10 Gallon Extract Batch

I am planning on creating an apple ale, but a thought occurred to me today -- would there be any obvious detriment or drawbacks to me making a ten gallon batch? I have only ever fermented five gallons of any given wort batch at a time.

What I was thinking of doing is brewing 3 gallons of very sugar rich, high gravity wort. After the boil is completed and I cool it down, I would separate 1.5 gallons into two different carboys respectively. I would add around 2.5 gallons of aerated water to each of the carboys, and after a few days of fermentation, then add a gallon of apple cider to each.

What I would be anticipating is ten gallons of fairly light bodied, crisp, low ABV apple ale ready by late October.

In the high gravity wort I was planning on using around 3.3lbs of pilsen LME, and around 4-5 lbs of DME.

Will this work? Or is it a disaster waiting to happen?

3 gal boil for a 10 gal batch might be pretty dark colored, and you'll waste a lot of hops. As far as the apple cider, I have no idea. sounds funky though.

Have you tried a smaller batch of this style...I have, and didn't care for it FWIW if anything at all? Maybe it's just me? You could make five gallons of each and mix by the glass, getting three different brews rather than 10 gallons of apple ale. For me it wasn't a disastor, just 5 gallons nobody really cared for that eventually was dumped I believe...been a loooong time.

I haven't made this style yet...that's why I'm kind of nervous about the experimentation

Flike01 said:

I haven't made this style yet...that's why I'm kind of nervous about the experimentation

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so you're thinking 10 gal experiment

I suppose any way I put this is going to sound a little conceited, but every brew I've made so far I've loved so far. Disregarding superstition, this is the lucky 13th batch I'll have made; I'm more worried about the concept of extracting 10 gallons being a faux pas I'm not realizing, and less worried that the ingredient list + brewing process is apt to failure.

I've just never actually heard of anyone doing the practice of extracting 10 gallons from a 3 gallon, high concentrated boil.

I would think that making the initial 3 gal at such a high gravity would make burning your wort pretty easy. Your hop utilization may be affected by using less water as well. I would suggest at least a 5 gal boil if you really want to try this.

Well I have a 40qt stock pot...so maybe a really easy rolling just barely at 200F boil with 4.5 gallons will be my best bet.

Flike01 said:

I've just never actually heard of anyone doing the practice of extracting 10 gallons from a 3 gallon, high concentrated boil.

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its going to go badly
thick slow boil regardles of the stove burner. your better of with 2 burners and 2 blended 3 gallon boils.

Well I have made very, very high gravity batches before -- even more than what I am planning on with this apple ale. All of the very, very sugary wort batches I have made before in my 40qt stock pot have turned out just fine. My problem with always has been, and still continues to be the yeast not being able to finish their job -- but next time I do one of those I am going to finish fermentation with champagne yeast and see how that turns out.

But that is getting off topic. What I am trying to say is...it isn't the boil necessarily that is bothering me, necessarily as I've done extremely "potent" boils before. Also, I may not even need to throw it up to such a high gravity since I will probably get at least 1% ABV increase from a gallon of apple cider added to the fermenting wort, correct?

So far my two five gallon fermentations are going well it seems. It's on day three right now and they are still quite actively fermenting.

I have cut up eight fresh apples and split them up between the two; how long does it typically take for a square inch of apple to be effectively eaten up/used up by the yeast? So far there is very little physical change in appearance, except for the red skins have now turned green. The apple flesh hasn't browned, but I realize that's because there's no oxygen in the fermenters (which is a great thing ).