I’ve been considering trying this method, I heard about at last years NHC. I brew on a Top Tier system with keggles. And I always brew ten gallon batches, fermenting in 6 gallon buckets. (No secondary)
Anyway, even the big beers I brew wich call for at most a 37 pound grain bill fit with room to spare. Just wondering what’s the MOST grain any of you ahve gotten into a keggle for your mash? I’m thinking I’ll only be able to do a 5 gallon batch this way.
Any thoughts?
37 lbs of grain will net you one hell of a big beer at 5 gallons. I got 5 gallons of 1.100 with 31 lbs in the coleman extreme the other day. no sparge. well partigyle but it amounts to the same thing. that extra 6 lbs should bump you up to around 1.130. my eff is about 63% on no sparge big beers like that. so if you can pack 40-45 lbs grain in there and pull off a little better eff you should be able to hit around 1.090 on a 10 gallon I would think. But I am not doing the math so I could be wrong.
Here is a nice calculator: Can I Mash It? Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators
Check Kai’s site braukaiser.com for info on efficiency related to qt/lb, etc.
It will depend on your desired mash thickness. You should be able to get 35 lbs of grain at a thickness of 1qt/lb into your keggle but it will be very thick and your efficiency will be pretty bad. If you go this route, you should definitely consider a partigyle.