SteveMarconi
Member
I was trying to figure out if I could use one of my setups to brew Barleywine / Imperial Stout / Quad styles and was wondering if this would work. I can brew 5 gallon batches with a 12qt brew kettle. I was thinking that trying to use one wort in my 12qt pot would be practically unmanageable. Would this methodology work?
1. Make a 2.5gal wort with hops. I can partial mash ~6lbs in my 12qt brew kettle. I would go through the regular process with the grains but I wouldn't add any extract and I would add all of the hops that are required for a 5 gallon batch. Dump this is in the fermentor when finished.
2. Make a second 2.5gal wort, but this time just with the LME. Since i wouldn't be adding any hops to this, the boil time could be significantly less (15 min?) since all I was basically doing would be sanitizing the LME
3. Top off my fermentor with the second wort to reach a full 5 gallon.
I figure that this method would allow me to get much better hop utilization, much better control over OG (I could take a reading of the first wort and adjust my second wort recipe to hit my target) and would significantly cut the time of brewing since I would only have to run 1 boil for a full 60 minutes. Does this sound feasible?
1. Make a 2.5gal wort with hops. I can partial mash ~6lbs in my 12qt brew kettle. I would go through the regular process with the grains but I wouldn't add any extract and I would add all of the hops that are required for a 5 gallon batch. Dump this is in the fermentor when finished.
2. Make a second 2.5gal wort, but this time just with the LME. Since i wouldn't be adding any hops to this, the boil time could be significantly less (15 min?) since all I was basically doing would be sanitizing the LME
3. Top off my fermentor with the second wort to reach a full 5 gallon.
I figure that this method would allow me to get much better hop utilization, much better control over OG (I could take a reading of the first wort and adjust my second wort recipe to hit my target) and would significantly cut the time of brewing since I would only have to run 1 boil for a full 60 minutes. Does this sound feasible?