Going to start brewing 3bbl... how much water to start with?

[Beardown]

I know this will largely depend on the amount of grains used. I want to end with 3 bbls (93 gallons) of beer... I'm confused as to how much water the mash should be started with. I have a 150 gallon pot but do not want the pot to overflow once a add the 200 or so pounds of grain.... any tips for me!? Thanks

 

[Brownalemikie]

Well, I start with 3 gallons to finish with 2.5 gallons of beer so my WAG is that you'll need to start with about 120 gallons of water.....wow, that's a lot of beer. May I ask what kind of beer are you brewing? Good luck!

 

[wyowolf]

Do you use a program like Beersmith? I wonder if it goes that high or not...

here is something i googled quickly...

http://www.brew365.com/technique_calculating_mash_water_volume.php

 

[Beardown]

Yea it does, I have not put anything in for the new system though.... what I'm most worried about is starting with mash water too high where it overflows once I add all the grains- and it's like 200 pounds worth

 

[brick_haus]

Well, I put 40+lbs. in a 20 gallon Mash Tun and 1.25 qts. per pound of strike water. Its full, but it fits.
I guess that means that you could put 280#s in a 150g tun.

 

[Weezy]

Damn that's a lot of beer. Where are you putting it all? Sankes?

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

At the brewery I work at we do 1.25qt of water per lb of grain.

We've got a 60 gallon mash tun and a 60 gallon boil kettle, and while the mash tun usually has plenty of room, the kettle has gotten pretty close to the top a few times. We usually finish with +/- 50 gallons after boil off, equipment/hops loss...

 

[Redtab78]

My suggesting is to get a quality software brewing program like beersmith, then watch the tutorials to set up your equipment on it, and use the scale up feature from existing recipes for smaller batches. The mash tab will tell you how much water to add based off of what information you input for the water to grist ratio, as well as how much sparging etc you may need based off what kind of mash you want to do.

 

[imasickboy]

According to the calculator at https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml you're good to go.

 

[bobeer]

I'd assume the same math I do when I brew 5 gallons, total lbs of grist x 1.20-1.50 qts, would work no matter what size you are brewing. No?

 

[oceanic_brew]

I'd assume there would be some differences.

Mash tun deadspace and boil off rate are unlikely to be identical across various systems.

 

[swampbrewcrew]

I'd assume there would be some differences.

Mash tun deadspace and boil off rate are unlikely to be identical across various systems.

I agree, whatever volume a homebrew calculator says you need, I would add 10% to be on the safe side.

 

[eagle23]

Semi-off topic, but I'm curious. Why 90+ gallons of the same beer?