Small 10l Boil For A 20l Ag Batch

[drew9242]

I'm going to give all grain a go because i cant get hold of any cheap malt extract. So i have got a 25l esky all kited with the brided pipe. But my question is if i do a boil of 10l and then add 11l after the boil would i be doing any damage. (currently i only have a 10l boiling vesel)

You thoughts would be helpful.

Cheers

 

[Cocko]

Hey Drew,

One problem will be that hops are best utilised in a boil of a wort at around an SG of 1.040...

Other than that - no drama I can think of! But I am not too edgimacated..

Let us know how it turns out!


:icon_cheers:

 

[drew9242]

Yea good point. But i have done 2 partial mash batches with only a 10l boil except with some malt extract. And both of those brews turned out quite nice.

 

[Screwtop]

Do you intend doing an above gravity 10L batch and then watering down to your target OG with H2O?

Screwy

 

[seemax]

Do you mean you will only collect 10L of runnings from your lauter tun and boil this only OR will you collect the full volume of runnings, but only boil 10L and add the remainder post boil?

If the latter, I would be concerned... unboiled wort is problematic!

Seriously though, if you've put some time and effort into an esky setup, go buy yourself the cheapest biggest pot from kmart/bigW/etc. Not long ago they had 19L for $12. Just do a split boil.

 

[drew9242]

Do you intend doing an above gravity 10L batch and then watering down to your target OG with H2O?

Screwy

Yea that's the plan. Ill do the same amount of grain for a 23l batch and then boil that off.

 

[cozmocracker]

i have done 2 AG batches in a 20 litre urn, drinking the 1st of them right now, an Irish Red, only problem i had was with this first one because i added to much water into the fermemter, like 6 litres to much because i thought i took the SG reading out of the fermenter but the reading i took was post boil out of the kettle with a SG reading of 1077, we live and learn. still tastes dam good but plan on doing it again and getting it right this time. i would probally recommend going to BIG W and getting a 19 litre pot for $20 just to give yourself a bit of extra room.

 

[drew9242]

Do you mean you will only collect 10L of runnings from your lauter tun and boil this only OR will you collect the full volume of runnings, but only boil 10L and add the remainder post boil?

If the latter, I would be concerned... unboiled wort is problematic!

Seriously though, if you've put some time and effort into an esky setup, go buy yourself the cheapest biggest pot from kmart/bigW/etc. Not long ago they had 19L for $12. Just do a split boil.

Well i was going to mash it in 10l and sparge whatever i can fit in.

Yea good point ill have to look into that on monday. The esky was dead simple though, was all done in half an hour.

 

[drew9242]

i have done 2 AG batches in a 20 litre urn, drinking the 1st of them right now, an Irish Red, only problem i had was with this first one because i added to much water into the fermemter, like 6 litres to much because i thought i took the SG reading out of the fermenter but the reading i took was post boil out of the kettle with a SG reading of 1077, we live and learn. still tastes dam good but plan on doing it again and getting it right this time. i would probally recommend going to BIG W and getting a 19 litre pot for $20 just to give yourself a bit of extra room.

Yea ill have to do that for that price. Only problem is the closest Big W is 400km away. Hopefully Kmart will have one.

 

[Screwtop]

Yea that's the plan. Ill do the same amount of grain for a 23l batch and then boil that off.

OK, so malt bill, hops etc for a 23L batch with a pre-boil vol of 10litres. Hmmm extremely low efficiency is the only problem I foresee. Think you could also do a full volume mash/sparge and boil 2 batches. First runnings boiled with hops and second runnings without, combine the two. Additional boiloff volume from the second boil would have to be taken into account.

Screwy

 

[BOG]

You won't be able to sparge the grain as you won't have enough water to wash out the sugars. You'll leave a lot behind.

I used to do small batches (12L) and it was fine (still do). You just have to brew more often as it disappears quickly.



BOG

 

[smollocks]

Another thing to recognise is your hop amounts won't give you the result you expect due to the high gravity of the boil so you probably won't end up with a balanced beer.

I also recommend you just do a small batch. I've done a few 10L BIAB batches in a 20L pot and it was tricky enough hitting targets without the efficiency problems associated with what you propose - especially on your first AG!

 

[beersatan]

+1 for a 19L pot.
If you try and get around 3L water to 1kg grain you can squeeze in 5kg and make a full flavoured, full strength beer.
+1 on needing to use more hops this way.
I'm still using a 19L Big W pot and only thinking of getting a 40L urn as an upgrade to cut back on my hops (my whole harvest this year went in one batch).

My 5 cents - It sounds like you've got the bug and reckon now would be the time to invest in software to do the math for you. I think they are all downloads so no travelling involved.

BS

 

[t2000kw]

Just a few comments that might help (or not).

I once made an imperial stout. It had about 25 lbs of grain for a ~20 litre batch. My lauter tun could only hold about 1/2 of the grain, so I did it in two sessions. I don't remember if I did two mash sessions or used another container for a mash tun, but you get the idea. Being new to all-grain, I also did not have the capacity to do a full boil in one container, so I split it up into 3 or 4 pots on my kitchen stove. I split the hop additions in proportion to the volume of each pot.

That worked out well. If you can do this, or do your boil in two sessions, you shouldn't have to change anything.

If you plan to do a high-gravity boil and then dilute it, I would do your hop boil in the amount of plain water you will be using to top up your volume after the boil. I don't know how much you would have to cut back your hop additions because of the increased hop utilization, but this might be worth researching. There was an article in Brew Your Own a while back about boiling your hops in plain water before adding extract to get better utilization, so it's an option for you.

If you do a high-gravity boil then dilute it, your hop utilization will be off quite a bit.

I would rather do two separate boiling sessions myself, but it's your beer.

 

[drew9242]

Hey thanks for all the input, im going to look for a 19l pot and then split the boil into my 10l pot and the 19l pot. And yes i am getting the bug and progressing in this hobby.

Can't wait to do me first all grain.

 

[drew9242]

Well i went to Kmart today and they only had 15l pots. so i bought 1 off them and will do a split boil with my 10l pot. So 25l should be enough for me 20l batch.

 

[raven19]

Allowing for evaporation you should be ok with a 10L and a 15L pot, just watch for boilovers, especially when adding hops!

Another crazy idea I was thinking of whilst reading the OP (and prior to seeing your latest post) was that you could sparge off half your runnings and do a 10L boil, no chill in a 10L cubes then repeat with the second sparge runnings, then once both cubes have cooled overnight, pitch them both into your fermenter. Hey presto 20L batch!

Need 2 x 10L cubes though.

Keep us posted on how the pending brew day works out!

 

[drew9242]

Yea will do. Im doing it this arvo so ill take a few pics as well i think and let you know how i go.

 

[drew9242]

Well i have done my first AG, and how easy is that. All went well used Beersmith to work out all the tech side - Awesome program. Got a mash goin at 65.5 degrees and only lost 1.5 degrees over 75min. Then sparged and did a split boil. I put it in the frezzer for 4 hours to get it down to 22 degrees. (seeled in the fermenter). And pitched the yeast with a SG of 1048, i was sposed to get 1051 but i was short 2l of water at the end so i just toped it up. So next time ill change me evaporation rate.

Cheers for all your help Guys.