Tomorrow we're brewing 10 gallons of my honey ginger double wit. We haven't done a 10 gallon brew, let alone a 10 gallon AG brew.
Anything I should be wary of?
Anything I should be wary of?
First 10 gallon AG batch, what should I be aware of?
- Thread starter bboyeruga
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Bamsdealer
Well-Known Member
Aside from the obvious and as long as you have room to mash and boil 10 gallons, nope. Just make sure you double your yeast pitch.
LandoLincoln
Well-Known Member
Beer gnomes. The more beer you have, the more they take. I've tried putting a lock on my keezer, but they still manage to steal it.
BEEEEER GNOOOOMESSSS!
Other than that...
Time. Heating up the strike water is going to take longer, and heating the sparge water (but this can be mitigated by simply starting to heat up the sparge water earlier into the mash), and vorlaufing and sparging is going to take longer, and getting the BK up to boil is going to take longer, and cooling is going to take longer. If you're using propane, be sure to have enough on hand.
It seems to me as the brews get bigger, the errors get amplified. Which makes sense. So take careful notes and stick to your brew steps.
Wait a minute, is this your first AG? If so...good luck! Remember that we learn a lot more from our mistakes. Take lots of notes.
BEEEEER GNOOOOMESSSS!
Other than that...
Time. Heating up the strike water is going to take longer, and heating the sparge water (but this can be mitigated by simply starting to heat up the sparge water earlier into the mash), and vorlaufing and sparging is going to take longer, and getting the BK up to boil is going to take longer, and cooling is going to take longer. If you're using propane, be sure to have enough on hand.
It seems to me as the brews get bigger, the errors get amplified. Which makes sense. So take careful notes and stick to your brew steps.
Wait a minute, is this your first AG? If so...good luck! Remember that we learn a lot more from our mistakes. Take lots of notes.
more wort means bigger boil overs
all the best
S_M
all the best
S_M
OP
OP
Not my first AG, just first 10 gallon AG. Thanks for all the advice!
Sent from my HTC One
Sent from my HTC One
My first 10 gallon brew I realized that I could not pick and move the kettle. I was brewing alone and didn't have a ball valve installed yet. I quickly realized that I didn't have a way to move the wort to my fermenters. I ended up using an auto siphon, but I invested in QDs and silicone tubing for my next brew day.
OP
OP
QDs? I have a ball valve and plenty of help. Hopefully won't be a problem as my autosiphon is out of commission.
Sent from my HTC One
OP
OP
Well, for those interested, here's our story from this weekend. Quite the brew day.
We were brewing 10 gallons of our favorite beer. A Honey Ginger Belgian Double Wit that gets in about 7.2% ABV. It was my first 10 gallon beer, let alone first 10 gallon AG BIAB. What could go wrong? Well, the brew day went on without a hitch. Had a near perfect mash and boil. Only required a 40 minute boil which I think is where things went wrong. We rinsed the grains with double the amount of water we used on the 5 gallon recipe and it wasn't until we had chilled the beer and were moving it to the carboy that I realized that was a huge mistake. We undershot our gravity by 25 points.
Mid-way through filling the fermenter, my brain racked for what to do. Add more honey? Bring it all back to a boil? I decided to RDWHAHB and continue filling the carboy and then bring the rest to a boil to boil off some of the water and hit our gravity. Mind you, we still had 4 oz of ginger root, 1.5 oz of coriander and 2 oz of tangerine peel in it (but we had already removed the hop bag). We got it back to a boil, boiled another 40 minutes and added 2 lbs more honey at flameout. We put the rest in the fermenter and closed her up. Added our yeast once it had chilled to the appropriate 65 degrees and they are both bubbling away happily.
My friends and I were pretty bummed that we didn't create the same high octane, drinkable and delicious creation we were planning, but we all agreed some good will come out of this. We've decided to name these beers Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because they are one in the same, but one will be SIGNIFICANTLY stronger in the subtle flavors and ABV we were going for.
We were brewing 10 gallons of our favorite beer. A Honey Ginger Belgian Double Wit that gets in about 7.2% ABV. It was my first 10 gallon beer, let alone first 10 gallon AG BIAB. What could go wrong? Well, the brew day went on without a hitch. Had a near perfect mash and boil. Only required a 40 minute boil which I think is where things went wrong. We rinsed the grains with double the amount of water we used on the 5 gallon recipe and it wasn't until we had chilled the beer and were moving it to the carboy that I realized that was a huge mistake. We undershot our gravity by 25 points.
Mid-way through filling the fermenter, my brain racked for what to do. Add more honey? Bring it all back to a boil? I decided to RDWHAHB and continue filling the carboy and then bring the rest to a boil to boil off some of the water and hit our gravity. Mind you, we still had 4 oz of ginger root, 1.5 oz of coriander and 2 oz of tangerine peel in it (but we had already removed the hop bag). We got it back to a boil, boiled another 40 minutes and added 2 lbs more honey at flameout. We put the rest in the fermenter and closed her up. Added our yeast once it had chilled to the appropriate 65 degrees and they are both bubbling away happily.
My friends and I were pretty bummed that we didn't create the same high octane, drinkable and delicious creation we were planning, but we all agreed some good will come out of this. We've decided to name these beers Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because they are one in the same, but one will be SIGNIFICANTLY stronger in the subtle flavors and ABV we were going for.
Spookgolds
Well-Known Member
My piece of advice is too little too late, but take very detailed notes so you can remember how you got what you got even if you thought it was a mistake. I brewed a beer that turned out nothing like I wanted it to but people liked it and still ask for more. Only problem is I don't remember what I did to get there.
OP
OP
Yep. I wrote down everything we did. We should be able to back track through my notes to either end result.
Sent from my HTC One
Sent from my HTC One
