Does anyone brew more than 5/6 gallons at a time?

[Caboose]

I'm in the process of deciding on a brew system setup, and I'm trying to decide if I want to up my output.

Currently I do 5/6.5 gallon batches, but I wonder about doing 10 gallon batches. My biggest concern is if I only buy 10 gallon pots, I will regret it later down the road if I decide to increase my output. But on the other hand, if I buy 20 gallon pots to do 10 gallon batches, what if I never make it to that output.

I guess I'm looking to see how common it is to do more than the standard 5 gallon batch, or do a lot of people start doubling up.

On a side note, a lot of times I give a lot of my beer to my close friends to drink, so I do go through a batch pretty quickly (last batch of Speckled Heifer was gone within a month of being bottled). I had thought about kegging 5 gallons and bottling 5 gallons.

 

[Rockn_M]

I had the same questions when building my home brewery. I decided on 62 quart pots. This way I had enough room to do 10 gallon batches and still could do 5 gallon batches.

 

[atom]

i do about 50/50 5 gal/10 gal batches. i have a 15.5 gallon kettle that works well for either size.

 

[Swiller]

Yes, a lot of people do. I generally do 12 gallon batches. But I can go up to 25gal.

This has been asked before, and you'll get "buy a 15 gal pot" from most.... Including me. You can do 5 and 10 gal batches.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I started about a year ago with a 10 gallon pot/6 gallon batches. With a new kid and home renovations, the time of brew day invested for just one keg in the end was a drag. The best thing I did this past year was make a keggle. This 15 gal pot allows me to do 11gal batches, and end up with two fermentors/kegs full in the end. Double the beer for just a little more effort on brew day! It also opens up a ton of split batch opportunities. I'm doing an american/belgian IPA this weekend and my last batch was a kolsch/saison all from the same wort.

 

[cannman]

I just came to this same crossroad recently. This might help you *although not make the decision for you*

1) I brewed 5 gals and wanted to move to all grain BIAB. If I wanted to do 10 gal BIAB, calculations required 21 gallon+ brew pot!!!! To make it affordable, I'd have to go 25gal ALUMINUM (I happen to believe that aluminum is completely underrated and you should brew with confidence).

2) Alternative was to brew 10 gal using a 16 gal SS pot, but that means I could only brew lower gravity brews or I'd have to upgrade to a non-BIAB system (such as with the Igloo Mash systems), or brew with LME/DME, maybe even partial boil.

3) Then I considered how much more money each batch would cost at one particular time, the space needed in my fermentation chamber, my consumption of beer rate, the space bottles would take, the fact that I do not have a draft system, my desire to drink 10 gallons of one particular brew, and especially the costs if the brew is bad or infected.

for what its worth, I went with 16 gal ss and decided if I wanted to increase the volume of brews, I'd do 8 gal batches and ferm in 2 5 gal carboys.

Good luck!

 

[Caboose]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone, I think the best route will be the 15 gallon pots.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I started about a year ago with a 10 gallon pot/6 gallon batches. With a new kid and home renovations, the time of brew day invested for just one keg in the end was a drag. The best thing I did this past year was make a keggle. This 15 gal pot allows me to do 11gal batches, and end up with two fermentors/kegs full in the end. Double the beer for just a little more effort on brew day! It also opens up a ton of split batch opportunities. I'm doing an american/belgian IPA this weekend and my last batch was a kolsch/saison all from the same wort.

I did this write-up on splitting batches which I would never want to do 10 gallons without. Don't fear getting bored with 4 cases of the same beer.

I just came to this same crossroad recently. This might help you *although not make the decision for you*

1) I brewed 5 gals and wanted to move to all grain BIAB. If I wanted to do 10 gal BIAB, calculations required 21 gallon+ brew pot!!!! To make it affordable, I'd have to go 25gal ALUMINUM (I happen to believe that aluminum is completely underrated and you should brew with confidence).

2) Alternative was to brew 10 gal using a 16 gal SS pot, but that means I could only brew lower gravity brews or I'd have to upgrade to a non-BIAB system (such as with the Igloo Mash systems), or brew with LME/DME, maybe even partial boil.

3) Then I considered how much more money each batch would cost at one particular time, the space needed in my fermentation chamber, my consumption of beer rate, the space bottles would take, the fact that I do not have a draft system, my desire to drink 10 gallons of one particular brew, and especially the costs if the brew is bad or infected.

for what its worth, I went with 16 gal ss and decided if I wanted to increase the volume of brews, I'd do 8 gal batches and ferm in 2 5 gal carboys.

Good luck!

Doing weird batch sizes is always an option to be considered.

 

[Zepth]

I just used my new brew pot for the very first time today. 15 gallon threaded. Next on the itinerary is to chop a hole in the side of it and go immersion element. Parts for that in the mail.

Anyways did what looks like it will be about 6 gallons going into fermenter, just letting the whirlpool settle. Having a ton of headspace in that pot was confidence inspiring. I had a couple small boil overs, but being indoors makes a hose cleanup not so possible. Looks like when the e-brew hardware is set up it should be able to bring 10g batches to a slow relaxed rolling boil without spewing into the heavens as soon as they get there. Others have said they do 10g in a 15g and have few problems as long as they pay attention. Helped make my decision.

To actually answer the initial question, I have made one 10g in the past. It didn't go so well. Having to split the boil into 2 pots x 2 boil sessions, rack into a single giant fermenter instead of splitting or just twin carboys, combined with inexperience and underpitching yielded less than admirable results. Now I know better on all of those factors and looking forward to the next time I get an opportunity for a big batch. Moral of the story: make sure you've got yourself together before jumping into big batches.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

The amount of work for 10 gallons is incrementally more than 5 gallons. My minimum batch size it 8 but I usually do 10 gallons finished beer volume. I can do up to 20 gallons on the brew house, but currently limited in fermentation space.

Going a little bigger is great, especially when you start entertaining. I'm in the middle of brewing 20 gallons of two styles for a wedding I'm serving at.

 

[natnov]

Buy the biggest pot you can afford! I do 10-13 gallon batches can do 15 -17 gallons on my current setup...have done 5 gallon batches with my 20 gallon pot no problem

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I've found that 15 gallon pots let me easily do 5.5 gallons into the fermentor without too many problems (sometimes I have to increase my water-to-grist ratio on low gravity beers to make sure my mash tun thermometer gets covered by the mash), and at the same time I can do 10 gallon batches of brews that have a longer shelf life and a higher OG - doppelbocks, barleywines - just by lowering my water-to-grist ratio. I wouldn't change a thing. However, I bottle (sold off my kegging stuff years ago) and I wouldn't want to have to bottle more than 10 gallons in a single day.

 

[brew_ny]

16 gallon pot to do 11.5 gallon batches

all the best

S_M