Brewing a barley wine - 1st time doing a “big” beer. Starting to question the capabilities of my mash tun. I have a 10 gallon SS pot. I lose about a gallon though under the mash screen. Anyone know off hand the capacity of a pot this size? I scaled old stoner down to 4 gallons, but that is still 21-22 pounds of grain. Do I have enough room to pull this off?
I use a 10 gallon cooler and I think it maxes out around 20#.
I can fit 26 Lbs in my 10 gallon rubbermaid at a 1.1qt per a Lb ratio.
You should be fine with 22 lbs, just mash thick.
SOunds good - I was planning on going for a thick mash - 1 qt = 1 pound range.
Thanks.
Oh. Yeah if you mash thick you should be fine.
Check out the “Can I Mash It?” calculator at
http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/But remember that some cooler sizes incorporate lid space into their stated capacity, and that you need a little extra room to stir.
edit: sorry - I now see you are using a pot.
No problem - Made it easy - probably could have gotten another 5lbs in:)
Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Gravity came in at a whopping 1.15 for 4 gallons. By far the biggest beer I have turned out. Got the second runnings boiling right now.
Hmmm, partigyle. What are you making with the second runnings? I bottled six gallons of Oud Kriek today.
What am I making with the second runnings? Unfortunately, a big damn mess…
On the bright side, I get to update my “dumbest thing you have ever done brewing” story. Basically, collected 5 gallons of second runnings that was at about 1.035. Added two gallons of water and about 3 lbs of Liquid ME that I had on hand. Boiled, oz. of magnum for 60 min. Bombed it with 5 ounces of EKG/Fuggle mix with 5 minutes left. Cooled it. Gravity at 1.055. Pitched portion of the 1056 starter I had on hand from the old stoner. Since I was boiling this on the second level of my 3 tier system (A friend was brewing with me, and he had a porter on the boil level - this was to be the third batch of the day) I had to put my bucket/fermenter on a milk crate to collect the cooled wort. (see where this is going yet?) With about 4 gallons collected in my fermenter, the milk crate shifted and the bucket fell off to the floor - spilled every drop across the brew room floor. The ONLY saving grace is that I have a floor drain and clean up was not a total nightmare. I had to rig the milk crate in at kind of a weird place between the wall and my brew stand. Thought it was solid - obviously not. Stupidest thing I have ever done brewing - by far. Couldn’t even curse and swear because the second it happened I knew I had totally blown it and it was 100% my fault. Just kinda bummed as I had never done a second running beer and was curious as to how it would have turned out. Oh well - always next time I guess.
I’m sorry for your loss - I think it’s pretty well proven that when we multi-task, it’s harder to provide the proper focus on all aspects of the work at hand. Sounds like you’re making the process improvement that will prevent future recurrence. :cheers:
