how big of a beer can the 1100 handle?

[straight cash homey]

I just graduated and I'm getting a job soon and my first purchase is going to be a brew sculpture, even though I just bought a whole new set up for 10 gallon batch sparging about a week ago, but I was wondering what is the max gravity the 1100 can handle. I've never fly sparged, but just thinking about making 10 gallons of a big beer from BCS like the RIS would require about 40lbs. of grain plus 50qts. of water at 1.25qts/lb. The mash water almost takes up the entire volume of the kettle in this extreme example. Am I calculating incorrectly? Do I just get the 2100 with the 26 gallon kettles even though I only plan on making 10 gallon batches? Or do I get the 1100 and order a 26 gallon mashtun because the 1100 can accommodate 15 and 26 gallon kettles?

[beerocracy]

If I recall correctly, 1 lb of grain saturated with 1 Qt of water has a volume of 1.4 Qts. This is from How to Brew. I always forget the amount and have to hunt around in there before I find it. Any additional water you add just adds volume. So, depending on your desired mash thickness, you should be able to calculate the most grain you can put in.

Here's a quick calculation I made on the maximum lbs of grain you can fit in various mash tun sizes. Please check these for accuracy as I'm at work right now and don't have a copy of How to Brew handy. It doesn't account for any volume you may have beneath the false bottom.

Code: Select all

Qts        1:1          1.25:1       1.5:1        2:1
40         28.6         24.2         21.1         16.7
60         42.9         36.4         31.6         25.0
80         57.1         48.5         42.1         33.3
100        71.4         60.6         52.6         41.7


I have a 20 gallon kettle and Mylo and I made 14.5 gallons of 1.100 Russian Imperial Stout wort in it with 55 lbs of grain at a 1:1 water ratio. That was one frickin' full mash tun.

[straight cash homey]

thanks. that's a nice spreadsheet. so it seems that a 26 gallon mash kettle is the way to go. now do I get the 2100 and use it for 10 gallon batches or the 1100 and get an additional 26g mash kettle. so many questions.

[Randy the Mexican]

The real doozy is that once you have your 26 gallon mash tun, you'll naturally need a 26 gallon HLT to properly sparge with enough water.

So, I would say that if you really are in the position to get the 2100, it sounds like way to go as far as brewing higher gravity beers. I have a hard time with space pretty much after 1.070.

Keep in mind also though, that you are talking about some pretty beefy kettles if you are just running off a 1.056 10 gallon beer. The kettles alone are 30-40 lbs.

Just some things to chew on.

--Randy

[SacoDeToro]

I bought a B3-2000 about 3 years ago and I'm really glad I went for the bigger system. I normally do 13-14 gallon batches, but I have all the headroom I need to brew 13 gallons of my RIS (OG 1.114) or my b-wine (OG 1.126) without any issues. I could probably fit 75lbs of grain in my MT if I wanted to. For reference, I have the older 100L (28 gal) Italian kettles. With the false bottom in place, my MT has a workable capacity of about 24 gallons. Also, because I'm nowhere close to the capacity of my system when doing 14 gallon batches, I typically get 83% efficiency on my medium gravity beers.