All grain 1.11+ Imperial Stout..15 gallons pre boil

Ok,

I wanted to just jump in head first and make a big imperial stout. Im looking at 21 pounds of grain for a 60% eff. I was planning on using both my 10 gal cooler and my 5 gal cooler and splitting it 2/3 and 1/3

Thats 7 pounds in 5 gallon cooler: 2.2 gal mash in 60 minutes 148
mash out 1.5 gal of 210 degree
sparge 1 time 2.5 gallons.
first runnings 2.5 gallon sprage 2.5 gallon.
total 5 gallon

14 pounds into 10 gallon cooler: 4.4 gal mash in 60 min 148
mash out 2.5 gallon of 210 degree
sparge with 5 gallons/ split 2.5 and 2.5
first runnings 5 gal sparge 5 gal
pre boil 10 gallons plus 5 gallons 15 Gallons!!!!!

looking at a 4 hr boil with 15 to 20% boil off.

should be fun!!!

Anyone else attempt this? I could just throw some DME in but I wanted to give this a shot..I have the grain handy:rockin:

The recipe is fpr about 17 pds but with 75% eff. I anticipate 60% ish..

I will add DME if I have to but this is a ton of water and a lot of boiling.

I figure I will need about 3 to 4 hours pre boil to get to 7 gallons and than recipe as normal..

Jay

Anyone have any luck making all grain big beers like this?

With out having to add DME?


I'm taking the day off to make this big beer..I think I will need the whole day and an extra propane tank.

wish me luck

Jay

I havn't done any AG that big without DME as I only have a 5gal cooler, but why are you planning to use 2 coolers. 21# should fit easily in the 10gal cooler. Mash with 1.25qt/#. You should have room for a mash out, then sparge with the rest of your water needed for your preboil volume. I would definitely plan for a 90min or longer boil to increase the sparge volume you can use. I'm not sure what efficiencies you will see but 60% is probably a good guesstimate.
An alternative method of getting big starting gravities was described in the Dec BYO. The author of the article used the wort from the first mash to mash a second batch of grain. He claims good efficiencies even with a 60-90 min boil.
Craig

Sounds to me like this brew would have been a good candidate for a reiterated mash. Mash half of your grain and collect a volume of wort equal to the amount of water needed for your second mash. Do your second mash with wort, not water, to reduce your preboil volume, therefore reducing your boil time.

I've mashed that much in my 10g cooler before (for an 11 gallon batch), so you could do a single mash as well.

I have not tried this yet myself, but there is a writeup on it in the current issue of BYO.

So how did this turn out for you?

I was actually looking into attempting what was done on BYO,..but for some reason Im not that confidant with my all grain yet I would fear something major would go wrong..one potential..would actually be to mash the 7 pounds in my 5 gallon mash out and sparge as normal and use that to mash the 14 pounds in my 10 gallon cooler. It jsu sounds like temp problems and other things to really keep a close eye on. This would bring my pre boil volume 5 gallons less and would probably still get me my 1.1 OG. What do u think?

Jay