Mash tun VS batch size

Jcosta78 · Joined: 18 Feb 2017 Posts: 8

Anybody who does 5 gallon batches in their 15-20 gallon kettles, is there any issues with efficiency? Any issues with the shallower grain bed in the larger kettle? Trying to decide on which kettle size to go with. Thx in advance.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 3:23 pm Post subject:

What's the largest batch size you wish to brew?

If you want to do 10 gallons (packaged) I recommend the 20 gallon kettles. You can still do 5 gallon batches.

Even if there is a slight hit in efficiency (not sure) that's still better than buying a second 10 gallon mash tun just to deal with slightly lower efficiency in the larger ones. You'd have to go through a lot of grain to make owning two different mash tuns worth it. Wink

And if you buy a smaller kettle to maximize your efficiency with 5 gallon batches, you won't be able to brew 10 gallon batches. So a bit of a catch-22.

Kal

Jcosta78 · Joined: 18 Feb 2017 Posts: 8

Thanks for the quick response Kal. I'm primarily a small batch brewer, 5.5-6 gallon in the fermentor. I can get a 15g kettle for the same as the 10g right now, that's why I ask. Don't want to get the 15 g and regret it after the fact.

701pilot · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:05 pm Post subject:

I use all 15 gal kettles for 5 gal batches. Even with a low abv and not much malt my mash efficiency is still 85%.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:50 pm Post subject:

What's the largest batch size you wish to brew?

Kal

Jcosta78 · Joined: 18 Feb 2017 Posts: 8

**kal** · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:33 am Post subject:

The 15 gallon kettle will give you some more headroom, less chance of boilovers. Also lots of room for massive high gravity beers. No harm in that!

Kal

lucianthorr · Joined: 26 Feb 2017 Posts: 19

In a similar vein, I've been recently wondering if bagging the grains in the mash tun could simulate a thicker grain bed and possibly help with efficiency when the tun is way bigger than the recommended batch size.

I've got a secondhand tippy-dump setup with 26gal kettles and have been brewing 5-10gal batches for about a year. Everything's been great with reliable 72% efficiency but just as an experiment, I pulled out an old 10gal mash tun and decided to use that instead for a batch. With the smaller mash tun I was up to 85% efficiency! So now I know why my efficiency is so much lower than others with similar herms setups.

In the end, I know repeatability is better than efficiency so if nothing else, I can just plan on different efficiencies for each batch size.