Steep and boil separate - a way to split?

I hope this is the best forum to ask this.

My kettle is 4 gallons - which means about 3.5 gallon boils. Going for 5 to 5.5 gallon batches. When I do a big beer - say 8-10 pounds of DME plus specialty grains, what would happen if I used a smaller pot to steep and sparge the grains and used the kettle just for the DME and hop boil?

I would boil the specialty stuff for 10 minutes to cleanse it, then let it sit covered in the fridge while the main boil finishes. After cooling the main boil, will I lose anything by combining both in the bucket before pitching?

Yes, a bigger pot would be better, and this may be down the road, but also likely entails a chiller and possible an outdoor bigger burner (not sure how much bigger our stove can handle.)

Your best solution is to steep the grains, drain them, add water for boil and then only add half the extract for your boil and the second half at flame-out (end of the boil when you turn off burner). This keeps your boil less concentrated so you don't risk caramelizing the wort.

And you don't boil specialty grains. You get your water up to 160F and then steep them for 30 minutes or so.

After reading your post again it almost sounds like you want the equivalent of a full boil by splitting the volume between two kettles. This isn't necessary. You're doing what is called a partial boil. You boil an amount smaller than 5-5.5 gallons and then top off with water when you transfer to primary to make 5-5.5 gallons. I use store bought spring water.

I guess to clarify: I found with my last batch that after I'd done the specialty grains, sparged (and removed grains). I then added 5.5 lbs. of DME and was pretty close to the top of the pot. I MIGHT have added a bit of water after removing the grains, but not much.

I did 1 1/2 gallon for the steep and then a gallon sparging. The volume of DME took it up from there. Concern was the extra volume with 4 more lbs. of DME!

My thought was grain water separate to give more boil room.

Reading more on adding DME at flameout, I see one advantage is not losing hop effectiveness. But doesn't the DME need to be boiled for sanitation?

I did 1 1/2 gallon for the steep and then a gallon sparging.

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If they are truly specialty grains then you don't need to sparge. You just steep, drain, discard. If you're doing a partial mash with base grains like 2-row then your process is correct.

Reading more on adding DME at flameout, I see one advantage is not losing hop effectiveness. But doesn't the DME need to be boiled for sanitation?

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The wort is still plenty hot at flameout to sterilize the DME. I guess the hop effectiveness has been debunked as well. It turns out hop utilization is the same regardless of wort concentration.. or at least close enough to not need adjustment.

There's not much need to sparge specialty grains as they're basically for flavor/color and you're getting little sugar out of them. I'd just steep in the 1.5 gallons, add half the DME, then fill the pot up but leave some room for the remaining DME. If you're worried about the sanitation of the DME add it a min or 2 before flameout, but there shouldnt be a problem either way.

If you are short on boil pot space, boiling the 'wort' from steeping the specialty grains separate is a solution - I've done it before.

+1 on adding 1/2-2/3 DME at flameout, that's enough to sanitize it. However, it can be a pain to get stirred in. I found it works better to stir in some COLD sanitized water with the DME first, this makes a thick syrup that blends into the hot water pretty easily.

-kenc

So, if there's nothing lost by separating the steeping grain "wort" and mixing it back in at the end, I should be okay. Although sparging may not be necessary, I got great results following this process with my last batch. In fact, although I added an extra 1/2 gallon to make it 5.5, I still hit the expected OG number. The only thing I can attribute this to is getting the most out of those grains (which I believe add some, though not a lot, of sugars).

It also sounds like there's no loss in hop utilization with a thicker wort. I think I can boil 9-10 pounds of DME in 3 1/2 gallons in the regular way.

I'm not sure the advantage of adding the DME at the end - unless it's mixed in a separate pot and combined into the fermenter? Or maybe the boiled off water creates a little more room in the kettle so that's the advantage? The issue is pot space.

I'd only be concerned with only boiling the specialty's for 10 minutes. The reason people often do such a long boil is partially because it boils off any DMS that is present in the malt. Also, malt is well known for harboring lots of nasty bacteria and other nasty stuff. You want to be 100% sure all that is gone. I would boil it at least 30 minutes if you're going to do this.