Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Beersmith for 3BBL or 6BBL system

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Beersmith for 3BBL or 6BBL system

    I am busy planning a much larger brewery. At the moment we use Beersmith for our 10 gallon system quite successfully.

    From what I've read so far there are some tricks to scale from a small system to something as big as 3-6 BBL... Hops utilization in particular.

    Our basic system will consist of:
    Hot Liquor tank with HERMS coil (direct electric heating)
    Mash / Lauter Tun
    Wort Grant
    Kettle (direct electric heating)
    Plate chiller for cooling (with pre-cooled water)

    What factors & tricks do I need to take into account to scale my current recipes...?

    Thanks in advance

  • #2
    Subscribing....

    Also interested in feedback from those who know!
    Nate Cornett
    Yellow Springs Brewery
    Yellow Springs, OH

    Comment


    • #3
      I did something similar a while back, going from 5 gallons to 500 gallons! While beersmith is obviously geared for homebrew, I find it works great for brewbrew as well.

      You'll probably have to increase beersmith's "hop utilization factor" in the equipment profile. Mine is around 125% but that's dependent on your equipment. Trial and error will tell you if your factor is right -- if beer is too bitter, factor is too low.

      Comment


      • #4
        I too am interested. I am just starting to look into brewing software for larger scale production. 5-15BBL at a time.

        Comment


        • #5
          Well, try it out. At $20, it's going to be about the cheapest piece of brewing equipment you buy.

          I also have good luck using it to track our raw material inventory.

          Comment


          • #6
            I am brewing 4.5BBL at a time with a 10-15 whirlpool at the end. I am using beersmith with the utilization at 125% I may need to up it a bit, but I just started brewing here and need more time to figure things out. 125% is close and a good place to start.

            Comment


            • #7
              10 to 40 gallons

              I've noticed the jump from 10 gallons to 40 gallons is even large enough to be significant. I haven't scaled the same batch exactly, but based on my experience, a hop utilization factor of 115% seems to work best for the 40 gallon system.

              A few things to note, small errors in volume measurement for a 10 gallon system can be very significant (wort left in mash tun, bottom of kettle, lost to chiller, etc.) On a larger system, this might not have as large an impact.

              Also, the more "stuff" in contact with your brew, the more the hop oils can adhere to an not end up in your beer. Each system will be slightly different and it is something you need to experiment with.

              Comment


              • #8
                late hop additions IBU calculations in Beersmith

                what do you guys figure for late hopping using beersmith.
                I know i am getting ibu's from whirlpool, what is the best way to get them in beersmith?

                Should I figure in the whirlpool into the boil time?
                ie if 15 min whirlpool then those would be 15 min addition.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Gordvan
                  what do you guys figure for late hopping using beersmith.
                  I know i am getting ibu's from whirlpool, what is the best way to get them in beersmith?

                  Should I figure in the whirlpool into the boil time?
                  ie if 15 min whirlpool then those would be 15 min addition.
                  BUMP

                  I calculate the whirlpool time into the utilization boil time. When I didn't I notice more bitter.
                  Anyone else chiming in?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Yeah, whirlpool and resting time defo makes a difference to bitterness.
                    I adjust any whirlpool hop addition hops from aroma to first wort hopping and add the whirlpool time to the boil time for any hops added at start of boil.

                    Seems to work for my setup.
                    If its still too bitter lower hop amounts etc and keep adjusting all the setting till your happy.

                    Again, get your own equipment details dialed in the the equipment profile and you should be fine.
                    Dave Whyte
                    DemonBrew
                    www.demonbrew.com
                    E: dave@demonbrew.com
                    Twitter: @DaveDemonBrew
                    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DemonBrew

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I have adjusted my hop utilisation figure to be 135-140% in BeerSmith 2 and it seems to be bang on for my setup.
                      Dave Whyte
                      DemonBrew
                      www.demonbrew.com
                      E: dave@demonbrew.com
                      Twitter: @DaveDemonBrew
                      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DemonBrew

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        We have a 3BBL setup from premier stainless. we can squeeze 4BBL's out of it but only if we are filling barrels instead of the fermenters (not enough head space in those)

                        I generally figure 125% utilization. Seems to work great for us. we whirlpool for about 10min per batch and our transfer time can very between 20min-1hr if we made a huge IPA and our damn heat exchanger doesn't get clogged.

                        some day we are planning on sending some beers out to have them tested through white labs and see exactly the amount of IBU's we are getting. However its not on the priority list of things to do around here so I'm not sure when I'll have that kind of hard data to share.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          So are you guys all either increasing the hop utilization % OR adding the whirlpool/rest time into the boil, or doing BOTH? I'm in the process of stepping up my first large batch from 5g to 3.5 BBL. I'm sure it won't be that close to the original batch since I haven't honed in efficiency, but I don't want to go way overboard with IBUs!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I researched this extensively and went from 10 gallons to 7 bbls about 3 months ago with a fairly painless scaling up period. I use Beersmith and didn't change the utilization factor at all....this is because of literature that shows that after 60 minutes the alpha acids present in boiling wort are degraded at about the same rate they are isomerized. Therefore you don't want to assume you will get 125% or more utilization off 60 minute additions. Here is what we did....1) brewed a single 60 min addition stout first and calculated theoretical IBUs using Tinseth....then sent to the lab (it was off by 1 IBU).....2) brewed a Pale that had the 1 60 min addition and then a whirlpool addition at flameout and sent it to the lab....Beersmith assumed 0, but when I measured about 35% contribution on top of the 60 minute.....I've read anything from 25-50%depending on whirlpool and rack off time as well as how vigorous a boil you have etc....but you need to determine what abount of time to add for each hop addition for your own system....for us it's about 15 minutes, maybe slightly less. We do a 10 minute whirlpool, a 15 minute rest, and it takes about 45 minutes to rack off.
                            Eric O'Connor

                            Co-founder/Brewmaster
                            Thorn Street Brewery
                            North Park, San Diego, CA

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by masampson View Post
                              So are you guys all either increasing the hop utilization % OR adding the whirlpool/rest time into the boil, or doing BOTH? I'm in the process of stepping up my first large batch from 5g to 3.5 BBL. I'm sure it won't be that close to the original batch since I haven't honed in efficiency, but I don't want to go way overboard with IBUs!
                              Did you make that upgrade? Are you still brewing on that system?

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X