800 Litre Brew

[mr_tyreman]

Hey, when it all works out, you must put out an invite for all the AHB boys and girls to come and bask in the glory!

 

[olde]

I agree about the 200 litre drums. Neighbours turn the odd decent beer out of them. They're easier to clean, are food grade, and the mix can be stirred with a paint stirrer on a drill.
Those 1000 litre drums generally have had caustic in them, and are a bitch to get spotless as you can't get at the walls.
Cleaning 42 kegs.... kill me now. On the bright side, the neighbours bottle it all, there's dedication for you.

 

[bradsbrew]

I'd like to see the airlock on that little puppy..... or should I say kitten.

 

[lastdrinks]

I want to see some pics and hear how it was done if it was successfull!! but one of the earlier posts was close to spot on i think. That is call a few micro brewers to see what they would charge for a run or two through their systems. No offence but they would brew a seriously better beer kit vs AG. And maybe you could get 2 or 3 different styles. dont mean to be a downer h34r:

P.S. if it turns out alright any chance of a spare keg????

 

[bum]

I reckon these suggestions about using other peoples' wort are kinda weird. We could all go and just buy beer, you know. It's not some rare product. I thought we like making it ourselves?

 

[altstart]

Get yourself 5 or 6 of those blue/green 180litre plastic drums with the clampdown lid...
They are Airtight and by drilling a hole in the top you can run a hose into a half-filled 2 litre coke bottle for your Airlock..

Before i discovered All-grain i used to do this... Using 6-7 kit cans at a time...
At one point i had 5 full which is around 750 litres... for the exact same reasons you are thinking about it now...

At least with them you can sanitise properly, rack to each other, and you might have half a chance of temp control...

Any easy way out of this is for you to get involved with a case swap and sample some All-grain Beers...
2 days after i tried my first allgrain i tipped 3 full 180 litre fermenters out on the back lawn...
and then went to my local HBS and grabed a new 30litre fermenter, A fresh wort kit, some decent yeast and started making something i ACTUALLY ENJOYED... Not just something to drink for the sake of drinking...

its all about QUALITY now NOT QUANTITY... (but i wont mention i presently have 6 glycol chilled taps running 6 different Allgrain Beers with 12 full kegs, 4 fermenters bubbling supported by a 3 tier'd 50litre Gravity fed Nano-Brewery and alot of Temp controled fridge space.... )

Mate, but all things aside, give it a go... what have you got to loose except 1000 litres of probably very ordinary Beer...

Sqyre...

Plus 1
The first taste of All Grain at a brew day at Ross,s place and I came home and tipped all my Kit beers down the drive and went straight into AG.
Cheers Altstart

 

[lastdrinks]

bum, i dont think anyone is against gunbrew going for, i think we all are blown away by the balls of the plan and impressed ( i know i am).
I just hope he can take the pain if it doesn't work out and he can drop $600 odd bucks on a beer that he aint happy with.

On a more helpfuil side, i agree with the comments about sticking to basics. using good produce fresh kits/extract, good quality yeast that isn't hard to work with (i.e can handle a range off temps without flocing out or weirding up eith fruit tastes), fresh hops, time spent on sanitation and temp control.

It might be worth calling a few micro brewers and asking for their advice. I guess not many people on this forum have done many 800litre batches and a helpful micro brewer might be able to give some tips that you would only learn from doing batches this big. They would have gone through all the issues gunbrew is going to face.

And definitely take some photos and post them.

 

[mr_tyreman]

i was thinking to myself, is your brewing fun and exciting as a hobby, or just purely functional?

do you brew because its cheap, or do you brew because you enjoy experimenting and playing with recipes?

i'd hate to see you get sick of drinking beer, beecause you have 800ltrs of the same beer just haging around.

 

[Snow]

i was thinking to myself, is your brewing fun and exciting as a hobby, or just purely functional?

do you brew because its cheap, or do you brew because you enjoy experimenting and playing with recipes?

i'd hate to see you get sick of drinking beer, beecause you have 800ltrs of the same beer just haging around.

That's a good question.

Ditto.

- Snow

 

[raven19]

Yeah maybe split it into 4 different beers at 200L each.

 

[seravitae]

As to the comments about the cold room, for a container that big, you probably wont get good thermal transfer. It would be worth your time locating/bribing a refrigeration mechanic to build you a "chiller unit" - basically a fridge without the box, and you can pump some of your wash through the heat exchanger (plate exchanger might even work here) sorta like a herms but for chilling.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I have seen Sqyres 200ltr drums

He did a good job

Nothing is as silly as it seems..

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[Plastic Man]

I reckon these suggestions about using other peoples' wort are kinda weird. We could all go and just buy beer, you know. It's not some rare product. I thought we like making it ourselves?

buying a can of hopped extract is using other peoples wort as well, its just that they've taken most of the water out of it to make it easier to transport. Fermenting a can of "rehydrated" extract or a fresh wort kit is pretty much the same process. Your fermenting wort someone else has made.

Using the fresh wort kits may mean you get 800ltrs of better beer without to much mucking around. Mixing all that goop would not be easy.

In term of temp control - brew a big Belgium and let it run wild !!!

 

[bum]

buying a can of hopped extract is using other peoples wort as well, its just that they've taken most of the water out of it to make it easier to transport. Fermenting a can of "rehydrated" extract or a fresh wort kit is pretty much the same process. Your fermenting wort someone else has made.

Fair point.

 

[Tony]

In term of temp control - brew a big Belgium and let it run wild !!!

I was thinking that too

but doesnt sound like they are after too much flavour.

wow, Imagine how much D2 you could pour into 800 liters of dubbel!

and the mess the 3787 would make with minimal head space in that big drum!

 

[petesbrew]

You can do it!

1. This is the funniest thread in a long time.
2. We'd LOVE to know your recipe, considering you'd be happy to brew 800L of it.
3. Buy those cans in bulk, mate.
4. Get a good can opener... actually an electric one should save your wrist for more important things.
5. Too bad you didn't do it for Katie's Biggest Brewday.

Go hard, son!

 

[oldbugman]

800litres of kit beer.

get yourself one of these

 

[Pennywise]

That'd solve your airation issues that's for sure

 

[technocat]

View attachment 29285
You can do it!


4. Get a good can opener... actually an electric one should save your wrist for more important things.
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I love the subtlety of this post

 

[bum]

5. Too bad you didn't do it for Katie's Biggest Brewday.

He's using kits.