How many BCS460 users brew big? By brewing big, I mean 10 gallons or more. I brew 5 and 10 gallon batches. If I had my choice, I would brew big all the time. It seems my efficiency is higher and my temperatures hold more stable. However, I will say, my last 5 gallon batch came in at 83% efficient.
Does anyone brew over 10 gallons? I was curious if the bigger you brew, the more stable the temperatures are and efficient the mash conversion is.
Thoughts?
Brewing Big
Re: Brewing Big
I am a BCS user brewing 50 gallon batches. I usually end up with around 1.5 BBLs into the fermenter. I wouldn't really say I see better efficiencies though. Mine stayed around 80%. I do have to tweak my malt bills a little bit and scale back on the specialties some, but I've kept the efficiencies the same. I don't have to drop the specialties down too much, but it was enough that my beers were turning out differently after scaling them up. I would say that the temps do hold more stable when compared to the 10 gallon batches I was previously doing. Then again, I didn't have any automation on that system, so it was more difficult. The first couple batches I brewed on the bigger system I had a hard time hitting my strike temp, but I was getting some significant temperature stratification in the mash tun (a 55 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker). Now I stir a lot while the strike water is heating and constantly recirculate through the wort return, which makes a bit of a vortex, and that has resolved my problem. I recirculate during the mash the entire time and the only time the burner starts to kick on to heat the recirculating wort is near the very end of the saccrification rest. Even then it might only kick in a time or two for just a few seconds.
I will say when I first moved to the bigger batches, in some ways it was like learning to brew all over again. Things just didn't scale from 10 gallons to 50 gallons quite like I thought they would. It was a good exercise should I ever find myself brewing on an even bigger system someday. I am still tweaking my system, but at least it is to the point now where I am not making major changes between brews. I'm finally to the point where I can just to small tweaks to make improvements to the overall process.
I also added the BCS to this system after using it a few times manually, and that has made all the difference. It is still a very hands on system, but it's nice to offload as much as I can to the controller.
I will say when I first moved to the bigger batches, in some ways it was like learning to brew all over again. Things just didn't scale from 10 gallons to 50 gallons quite like I thought they would. It was a good exercise should I ever find myself brewing on an even bigger system someday. I am still tweaking my system, but at least it is to the point now where I am not making major changes between brews. I'm finally to the point where I can just to small tweaks to make improvements to the overall process.
I also added the BCS to this system after using it a few times manually, and that has made all the difference. It is still a very hands on system, but it's nice to offload as much as I can to the controller.