Split boil question...sort of

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Smitty025

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I've been reading around here for a bit, and I'm preparing to do my first brew. I have a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone kit from Midwest, and their starter equipment kit. I also have a 5 gallon pot to boil everything in. This is an extract kit but it comes with some grains that I put in for about 30 min.

So, I was wondering if it would be possible to just have 3 gallons of water in one pot, leave the grains in there for the 30 min, but also have another 2 gallons of water in another pot, and sort of just rinse off the grains in that smaller pot. I would just put the bag in their for maybe like a minute or so - just to get everything I could out of them. After that I would put the 2 gallons into the larger pot with the 3 gallons already in it.

I saw this was done similarly in the partial mash stickied thread (which, as I understand it, is a bit of a different process), but I don't have nearly as many grains as he used (I only have 16oz), so would doing something like this even benefit me?


Thanks in advance. Oh, and even though this is my first post, I've been reading enough to gets lots of useful advice here. :)
 
Okay, here's the breakdown. 3 gallons in a 5 gallon pot, 2 gallons in a different pot. 3+2=5, so 5 gallons (roughly, because the grains will soak up some, and you'll lose a bit to evaporation) in a 5 gallon pot. Then you've got to add the extract, 6 lbs of it for this recipe. Then you've got to boil that and add hops. Honestly, it's just not going to fit in your pot.

My best advice would be to follow the kit instructions (which call for about a 2.5 gallon boil) and not worry about that little bit extra you might extract from the grains. Alternatively, you could try a partial mash kit and use the instructions in Death's thread.

Edited: Or you could boil ~2.5 gallons in each pot, split the grains and extract in half, scale the hops down about 15%, and do a "full boil," by splitting it into what is basically two 2.5 gallon batches which will then reconcile in your fermenter.
 
#1 test to see how much water your stove will boil -- start at 3 and then add .5 gallon at a time.... your stove may not be able to boil 4 gallons of water which is at most all that you should have in a five gallon pot.....

#2 you need to leave room for the hot break foam and the boil (you can't fill it to the brim you will have a significant boil over)

#3 you don't need to sparge you steeping grains... just "teabag" them during the steep

#4 see llama's post... :)
 
Alright, thanks guys I just wanted to see if it would even be worth it. I probably will end up doing a 4 gallon boil, I think my stove should be able to do it. I'm testing it right now.
 
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