15 gallons with a 15 gallon kettle?

Does anybody know the water calculation for high gravity brewing? I need to make 15 gallons into my keggle, obviously this wont work so I need to up the gravity then dilute in the fermenter, I have never done this and haven't a clue how much water to add back before pitching the yeast, aside from adding a bit at a time and taking gravity readings along the way, which seems 1) unreliable across 3 carboys and 2) a pita. Any advise is appreciated!

It's really just dilution, i.e., 7.5g at 1.10 plus 7.5g at 1.0 (water) = 15g at 1.05.

I've maxed out my keggle, I brew as normal, but I save extra wort and top of the BK 30min before flame out.

Is there some sort of dilution ratio that one wouldn't want to exceed? Such as not going over a 50% ratio etc?

Also, when researching high gravity brewing, it seems the consensus is to add water back post fermentation. Any reason adding it back pre pitching would be a bad idea?

lostfish said:

Also, when researching high gravity brewing, it seems the consensus is to add water back post fermentation. Any reason adding it back pre pitching would be a bad idea?

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No. As long as you have the proper OG it won't matter.

Keep in mind that topping up with water is harder for high IBU beers due to the maximum amount of hops oils that be isomerized, but most other beers would be simple to do.

The big breweries dilute after fermentation to minimize fermeter size. That really is the main goal of high gravity brewing.

Yooper said:

No. As long as you have the proper OG it won't matter.

Keep in mind that topping up with water is harder for high IBU beers due to the maximum amount of hops oils that be isomerized, but most other beers would be simple to do.

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Agreed, the higher the gravity the less soluble the bittering compounds become. I am doing a turbid mashed lambic using aged hops for a side by side yeast experiment, so IBU's are out on this batch

Thanks guys for the input, didn't realize it was that easy!