Two Pot Stovetop All-Grain Brewing Questions

I've searched and I know there are some people doing this but I have some specific questions. Currently I have a Keggle/Turkey fryer set up with a cooler MLT in the back yard which is ideal for me in the spring and fall. Summer time however work is busy as crap so by the time I get home its well past dark by the end of brewing and I dont have exterior lighting proper enough to brew in the dark. Secondly its hot as all get it out and even starting at 8 in the morning on my days off it's 95 by noon. Also when its freezing cold here this would be nice in the winter as well.

I know from the extract days I can get 7 gallons between two pots boiling on the stove. So here are my questions that would like some one to back my thoughts:

1. Can I still batch sparge and split the runnings to boil and then combine later in the fermentor? I realize that the starting gravities between with two will not be equal. It seems to me it should be no different when combining than adding water to extract brewing.

2. During hop and adjunct additions would it make any difference what pot I add them to? I seem to think that the extract water theory from the previous question applies. It would be less gunk straining to keep it all in one pot.

I recently asked a similar question. I didn't think of it at the time of my post, but collecting your runnings in a single container, such as a fermentation bucket, will allow you to split the volume evenly between the two pots. This will allow your OG to be the same in each pot. From there you can just split the hops or adjuncts equally, and since the OG is the same for both, the utilization should be close to even. Here's a link to my thread and the responses:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/can-i-collect-wort-2-different-kettles-perform-separate-boils-then-combine-256793/

Performing hop additions in one pot vs. two would save you the effort of straining the extra gunk, but I would think the equal split would yield better results.

By the way, I have not tried this yet...I'll probably attempt it this weekend or the next.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

gluttonoussloth said:

I recently asked a similar question. I didn't think of it at the time of my post, but collecting your runnings in a single container, such as a fermentation bucket, will allow you to split the volume evenly between the two pots. This will allow your OG to be the same in each pot. From there you can just split the hops or adjuncts equally, and since the OG is the same for both, the utilization should be close to even. Here's a link to my thread and the responses:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/can-i-collect-wort-2-different-kettles-perform-separate-boils-then-combine-256793/

Performing hop additions in one pot vs. two would save you the effort of straining the extra gunk, but I would think the equal split would yield better results.

By the way, I have not tried this yet...I'll probably attempt it this weekend or the next.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you that does answer a good amount of my questions. I need to debate my options on what pot to buy to go the same size or go a little bigger. I have the keggle at my disposal so I dont necessarily need a huge one

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but have you considered just making smaller batches in 1 pot? Food/beer for thought.