Help me decide! v.Mash Tun Size

[headwall]

I have been going back and forth on the size of mash tun to order. 15gal vs. 20gal.

Brewery plans: 15gallon HLT, 20gallon BK, 15.5gallon fermenters (sanke kegs). Batch size = as much as I can fit in a sanke fermenter.

I had been thinking that I would not need more than a 15 gallon tun. I am going to try to ferment in 15.5 gallon sanke kegs, which means my batch size will be limited to roughly 13 gallons. Based on my old recipes, beers clocking in at 8% or less (I haven't brewed anything stronger) should require no more than about 12 gallons of space. That should be plenty to allow for deadspace under the false bottom as well as leave some room up top for a sparge arm.

Paired with a 20 gallon boil kettle, that should work out just fine don't you think?

Does anybody see any reason why I should order a 20 gallon mash tun? For some reason there is a voice in the back of my head telling me I might one day want or need the extra 5 gallons of space, but I'm not sure that's true. Anybody care to chime in?

 

[SavoryChef]

Get at least a 20 gal mash tun. I did 12 gal of imperial stout and at 1:1 with 50# of grain i used 18 gallons of my tun. You may say that you will never brew 10 gallons of a big beer, but it ages for a long time so why not?

 

[stevo4361]

Although I'm still only doing 5 gallon batches, the advice of going bigger for future expansions has always held up for me.

 

[Lost]

Since you plan on fly sparging you need to think about grain bed depth. I do 10 gal batches and that is a lot of beer, I think I'd get tired of the brew by the time I made it through more than that. But all this is a personal opinion and depends on how much beer you and your friends drink.

I use a keg for the mlt and it works well, plus if you do the triclover fitting trick you have a nice and easy center drain and no dip tube to screw with. It's big enough to do 10 gal of most any beer and I suppose it's small enough too that I could still do a 5 gal batch of an experimental beer like a fruit or spiced ale. A really big beer would also have to be 5 gal batch but I don't do many of those so it's not an issue to me but you may be different.

 

[headwall]

I guess I'm leaning toward the 20gal. The only reason not to would be the added cost. A 20gal MLT is the same diameter as the 15gal MLT, it just adds 5gal of space vertically, so beers requiring 10-15 gallons of mash tun space would mash the same as they would in a 15 gallon MLT. By going with the 20 I'll have more flexibility as a 15gal would limit me to 8% beers if I want to do end up with 13gal in the fermenter.

I'm curious to hear what others are using, volume-wise, for their MLT and Kettles for various batch sizes.

 

[amandabab]

Your mash tun should be at least as big as your brew kettle and at least close to double your batch size.
You're already at 20gal, don't hinder yourself with a 15gal mash tun.
with 13gal batches you know at some point your going to max the 15gal mash tun, the extra vertical space of the 20gal one will make stirring easier.

 

[SavoryChef]

Why not make your 20 gallon kettle the mash tun and get a 25 gallon boil kettle. I can still do 5 gallon batches in my 25 gallon boil kettle. Then you can do 15 gallon batches.

 

[amandabab]

Why not make your 20 gallon kettle the mash tun and get a 25 gallon boil kettle. I can still do 5 gallon batches in my 25 gallon boil kettle. Then you can do 15 gallon batches.

and it gets bigger and bigger

 

[headwall]

Why not make your 20 gallon kettle the mash tun and get a 25 gallon boil kettle. I can still do 5 gallon batches in my 25 gallon boil kettle. Then you can do 15 gallon batches.

Well, I have to draw the line somewhere.

I don't have a 20 gal kettle yet. That's just what I was planning to buy. So one could argue for going incrementally bigger, and bigger, and...

If I jump to 15gal batches then I will have to spend even more money on fermentation space. I'm planning to ferment in sankes because I have a few of them taking up space and I won't have to drop any more cash on a conical. So with the sanke keg fermenters limiting my batch size, I think 20gal is a good ceiling for my boil kettle volume.

 

[headwall]

Your mash tun should be at least as big as your brew kettle and at least close to double your batch size.
You're already at 20gal, don't hinder yourself with a 15gal mash tun.
with 13gal batches you know at some point your going to max the 15gal mash tun, the extra vertical space of the 20gal one will make stirring easier.

Yes, this makes sense. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with 20. Thanks for the input.

 

[maida7]

I ferment in sanke kegs and my batches give me 12-13 gallons of finished beer coming out of the fermenter. I fill 2 and a half corney kegs per batch.

I had a 15 gallon boil kettle and it was way tight. I recently upgraded to a 18.75 gallon boil kettle and it's a very good fit. The 20 gallon kettle you are planing on should work fine.

I had a 70 quart / 17.5 gallon cooler MLT and batch sparged and that was plenty big for any beer. I've squeezed 50 lbs of grain into that thing and did partygyle with a 10 gallons of 1.090 beer and 10 gallons of 1.050 beer from the second runnings. I've made 13 gallons of 1.110 beer. I have since moved to a 15 gallon pot with a false bottom as a MLT but I have yet to brew with it. The first batch will be this Saturday. I am concerned it will be a bit small. Especially considering how much space is lost to the false bottom. I'd expect 20 gallons for the MLT would give you some breathing room.

15 gallons for the HLT is perfect.

 

[headwall]

I ferment in sanke kegs and my batches give me 12-13 gallons of finished beer coming out of the fermenter. I fill 2 and a half corney kegs per batch.

I had a 15 gallon boil kettle and it was way tight. I recently upgraded to a 18.75 gallon boil kettle and it's a very good fit. The 20 gallon kettle you are planing on should work fine.

I had a 70 quart / 17.5 gallon cooler MLT and batch sparged and that was plenty big for any beer. I've squeezed 50 lbs of grain into that thing and did partygyle with a 10 gallons of 1.090 beer and 10 gallons of 1.050 beer from the second runnings. I've made 13 gallons of 1.110 beer. I have since moved to a 15 gallon pot with a false bottom as a MLT but I have yet to brew with it. The first batch will be this Saturday. I am concerned it will be a bit small. Especially considering how much space is lost to the false bottom. I'd expect 20 gallons for the MLT would give you some breathing room.

15 gallons for the HLT is perfect.

Thanks for the detailed reply, that's very helpful information.

 

[maida7]

no problem. have you fermented in the kegs yet? I'd recommend temp control in a fridge and transferring under pressure with co2. Lifting them to do a gravity transfer is not so fun.

 

[headwall]

I haven't fermented in them yet, but yeah I was planning to do pressurized transfers and I have a fridge all set up for a fermentation chamber. I'm planning to get a couple sanke fermenter kits from brewers hardware.

 

[kh54s10]

Not sure what you need for that size but if it helps: I do 5 gallon batches in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler and boil in a 10 gallon pot. I have nearly maxed out the cooler and boiling from about 7 gallons to 5, I still have to watch carefully for boil overs.

 

[maida7]

I haven't fermented in them yet, but yeah I was planning to do pressurized transfers and I have a fridge all set up for a fermentation chamber. I'm planning to get a couple sanke fermenter kits from brewers hardware.

Those are excellent kits. I have one and it works great.

You should also work out how you will clean them. With the tiny opening it's hard to see inside where the krausen forms against the top parts.

I heat a pbw solution to 180F and then recirculate that up into the keg with a sump pump. About 30 mins and everything is clean. Then rinse off the pwb thoroughly with hot tap water. To sanitize, pour in a few cups of tap water and boil it on a burner for 10 mins. The steam from boiling is very effective at sanitizing.

 

[maida7]

Not sure what you need for that size but if it helps: I do 5 gallon batches in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler and boil in a 10 gallon pot. I have nearly maxed out the cooler and boiling from about 7 gallons to 5, I still have to watch carefully for boil overs.

Try adding a drop of fermcap to your boil. I've been boiling 14 gallons of wort in a 15 gallon pot with no boil overs. The wort is literately a half inch from the rim and it won't boil over once the fermcap is added.

 

[headwall]

Those are excellent kits. I have one and it works great.

You should also work out how you will clean them. With the tiny opening it's hard to see inside where the krausen forms against the top parts.

I heat a pbw solution to 180F and then recirculate that up into the keg with a sump pump. About 30 mins and everything is clean. Then rinse off the pwb thoroughly with hot tap water. To sanitize, pour in a few cups of tap water and boil it on a burner for 10 mins. The steam from boiling is very effective at sanitizing.

Yeah I haven't quite worked the details out yet but it will likely involve some cobbled together rig with a makeshift reservoir for cleaning solution and some sort of set up with a pump and perhaps a CIP ball.

I'd ultimately like to move my entire operation over to using sanke kegs instead of corney kegs so I might try my hand a pressurized fermentation and then just build a proper keg washer with standard couplers.

 

[maida7]

Yeah I haven't quite worked the details out yet but it will likely involve some cobbled together rig with a makeshift reservoir for cleaning solution and some sort of set up with a pump and perhaps a CIP ball.

I'd ultimately like to move my entire operation over to using sanke kegs instead of corney kegs so I might try my hand a pressurized fermentation and then just build a proper keg washer with standard couplers.

What I have is pretty simple. It's a sump pump with a pipe attached. I use a regular 5 gallon bucket for the reservoir. I put the sump pump in the bucket and fill the bucket with 180F PBW solution. Then invert the keg over the bucket with the pipe from the pump up inside the keg. There is no spray ball or anything on the end of the pipe. Kegs are designed to be cleaned by the spear. So if you invert them and blast the cleaner at the depressed bottom is should get cleaner all over the insides. About 30 mins with the pump and it's all clean. I have used oxyclean at 120F and it would take much longer. Sometimes it would take 2 rounds of the oxyclean. PBW at 180F is very effective.