Boil size to batch size

#1 If I can safely boil 6 or 7 gals. wort how much can I dilute it?
Cant afford a large boil pot. Have a 10 gal.
#2 Can I do two back to back boils and put them in the same 30 gal fermenter?

#1 - You can dilute it as much as you want, just plan for this in your hop and gravity calculations. Also keep in mind that cutting your wort with water may take away from some of the malt flavor. Treat 6 gallons like one of those extract kits and it would net you 12 gallons of final product.

#2 - As long as you practice reasonable sanitation, there is no reason why you couldn't do this. Just keep in mind that any differences between the two boiled portions might make it tricky to duplicate the recipe again in the future, but no biggy.

Also, keep in mind that you will want an adequate amount of headspace in your fermenter for Krausen. Until you have a good idea of how things are going to go down, I would suggest maybe sticking with the 5:7.5 ratio of a standard bucket. In other words, only put about 20 gallons leaving 10 gallons of head space.

Thanks, Sounds like a plan. Fermenter is 24" in diameter so I dont know how many inches of head space for 24 or 20 gals would leave.

24" diameter = (pi/4) * d^2 = 452.39in^2

1 gal of water = 231 cu. in.
20gal = 4620 cu. in.

So, 452.39 * x = 4620 cu. in

x = 10. 21in of required head space if my math works

atimmerman88 said:

24" diameter = (pi/4) * d^2 = 452.39in^2

1 gal of water = 231 cu. in.
20gal = 4620 cu. in.

So, 452.39 * x = 4620 cu. in

x = 10. 21in of required head space if my math works

Click to expand...

:rockin:
beer and nerd goes so well together. who knew!

AlzHighmer said:

#1 If I can safely boil 6 or 7 gals. wort how much can I dilute it?
Cant afford a large boil pot. Have a 10 gal.
#2 Can I do two back to back boils and put them in the same 30 gal fermenter?

Click to expand...

The average noob question: "My kettle is 4 gallons is that ok? Do I really need a 6.5 gallon primary and the 5 gallon secondary that comes in the kit?"

AlzHighmer's "noob" question: "How can I utilize my 30 gallon fermenter with my ten gallon pot?"

AlzHighmer is taking the bull by the horns I tell you.