Whats your brewing capacity?

[Wolfhausen83]

Like the title says, I'm looking for some feedback on sizing my brewery. Currently doing 5g partial mash batches in the kitchen but I'm looking to build out an all grain e-brewery in my basement. What size batches are you guys making? 5, 10, 15, 20? Obviously I want to invest once and be satisfied with my setup.

 

[Sdtastentune]

.

 

[Mjolnir]

thats a hard one bro i own a home repair company and i am always upgrading tools buying new ones and all. you wont know what youll need till you have a demand but with that said if you start with 15 gal you will have plenty to drink and if you get your product out there and the people like it and the demand goes up you can upgrade from your profits hope this helps

 

[Airborneguy]

I agree that's it's real tough to make this decision in one shot. I have had a 15gal pot and an 8 gal conical for over a year. I haven't used either one a single time because I don't drink enough to justify larger batches, and I'm not stepping it up just to give away free beer. Point being, you'll probably need to get yourself more familiar with your own preferences before you can make this decision.

 

[Yooper]

With my system, I can do 5 gallon or 10 gallon batches.

I started with 2 10 gallon coolers (one for the HLT and MLT) and one keg. Here's a photo of the original:

About a year ago, I had a friend help me with a bigger HLT and a control panel, so I went with a keg for an HLT.

I can probably make a 12 gallon batch, but the biggest I've ever made is 11 gallons. The MLT maxes out at about 24 pounds, so I'm limited to about 10.5 gallons of 1.068 beer. I can make a 5 gallon batch of ANY OG, though.

 

[shroomzofdoom]

For me, I decided to build for 5-10gal batches at the outset. This is easily done with 15 gal brewpots or keggles--and a conical or by just adding another fermentation pail/carboy. The real concern is that if you build with 8 gal vessels and decide to upgrade later, you are looking at fairly high upgrade cost to replace the vessels. The elements, controls etc are reusable if you go with a 5500w/220v setup and will work well for 5-10gal batches.

The considerations limiting this are space in your brewery, the amount you and your friends drink, funding, and avail of 220v in your house. The incremental costs to build 10gal vs 5gal are smaller now than if done later. But, as the poster above said-rally depends on your consumption rates of the final product.

 

[Daver77]

With my system, I can do 5 gallon or 10 gallon batches.

I started with 2 10 gallon coolers (one for the HLT and MLT) and one keg. Here's a photo of the original:

About a year ago, I had a friend help me with a bigger HLT and a control panel, so I went with a keg for an HLT.

I can probably make a 12 gallon batch, but the biggest I've ever made is 11 gallons. The MLT maxes out at about 24 pounds, so I'm limited to about 10.5 gallons of 1.068 beer. I can make a 5 gallon batch of ANY OG, though.

Yooper love the set up, Got a couple metal shelves like that in the garage going to make my brew stand out of it. Thanks

 

[Yooper]

Yooper love the set up, Got a couple metal shelves like that in the garage going to make my brew stand out of it. Thanks

I didn't come up with the idea- the guy I bought the first system from had that all set up. I added a couple more lawnmower wheels, and cut the area in the boil kettle down to make a smaller footprint in my laundry room. I also added another pump, to make it a single tier. But otherwise, The_pol did it.

 

[TomRep]

My control panel has the ability to go up to full barrel batches, and possibly more. However, for now I have 20 gallon pots and can probably put out a 15 gallon batch or so. Haven't run the system yet for an actual batch, but I can't see why I couldn't do 15 if I wanted. I will probably be doing mostly 10-12 gallon batches though. I've stepped up from the basic 5 gallon turkey fryer and cooler set up, to a 10 gallon keggle set up, to the current all electric set up I have now. I do someday plan to go to full barrel batches, just not sure when.
Tom

 

[LandoLincoln]

I'd like to be able to do 15 gallon batches. Five gallon keg for me, five gallon keg for my brewing partner, and five gallons of beer to go into bottles to give away to friends and family.

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

I just recently bumped up capacity to do 10 Gallon batches. Most of the time i see myself brewing 5 gallon batches unless i have friends that want in on brewing and we can brew a double so each of us get 5 gallons. My problem is that 5 gallons lasts quite a while espically when i have 3 or 4 choices, I would get tired of it if i had to much

PS: this should be a pole!

 

[Begin2Brew]

For me 5 gallons is just right. I like to brew and try different recipes and try to perfect them, brewing 10 gallons at once means half the number of brews I would do with 5 gallon batches.

 

[thelorax121]

Yooper, is that an all copper CFC I see there? If so, what size/length tubing did you use and how did you go about coiling it up?

 

[Wolfhausen83]

Thanks for the feedback. I have determined that 10 gallons is a necessity, 5 just goes by way too quick. I guess it's going to depend on where I can find the best deals on kettles if I go bigger.

 

[zeus53219]

Go as big as you can afford, you'll be glad you did down the road.

 

[CidahMastah]

I think that if you plan on going all grain and want to do 10G batches your best bet if 15G kettles at least. That is pretty much the sweet spot for 10G ish batches. That said I have a 25G BK, 15G MT and 15G HLT. Those all work great for me but I would be a liar if I didn't admit I would like to upgrade the MT to 20G and the HLT to 20-25.

I do think that I will always keep this system sort of how it is and later build a large system if I get the crazy thought to go after barrel sized batches. For me the system only falls short when you chase super high gravity brews (1.100) and the grain bill is 40lbs. Otherwise it is perfect.