Choosing best 3 kegs from 4 available

[TallBrewer]

Hi there...long time skulker, first time poster.

After what seems like 100's of hours researching, designing, sourcing, pricing, and buying (thanks Bobby for the shiny stuff)...my HERM's build is finally rolling.

I'm taking tons of pics and will start a post of the build once I get further along (currently polishing.......endlessly polishing).

My question right now is in regards to the 4 kegs I picked up, 2 13.2GAL (50L) and 2 15.9 GAL (60L).

Which 3 should I use if they are all relatively similar? I DO NOT want to polish a keg I won't use.

See attached for pics.

I've already determined the Boil Kettle will be one of the bigger guys and have polished that one only. So for HLT and MLT, 2 smaller ones or 1 smaller one for HLT and the other large keg for the MLT in case I do a massive heavy grain bill brew?

Cheers

 

[helterscelter]

Go big for the mlt. You can alwsys heat more water. You don't want to run out of space in the mlt

 

[kh54s10]

Big for the BK and MT. You can heat your strike water then add more to the HLT and heat it for the sparge. Depending on the grainbill you might not need any more anyway.

 

[hvjackson]

If you use a 13 gallon keg for your MLT you will be limited in the kinds of beer you can brew in 10 gallon batches. You can refer to this thread but the short answer is at 75% efficiency you are going to top out at around 1.082 OG. If you use the 15.5 gallon keggle you can bump that up to 1.098. (You could stretch these numbers by getting better efficiency or using a thicker mash, but I think they are decent ballparks.)

I don't see any reason to prefer the smaller keg for MLT.

 

[dyqik]

Use the fourth keg (one of the 13 gal ones) as a fermenter for 10 gal batches, with one of the conversion kits. Then you can polish them all...

 

[TallBrewer]

Awesome replies and I'm glad we're all on the same page...thanks!
BOIL & MLT = BIG
HLT = SMALL

I'll finish the final keg shine up tonight and get rolling on installing fittings this weekend. Stoked.

As for shining the 4th...I will save that fun for when I have my first batch done and ready to drink, so that I can as I need it after 7 hours of polishing. Good idea on fermenter though.

 

[day_trippr]

Real nice job on that first keg