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Scaling up

Post #1 made 10 years ago
by onkeltuka
Haven't brewed for a while because of Finnish winter, but now we might get a small space rented out for brewing, so it's time to start planning. There's been a lot of interested people asking about our beer, and this is really beginning to look like a club soon, maybe 6-7 persons willing to invest into equipment and materials... the problem off course then being that we need more beer.

Currently we have this 72-liter kettle which we heat with a 11.5 kW gas-burner. I think the biggest batch of around 1.060 OG beer "to-fermenter" we could make with this set-up is about 35 liters. I've been thinking about getting a 60-liter fermenter and making two 30-liter batches back-to-back on the same day, no-chilling them and pouring them to the fermenter the next day. But something like 120 liters at one go would be really convenient if there'll be a lot more people sharing into this.

So what are my options for making 120-liter BIAB batches? Is it something like the Speidel Braumeister? But those things cost some serious money... Heating 200+ liters takes a lot of energy, and the grain needed weights a ton...

thanks all in advance :)
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #2 made 10 years ago
by PistolPatch
Onke, your question is really one of time (and personal energy), space, equipment, capital cost and energy (gas/electric).

No matter what you do, it will basically take the same amount of gas/electric energy to 'cook' your brew. Several things to think through here but as far as I can see, they are all solveable so, what's the next step here fellow brewers? I'm not saying it is easy but it will take a little thought. (My brain is done for today, or maybe even this week, sorry.)
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Post #3 made 10 years ago
by mally
Wow, you would be looking for a 250L pot then?
That's almost microbrewery stuff. Have you had a look for used stuff on Ebay?

A possibly cheaper alternative would be 2 x 100L setups running at the same time (cheaper than Spiedel anyhow)!
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Scaling up

Post #4 made 10 years ago
by Contrarian
I would agree that side by side systems would be logistically simpler for BIAB. You could easily get 120L out of a brew day and end up with 2 different beers.

To do it in one go you would have 30 or so kilos of grain dry. You might struggle to make a bag that was up to that and would need a system to lift it.

Sounds like an interesting project so good luck!

Post #5 made 10 years ago
by safebrew222
I think there are several questions you need to answer in detail before you begin to plan your setup. I think the most important is to really figure out how much of each brew you will need to satisfy your group’s needs. If everyone is only looking to take home 10 or 12 bottles of each brew, you may only need several fermenters to keep a pipeline going with the current kit you have. Things are very different if you need much more of each brew. Then expanding the batch capacity may be important.

Second, I think you need to think about packaging. How will everyone get their beer?

How many different brews do you want to have on hand at the same time?

How many people would be brewing in your club?

How much money will you have? Is money important?

How will you expand capacity if more people join your group, if that is even a possibility?

Post #6 made 10 years ago
by onkeltuka
Really good questions all of them... we'll have to have a serious discussion about all of them with our "club".
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus
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