Brutus 20 limitations?

[diatonic]

This may be my own ignorance, but that's why I'm asking . It seems like there are a *ton* of Brutus 20s being built. Some very high-end ones, like The Pol's (miss that dude) and willynilly's. People that have several thousand dollars in to a Brutus 20.

I thought that the Brutus 20 was a concept that Lonnie Mac had, but found that you couldn't do big beers. I think I've read that Brutus 20s can't do beers over 1.050 because of reaching a saturation point in the recirculating water where the remaining sugars can't be extracted from the grist.

Are Brutus 20 owners avoiding big beers?.. or have people had success doing big beers on a Brutus 20?

 

[Mose]

I'm new to the AG scene and can't speak to this from experience. However, I've been reading every post I can find on here regarding this issue. I'm planning on building a Brutus 20 myself.

This link for the Countertop Brutus20 system seems to say the two vessle guys (and the want to be guys like me) don't need to stick to low gravity beer. It appears that his real limitation was the size of his BK and MLT.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/countertop-brutus-20-a-131411/index32.html#post1883854

I believe I read a build thread from CodeRage with a Brutus 20, the Simple Brewery also has some information on it. I think they all reported good things with efficiency and gravity results. Sorry I don't have the links handy for those.

Like I said I'm the guy looking on and learning. By the way, I've been watching your build, looks fantastic, thanks for posting it.

 

[Bobby_M]

Efficiency loss is directly tied to the amount of grain you have in a no sparge situation. You can reach a point where throwing more grain at it will hurt efficiency so bad that it's a losing battle.

 

[Mose]

Efficiency loss is directly tied to the amount of grain you have in a no sparge situation. You can reach a point where throwing more grain at it will hurt efficiency so bad that it's a losing battle.

I don't think I understand this. Could you explain it a little more? Thanks.

 

[diatonic]

Thanks Mose! I guess I should have read deeper in to that thread .

 

[diatonic]

I guess this image is what I needed to see:

I don't know how many real points were plotted to that. I have a hard time believing anyone did a 3.5 gallon batch with a 40 lb. grist and got 41% efficiency... but I suppose it is possible.

 

[jkarp]

Here's the graphs for 5 and 10 gal batches too. All are theoretical max efficiency (i.e. congress mash). Efficiency does go down as wort gravity goes up; just not as much as everyone thinks.

 

[willynilly]

JKarp is right... those are the same plots that I have gotten...

30 pounds of grain in a 10 gallon batch will still yield about 70% eff. Your eff. loss when you are "no sparging" is tied DIRECTLY to your fluid losses in deadspace and grain absorption. The larger your pre-boil volume, the smaller your losses are in comparison to your total volume. I boil off 2x as much as JKarp, but the #s are about the same.

70% eff with 30 pounds in a 10 gallon batch is 1.080? That is um pretty big. No 1.050 limits here.