because i could make bigger batches when i want (when i don't i can use the 50 l biab pot). As a biaber till now i don't really know how much can i mash in a 100 l pot. Recently i started to like Russian Imperial Stouts, and those can have a very impresive grain bill.
I am still planning, any advice is welcomed. If needed i can sell the 160 l pot and buy two smaller ones... Or sell the 100 L and buy 2 160 L lol

 

[augiedoggy]

Boil could be shortened and save energy, I guess. Anyone who has their boil time timed and calibrated to BK open surface area is a much more precise brewer than me.

Brewers (and cooks, bakers & ice cream makers) who are slaves to a recipe never will master their craft.

Do you brew with electric? its a pretty simple process to dial in your boil off rate if so as long as you have a duty cycle mode set a a consistent value during the boil. One of the best things about electric is consistency.

 

[Dland]

Do you brew with electric? its a pretty simple process to dial in your boil off rate if so as long as you have a duty cycle mode set a a consistent value during the boil. One of the best things about electric is consistency.

Usually there are other factors more important to me than exact amount of boil off. That varies anyway, as I brew outdoors in almost any weather, and rate seems to vary with different temps and humidity. As long as a little more than 10 gallons is in the fermenter when I'm done, I'm happy.

I have some respect for those who do things precisely, but that is not me. More of an improviser type in a lot of matters. I'll compare it to a the difference between a sport fisherman who has exacting tackle and great technique to a meat fisherman with cheap, heavy tackle who just wants to catch some food, and knows where to cast too.

Some day I might get everything "dialed in", but often I have variations amount I want boiled off due to different mashing or sparging volumes, especially now as I adjust to electric. And sometimes it seems best to let boil continue a little longer if I have other brewing chores to attend to, like sanitizing the fermenter I'm about to use.

 

[augiedoggy]

understood.... I brew indoors and wasnt as if I am OCD .. I just noticed "hey I'm getting x amount of boil off at this number on the duty cycle, I bet if I go up to this number I can make it an even gallon in an hour" so I did it.. If I were a but low on my efficiencies I would increase the boiloff and sparge slightly more wort to compensate.. Not something I really have to do often anymore since things are fairly consisnt at around 91% efficiency but every now and then sa grainbill with wheat or oats will throw me off.