What method you guy guys use when you do 10 gallons batches. After it is done with the boil to get it cooled down. Do you remove it off the burner or just cool it down on the burner. I made my first 10 gallon batch last night. I have my burner in a work bench that is high already but never been a problem. Last night I had to use a step stool to lift the thing off the burner it was so heavy. I started thinking if I trip with this temp I would be in the hospital with serous burns. I have never been scared of a little burn or injury. But this scared me a little. I don’t have the hight to get my cooler in he worth due to a cooking vent hood and the hight that everything is at. With out spending lots of dollars on fancy pumps dose anyone have any suggestions. I suppose the easiest answer is going back to 5 gallon batches. Good grief I am by no means a large person but at 6’1" 200 pounds and a construction worker I am not use to things weight wise presenting a problem. But that sucker was heavy. Thanks in advance for some ideas.
Its not only heavy…its contents moves very easily 
I do 10 gallon batches with out a pump. I have moved the kettle when it was full but chilled and it is heavy. I cool on the burner and gavity feed to my fermentors. Im able to gravity feed from the mash tun to the kettle also. My burner is not that tall. So i put my mash tun on a tool cart.
That’s crazy. Don’t move the pot just chill in place and drain from a valve
My work benches are on casters so I can move them around. Can you make your work bench mobile and build a small one to hold the burner at a lower height to keep the boil kettle under the vent hood?
Yes, leave alone and dunk your immersion chiller in for the last 15 minutes to sanitize it. I wouldn’t want to have you come back to the forum after being scalded… that would be bad news to many of us. Flars is on track with building shorter carts with wheels, you construction worker you… Gather some home brews, go out in the garage and look through your process, measure and daydream of how can it be made simpler for you. Sneezles61
I do 11 gallon batches. I’m going to invest in a pump before long, right now I can’t lift the stuff to brew using the gravity flow method. The way I was doing things when I could, I was using my work truck as a brew sculpture. Burner and kettle was set up in the bed. I put a scaffold plank up on the ladder rack that the mash tun went on (I’d fill it with the strike water, hoist it up, then add the grain). HLT cooler went up on a small folding stage that got set on the scaffold plank. Copper counterflow chiller got set on the tailgate, and I set the fermenters on the ground behind the truck. All the lifting of hot water is done in coolers.
Whats to lift. I guess you get smarter with age . I do 11.5 gallon boils and the heaviest I lift is a 5 gallon bucket that has a handle off the ground into my wagon. I don’t even use a pump.
My only suggestion for your current setup would be to put the chiller in there before the boil if you can’t get it in after without moving the kettle.
I pump through a plate chiller and into the fermenters.
That is very interesting I will have think about that. Thanks at least that way a 100 lb pot would not be so bad when you can get it closer to your body. Thank you
Ok you might have something there for me grunting a little has never been a big thing. However as far a getting smarter and realizing even though my beer is good it is not worth the risk of burning my self. I did talk to NB today and the guy though I might be able to drill and tap my kettle and put a valve on there. That way I could drain four gallons off there and move it down off the burner safely.
Me do brew at a brewery once a week i do 10 gal batches a time. But do not move the kettle. Way to hot. Got a burn on my leg. Last saturday. But i do use. Pumps. To transfer the wort. Much safer. Even. At home do brew. 5 gall batches. Try not to move the kettle. Just drain from the valve much safer. And. While the brew transfers. I have a beer.
If you’re going to drill and add a valve why not drain it in place? For that matter you could just drain the kettle with an auto siphon.
I’ve never been bothered by a little heavy lifting but as you get older your body begins to remind you of all the crazy crap you did when younger. I’m 59 and still in pretty good physical condition since I’ve always worked out and still referee high school and college soccer. I have no trouble lifting a fermenter with 5+ gallons of liquid in it but why do it if there’s a smarter easier way. I pump the wort from the kettle to the fermenters which are on a wheeled cart, then roll them to the swamp coolers and lift them in.
My advice is find a resonable way to chill and drain in place. Save the heavy lifting for jobs where you can’t avoid it.
5 gallons sure 10gallons no way for me anyway
Thanks very interesting can you find a siphon that can handle boiling temps. I just may wait and go back to five gallon batches that I can safely lift hot or cold. I have been brewing for a little over a year now and have already lots of dollars in equipment. I will add a pump to my wish list and see what the fucture brings. I also thought about just dipping a 3-4 gallons out before I try to lift it. If the wort is at or near boiling temp and stearlize my equipment I am assuming I should not have too much to worry about as far as infection.
A stainless auto siphon is about $20 at morebeer. There may be other options. This is the first one that came up on a search for “stainless auto siphon”.
You’d want to use silicone tubing if you’re moving boiling wort.
Me 52 years. Ok sure. 5 gall no issue. But me not even thinking to lift 10 gall of hot wort
So I’m still curious as to if you have or know of an immersion chiller? Sneezles61
" I don’t have the hight to get my cooler in he worth due to a cooking vent hood and the hight that everything is at. "
I assumed this meant an IC. I had other questions about his setup too…I initially assumed he was boiling on a gas stove top with a vent hood above it but rereading the OP it says a “burner on his workbench”.
