How Much Can I Brew In My New Vevor Electric Brew Kettle?

[Mattyg91]

Hey everyone, I just received this electric brew kettle from Vevor —>

https://m.vevor.com/beer-brewing-sy...NsU0MQZK0r3h8DV6bZ7oAPrDs4yrp6i8aAhF3EALw_wcB
It holds 9.2 gallons but I’ve only ever brewed 4/5 gallons with my stove top kettles. First time ever using this. Considering displacement, how many gallons can I brew in this at once, if I opt for 1.25 qts of water per lb of grain? I don’t want to buy/add too large of a grain bill and then be screwed while adding grain to my strike water.

Hoping someone has used something similar and has already figured out their max volume.

Thanks in advance!

 

[doug293cz]

A pound of grain displaces about 0.08 gal, and 1.25 qt is 0.3125 gal. For simplicity assume you will have 0.4 gal/lb of grain used in the mash. If you assume 8.5 gal usable (to allow a little freeboard), that gives you 8.5 / 0.4 = 21.25 lb of grain max.

Edit: Here is what the link says about capacity:

Extensive Brewing Capacity​

​

The brew kettle measures 9.2 Gal / 35 L in capacity, and its total brewing volume reaches 8 Gal / 30 L, mashing up to 17.6 lbs of malt each time. Suitable for both light-duty at-home party use and heavy-duty commercial use.​

Apparently, they are figuring 8 gal / 17.6 lb = 0.4545.... gal/lb, or 0.4545... - 0.08 = 0.374545... gal/lb strike water, or 1.5 qt/lb mash thickness.

Brew on

 

[Mattyg91]

Baller. You’re awesome! Thanks for the advice! I’ll plan on 8 gal brew days with this new kettle, moving forward.

 

[Mattyg91]

Assuming I’m reading processing your response correctly.

 

[Mattyg91]

Nvm, guess that would be closer to 6.5 gals…

 

[doug293cz]

The calculations I showed are just for how much you can mash in the vessel. Actual batch volume will depend on whether you sparge (to get higher pre-boil volume) or go no-sparge (lower pre-boil volume.) With mash thicknesses of 1.25 to 1.5 qt/lb, your pre-boil SG would be in the range of 1.080 to 1.095 at 100% conversion efficiency, so unless you are shooting for a big beer, you should either sparge, or go with a thinner mash.

You can probably boil a max of ~8 gal, and end up with a max of 7 - 7.25 gal post-boil. If you don't sparge, you pre-boil volume will be less than 8 gal due to grain absorption. For example, if you mash 21.25 lb of grain @ 1.25qt/lb (6.64 gal strike volume), you will have a mash volume of 8.3 gal, but due to grain absorption, you will only have about 4.1 gal of pre-boil volume.

Brew on

 

[Red over White]

Building on the above, you can max out the kettle at higher gravity and dilute into the fermenter and yield more lower gravity beer. This method works awesome and produces beers that taste exactly like full boil beers.

 

[doug293cz]

Building on the above, you can max out the kettle at higher gravity and dilute into the fermenter and yield more lower gravity beer. This method works awesome and produces beers that taste exactly like full boil beers.

Post-boil dilution is an acceptable practice, but I would only use it if my boil kettle was too small to do a full volume boil. If you can boil your full volume, then adding volume by sparging will have a higher efficiency (less grain usage for the same OG.) Being mash volume limited or boil volume limited are two different things.

Brew on

 

[Red over White]

Post-boil dilution is an acceptable practice, but I would only use it if my boil kettle was too small to do a full volume boil. If you can boil your full volume, then adding volume by sparging will have a higher efficiency (less grain usage for the same OG.) Being mash volume limited or boil volume limited are two different things.

Brew on

I agree with that. Splitting the difference with a sparge and dilution in the fermenter does make the most of the equipment above if you stuff in the grain, especially if you hold back things like crystal or dark grains and add it late after recirculating compacts the bed and makes more room later in the mash.

 

[Mattyg91]

The calculations I showed are just for how much you can mash in the vessel. Actual batch volume will depend on whether you sparge (to get higher pre-boil volume) or go no-sparge (lower pre-boil volume.) With mash thicknesses of 1.25 to 1.5 qt/lb, your pre-boil SG would be in the range of 1.080 to 1.095 at 100% conversion efficiency, so unless you are shooting for a big beer, you should either sparge, or go with a thinner mash.

You can probably boil a max of ~8 gal, and end up with a max of 7 - 7.25 gal post-boil. If you don't sparge, you pre-boil volume will be less than 8 gal due to grain absorption. For example, if you mash 21.25 lb of grain @ 1.25qt/lb (6.64 gal strike volume), you will have a mash volume of 8.3 gal, but due to grain absorption, you will only have about 4.1 gal of pre-boil volume.

Brew on

Hell yeah! I always sparge and did so this last time. I found out that if I strike with 6 gal and up to 17.5 lb grain that everything fits. If I sparge and dilute, I end with 7.5-8 without affecting my ABV or taste profile. I think this’ll work out well moving forward.

 

[Mattyg91]

Hell yeah! I always sparge and did so this last time. I found out that if I strike with 6 gal and up to 17.5 lb grain that everything fits. If I sparge and dilute, I end with 7.5-8 without affecting my ABV or taste profile. I think this’ll work out well moving forward.

5/6 gal*