Need advice on double batches

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spaced

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Hi All,

I'm wanting to do double batches so that I can cut down my time in the kitchen.

Currently I'm putting 10L water + 2.8kg Sorghum Syrup (6pounds) + hops in there.

I'm wanting to increase the water by about 2L, double the sorghum syrup and double the hops. Split to fermenters and top up with cool water. Is this ok to do? Or is there some glaringly obvious fault I'm not seeing?
 
I think there's some sort of reduction in alpha acid extraction from hops during the boil when there's more sugar material. (Gluten free and gluten source). As well as something about the concentration of liquid (not quite sure about this one).

In other words, you may be looking at slightly more than double the hops, but perhaps not to the amount of 2.5x the amount.
 
Volume in the boil definitely affects hops utilization. Unless you plan on having this mass produced or entered in a competition you can go this route, but the calculations for IBUs won't necessarily be correct anymore.

The other "glaringly obvious" concern that some people will point out is the risk of infection by putting a non-boiled/sanitized element into your beer (cold water, assuming you meant from the tap). I've done extract batches where I do a 3.5gallon boil, then put ice in the fermenter, pour the hot wort over it and it brings it down to yeast pitching temps in no time. I've never had an infection from using ice, but the risk is definitely there.

Short answer, yes you CAN do this, and you'll still make beer. It just may not be the exact beer you think you're making.
 
+1 to everyone. To cut down on your risk of infection you could buy bottled water by the gallon and top up with that instead of tap water, but that would increase your cost per batch.
 
Ok, from the sounds of things I'm not doing it right how it is now.

Because I'm boiling 8 to 10 L of water with sorghum and hops, cold crashing, then topping up with bottled water. But this is really just down to my equipment (stove being crap mainly). I'll give it a go and report back my findings, but from the sounds of things it should be similar to my current results.
 
spaced said:
Ok, from the sounds of things I'm not doing it right how it is now.

Because I'm boiling 8 to 10 L of water with sorghum and hops, cold crashing, then topping up with bottled water. But this is really just down to my equipment (stove being crap mainly). I'll give it a go and report back my findings, but from the sounds of things it should be similar to my current results.
Click to expand...

Personally, I wouldn't add straight tap water to my brew. Bottled water, sure, but I'll boil the tap water first.

Also, 2 other things: there is a maximum limit to the amount of hops utilization you can get in a boil. Normally, this is only an issue for a partial boil if you are doing a very high IBU beer, but from what I understand, you are aiming to do a 'quarter boil', where you are going to boil 10-12 L and aim to produce 40 L of finished beer (if this isn't right, please let me know)


Second, a more concentrated wort is more likely to have issues with scorching to the bottom of your pot, and you'll have more darkening of the wort during your boil (maillard reactions).

You can help the second problem by doing a late extract addition, which I recommend anyway (I'd do it at 30-40 minutes into your 1 hr boil, as it seems like I'm still getting a lot of hot break material happening after the extract has been boiling for 10-15 minutes.)
 
dorklord said:
Personally, I wouldn't add straight tap water to my brew. Bottled water, sure, but I'll boil the tap water first.

Also, 2 other things: there is a maximum limit to the amount of hops utilization you can get in a boil. Normally, this is only an issue for a partial boil if you are doing a very high IBU beer, but from what I understand, you are aiming to do a 'quarter boil', where you are going to boil 10-12 L and aim to produce 40 L of finished beer (if this isn't right, please let me know)


Second, a more concentrated wort is more likely to have issues with scorching to the bottom of your pot, and you'll have more darkening of the wort during your boil (maillard reactions).

You can help the second problem by doing a late extract addition, which I recommend anyway (I'd do it at 30-40 minutes into your 1 hr boil, as it seems like I'm still getting a lot of hot break material happening after the extract has been boiling for 10-15 minutes.)
Click to expand...

Yep, 1/4 boils.

Thanks for the info. Also yeah, I'm not planning super hopping or anything. My IPA's are around the 60's.
 

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