Upping The Volume To 150l

[hamstringsally]

All I gotta ask is, is this all for you?? 150L batches - you must have a lot of mates!!!!

i love brewing and am no expert what so ever but love having a crack. ill upload some photos soon. Ever since i stepped into all grain and tasted how good home brew really could be it lit a fire inside. not to mention getting your mates hammered on the cheap.
I think its also got to do with being a plumber. always got left overs from jobs and mates that owe me favors in other trades so i thought why not upgrade size when i found a 200l stainless drum. I think now every time i think of how much things cost say for example a few basic groceries i automatically calculate how many home brews that money could have made. or bills ect ect.
ive gone to elements now for heating instead of the burners and just waiting for a sparkie to run a seperate line for the power for the unit. Not sure if im going to need to insulate my mash tun?

like i said im no expert and constsantly learning from this site and books but hey we all need a hobby and mine just happens to be brewing.

 

[Cocko]

ill upload some photos soon.

:unsure:

 

[the_new_darren]

All I can say is make sure your yeast is healthy and you use fresh hops.

A 200L fu@kup will be painful to drink (or tip)

tnd

 

[manticle]

1 pack of yeast should be enough

 

[Bongchitis]

hahaha Gold!

Btw i am also a microbiologist, I can grow some mad shit between my toes.

 

[the_new_darren]

1 pack of yeast should be enough

Manticle,

Im sure you are really an intelligent guy, but please try to use some of that knowledge to advise brewers in the correct manner and in a way that is useful for the poster of the original question.

thanks and cheers

tnd

ps: suck my dick

 

[Malted]

Manticle,
Im sure you are really an intelligent guy, but please try to use some of that knowledge to advise brewers in the correct manner and in a way that is useful for the poster of the original question.
Thanks and cheers
tnd
ps: suck my dick

Bejaysus! I thought you were posting sober or something! You had me worried posting something intelligible!
But as you planned, the last comment brought it back to your usual standard... leopard and spots and all that...

 

[Muscovy_333]

Something to consider when scaling up.
All of your ingredients have different bulk densities (volume relative to weight), and it is not proportional to multiplying everything by 6 as others have suggested.

To avoid epic failure, best thing to do is either calculate teh bulk density of each ingredient and proportion them individually to your scale up size, OR scale up in 20% increments at a time and keep a shitload of notes and a crate of "Gold standard" from your current equipment to taste side by side. (Wont be perfect, but should help you keep track of changes you need to make)

I dont usually quote wikipedia, but it seems sound enough for your purposes.

Bulk Density

 

[Hutcho]

Good work i like the enthusiasm.
I have recently upgraded from the normal 20 litre batches for a corny keg to 100 litre batches.
I'm doing this in partnership with my neighbour so that we can spend one morning (4-5hours) and end up with one 50 litre keg each.

The theory about just multiplying by a X number from one batch to in my case 5 isn't quite right either, as stated the brewing software available does a good job of working it out for you so use that.

Mash temps - I found due to the size of the mash tun (140L) there can be temp variations at different levels, my thermometer has a 6 inch probe and sits halfway up in the mash but stir your mash to get a correct reading. As for insulating your pot, yes I have and would recommend due to the large surface area around the pot.

Sparge water - You are going to need a lot, in my case about 80 litres, so getting that to temp, storing it and keeping it hot is something to think about if you haven't already.

Calibrate your equipment (pots), i just used the basic stick and made marks on it where i needed them, in my pot a mere 3.6mm in water height is 1 litre so its easy to put extra in without even noticing it.

As already stated here do a few wet runs just using water to get your timings and losses etc, i know in my pot i lose 8 litres in the base of the kettle before it gets to the base of the tap which is sort of ok as this is all the trub and hop debris anyway, but thats 8 litres already plus about 10litres an hour evaporation so i know preboil i need about 120litres of wort.

Hope you have chooks cause you end up with a heap of spent grain

Also wort cooling ? its a heap of hot wort to cool so you need something to handle it, i use both an immersion and counterflow chiller, works well but i have the luxury of a raintank to recirculate it back into, something to also consider with bigger batches.

For example I would use around 21-23 kgs of grain, 200-300 grams of hops.
Yeast is another biggie, you will need to get well organised making your starters, I need to get myself a stirplate but haven't yet so i start getting my yeast going a week in advance to get enough to pitch.

Hope some of this helps

Hutcho

 

[argon]

1 pack of yeast should be enough

real life lulz!!

 

[drtomc]

... and a crate of "Gold standard" ....

Gave me a smile.

T.

 

[argon]

Yeast is another biggie, you will need to get well organised making your starters, I need to get myself a stirplate but haven't yet so i start getting my yeast going a week in advance to get enough to pitch.

Hope some of this helps

Hutcho

Yeah you definitely need a stir plate when dealing with this much yeast. Even 2 would be handy. Much more efficient than a simple starter or just chucking in 1 packet.

 

[Nick JD]

150 liters of the same beer?

BORING!

 

[donburke]

150 liters of the same beer?

BORING!

not if its a cracker

 

[Jazzafish]

First thing you will notice is a change to your bitterness when scaling up, especially in hoppy beers if you brew them. The larger volume will increase your hop utilisation, so your beers may become more bitter if you scale up in a linear manner. How much is something you will need to learn as you dial in your system as every one will differ.

After the boil, it will take longer (call it 6 times) to chill your wort if this is applicable to your brewing method. While the wort sits hot in the kettle your late hop additions will become isomerize. This is why whirlpool hopping and hop backs are favoured in commercial facilities. So perhaps more recipe tweaking?

Thermal mass will change in your mash too. A full mash tun will hold temp better.

 

[drtomc]

First thing you will notice is a change to your bitterness when scaling up, especially in hoppy beers if you brew them. The larger volume will increase your hop utilisation, so your beers may become more bitter if you scale up in a linear manner. How much is something you will need to learn as you dial in your system as every one will differ.

Can someone explain why? I admit I failed 2nd year Physical & Analytic Chemistry, but if you scale linearly, surely the stochiometry will be the same.

T.

 

[Jazzafish]

Can someone explain why? I admit I failed 2nd year Physical & Analytic Chemistry, but if you scale linearly, surely the stochiometry will be the same.

T.

I've scaled up a few home brew batches to commercial sizes and vica versa, hopping rate always needs to be tweaked to suit the system used.

Most calculations for IBU's allow for a kettle utilization factor based on reaserch results EG: Rager Formula. I find that in general a larger kettle increases this utilization. I think it has something to do with the nature of the boil convections or extra hydrostatic pressure in a larger vessel? Or perhaps it is just a coincidence that I simply compared more efficient kettles that happens to be larger?

Either way, whenever you change the brew system, the results will vary in some way.

 

[RussTaylor]

Can someone explain why? I admit I failed 2nd year Physical & Analytic Chemistry, but if you scale linearly, surely the stochiometry will be the same.

T.

Not an explanation but back in the good 'ol days of Promash there was a commercial or homebrew scale setting in there somewhere.