Brew Pot Too Big?

[Curtis2010]

In the process of upgrading to 10 gallon batches minimum, but may go bigger sometimes. So I bought a bigger brew pot today...in fact much bigger than I intentended. Due to a communication error, I ended up with a 27 gallon pot instead of a 15 gallon (this sort of thing happens often in Central America).

So my question, is this a problem? According to BrewSmith the boil volume to end up with 10 gallons will be about 12.5 gallons. This should make for about 9+ inches of wort in the boil kettle. Does this potentially pose any problems?

I can return this beast if I need to, but thinking I might use the additional capacity sometimes. I could certainly see brewing 20 gallons of some of my favorite tried and true recipes (like a recent Schwarzbier...yum).

I'm keeping my 5 gallon gear in tact for smaller batches.

What do you think?

 

[Hammy71]

My pot is around 22 gallons. Not quite your monster, but it works great. Boil overs are a rare thing. As long as you have something sturdy to set it on while boiling, I'd keep it. No worries.

 

[Curtis2010]

I have a rectangular Bayou Classic burner. It sits on it nicely and they rate it up to 100 quarts (25 gallons) so the weight should not be an issue.

Will have to rethink my mash tun design though...

 

[LordUlrich]

The only think I would watch, is that with the larger surface area your boil off rate may be really high. Easy to take care of by lowering the power to your burner, just keep an eye on it.

 

[Photopilot]

It sounds like a bad idea to me, a too large of brewing pot will eventually lead to too much beer.


Um nevermind.

 

[Curtis2010]

The only think I would watch, is that with the larger surface area your boil off rate may be really high. Easy to take care of by lowering the power to your burner, just keep an eye on it.

Yes, one of my potential concerns, plan to do a boil off test. This beast is 20" in diameter!

 

[Curtis2010]

It sounds like a bad idea to me, a too large of brewing pot will eventually lead to too much beer.

Um nevermind.

Oh yeah, one of my big concerns....think I'll take it back and stick with my 5 gallon kettle! ;-) Between me, my GF, and friends, my five gallon batches now barely last a week so 10-20 gallons would definately not be a hardship. Have room in the chest freezers for more kegs so why not.

Filled with 12.5 gallons today just to get an idea how it would work for 10 gallon batches. As estimated it was a bit over 9" of water. Did not look crazy small to manage.

Installed a brew thermometer today also....guess I have to keep it now.

Now of course have to bump everything else up too. Brought 25 gallons to a boil today just to test it out....even starting with water preheated to about 130F it still took hours. I can preheat, via instant propane water heater, to about 165F before I get concerned about the integrity of the water heater so that helps, but a new big ass burner is definately needed...etc, etc...

 

[Scotty_g]

If you need to control your boil-off rate, you could leave the lid on the pot and just crack it slightly. That would also help you get to boiling faster. It might help if you could get some kind of insulation around part of the kettle as well to hold some heat in - there is a lot of surface area to lose heat from.

If you have an immersion chiller, you will need to stir the wort more often or live with a long cooling period.

Otherwise your comment about getting a bigger burner is good advice. Might need a bigger mash tun too, if you're going to make 20 gallons at a time. I'd probably go this route

 

[Curtis2010]

Related note. Downloaded an android app recently called "tank calc" from Google Play. Pretty handy for reengineering brew systems. Conveniently calculates volume of rectangular or cylindrical tanks and will calculate volume based on level of liquid in tank.

 

[Fordmi]

You will definitely need some time to get used to your boil off rate. I upgraded to a 35 gallon kettle about a year ago. There were some growing pains but we worked through them and all is well now.

I do 15 - 20 gallon batches. I split with my buddy who I brew with. Usually we each take a 5 gal keg and then some bottles.

 

[Photopilot]

I have been brewing on a electric keggle for a few years and am contemplating a second brew pot to use on a gas burner to be able to do two batches back to back.
I will probably make my gas fired boil kettle 25 gallons or bigger, but now need to consider an upgraded MLT to go with my larger capacity.

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