Maximum batch volume / brewery capacity

[AceMcAce]

Hi All

Wondering if anyone can give me some advice on the limiting factors of a brewery setup, or the maximum batch volume I'd be looking at from the equipment I have.

I picked up some stray Sanke kegs a while back, and turned them into a 50L HLT and a 50L Mash Tun, and the only thing I had to buy was a pot for a boil kettle. (Obviously being a man) I bought a 100L pot because bigger is ALWAYS better.... right? (and I thought If I want to go bigger, at least it's only 2 things I have to replace)

So, people, what are the limiting factors? What batch size can I get out of this?

Just to recap -
50L HLT
50L Mash Tun
100L Boil Kettle.

Cheers guys!

[simon12]

I think the limiting factor will be you can only get about 12Kg of grain in the mash tun (or loose efficiency due to lower water grain ratio) so you can do just about any volume that needs upto 12Kg of grain but if your only doing a 3% ABV beer it may start filling the boiler to high and limit you to 80L ish instead (though you could add more as it boils off. Note this is all very approximate.

[AceMcAce]

I did find this tool after starting my search, the can I mash it calculator.
http://kotmf.com/tools/mash.php
15kg of grain at 2.5L of water per kilo should take up just shy of 48L

Is 2.5l per kg of grain a good mix?

[simon12]

Yes its a good mix 15 x 2.5 = 37.5 + 15Kg of grain will more or less fill 50L and you can't work with it full. I just checked beer smith and it says 15Kg grain makes a 51.68L mash volume. 12Kg needs 41.9L which is more manageable but you could go a bit over.

[darkonnis]

Just mash a bit thicker and sparge a bit more. Efficiency isn't something to concern yourself with overly because unless you measure each grain you don't know how efficient you actually are. Efficiency should be used as a fiddle factor so you can better dial in your system to get your target gravities or maximise water use/reduce loss of wort to deadspace.

If you're doing a big beer which is quite strong and you find your efficiency really falling off a cliff, sparge a bit more and a bit slower to counter the effect and help bring your target gravities back up, you can boil for longer too, this will help bring the gravity up if you over sparge.

Your mash tun is definitely the limiting factor here though, though there are probably some workarounds if you have a look on here or the US forums.