Split Boil

Well I think I am going to go for my first all grain batch soon. I just bought a MLT and HLT but I still don't have a pot big enough for a full 6.5 gallon boil. I do however have 2 five gallon pots. Is there any harm in split boiling? Would it just be better to wait until I get a bigger pot? I do have a 15 gallon keg that I cut the top off of, but I have no means of bringing that to a boil. All I have is an electric stove.

Any suggestions? I want to get brewing soon!

I've heard people do that with no problems. Never have myself, just started brewing with my new 8 gal pot and a heat stick tonight (also on an electric stove). Just split your hops equally into the two pots assuming they are an equal mix of the mash and sparge water. If you do the mash water in one pot and sparge water in another then you'll need to adust the hops for proper utilisation.

It would be easiest to pick up a propane burner and use that keg, they are soooo handy to brew in. They are like a cell phone.. not sure how I made it for so long without one.

IXVolt said:

It would be easiest to pick up a propane burner and use that keg, they are soooo handy to brew in. They are like a cell phone.. not sure how I made it for so long without one.

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Not if you live in an apartment

That's what I did until I got a bigger pot. It worked great, just remember to adjust your boil off. Two pots will have twice the boil off rate of one. My volume was a little low the first couple of times I did that.

Two 5 gallon pots will work fine. As mentioned above boil off will be greater. No reason not to brew as soon as you want to. You could also stagger the hop additions by a half hour or so to allow you to cool one pot then the other.

PS...not to disagree w/ the post above...but IMO a keggle is a bit overkill for five gallons.

That is some really good advice. I wouldn't of realized the boil off would be greater in two smaller pots, but it does make sense. I think that staggering the hop additions will be helpful to because it would get pretty hectic in my kitchen if I had to try and cool both pots at the same time, seeing is I only have 1 chiller.

Ah good to hear it can be done! I think I am gonna order the stuff tonight

Can't wait - Thanks everyone

I do 3 gallon batches and tried a BIAB this weekend. I ended up with exactly 4 gallons after mash and batch sparge, and I have a four gallon kettle. I transferred about a gallon into a smaller pot and boiled 3 gallons with all the hop additions and the 1 gallon with no hops and combined them towards the end of the boil. I assume adding the gallon with no hops is probably similar to adding extract. Do you think this is a decent way to handle it? I know the hop utilization would be messed up a little, but hopefully not too much, right?

i do all grain split boils all the time. the trick is really to space out the starts so when one is finishing boil the other one still has 15 minutes left so you can cool with your IC for 15, then cool the next one.

unless you have two chillers that is.

i have a 5 gal and a 7.5 gal pot (the burners can't get all the wort boiling), so i usually do like 3.5 and 4 split between the two (i usually end up with 5.25-5.5 in the fermenter) and then just split the hops evenly between them.

i'm on my 12th batch this way and they keep coming out better than the previous batch as i refine my technique

Well it's good to know I'm not the only one going through this. I my last split boil went ok....my one pot heats up faster than the other one, so my timing was a bit off...other than that everything went smoothly.