Looking to upgrade system...thoughts?

Long time no see. Good to see that you're still brewing.

I did Big Brew Day last year, and I actually had the attendant guy use a counterflow chiller on my wort. There was a lot of StarSan that got worked into the fermenter and it took at least 30 minutes to get my wort down to a whopping 74F. I still needed to take the wort home, fridge it, aerate, and pitch. Maybe others have more luck with this up north where the ground water is cooler. It might be good for indoor winter brewing.

10 Gal batches sound great until you realize that you're going to sink money into a bigger chiller, a bigger kettle, and brew day is going to take longer. It's hard for me to get amped up for a 6 hour brew day, and I don't even have kids. Just something to consider. I have done a few 10 gal batches lately, and like you, I only have room for 5 gal in the regulated fridge. I typically split the 10 gal batch with 2 yeast strains. I have a basement that sits at a temp of 60-64F depending on the season. The fridge gets the yeast that needs the attention. I can cool it if I need to go lower, and I have shop light with a CFL bulb in there if I want to ramp it up above 64. Cracking the door keeps the light from getting above 68-70F for a D rest too. It's not an exact science for me.

I had a recent post on trying to speed up 10 gal batches. I'm leaning towards making a heat stick, or a second propane burner for heating strike and sparge water, as that's where my process really bottlenecks. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/streamlining-time-on-a-large-batch.291925/

 

A plate chiller isn't too difficult or time consuming to clean. However, some people make it more difficult than it needs to be.

Rinse it with rapidly flowing hot water. Soak it in boiling hot PBW not oxiclean. Rinse it the next day. Done.

 

Do you sanitize it on brew day, or is there a way to back flush with boiling wort?

 

I like the pump idea. I don't personally have one. Lifting full kettles is starting to get more difficult with a recent shoulder injury. Homebrewing is starting to feel like a young man's game.

 

Can your mash tun handle 10 gallon batches? If so, I would consider upgrading the boil kettle to a 15 gallon kettle.

If you still have mobey to spend, I'd go the chugger pump and plate chiller route. In that case, you'd want a kettle with a valve at the bottom and a recirculaltion port at the top (might have to DIY the last part). You would also need new hoses and quick disconnects in this scenario. Very much a domino effect.

 

On brew day, I drain a gallon of starsan from the kettle through the chiller into the fermenter.

 

I would get the pump first. Lifting kettles full of strike or sparge water to chest height is not only a pain, but dangerous too. Ten gallon batches dont really add much more time to my brew days. Maybe an hour at most. Glad I went that big though, split batches are nice.

 

1. Yeah, I can appreciate that. Lifting stuff gets old.
2. Are you trying to cool your wort faster, or increase hop aroma/flavor? You state both items. At my scale, a longer and thicker gauge immersion cooler works for me. You get more contact with the wort with an immersion chiller. If you want to read more about it, I like this guys website and explanation: http://brulosophy.com/2014/12/19/wort-chiller-challenge-elbow-grease-vs-automation-xbmt-results/
3. Okay
4. I have since stopped brewing 5 gallon batches and brew 10 and 15 gallon with a 20 gallon brew kettle. Much like was mentioned above, I get several batches for what I consider a similar amount of time. You're still mashing, boiling, and fermenting the same amount of time. I guess I have a tiny bit more cleaning but only because I use two 10 gallon round coolers as mash tuns. I consider that worth it. For most batches I'll keep around 5 gallons to sour, or just have extra wort for starters and or krausening.

Good luck with your upgrades!

 

I've slowly converted from 5 to 10 gallons. I purchased a new hose/burner and was able to reuse my regular stand. I also went from a 7.5 gallon kettle to 15, and the burner can heat it quickly. Sunday, when I brewed, I skipped the mash tun for the first time and experimented with direct method in the pot with 22 lbs of grain and 11 gallons of water. It felt too easy, I liked it better than using the mash tun because for me, the tun involves setting up a temporary table in the garage and scooping the strike/sparge water into the chest high cooler. The burner sits a lot lower and doesn't require a table. If the result are good, I'll continue to do that. I then use gravity through my plate chiller. It's kind of a long day, but it seemed pretty hands off; I have a 1 and 3 year old and was able to pay more attention to them than the beer. Even my wife commented about how it didn't seem like I did anything. I brew about every 8-10 weeks.

 

My setup is very similar except I recently upgraded from a 8 gallon lobster pot to a 15 gallon kettle with ball valve. I still need gravity to drain from the kettle to the bucket, but I don't lift a kettle full of hot wort anymore. A kettle with ball valve and/or march pump might be a nice upgrade.

 

I've progressed through everything on your list over the years.
1) After I got my first pump and started to use it, I thought, what the hell took me so long. I'm ready to buy a second one, just because.
2) I switched to a CFC from an immersion, works great, if this ever needs to be replaced for some reason I'd probably get a plate chiller. I like how compact they are. The only thing I kick my self over is that I got rid of my immersion, I should have kept it, the price of copper is ridiculous these days.
3) I really like my Camlocks, I put them on everything I can.
4) Switched to 10 gals and realized that's too much of the same beer, switched back to brewing 5, and sometimes 3, I like having variety. I got some of those 3 gal cornies and I bottle some styles that I like to age.

 

I had a bazooka screen to attach to my ball valve from when I went from immersion chiller to plate chiller to filter the hops. That didn't work, at all, but it did a fine job on the mash. I had 70%, which is about what I do in my tun. Although since I mashed so thin (worried about scorching) I only needed 4 gallons to sparge, whereas when I use my tun, I mash thick and split my sparge into two runs and get 70%, so I'm thinking it might be slightly more efficient. I don't know, too many variables. My time saving was in setup and tear down time, with the added benefit of a little less heavy lifting. I didn't try to set a speed record, for example I had the burner pretty low to heat to 150, and in the meantime I cooked pancakes for the family, ate, and cleaned up. By then it was close and once it hit 150, I killed the heat and played with the kids while rested. Usually I have the burning screaming and it requires constant watching then transferring. Things like that made it seem easier for me.

 

My process is similar. I siphon ~3 gallons of sanitizer through it once brew day is done and then rinse. Then, on my next brew day while the wort is boiling, I run anywhere from 3-6 gallons of sanitizer through the chiller and into the carboy.

The plate chiller is moderately more of a pain than an immersion chiller, but when coupled with a sump pump pushing ice water through it, it's really darn efficient.

 

Other things besides some you mentioned:

• Programmable Control systems are fun to work on even when you're not brewing. BCS-460 and solid state relays.
• DYI RIMS tube - easy, cheap and great process to increase consistency and efficiency.
• Hop Back (such as Blichmann Hop Rocket) - doubles as boil hops and hot break filter.
• Plate chiller (post hop back) - nothing's better for condensing aromatics from heated hop back.

 

Pellets in a paint bag.