Condensed brews

[SnailAle]

My brewing "partner" finally joined me for his first brew a week ago. All he has done since is complain that the amount of effort for the volume of beer we get out of our 30 litre guten isn't worth the effort.

I obviously see differently but that's besides the point.

I have been wondering though is it possible to do a condensed brew. E.g. brew something with say twice as much grain, hops other additions etc. and then when you're about to ferment water it down?

I'm thinking there surely has to be a negative to this but thought it was worth considering.

Cheers

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Yes it's possible to do, you can mash double the malt and sparge with a larger amount of water to make the full pre-boil volume straight off to give the volume you wish to ferment or boil down to a smaller volume and cube. You will need to adjust your hop amounts for the boil gravity you will use.

 

[wynnum1]

Are there other things you can do while brewing to make the time more productive

 

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

You can partigyle to make a strong beer and a weak beer from the same batch, and clever use of your HLT can let you set up a second mash while your first is coming to the boil.

This all depends on fermenter capacity.

Some beers finish fast.

Temp control with lagering capability, and gelatin gets your beers bright and turned around quicker.

Lots of tricks to cut corners quicker

 

[MHB]

Seriously guys - there is a very limited amount of malt that will fit into a guten (or any other system), the only way to get higher gravity from the same amount of malt is to reduce the amount of wort you make. The opposite of what the OP is looking for.

What you are asking about is called "High Gravity Brewing" (given you might want to do some reading up) it comes with a whole set of issues and it is very difficult at a home brew scale to make the same or even as good a beer at high gravity as you will get at standard gravities.

The only easy ways to get where your mate wants to go would be to get a another or a bigger system, or make up some of the gravity with adjunct (dry or liquid malt extract, sugar, dextrose, honey...)
Doing this takes more planning but its not all that complex.
Best option might be to replace your brewing partner.

 

[SnailAle]

Seriously guys - there is a very limited amount of malt that will fit into a guten (or any other system), the only way to get higher gravity from the same amount of malt is to reduce the amount of wort you make. The opposite of what the OP is looking for.

What you are asking about is called "High Gravity Brewing" (given you might want to do some reading up) it comes with a whole set of issues and it is very difficult at a home brew scale to make the same or even as good a beer at high gravity as you will get at standard gravities.

The only easy ways to get where your mate wants to go would be to get a another or a bigger system, or make up some of the gravity with adjunct (dry or liquid malt extract, sugar, dextrose, honey...)
Doing this takes more planning but its not all that complex.
Best option might be to replace your brewing partner.

Haha that I could do but he's my best mate so I'll tough it out.

Thanks for the replies though all. Not really convincing me it's worth doing though.

 

[garage_life]

If all he's concerned about is volume and time you could always use extract and stretch the brew out to a larger volume. Still have to compensate the hops and have the issue of fermenter size limitation. Maybe a fermentasaurus could one into play, I think they're 35l.

 

[Brett27]

Buy him a malt extract kit. If he finds that to be too much work, get him a slab of commercial beer!

 

[malt and barley blues]

Have a read up on reiterated mash, would mean mashing twice but only one boil then dilute down to suit.

 

[wynnum1]

You may want to look at brewing separately do not need 2 to brew if you get up early can finish before breakfast time and then do a 2 or even third brew in a day.