SS Brewtech 10 Gallon vs 20 Gallon

[Gregory T]

I have been extract brewing for a few years now. I am making the switch to all grain. I want all stainless. I plan on doing No Sparge Brewing. I brew Belgians nearly exclusively. My quad has an 18# grain bill. At a .125 absorption that puts my mash volume at 10.69 to get 5.5 in the fermenter. Just over the 10 gallon.

I looking at the SS Brewtech 10 and 20 Gallon Infussion Mash Tun. (Wish they had a 15) I’m worried that the 20 gallon will be overkill especially if I do an occasional Dunkelweizen, but possibly even for my Dubbel. I will probably eventually set up a HERMS but probably not for a year or so

Anyone else experience this, or any thoughts on heat loss due to dead space

 

[Gameface]

What's your water to grain ratio in the mash? I imagine there's a little room to go thicker?

 

[Rodent]

Chapman 15G insulated mash tun:
https://www.chapmanequipment.com/collections/mash-tuns/products/15-gallon-thermobarrel

only about $20 more than the SSBT 10G

 

[Gregory T]

What's your water to grain ratio in the mash? I imagine there's a little room to go thicker?

This is the outcome of BIAB calculator

 

[Gregory T]

Chapman 15G insulated mash tun:
https://www.chapmanequipment.com/collections/mash-tuns/products/15-gallon-thermobarrel

only about $20 more than the SSBT 10G

I’ll have to look into those. Thanks

 

[Gameface]

View attachment 614403

This is the outcome of BIAB calculator

Guess I missed the BIAB part. Sorry.

 

[Gregory T]

Guess I missed the BIAB part. Sorry.

No worries. At this point I’m wondering if I should just go straight to a 15 gallon recirculating system. It Doesn’t look like it would be much more than the 20 Gallon Brew tech tun

Then I have to decide Spike or Blichman. I read some not so shiny reviews on the G2, but it’s hard to compare since the Spike kettles come with nothing

 

[wilserbrewer]

20 gallon is a lot of tun if your not using all that volume often.

I think I would prefer to do a minor sparge on occasion rather than have a tun that is too large for the majority of my brewing...

A 1 gallon room temp sparge to reach kettle volume doesn’t make you a bad person

 

[Vale71]

I had the same issue as the OP. 10 gal is too small, 20 gal is too large for me. In the end I built my RIMS around a non-insulated 15 gal SSB kettle. To compensate for heat loss I fitted the kettle with a flat silicone heating mat 300W@24V-DC that runs continuously from dough-in until I'm done sparging and I find that it compensates nicely for the heat loss from the uninsulated kettle.