your experiences in moving to 10g?

[passlaku]

I am going to move to 10g batches and was hoping to learn from others who have done so already.  I will have to drill the pot I bought off Amazon (60 qt stainless) and then fix some sort of pick up tube.  But other than that I just don't know if there is big alterations to recipes, cooling, etc.

So what are your experiences in moving to 10g?  What part of the process seemed more of a pain?  What would you do different?

[ethalacker]

I hope you have a stand of some sort. I didn't when I first moved up and had to pick up a lot more weight.  Cooling will take longer as will bring water and wort to temp.

[phunhog]

When I stepped up to 10 gallon batches I bought a bigger IC with a recirculation arm. I use my old IC as a pre chiller. It works pretty well. Just remember you might also want/need a bigger burner.

[punatic]

10 gram batches?!  Wow, that really is microbrewing!

[edward]

I mainly do 5 gallons but the last two batches I have done were 10 gallons.  I dont have a stand and I can confirm that it is heavy.  My back was sore after the last one.

For cooling I lift the entire pot and set it in a big tub of water.  With using an immersion chiller this reduces my cooling time by about half.

Keep in mind mash tun capacity.  I use a 10 gallon round cooler and doing any beer over 1.060 gets to be pretty tight. 

[majorvices]

Make sure you rig up some type of ball valve, not just a pick up tube. Maybe that is what you meant. Your chilling times will be different but a 25 ft piece of copper IC will work for a 10 gallon batch.

The only real downside of having ten gallon batches is having to carry two full fermenters around instead of one.

[davidgzach]

My experiences:
As was stated, 10g is heavy so try to have a solution.  I put my pot on a utility cart to lauter and then roll it to my burner.  13-14G+ is heavy!
You need to collect about 13-14G to boil down to 10.5-11G.  In a 60Q pot, slight boil-overs are almost a given.  Be prepared.....
High gravity beers can get messy so stick below 1.060ish as stated if using a 10G cooler.
My 1/2" x 50' IC does well to chill to ale temps but I have to put the kettle in my chest freezer to get down to lagering temps.  Very heavy to pick up over the wall!  I plan to experiment with frozen and sanitized soda bottles per Euge in the near future.
Transfer to 2 x 5G containers is tricky.  I use a sanitized pitcher and paint strainers.
I LOVE to experiment with 2 different yeasts.  It always amazes me how different the beers turn out.
That's all I can think of now.

Dave

EDIT:  Just thought of 2 more.  I've been making a lot of lagers so doing 90 minute boils.  You can collect less for a 60 minute boil and avoid boil-overs.  You can also collect less and add some water during transfer to primary.   Just double check the adjustment in your brewing software.

[hopfenundmalz]

Heating and cooling take longer, but are part of the process.

I would not be doing 10 gallons without a pump - no heavy lifting with a pump.

[AleForce]

When I moved to 10 gallon batches I had a buddy in my brew club who welds build me a stand that I could attach my burner to. The burner sits off the ground 35"... No lifting at all required...

[tom]

All of the above.  And if you are using the same boil kettle, your boil-off will be about the same volume, or half the percentage.

[kylekohlmorgen]

Heating and cooling take longer, but are part of the process.

I would not be doing 10 gallons without a pump - no heavy lifting with a pump.

+1 on both of these. You need to incorporate a valve on the kettle and the mash tun for a pump.

Adding a recirc for hot wort and an ice water loop was the only way I can cool 10 gal below 70F.

[euge]

Pumps and valves are fine but I made do for years by transferring chilled wort with a pitcher to the fermenters until the kettle was light enough to lift easily. In an ideal situation a three-tier gravity system is what I'd shoot for and skip pumps entirely.

If you are going to drill the kettle I cannot recommend a Blichmann Brewmometer more highly!

Going to 10 gallon batches (or more) is gonna change a lot of things for ya

[corkybstewart]

Everybody else covered the mechanics so here's my take.  Make a starter 5-7 days ahead of time and plan on stepping it up twice.  You're gonna need a lot more yeast but you can still get by with one vial or smack pack if you do it right.
I pretty much just doubled my ingredients when I went to 10 gallon batches years ago, but after a few batches you'll be able to tweak that to compensate for your system.  I know that a 10 gallon batch of Imperial stout with 45 pounds of malt is much less efficient than a 5 gallon batch that may only require 18 pounds of malt.
There are advantages to larger bath brewing if you do it right and have the right equipment.  It takes me 2 hours less to brew 10 gallons with my 3 tiered system than it did to brew 5 gallons with my single turkey fryer setup.  I have twice as much beer, and as stated before I can make 2 different beers from one brewing session.  The disadvantage is that I have twice as much beer to drink.

[majorvices]

Re: Starter. I just went with two flasks and two stir plates and just ordered two vials.

[tygo]

Re: Starter. I just went with two flasks and two stir plates and just ordered two vials.

That's what I would do if I brewed a 10g batch.  I already have the flasks and stir plates and couldn't pass up the opportunity to ferment with two different yeasts in this situation.