First 10 gallon batch tell me your mistake so I don't make it too

[northernlad]

Yeah, heating and cooling will be your biggest challenges.

I use a 52qt cooler for a mash tun and can fit roughly 25lbs grain with about 1.25qt water per lb.
Works well for me. If I want a beer over 1.060 I need to add DME.

When I started 10+ gallon batches I only had carboys and splitting was kind of a pain. I got a 15gal Spiedel fermentor and love it (except its heavy as **** when full).

Have fun. You'll not want to go back to small batches.

 

[FranklinNewhart]

I was watching the program Moonshiners and I noticed they used a rosebud style burner instead of a corn kettle style burner. I would think that the rosebud would be a good upgrade for more heat. Little harder to control though for holding temp at a specific heat.

Putting 15 gallons of water/wort into a pot before i lift it into place. Not a problem with a 5 gallon batch, but 10 gallon batches are uncomfortably heavy to be wrestling around at any height.

Having a burner that can bring it up to boil quick enough. My burner for 5 gal batches the common bayou classic, really could only simmer a 10 gallon batch, not hard enough to drive off dms in a pils efficiently, i ended up having to upgrade the burner.

 

[humu1us]

The main difference for me was finding a way to transfer beer. I am a simple guy and didn't want to mess with pumps. I am also fit and can lift a kettle with 13 gallons of warm (not freshly boiled) wort. So, my method won't work for everybody. I like to weigh my kettle with mash water and then later with sparge water using a digital bathroom scale. I am a precisionist. I pour this water into my 10 gallon cooler mash tun. I have two 5 gallon coolers for the 170F sparge water. I batch sparge. After I have filled my kettle with wort I lift it up onto my propane burner. The propane burner is resting on a small dolly I made out of a wooden pallet. The dolly has 4 caster wheels and the surface is probably a foot off the ground. I boil my wort and then when finished I just roll the dolly with kettle over to the sink I have in my garage where I have a set up with 2 immersion chillers. I am not stupid enough to lift 11 gallons of just-boiled wort. My kettle has a spigot which allows me to transfer to my carboys. When the kettle is half empty or so I pick it up and pour the rest into carboys. I am not patient enough to wait for the slow flow through the spigot at the end. One tip for everybody is DONT WORRY ABOUT TRUB! The "Trub is bad" myth needs to go away. I have brewed many batches trying to keep Trub out of carboys and wasting quite a bit of beer in the process. I then read a great article that debunked this myth and have happily been sending all the trub into my carboys ever since. My beer tastes just as good as ever; and I have more now.

 

[wwgiese]

The biggest problem I have had since going big (15Gal) is with stuck mashes. My 10 gal pot is often very full of grain and can easily clog when recirculating the mash. More so when I have wheat in the mash. I have found it easier to some extent but it probably is due to having bought better equipment to go big.

 

[timdillon36]

That setup can work but as others have said, and i agree, that the MLT is too small. I use a 12g square cooler and it is maxed out at 25lbs and sill a double batch sparge to get to 13g pre boil and the third runnings are very low gravity.

24lbs grain
+7.5g water
3g absorbation
=4g run off

13g pre boil
-4g flirst runnings
=9g of sparge water

If your MLT was maxed out and you drain off 4g you can only add 4g to it. If you plan to fly sparge this might work but I believe your HLT is also only 8g.

Im guessing your 8g HLT was your BK for 5g batches. I dont know if you had or might still have a 5g MLT but if you use that with the 10g MLT you now have 15g.

You could also mash in with part old the grain bill in your MLT and then use any other cooler you have for a 2nd MT and after you drain, sparge and dump the main MLT and start to bring the wort to temp then just dump from your small MT into your LT. Drain and sparge.

Sorry for the ramble. You could also do part of the grain bill BIAB in the BK?

Also the chilling.

 

[55x11]

The main difference for me was finding a way to transfer beer. I am a simple guy and didn't want to mess with pumps. I am also fit and can lift a kettle with 13 gallons of warm (not freshly boiled) wort. So, my method won't work for everybody. I like to weigh my kettle with mash water and then later with sparge water using a digital bathroom scale. I am a precisionist. I pour this water into my 10 gallon cooler mash tun. I have two 5 gallon coolers for the 170F sparge water. I batch sparge. After I have filled my kettle with wort I lift it up onto my propane burner. The propane burner is resting on a small dolly I made out of a wooden pallet. The dolly has 4 caster wheels and the surface is probably a foot off the ground. I boil my wort and then when finished I just roll the dolly with kettle over to the sink I have in my garage where I have a set up with 2 immersion chillers. I am not stupid enough to lift 11 gallons of just-boiled wort. My kettle has a spigot which allows me to transfer to my carboys. When the kettle is half empty or so I pick it up and pour the rest into carboys. I am not patient enough to wait for the slow flow through the spigot at the end. One tip for everybody is DONT WORRY ABOUT TRUB! The "Trub is bad" myth needs to go away. I have brewed many batches trying to keep Trub out of carboys and wasting quite a bit of beer in the process. I then read a great article that debunked this myth and have happily been sending all the trub into my carboys ever since. My beer tastes just as good as ever; and I have more now.

I agree with all of the above, especially the trub - no need to worry about trub.
I used to do the same procedure as above (let wort drain from kettle into fermenter via gravity and pour the last bit manually by lifting the kettle).
Lately I do it via pump though. I use a pump for recirculating the wort to cool it down faster. Cooling is considerably slower for 10G batches than 5G batches - it's not just extra amount of beer, but also the kettle is a lot thicker and bigger. So since I am already recirculating the wort via the chugger pump, it is much easier just to disconnect from recirculator arm and redirect the wort into fermenters.

 

[Lagerhead1]

Been brewing 10 gallon for years....love it. You made a wise decision. I have found three areas of concern:

#1 Ten gallons of liquid is very heavy. Once you have filled your HTL or more importantly your fermentor don't plan on moving it. Ripping the handles off the vessel, having it warp, or throwing out you back (lift with you legs) are all possible.

#2 Yeast. Unless your repitching....getting enough yeast to brew a lager beer is challenging. When you repitch you are often using a yeast strain that is inappropriate for the beer style. Sure you can buy eight smack packs. A multistep starter is way cheaper but takes planning and extra time.

#3 Mistakes. I'm sure everyone reading this post has brewed a beer you weren't proud of, but you drank it anyway. Well now you have 10 gallons of this stuff. The cost of dumping it has also doubled.

 

[beernutz]

Apologies if I'm repeating what others have suggested. I've brewed 10 gallon batches for many years and one thing I learned the hard way is that you need more propane. I ended up buying an extra tank so I would always have a backup close by.

I switched to natural gas 4 years ago and now never run out as long as the bill is paid.

 

[jmcquesten]

your efficiency drops the bigger the batch so add a touch more grain to get the same as your smaller batches

I second the efficiency. It's fine for most beers, but when I get over probably 8%, the efficiency starts to drop. I feel like I've taken as much as a 15 point drop in efficiency on some of my bigger beers. I mash in a keggle and can get about 35 lbs in it, but it doesn't leave much (enough) room for water.

And, make sure it's a beer you really want 10 gallons of. I've made the mistake of brewing a beer that I gotten over after the first 5 gal keg, ended up giving it to someone. Of course there are some where 10 - 12 gallons isn't enough (Munich Helles).

 

[numberspace]

I will concur with the more propane comment. Did an 11 gallon batch of a Belgian Pale Ale on Saturday and hit all my numbers at 83% which was slightly higher than average (OG 1.050). Everything will take longer, its much more sparge water and water in the boil kettle. Cooling was a breeze due to the Jaded Hydra IC, something like 8 minutes total to 75 degrees. Lifting the full mash tun, HLT, and BK were an absolute bear. I wish you luck

 

[khannon]

The other thing worth noting is that if you are still bottling, that takes more time too, it didn't take long for me to move to kegging after I went to 10 gallons...

 

[bonecitybrewco]

The other thing worth noting is that if you are still bottling, that takes more time too, it didn't take long for me to move to kegging after I went to 10 gallons...

This. I had to bottle on separate days, 5 gallons at a time. But overall it wasn't HORRIBLE. Certainly moving to kegging in the new year though.