all grain with a 6.5 gallon pot???

hello im just about finished building my mash tun and i have a quick question about the only weakness in my brew equipment.

I have a 6.5 gallon pot and most five gallon all grain batches require a total volume of about 6.5-7 gallons of wort.

I plan to use the batch sparge method and thought i would just sparge according to recipe till my brew kettle meets its capacity.
Will this alter my efficiency or OG?? Or should i just alter the recipe for a slightly smaller batch and add in an extra 10% of the grain bill to cover any efficiency problems with batch sparging?

While a bit small and not ideal, you can forge ahead w/ a 6.5 gallon kettle. Sometimes when I am "kettle challenged", I will simply reserve, or hold back some of the final runnings,and just add them to the kettle during the boil as the boil volume decreases.

Lot of people swear by fermcap S, or I have even heard of people using generic gas drops from the pharmacy...active ingredient smythicone???sp????.

unfortunately my brewpot is tall and narrow and i am lucky to boil of a gallon during a brewday. If i do as planned will i have any problems?

Only the problems you create...hah...You're fine...fire the burner...best way to learn is on the job...no big deal really....get some experience...in the meantime, you will likely make some tasty beer.

You don't have to make a 5 gallon batch so it might be wise to at least start with a smaller batch and see how it goes. Software would help because it makes scaling a recipe very easy. Foam control drops are great. I never get a boil over and I am filling my 8 gallon pot to 1\2 inch of the top.

so if i overshoot the grain bill by alittle it cant hurt right, if anything it will add a couple points?

tradclimber123 said:

so if i overshoot the grain bill by alittle it cant hurt right, if anything it will add a couple points?

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Do you mean using a recipe for 5 gallons and actually getting less? If so then yes it will have a higher SG assuming efficiency is the same as the recipe is made for.

i woul d say your not going to have any problems regardless of your technique, whether its only gathering 6.25 gals of wort or gathering less, upping your grain bill and adding water, or what i would probably do is what wilserbrewer suggested, collect what appears to be the capacity of your kettle and start heating, at the same time keep collecting wort in another vessle and the add it it to the brew pot. by the time the wort is going to boil (if your stove is as slow as mine) you would have evaporated enough to make up the difference. plus the last .5 gals of runnings your trying dearly to capture contain a very small percentage of your total fermentable sugars.so basically dont stress. there is no wrong answer!

hopsy said:

....so basically dont stress. there is no wrong answer!

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Well said hopsy...a few points high or low...a quart low in the kettle, or left in the mash tun don't mean all that much....have fun and get at it!

tradclimber123 said:

unfortunately my brewpot is tall and narrow and i am lucky to boil of a gallon during a brewday. If i do as planned will i have any problems?

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I also have a tall and narrow kettle and rarely boil off a whole gallon in an hour. Just collect about 6 gallons and fire it up. You'll probably be closer to your target that way than collecting too much and not being able to get a hard boil going.

A couple drops of Fermcap in your boil will reduce the chances of boilover and help you eke out a few more quarts from that pot. Ultimately, you will probably want a larger kettle but the 6.5G one will still be useful as, e.g., a hot liquor tun.