60 Litre Fermenter

[katana]

Howdy Guys,

I have been kegging now for about 8 months and have been struggling to keep stocks up. I currently have 1 x 30 litre fermenter, 2 x 20 litre Cubes, 2 x 19 litre Cornies (with 4 more to come), a dispensing fridge (will hold 4 Cornies - 2 taps) and a full size ferment fridge with FridgeMate.

I`ve just got my hands on a 60 litre fermenter and want to ramp up production. In the past I`ve knocked out Toucan Lagers, Big Stouts and Ales, most with KnB`s -been steeping grains with great results.

What I need is a nudge in the right direction production wise. Do I just do 40 litre batches or go all the way with 60 litres? Is it simply a matter of doubling or tripling my brew day list? Anything to watch out for?

Any and all advice accepted!

 

[br33zy]

Howdy Guys,

I have been kegging now for about 8 months and have been struggling to keep stocks up. I currently have 1 x 30 litre fermenter, 2 x 20 litre Cubes, 2 x 19 litre Cornies (with 4 more to come), a dispensing fridge (will hold 4 Cornies - 2 taps) and a full size ferment fridge with FridgeMate.

I`ve just got my hands on a 60 litre fermenter and want to ramp up production. In the past I`ve knocked out Toucan Lagers, Big Stouts and Ales, most with KnB`s -been steeping grains with great results.

What I need is a nudge in the right direction production wise. Do I just do 40 litre batches or go all the way with 60 litres? Is it simply a matter of doubling or tripling my brew day list? Anything to watch out for?

Any and all advice accepted!

We have been pitching up to 55l in our 60l fermenters with good results. It just depends on how evenly the original recipe volume scales up (I.e. 23l*2 = 46; 18l*3=54; 20l*2.5=50).

I suspect that if we went much past 55l we'd start getting issues with krausen blowing through the bubbler. Nothing a blow-off tube wouldn't fix I guess - but we haven't tried one of those yet so its uncharted territory.

Cheers

Mike

 

[gundaroo]

basically, its just a matter of doubling your ingrediants,
also be aware that its quite heavy when full,i do all mine on a table where it doesnt have to be moved

 

[katana]

Thanks for the fast replies fellas!

Breezy too - yeah, that makes sense. My last stout was done to 20 litres, so doubling that will be easy on the math.

gundaroo - In this heat, my Brew Assistant has taken to wearing her bikini - easy on the eye, but won`t help much throwing 60 kg around! Might borrow my son`s skateboard for a while.

 

[jayse]

Upscaling in size is very linear. Only thing to note with that size fermentor is its hard to move after fermentation without disturbing the sediment so you might want to beable to rack straight out of the fermenting fridge.

 

[br33zy]

Upscaling in size is very linear. Only thing to note with that size fermentor is its hard to move after fermentation without disturbing the sediment so you might want to beable to rack straight out of the fermenting fridge.

That it is. I've hurt my back twice since we started using the 60l jobbies. Now I don't pretend that I can lift a full one by myself - its strictly a two man job.

Breezy

 

[Bribie G]

If you are kegging, you can brew just a tad over gravity (for example upping the strength by using more malt extract / dex) and keg into three cornies from the one brew, adjusting back down with de-oxygenated water just like the breweries do. So you could use the 60L for your 'quaffing' brew and the 30L for the specialty beers.

 

[katana]

If you are kegging, you can brew just a tad over gravity (for example upping the strength by using more malt extract / dex) and keg into three cornies from the one brew, adjusting back down with de-oxygenated water just like the breweries do. So you could use the 60L for your 'quaffing' brew and the 30L for the specialty beers.

Hmmmmm.....now you`ve got my brain crunching numbers.....Great food for thought, thanks!

 

[Fents]

be carefull a full 60l is bloddy heavy.

 

[edoeven]

remember with the big batch you need to pitch more yeast... i have made some 55-57L batches with calm yeasts like us05 without probs, with a wheat yeast for example you get krausen coming out the top even with 42L brews!! (ie danstar munich wheat dried or wy3744), so i can imagine a big batch of wheatbeer could be a disaster!

 

[katana]

Ok guys, quick update and more questions...

Last night I threw together a Pale Ale to 23 litres-


Can of Aus Pale Ale - Coopers

1 kg brew enhancer 2

500 g Dry Light Malt Extract

200 g Crystal Malt - steeped @ 68 c for 45 mins

10 g of Cascade + 10 g of Amerillo @ 45 min mark

17 g of Cascade + 17 g of Amerillo @ 20 min mark

Safale S-04 pitched at 23 c


Bubbling away nicely @ 18 C this morning.


I wimped out on doing a 46 litre batch, but I want to drop a Dark Ale onto this yeast cake in a week or so. I`m still throwing `round ideas for this batch, but am thinking something like -

2 x tins Coopers Dark Ale (in hand)

2 kg Dry Dark Malt Extract (in hand)

600 g of Roasted Barley @ 68 c (in hand)

2 kg of Brew Enhancer 2 ( 1 in hand)

Maybe some dark brown sugar (in hand)

Fuggles,Fuggles,Fuggles (in hand)




Question Time

How much left over slurry do I use? All of it? 2 cups?

How do I store any remainder?

Any hop schedule suggestions?

 

[raven19]

Question Time

How much left over slurry do I use? All of it? 2 cups?

How do I store any remainder?

Any hop schedule suggestions?

Reusing slurry, you can either dump in on the yeast cake as many do, but I would grab 2- 3 tablespoons of the yeast cake (for your double batch, I use 1 - 2 for a single batch), place in sanitised jar with cool boiled water. You can leave in the fridge until ready to use. If pitching straight away then keep in a sanitised sealed jar until wort is ready, then dump it in.

I store some of the remainder of yeast cake using this method. If there is an issue with infection, you will see mould growing on your fridged sample. Hence take 2 or 3 samples if you can.

Cany give too much info on hopping though, best to leave that to a more experienced hopper! Bitterness will depend on whether you boil your tins of goo though.

Cheers!

 

[katana]

Cheers raven19!

I`m thinking of using Masterfoods spice jars to store some samples in ( the 30g ones ).

Do I need more head room and would 50% cooled, boiled water plus 50% yeast do the job?

 

[mick8882003]

I use a 60L fermenter, I love the little (well not so little) thing. First thing to do is mark off some fill lines for your kegs, estimate you 19L fill lines and mark them in with pencil. Then when you next fill your kegs just correct the fills lines so that when you fill your kegs you have the correct amount of beer to fill the keg. These days I just fill to the appropriate fill line and I'm off, no waste and i get one, two or three full kegs every time.
Oh yes and fill a triple batch can get a tad expensive, at the minimum your spending around 45 bucks on ingredients, so you really want to make sure your sanitisation is under control.

Other than that, you have greatly increased you pipeline.

Cheers

Mick

 

[boingk]

Hopping with Fuggles I'd hazard a shot at something like my 'Fugly Ale' in the database. Use 20-30g at 20min then flame-out or dry hop with another 10-20g. Those figures are for 23L, so multiply them for larger batches.

Also noticed you're planning on using dark extract as well as 600g of black malt. I'd use pale extract and lower the grains to 50-100g of black per 23L. I've found in the past that any more than 100g can be overpowering, but thats just me - make whatever you see fit, after all, you're the one thats going to be drinking it

Perhaps its time to expand the operation here, too...

Cheers - boingk

 

[Midnight Brew]

hey hey

I have a similar question and didn't want to create a new thread because it relates directly too this. I have also purchased a 60 litre fermenter and I am looking at doing 55litre batches (extract brewing) given the advice. I plan on cooling my wort in the sink too (just to specify details). My questions are:

1) What should my boil volume be?
2) What size pot will I need?
3) What type of pot should I be looking at investing in? (stainless steel, enamal, aluminium, ect)

Likewise all advice helps, Cheers