Beginner's Mirror pond clone?

I recently moved to Kansas, where deschutes fine brews are not available I was thinking I would try a Mirror Pond clone as my second brew attempt. I found this thread on the discussion (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10355&highlight=mirror+pond)
And was eying studentbrewers 2nd entry there (4th message).

Unfortunatly I have some constraints. I only have 1.5 gallon pot to use as a brew pot. Could I pull this recipe off using such a small pot? Is the English Crystal steeped, or mixed in? Getting a bigger brew pot is not an option for a few months because of cost. I pretty much blew through my hobby budget getting the initial supplies.

It's gonna be tough with a pot that small...you'll have to do a late extract addition, and I'd imagine getting 6# of DME to dissolve in 1 gal of water will be tricky...it'll be the consistency of tar.

Here's what I'd do: figuring the recipe was based on a 3-gal boil, and you're going to boil about a third of that:

Bring 1 gal water to 160F in your pot
Crush the 0.5 lb Crystal malt and add to pot (in a grain bag, if you have one)
Hold 30 minutes, remove grain (pull out bag, or use a strainer if you just dumped the grain in)
Add 2# of the DME and boil
Hop as scheduled
10 minutes before the end of the boil, add the remaining DME
Transfer to fermenter filled with 3 gal boiled/cooled water, top up to 5 gal.

That should keep your IBUs in line, since your boil gravity is close to the recipe intended.

I pretty much blew through my hobby budget getting the initial supplies.

Click to expand...

I'd argue that you haven't got your initial supplies yet, with a pot that small. Rather than fussing with the above, I might drop $15 on something like this. You can also find aluminum pots in that size/price range, and occasionally cheap SS too.

Not worth risking a $40 batch by not spending $15-20 on a pot.

Also, make sure you use the 2nd recipe...the first is a partial mash, though it doesn't say so.

Some how $15 here and $10 there has added up to over $160 this month about twice what I planned. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck that happened. No carboys to show for it either??? Two plastic fermenters, a nice bench capper, racking cane, bottle filler, thermometer, hydrometer, airlock, caps, 48 bottles (I was impatient), kit + 2lbs DME. *shrug*. It all added up and I can't say I'm feelin real spendy right now. But I suppose If I want to get better brew, I'll probably have to break down and get a bigger pot too