Pros and Cons of Split Boil

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TheJadedDog

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Okay, I am getting pretty desperate to go AG. As many of you know, I am limited in that I have no where outside to brew, so I am stuck with my stove which can only handle about a 3 gallon boil.

What I want to know is what anyone thinks about doing a split boil with 3 gallons per kettle. I know I will need to split up the hop additions but is there anything else I need to take into consideration?

Also, will 6 gallons total be enough to compensate for evaporation loss?
 
6 gallons should get you pretty close to 5 gal in the fermenter. If you are just going to straight split your hop additions you may want to mix all your wort together before splitting and boiling to ensure a consistent gravity.
Another option is to just do a 2.5 gal mini batch or do a partial mash with half of your fermentables from extract.
Craig
 
I brew on my kitchen stove, too, and split the boil A couple things I've learned- one is that the evaporation rate is about twice what you'd expect. I guess two pots means a bigger surface for evaporation. I need about 7 gallons to get 5 in the fermenter.

Second, you want your gravities to be about equal, so put 1/2 your first runnings in one pot, switch to the second pot and put the other 1/2 in there. Then, do the same with the sparge. 1/2 in this kettle, 1/2 in that one. Then again, if you're batch sparging. That seems to be the easiest way to do it, without too much lifting/transferring.
 
Yooper Chick said:
Second, you want your gravities to be about equal, so put 1/2 your first runnings in one pot, switch to the second pot and put the other 1/2 in there. Then, do the same with the sparge. 1/2 in this kettle, 1/2 in that one. Then again, if you're batch sparging. That seems to be the easiest way to do it, without too much lifting/transferring.

Lorena -- what's the rationale behind doing this? I have done a split pot boil for a 5 gallon batch, but didn't 'equalize' the runnings in the two pots. Just wondering what the effect would be.
 
Well, I just wanted to make sure that the gravities are equal. I didn't take an s.g. of the wort after the mash, but I assume they are lower near the end of the sparge. If you have a higher gravity and a lower gravity boil, even though you add the same amount of hops, the utilization would be different. Most of my recipes assume a 5 gallon boil- so I'm trying to make it as "equal" as possible. And I'm a lightweight- I don't want to have to lift or transfer back and forth if I don't have to.

Say your desired preboil s.g. is 1.048. I have two pots, equal runnings, equal gravities. Some were first runnings, some were the result of the batch sparge (usually I batch sparge twice, using half the water each time). My last batch I checked s.g. preboil, and it was 1.048. After it boils down, of course, it'll be higher. My rationale behind this is that my first runnings might be much higher than the latest batch sparge- so one pot could be 1.060 and one 1.040 for example. Or even more different- this is not scientific, just my guestimates. Higher s.g. means less hops utilization- so you'd have two different hops things going on. I'm planning on doing full 5 gallon boils sooner or later, and I want to be consistent with the results. It's probably not that important, but I'm pretty anal, I guess.
 
Thanks Lorena -- that all made sense. But I wonder if you didn't bother to mix your runnings, would the different SG in each boiling pot compensate for one another with respect to hop utilization? I.e., yes, the utilization of hops will be lower in the pot with the first runnings because the gravity is higher, but wouldn't that be compensated by the other pot which has lower gravity and therefore higher utilization?
 
I don't know! It seems like the first runnings would also carmelize more, etc. So, it just seemed to me like a good thing to do at the time. Half the runnings, half the hops, etc. would equal one good beer!

But, I'm not expert on this, and what you say actually makes sense, too. I think I'll still keep doing what I'm doing, though, and hope someone more intelligent than I am can give a definitive answer. :D
 
I too am another frustrated pm'r wanting to go AG but not prepared euipment wise, so I have been giving all this lot's of thought recently. What about sparging into your bottling bucket. Then when you have all your wort collected, put a hose on your bottling bucket and drain half into one pot, half into the other? Yes a little extra step but then it is fully mixed and as long as you are draining quietly there should be no hsa.

Course. I have been thinking of making my bottling bucket my temporary MLT, so, back to the drawing board for me...
 
I never thought about caramelization -- very good point. That is certainly something to watch out for. Maybe I should be mixing the runnings...
 
knights of Gambrinus said:
I too am another frustrated pm'r wanting to go AG but not prepared euipment wise, so I have been giving all this lot's of thought recently. What about sparging into your bottling bucket. Then when you have all your wort collected, put a hose on your bottling bucket and drain half into one pot, half into the other? Yes a little extra step but then it is fully mixed and as long as you are draining quietly there should be no hsa.

Course. I have been thinking of making my bottling bucket my temporary MLT, so, back to the drawing board for me...

That is actually what I did the first time. But I found it easier to just drain into the two different pots on the floor. It's hard for me to lift the 7 gallons full from the ground to the chair to drain into the two different pots. That's the only reason I stopped doing that- I'm a lightweight wimp. I don't want to lift it unless I absolutely have to!

I have my sparge water on the stove, and my mlt on a bar stool and my pots on the floor. It works for me, but I drool over everyone else's brewsculptures.
 
FlyGuy said:
I never thought about caramelization -- very good point. That is certainly something to watch out for. Maybe I should be mixing the runnings...

I've done it both ways, Mix the runnings before the boil, and recombine the early and late runnings after separate boils. Because these where my first AG's I was using the same recipe, I noticed the flavor was better if I mixed the runnings and then split them into two pots. I don't know if it was the boil or something else, but I try not to split boils if I don't have to. If I do I'll mix the runnings before I boil.
 
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