Thinking about upgrading to bigger equipment, so I can brew 15 gallons at a time? I only brew All-grain, and I’ve been using a 10 gallon mash tun (home-depot cylindrical), 2 brew pots, and glass carboys. That’s been working great! and the beer is just amazing. I run out too fast… I want to brew triple the amount. I want quality equipment. Where do I look?
Thanks!
Same places you did for your previous equipment. The only thing that changes on this level is the size of the pots/tuns/etc. If you want to stay cooler - keep an eye on walmart.com, usually at the end of summer they have great deals on coolers.
You must have a lot of thirsty friends. I went the other way. I brew 3.5-gallon batches that yield 3 gallons of kegged beer. It takes me four to six weeks to drink that much beer. I used to brew 5.5-gallon batches that yielded 5 gallons of kegged beer. Beer would queue up to the point where I would have to dump batches in order to be able to brew.
If I was going to go bigger than 10 gallons I’d look at so,e of the Blickman or MoreBeer brewing stands. The one blickmann one I saw at NHC that is a real cool set up (I forget the name) and regulates your temp with a herms type rig.
I found 10 gallons was the sweet spot for me, but il did find that I often had to dump batches to make room for more beer.
I also had a lot of thirty friends so a 5 gallon batch could disappear very quickly. Always good to know I had another keg tucked away.
Now, of course, I charge my friends for my beer at my tasting room. 
Same here. I still end up dumping some 3 gallon batches, as a matter of fact. If I had the time for it I’d probably drop down to 2 gallon batches so I could brew more often. Three gallons is the sweet spot for me with my more proven house recipes, but 2 makes more sense for one-off recipes.
Maybe I just need more kegs…
Off the top of my head …
25+ gal boil kettle.
15+ gal hot liquor tank.
Two burners.
At least one pump.
At those volumes, you can’t lift stuff. I do 10 gallon batches on occasion and I really shouldn’t be lifting by myself.
For 10 gallon batches, I use a morebeer 15 gallon boil kettle and a 10 gallon polarware hot liquor tank. I use a single blichman burner. I use a little giant pump, march brand seems to be the standard.
For cooling, you may want to look into a plate chiller. Either the blichman or duda diesel will work fine.
Mash tun really depends on what gravity you typically brew. The coleman extreme is great, but not sure if they make one large enough for a 15 gallon higher gravity beer.
I use a 152 qt. cooler for large or high gravity batches. Runs $50-60.
I was able to cool close to 50 gallon batches of beer with a CFC (chilzilla I believe).
Good point. Doesn’t need to be a plate chiller, other types of counter-flow chiller would work equally well.
Same here. I have a fancy 15 Gallon EHerms system that can produce 5 to 10 Gal batches and just have a hard time drinking that much and dump also on occasions (i should be ashamed). Most of mine are 3 Gal also. get through it in 4 to 6 weeks also. Good luck
82Qt SS Pot. my 62Qt works great for 10gallons on my system
Bayou Classic® – bayouclassic.com
This is a link to mine to possibly give ya some ideas. http://wildhops.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=13136712
I’ve decided that I don’t need bigger batches, I need another temp controlled fermentation freezer. I like brewing and I like variety. I’d rather run four 5 gallon batches than one 20 gallon.
+1
+2 exactly where I am
Or twenty one gallon batches?
I hear you, Jim. I brew 10 gallon lagers for the crowd and 5 gallon batches for myself and samplers who can venture off the path. I went to two dedicated freezers (1 for fermenting and 1 for lagering) and run my ales in a separate brew chiller bag, rotating ice bottles, in the late spring/summer/early fall and in my garage on heater wraps in the late fall/winter/early spring. Variety is what I have come to look forward to - but consistency on the standard offerings that my friends prefer.
Your friends are lucky that you run a taproom for them
Yes!!! No not really. One gallon fermenters take up more floor space than vertical, so I would need even more freezers.
If one doesn’t have the time to do multiple small-batch brewdays and enjoys doing side-by-side fermentations of the same wort with different yeasts/additions/conditions, a larger capacity system can be a brew variety and knowledge-boosting godsend.
+1 I really like doing 10 gallon batches, and splitting the wort into two fermenters. Just don’t have the time to do smaller batches lately.