Pot Sizing Help

[electrolight]

I currently have 4 SS pots I'd like to set up an electric system with. I understand I'll need an HLT, a Mash/Lauter Tun and a Boil Kettle. The sizes are as follows ~30 quarts, 48 quarts, ~70 quarts and 96 quarts.

If I can use these that would save a fair bit of coin. But I'm not about axing my system by skimping on a correctly sized tun. So advise if something is too small or unusably large.

Here's what I'm thinking. 96 quart for HLT, ~70 quart for Mash/Lauter Tun, 48 quart for boil kettle, and ~30 quart for an immersion chiller pot.

I think I've figured out the tidbits, fittings, pumps and such. just not the pot setup yet.

Never brewed "all fancy" before, but I think I'm ready to jump in the deep end... So far, the kiddie pool was fun.

Any other tips, advice or suggestions are welcome too. Oh, and tips for false bottoms or meshbottom things are welcome too.

 

[TungstenBeer]

Depending on how you want to set your system up (ie batch size, HERMS vs. RIMS vs. etc)... there would be several different ways to do it.

But most likely, you'll want the biggest pot to be your BK. If you use a HERMS system you could use the 48 quart for your HLT, and at the start of brewday fill it up and fill your MLT up with the volume of strike water you need, and heat both at once.

Again, you could do several different things but if I was in your shoes, that's probably how I would do it.

 

[LandoLincoln]

It depends on what kind of beers and what quantities of beer you typically make.

If you're shooting to make large volumes of medium OG beer:

24g boil kettle, 17.5g MLT, 12g HLT. And save the little guy for a pre-chiller, I guess.

That setup would be able to do 15 gallons of medium-OG beer pretty easily.

 

[electrolight]

Thanks for the tips guys. I guess I forgot to mention... I presently do 5 gallon batches. So that's the goal. If I can do more, then great!