Spike Trio...15g or 20g help

[storytyme]

Hey everyone. After many many hours online trying to get an answer I've comeback to where all the answers are. So I will make this quick.

Going to get a Trio and don't know which size to get.....15 or 20gal?
I do a combination of 5 and 10 gal batches.

How much grain and at what grist ratio can the 15 gal handle?

I'll be using my Jaded chiller for this system as well.

Looking for any and all experiences with this. Thank you in advance.

 

[Pacific Electric]

I don't have the spike system, but do have issues with my kettle sizes. I have 10 gallon kettles for my system, and for a 5 gallon batch I'm usually around 7-8 gallons into the boil kettle. This means i have to watch my entire boil carefully to ensure no boil overs.

For 5 gallon batches I wish I had at least a 15 gallon boil kettle. If I were doing 10 gallon batches I'm sure that need would jump to 20 gallon. If you do any high gravity beers you'll also appreciate the extra room.

 

[doug293cz]

Grain occupies 0.08 gal/lb, so at 1.25 qt/lb (0.3125 gal/lb) mash thickness, each lb of grain requires 0.393 gal of mash tun volume. If you figure 13 gal usable for a 15 gal MLT, then you could mash up to 13 / 0.393 = 33 lb of grain. You could mash less grain if you go with thinner mash.

Brew on

 

[storytyme]

Grain occupies 0.08 gal/lb, so at 1.25 qt/lb (0.3125 gal/lb) mash thickness, each lb of grain requires 0.393 gal of mash tun volume. If you figure 13 gal usable for a 15 gal MLT, then you could mash up to 13 / 0.393 = 33 lb of grain. You could mash less grain if you go with thinner mash.

Brew on

Wow. That is awesome. Thank you!

 

[Sammy86]

Hey everyone. After many many hours online trying to get an answer I've comeback to where all the answers are. So I will make this quick.

Going to get a Trio and don't know which size to get.....15 or 20gal?
I do a combination of 5 and 10 gal batches.

How much grain and at what grist ratio can the 15 gal handle?

I'll be using my Jaded chiller for this system as well.

Looking for any and all experiences with this. Thank you in advance.

Once you've been here long enough you'll see many people ask the same question you did and the answer is always the same...always go bigger...you'll never regret it.

 

[AkTom]

I have a keggle. It’s pretty tight doing 10 gallon batches.

 

[thomer]

I am a semi-newbie so take from this what you will. I have a 15 gallon Spike Kettle for BIAB. As its 16" wide I find you need to leave a reasonable amount of wert/trub in the bottom or it sucks up all the crap extracting it, so I regularly use c8-9 gallons of water (with adjusted recipe). I think a 10 gallon batch would be very difficult in my 15 gallon kettle.

 

[Deric]

I have a 15 gallon system based on the Spike Trio. Brew 10 gallon batches. The mash tun and HLT are plenty big but really wish I went with a 20 gallon boil kettle.

 

[mbauer013]

I've done 10 gallon batches in a 16.5 gallon kettle for years, I use a little spry bottle to keep the foam down and don't run my boil full out. The electric helps dial that in cause I can go from 100% to 55% superquick. Do I at times wish I had a 20 gallon pot? No not really, it just was never an issue and I recover about 11 gallons of wort for fermentation.

 

[Bobby_M]

15s are plenty big for 10 gallon batches as long as you're not regularly going 10% ABV and higher.