Making Beer In A Small Pot: Biag 23 Liters Of Beer In 20 Liter Pot

[RdeVjun]

Yeah, no problem Bjorn, and its enlightening for sure. For me, what it points to are two take- home messages:
1) The fuller the pot/kettle the better, if its 1.080 etc (for example) and not full, then dilute it (with sparge or plain) to get better hops utilisation and use less of them.
2) I guess we're all hoping it isn't necessary to do these sorts of adjustments, but with a space shortage or faced with the added cost to go with a traditional 3-V system, or even an urn, that's the equipment we use and have to make them to get the desired result.

Like I say though, I've never been 100% happy with the hops levels with most of my batches, some have been very close, but I've not had anything much to compare it to (no offense to guys whose beers I've sampled either), plus other factors (different chilling methods, yeast strains, fermentation and mash temperatures, ingredients and hops rates etc.- no two batches are the same but I'm sure trying to change only one thing at a time) so I can't say definitively what's at fault.

The other thing I've been meaning to mention is that if you don't sparge/mashout, the spent grain would
I presume make an ideal base for a 'small beer'. That's something I've wanted to do for a while, but I've assumed that after the mashout the enzymes necessary to achieve it would be ruined plus much of the remaining sugars are gone with the sparge anyway, and so haven't bothered. Anyone been there before?

 

[BjornJ]

you are right, by adding water I can get better hops utilisation but I thought it was easier to cool down 9 liters than 15. Next time I will dilute for sure

Do you mean to not sparge for the "main" beer, then sparge to get a low OG wort and make another similar but weaker/thinner with this wort you get from sparging?

 

[RdeVjun]

Do you mean to not sparge for the "main" beer, then sparge to get a low OG wort and make another similar but weaker/thinner with this wort you get from sparging?

Yep, that'd be the original small beer and basically that's the deal, first runnings into the full- strength stuff for 'table' beer, second and subsequent runnings into 'small' versions. In times gone by, small beer was drunk all day by the sounds, hence it becomes interesting to me!! Also, water of poor quality (i.e. full of nasty dehli- belly bugs) was declined in favour of small beer which allowed the gentry of the day to stay hydrated and still on their feet whilst not getting bowlsprayitis from the local sewer. Wiki link, I can't seem to find the many good references I had at my fingertips earlier today...
I'm inclined to do one at some stage, but at the moment it all goes in together.

 

[BjornJ]

this beer turned out a bit confused :lol:

It's not as black as it was before fermentation, looks like quite a bit of the color "was eaten" or something.
There is no foam/head whatsoever. 20 seconds after pouring, the foam is gone and it looks like flat coca cola.

But it tastes nice!
A light or mid-strenght beer at 3,1 % alc before bottle conditioning, not full bodied but still plenty of taste in my opinion.

Here is the beersmith file if anyone is interested:

View attachment Birthday_porter.bsm

 

[Pollux]

Just sampling this beer right now as Bjorn dropped a couple off the other day while grabbing some spare PETs.

I can see what you mean about the head, it does just vanish, even a pocket sparkler (5ml syringe) didn't seem to help. It is a little light on body for what I like in a portor but the taste is beautiful.....

Really tempting me to make one myself to be honest.