Max Wort From A 50 Litre Boiler

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Doc

Doctor's Orders Brewing
Joined
7/12/02
Messages
7,713
Reaction score
40
Location
Sydney
I have a SS 50 litre boiler.
I need to start making bigger batches.
Typically I collect 33 litres of wort for a 25 litre batch size.
With a NASA burner I have to be careful for boil overs even only collecting 33 litres.

My HLT is a 30 litre URN and my MLT is a 40 litre esky. I'm thinking I should be able to produce 40 litres of a 4.5-5 % beer. I'll work out the full numbers later but will need to mash in thinner otherwise I won't have the volume in my HLT.

But I'm wondering what is the most wort you have boiled in a 50 litre boiler. Obviously I won't be able to do as vigourous a boil, but I can boil for say 2 hours rather than 90 mins.

TIA,
Doc
 
Morning Doc,
I have a 50l kettle and I can only boil about 32l max before I get a boil over.
I lose 6l per hour to the boil and 4l kettle waste which leaves 22l.
I have made a stronger (higher gravity) wort and then added water at the end of the boil to make a larger volume.
I have got a 90l kettle to go into my system and I use a 50l mash tun so when installed I will have the capability of a 50l brew at average SG.
Cheers
 
Doc said:
I have a SS 50 litre boiler.

My HLT is a 30 litre URN and my MLT is a 40 litre esky. I'm thinking I should be able to produce 40 litres of a 4.5-5 % beer. I'll work out the full numbers later but will need to mash in thinner otherwise I won't have the volume in my HLT.

But I'm wondering what is the most wort you have boiled in a 50 litre boiler. Obviously I won't be able to do as vigourous a boil, but I can boil for say 2 hours rather than 90 mins.
[post="51143"][/post]​
Out of curiosity, do you skim just as the wort comes to the boil? I ask because now that I am in the habit of doing that (thanks chiller), the tendency to boil over seems to be significantly reduced. I reckon I could easily go 40L in my 50L keg kettle.

15.GIF
 
sosman said:
Out of curiosity, do you skim just as the wort comes to the boil? I ask because now that I am in the habit of doing that (thanks chiller), the tendency to boil over seems to be significantly reduced. I reckon I could easily go 40L in my 50L keg kettle.
[post="51148"][/post]​

sosman,

No I don't. I have the boiler covered until it reaches the boil.
I only skim off the top (what is left) when the boil has been going for about 15mins.

Beers,
Doc
 
I have found that if you spray cold water from a hand atomiser pump onto the hot break it also helps to stop boil over.
Thanks to Dave Goliath for that hint.
Cheers
 
I skim using a fine sieve as it comes to the boil - have no problem doing a vigorous 42L boil in my 50L pot - if you keep skimming for the first few mins there is no boil over problem....
 
Doc,
I get 70 litres out of a 75 litre boiler. I used to get 28 out of a 30 litre boiler. I found the trick is to be at the boiler as the boil begins then turn the flame off. Once the boil has subsided, turn the flame back on until it begins to boil again. Do this three of four times. Once the boil-over has happened it won't happen again. From that point on you can boil with little or no risk of a boil-over (unless you add more water)
 
Doc,

I get 40 litres in the fermenter from a 50 litre boiler. I'm in the scum skimming camp as well. I boil with the lid about three-quarters of the way over the kettle. Whatever's lost during evaporation I just top up with some boiling water when I put the immersion chiller into the boiler.

In other words to make up for gravity losses from the water top up I compensate with extra grain in the mash.

One of the advantages of a feeble boil from electric elements. Boilovers are only a remote possibility along with below average hop utilisation. <_<

Warren -
 
Hi DOC, I have a 50litre boiler and i normally boil 36 litres easy, for 90min's to end up with about 25 litres n the fermenter. I reckon with a bit of care when ading hops i could boil a couple or more litres.

STEPHEN
 
Doc,
I hate to admit it, but i'm a premature scum skimmer also. I've had 40L in a 50L keg/boiler with no probs. However I never cover the boiler because it boils over for sure. Only prob is I lose about 10L per hour to evap. Maybe its too much, but i suppose i can always top up with water.

vlbaby.
 
Doc

I can bring 55 litres to the boil in a 60 litre pot. I don't skim like some of these others do, so I just bring it to the boil slowly at first, then after about 10 or so minutes enough has evaporated so I can do a hard boil.

Cheers
Pedro
 
All the advice i've read suggests that skimming the crud from the top of the boil is beneficial to your brew & should be done anyway - so killing 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak...
 
Ross said:
All the advice i've read suggests that skimming the crud from the top of the boil is beneficial to your brew & should be done anyway - so killing 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak...
[post="51179"][/post]​

Getting a bit off topic here, but I don't believe commercial breweries skim. So does it really make a difference?

Cheers
Pedro
 
Pedro said:
Ross said:
All the advice i've read suggests that skimming the crud from the top of the boil is beneficial to your brew & should be done anyway - so killing 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak...
[post="51179"][/post]​

Getting a bit off topic here, but I don't believe commercial breweries skim. So does it really make a difference?

Cheers
Pedro
[post="51184"][/post]​

Hi,

I have done a very full [to with in about 3 cms of the top of my 50 litre pot] with care and the secret from my perspective is to skim, lower the boil till room has been created then boil as normal. I have modified my kettle lid to give a "reasonably constant" evapouration rate. Depending on humidity between 15 - 17%

Commercial breweries don't skim, that is true but most of them make crap beer as well. :)

Seriously though I can't see someone with a 1 litre jug and a SS spoon skimming the top of of a 100,000 litre kettle.

I do it and many homebrewers do it "because they can". Some of the gourmet practices we have as homebrewers are just not repeatable for micro or mega brewers. I always have skimmed for practical reasons, unless of course the beer I'm making is FWhopped :).

[1] cleaner boil.

[2] Any grain or husk parrticles are removed early

[3] Kettle clean up at the end of the day is so quick.

If you are a premature scum skimmer :) ,you may have other reasons.

Steve.
 
Another point,

Also a lot of the boiling hops tend to sit in the foam as well. Can make some of the hops stick above the boil line. I found this out early. I always lamented the loss and wondered how it affected the bitterness.

Card carrying scum-skimmer. :D

Warren -
 
Pedro said:
Ross said:
All the advice i've read suggests that skimming the crud from the top of the boil is beneficial to your brew & should be done anyway - so killing 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak...
[post="51179"][/post]​
Getting a bit off topic here, but I don't believe commercial breweries skim. So does it really make a difference?
[post="51184"][/post]​
Maybe commercial breweries recirculate a lot more before the wort gets to the kettle. I can only guess at what makes up the scum but I imagine some of the solids from the mash get in there. If that is true, skimming presumably reduces tannins in the finished beer.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys.
Will give it a crack and will skim the hot break to avoid a boil over.
From my calcs it looks like if I collect 47 litres in the boiler I should be able to get enough beer for two corny kegs after fermentation. I've adjusted my boil off down as the boil won't be as vigourous.
If this works out I should be able to do alternate brews with the bigger sizes for my regular beers and get my stocks up again :lol:

Beers,
Doc

40_Litre_Saison.JPG
 
On friday I went through the task of calibrating a dip stick for my 50L keg
(tooheys/swan). I marked up to 47L on the stick with 2L unusable due to the pickup tube location at the edge of the trub cone from when I whirlpool. I have a hole about 175mm dia for a lid.

I managed to boil the full 47L with no boilovers but the gas burner I had was not enough for the job ot get a good rolling boil happening. I went through some old gas and oxy gear my dad have given me when he closed his engineering business and found a complete primus sievert blowtorch!! which was the goods! NASA Shmassa this is like the afterburner of an F18. I could easily control a rolling boil without getting too much foam. I will also put my hand up to being a card carrying skimmer!! (do you lose much bitterness from skimming to early?)

In the end I managed to get 39L into the fermenters with the 2L of deadspace in the kettle and about 1/2 a litre in the counterflow chiller and piping. Is the gallery working again as I took a heap of pics.

Cheers and beers
Ausdb
 
Fanastic ausdb.
I'll be shooting for 39 litres of Saison this weekend that I will split between two fermenters.

Beers,
Doc
 
Fanastic ausdb.
I'll be shooting for 39 litres of Saison this weekend that I will split between two fermenters

No worries Doc, I had about10% evaporation and 4% shrinkage on cooling from promash was pretty close to the mark
 
Back
Top