pots and pans brewer

[ibrewthereforeiam]

Hey, I'm sitting here brewing my oktoberfest...a little late in the year I know but I haven't joined a site ever and this one seems kinda interesting.

I have been brewing for 13 years now, both professionally and at home.
I could talk brewing all day long so if anybody has any questions I'd love to try and answer!

I say pots and pans brewer as the subject matter because, I literally brew all grain batches of beer in my kitchen using pots and pans. I haven't ever really bought anything fancy, and with these pots and pans...I have won awards doing so. I think the nicest thing I've bought myself is a 10 gallon igloo for my mash tun. My point is, if you're starting out...don't think you have to drop $1000 on fancy equipment. I have seen a lot of people try this out and end up selling their stuff because it's not what they expected. Brewing beer is 90% cleaning, 8% brewing and 2% trying it.

So with that...Cheers!!

I'm off to start lautering...

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome, tell us about your professional brewing. We have had a few join from your side of the pond recently.

 

[paddone]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who never moved on. I started out with an extract kit and 1 gallon demijohn, boiling up on the hob and never saw a need to get tooled up. I just joined too, I have trawled forums for advice but never got involved till now.

I enjoy the brew process and usually brew small batches so i can brew more often.

 

[Redcar]

I'm so pleased to see this thread!

I want to move from kits to BIAB but I don't have the room (or money) to buy 40-50 ltr pots (and I don't want to brew in that quantity anyway).

I'm going to buy a 17ltr pot from TK Maxx but that's as far as I want to go and I'm happy to see that you guys have been happy with pots and pans brewing. :)

I guess my questions would be how do I scale recipes to brew in this quantity and how do you split the recipe into 2 pots when I want to take it up to 25 ltrs?

Thanks again!

 

[bobsbeer]

Welcome. :

 

[paddone]

I guess my questions would be how do I scale recipes to brew in this quantity and how do you split the recipe into 2 pots when I want to take it up to 25 ltrs?

You could get 20 litres of beer from a 16 litre wort brewed up in your new pot and topped off in the fermenter.
I have never split a mash between 2 pots but I can't see why you couldn't to make a 25 litre batch.

If you do let us know how it works out.

 

[ibrewthereforeiam]

I'm so pleased to see this thread!

I want to move from kits to BIAB but I don't have the room (or money) to buy 40-50 ltr pots (and I don't want to brew in that quantity anyway).

I'm going to buy a 17ltr pot from TK Maxx but that's as far as I want to go and I'm happy to see that you guys have been happy with pots and pans brewing. :)

I guess my questions would be how do I scale recipes to brew in this quantity and how do you split the recipe into 2 pots when I want to take it up to 25 ltrs?

Thanks again!

Well, I don't split batches. I brew in 20.8 ltr batches minimum. I lose about 1.8 ltrs through racking my beer from secondary then to the 18.9 ltr keg. I am only familiar with Gallons when it comes to determining the size of batch I brew so my liter measurements might come in decimals.

Here is a quick look to my set up if it helps understanding an answer to your question.

All grain.

58.6 ltr keg with the top cut off for my mashtun.
28.3 ltr hot water pot
30.2 ltr pot for boiling wort via decoction method to raise my mash to 180 F. I think that's 82 C.
37.8 ltr lauter tun.

I then lauter my mash into my 58.6 ltr keg for the boil.

I use 40ft of copper coil to cool my wort after boil.

The size of my batch of beer is going to end up being 20.8 ltrs so I ferment in glass 24.6 ltr carboy. I then transfer into an 18.9 ltr glass carboy for my secondary.

I think if I split the batch into separate glass carboys for fermentation, I have a better chance of contamination so I just ferment into one glass carboy.

I think the only time I have done split batches, I was testing different strains of yeast.

This system I have works very well for high gravity beers, or a larger 41.6 ltr batch of mid gravity beers.


What kind of beer are you brewing?

 

[ibrewthereforeiam]

Hi and welcome, tell us about your professional brewing. We have had a few join from your side of the pond recently.

Nice!

Well, I brewed at a place called Millstream Brewing in Iowa...USA for several years. I helped out with a couple brewpubs in my area as well. Those places I brewed at I have won several awards in the World Beer Championship as well as Great American Beer Festival. I have also won a couple as a homebrewer. Winning awards is actually pretty easy...you just keep submitting beers until one sticks haha.

I have also been to a trade school...Brewing Science and Engineering at UC Davis in California. Short class but it got my foot in the door of brewing.

I don't think there was ever a time in the past 13 years that I have taken a break from brewing. Not only is it a passion, an art but it has almost became a way of life. I get more of a kick out of watching people drink my beer and appreciate it and love it, than actually drinking it myself.

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :