You know there is one thing missing from this thread....What is the Big Difference? That's what you wanted to know right? What is the big difference? I was explained this at one time. So, I'll try to explain it here but I'm sure there will be someone who might make it sound better because as I have experience in both it is by no means extensive. So here it goes...
Perhaps we should start by saying in the end result for us there really is not much of any difference. For us. So lets say we are a real big brewer. Lets say we are Sam Adams
Personal favororite of mine
Ok, we're brewing. How much a year? WOW! Thousands of gallons! Thousands! (Think I'm going to have a great dream tonight!). In this case, we are using a huge fly setup. Why.... well we'll get to that real soon.
Lets do a quick change here. We are now not Sam Adam's but we are ourself. In our kitchen. In a small apartment no less (chose this setting cause it is where many feel this can't be done... dont fool yourself in thinking this way). We are not brewing thousands of gallons here. Its MUCH less. Today we are brewing an incredible Stout. This Stout is going to have an aromas so incredible that the entire building is gonig to wonder what in the hell is going on in our small apartment. Are we going to batch or fly today? Well today we are going to batch. Why? If we Fly we would get much more efficiency? If we Fly we would not have to use as much grain to make the same incredible Stout? Ok... ALL TRUE. Yep... all true. So let's take out our little hand calculator here. What are we dealing with..... If you go over to Northern you would see that the average grain runs ... eh... between $1.50 and $1.90. Lets say for our modest calculation grain runs $1.70. So in order to get a Batch to the same efficientcy of a Fly... that is in order to get a Batch to taste like a Fly setup was used we need to add some more grain. Why.... as we said it's not as efficient. So lets add 2 more pounds. That comes to what.... $3.40. So for roughly $3.40 you get the same beer.... it's done MUCH MUCH faster, you dont have any problem with Ph, and you can basicly just let er rip and there is not really much of anything for you to have to keep track of.
Wow.... well if it is all so good and dandy why didn't we do this when we were Sam Adam's? Because my friend... as this is probably very obvious now. When we were Sam Adam's we were dealing not with our small batch in our humble kitchen, but huge batches..... 1,000s of pounds of grain. I have absolutly no clue as to how much moer they would need, but lets say they woudl need 1,000 more pounds of grain to get the same efficiency. Now we are not talking about $3.40. Now we are talking about $1,700! And that money is bottom line here you know. They are in the business to make more that cost less. We could not care a less in our little kitchen.
And that is why many of us Batch rather then Fly :rockin: