Barrel question

[kevin]

when you see 20 BBLS on the side of a fermentor at a brewery I assume that means barrels, but what is the volume of a bbls?

[Bruno_78]

1 barrel (bbl) = 31 gallons

[kevin]

so then what is the largest keg? also I would imagine that a brewery is probably not brewing a full 20 bbls?

[Bruno_78]

I believe the largest keg available for sale is the 1/2 bbl, so 15.5 gallons.

It's not unusual for a brewery to have fermenters twice the size of their regular batch size so that they may do double batches if they want.

[Stodbrew]

Originally posted by kevin
so then what is the largest keg? also I would imagine that a brewery is probably not brewing a full 20 bbls?


The brewhouse in the pub I was working in last had a 20 BBL. system. I brewed 20 BBLS. of everything I made. It's great from a volume point of view, especially when we had big festivals going on and I would need to supply 65+ kegs to the festival and also go through about 10 bbls. of beer in the pub. However, in a pub situation, a brewery that big also stifles creativity. It was difficult to brew really big beers like barleywine, etc.