Can i add water at the end of an all grain or partial mash brew to increase quantity?

I am leaving the world of extract and have a question.i have a 5 gallon mash ton and only a 5 gallon pot. Can i mash out 4.75 gallons and then add water to get 5 gallons after the boil? Does adding DME or LME help keep the proper final gravity?

Thanks for the help

Answer to both questions is yes. You may want to mash out closer to 4.5 gal to leave room in your pot for the boil. Add a little DME/LME at the end of the boil, 1lb should be enough.

Get a bigger pot. If you collect 4.75 gallons in a 5 gallon pot you are going to boil over.

Walmart has an 8.5 gallon pot aluminum for $21. Works great. It's a "tamale" pot..

Just sayin..

isn't aluminum bad? Last time i was at walmart they had a 30qt turkey fryer set up for $36 but it had an aluminum pot.

Aluminum is fine......

jakehale said:

Aluminum is fine......

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More than fine.

WarBac said:

More than fine.

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More than MORE than fine!

In fact, it has some distinct advantages over stainless which move to me forever stick with Al

You can do mini mashes and add extract to get your gravity up. You may need to do a batch or to to realize your mash efficiency so you can better calculate how much extract to add to the boil. You can even plan to do 5 gallon batches and just top the fermenter off with sanitary water (like unopened spring water), as long as it your wort is concentrated properly and adding the water brings you down to your target SG.

well if that is the case, I am going to get the $36 turkey fryer set up at my local walmart and go all-grain. Thanks for the help

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