AG with a small brew pot

[darylM]

I am planning my next batch to be AG. My issue is that the biggest pot in the house is a 16 quart ss pot. I won't have a 30 quart for awhile so I was thinking of making a concentrated wort and adding water before I pitch. For example, if my desired OG is 1.060, I would produce 16 quarts of 1.075 wort and then add one gallon of water before I pitch the yeast.
I know this will reduce hops utilization and carmelization may happen but buying 9 lbs of grain a 1lb of LME seems silly to me. My other option is making 4 gal batches. What do the rest of you think?

[BrewDog]

You will have a HARD time getting a 1.070 AG wort with such limited space.

I suggest you either do the small batch or go for a partial mash instead until you have a big enough brew pot.

BTW, 30 quarts will be tight for a full boil. I had a 35 qt pot and had many boilovers in it. There is simply not enough room for the foam. 35 qts is about the absolute minimum I'd ever recommend to anyone wanting to go AG.

[Mad Scientist]

You may want to kick it down to 4 gals, if a large kettle is not in your future. You should look into LEGALLY buying a keg...they are stainless and what most of us use.

[dparsons]

You can also use (beg, borrow) a 2nd pot to get your volume. I'm sure you know somebody that will let you borrow a pot in exchange for a few beers.

[darylM]

Thanks for the replies. I will be looking at 4 gal batches and a gently loved keg for a brewpot.


Originally posted by Boerne Brew
You may want to kick it down to 4 gals, if a large kettle is not in your future. You should look into LEGALLY buying a keg...they are stainless and what most of us use.

You mean the $20 deposit isn't the price of that keg? ;)

[barleyburps]

not to hijack your thread. . . .

. . .you can never have too big a brewpot. . .

My grandmother had a huge copper cauldron for making apple butter all the time i was growing up. . . .don't know what happened to it, i'm sure one of my aunts or uncle
has it, but i'd love to have something that big to brew in. . . .

[takhsh]

Originally posted by darylM
[B
You mean the $20 deposit isn't the price of that keg? ;) [/B]

Not quite.
There are metal scrap shops that will sell you a used Stainless Steel beer keg for 20 dollars. And this is legal. In fact in the past I have bought several (for friends too), used keg for 10 dollars each. Now they sell them for 20 dollars.

[thekulman]

You can't boil 16 q in a 16 q pot - not enough head room. I suggest making a half batch (10q) or a split boil.

My first AG's used two pots, I simply split the wort 50/50 and hops as well.


Worked fine.

[darylM]

Originally posted by thekulman
You can't boil 16 q in a 16 q pot - not enough head room. I suggest making a half batch (10q) or a split boil.

My first AG's used two pots, I simply split the wort 50/50 and hops as well.


Worked fine.

Unfortunately, my next biggest pot is an 8q so splitting a batch is not an option.

[Mad Scientist]

Time to head for the scrap yard for a beer keg then.

[darylM]

Do I need to use a gas burner with a keg or can my kitchen stove do the job?

[thekulman]

Unless you have a gas stove with a burner of at least 70,000 BTU's, then you definately need a propane burner (Canjun Cooker, Turkey Fryer - they have many names) for any all grain batches, or any batch were you want to boil the full volume of wort.

I boil 23 litres (6 gal) of wort down to 19 litres (5 gal) of finished beer on a 70,000 BTU unit in a 34 q enamelled pot and it works quite well. The pot was $40 at Home Hardware and the burner was $39 at Canadian Tire. Very inexpensive. I'm sure you have similar stores in the US of A.

Cheers - Kulman

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by darylM
Do I need to use a gas burner with a keg or can my kitchen stove do the job?

daryl, go to the Academy at 1604 and 281. they usualy have a decent burner for ~$20. I bought mine there a couple of years ago, and it is still going fine today.

[Otis_The_Drunk]

If you are determined to make small batches, The recent BYO had an article abouty small batches and scaling down recipes.

[darylM]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
daryl, go to the Academy at 1604 and 281. they usualy have a decent burner for ~$20. I bought mine there a couple of years ago, and it is still going fine today.

That is a good tip. I will check it out


If you are determined to make small batches, The recent BYO had an article abouty small batches and scaling down recipes.

I would like to use small batches for experimental/seasonal brews. I will look for that article.

[darylM]

All,

well, I tried it and it worked. I created a higher gravity wort with a small brew kettle. Here's how I did it:

I used BeerSmith to get all the numbers down, how much hops, grain, etc. for the recipe. I did have to adjust the amount of hops to make up for the higher gravity. I used batch sparging to get it to the boil volume of 3.5 gals. At the end of the boil, I had 3 gallons of wort. I added two gallons of water to reach 5 gallons. Just before I pitched, I had a gravity of 1.046 and I planned to have 1.047. For those who are wondering I had an eff of 75%.

[thekulman]

Hi DarylM

Excellent! Sounds like it turned out great - let us know how it tastes.

Brian
www.homebrewersretail.com

[ontap78]

I'm sure your effeciency would go in the toilet, but you could take your first runnings and a bit of water and do your boil. Then, top it off in your carboy like it was an extract recipe. Just a thought. I'm sure there are those in here who may shoot it down and probably rightly so.

The best thing to do is get a bigger pot.

[darylM]

The reason I thought I could do it is because breweries brew a high gravity wort and split it using water to achive final volume/gravity. I know that flavor can suffer but I figured adding two gallons to batch is not going to kill the drinkablity of the beer. One of the biggest improvments to beer taste is a full wort boil; that tip applies for extract and AG brewers. I wanted to have a very fresh wort to make my beers.

[Mill Rat]

The macro-breweries get their high gravity wort not by cutting off sparge, but by pre-boiling their later runnings before adding to the brew kettle. They don't lose sugar, they just work fairly hard at concentrating it.

[darylM]

i never planned on stopping early, it just ended that way. Maybe I am just lucky that time.