I Need/Ideas With An Extended Boil Time

I'm planning on a high gravity brew, and I want to do an extended (3 hour) boil. My problem is that my brew pot is only 8 gal. For a three hour boil, I'm going to need about 8 1/4 gal of wort to start.
I'm going to ask around at the next club meeting, to see if I can borrow a 10 gal. pot from someone, but if I can't, what are my options?

I talked to my LHBS, who suggested I try splitting my wort into two pots, but my problem there is the two biggest pots I have are my 32 qt., and a 20 qt. Splitting the wort evenly will be kind of difficult. I do have access to a two burner system, so that wouldn't be an issue.
I had thought about starting with as much wort as I can in my 32, and adding boiling water as the wort boils off, but I don't know if that would work, either.
I really don't want to start with the usual 6+ gal., and add water to the fermenter after I'm done.

Does anyone else have any ideas, suggestions, etc.?

You will be fine with just reserving the collected liquor in a pot and keeping it covered until you have boiled down enough to fit it in... Remember your just boiling out the water. Or if you have a good clean cooler you can reserve it there as well.

Bowtiebrewery said:

You will be fine with just reserving the collected liquor in a pot and keeping it covered until you have boiled down enough to fit it in... Remember your just boiling out the water. Or if you have a good clean cooler you can reserve it there as well.

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+1 this is what I do too. Reserve some liquor in a vessel and add back to the kettle.

But if I add the reserved liquor to the boiling pot, is that going to affect the boil time, or the wort at all?

Are you extract brewing or all grain?

The way I do it is to run off all of my runnings in the pot until it's mostly full and won't boil over. If I need to keep sparging, I run the rest off into another vessel. Then just wait till it all fits in or add a little at a time. The only potential problem would be that the wort would continue to convert, though in a big barleywine that's a good thing. Adding the extra liquor will probably knock your boil down but just crank the burner back up till you're boiling again. Then sit and wait.

All grain. My target OG, right now as the recipe sits, is around 1.090

Ichthy said:

The way I do it is to run off all of my runnings in the pot until it's mostly full and won't boil over. If I need to keep sparging, I run the rest off into another vessel. Then just wait till it all fits in or add a little at a time. The only potential problem would be that the wort would continue to convert, though in a big barleywine that's a good thing. Adding the extra liquor will probably knock your boil down but just crank the burner back up till you're boiling again. Then sit and wait.

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I'm not making a Barleywine. It's a Winter Ale, based off an Old Ale idea.

Can you not hit your target OG with a 90 min boil and take a small hit on efficiency (just compensate by using another lb or so of malt)? It seems that to collect enough wort to do a 3 hour boil you will very likely be oversparging. The only time I've heard of people doing 3 hour boils is when they are doing insanely huge beers that are 15% ABV.

I'm doing the three hour just to try it. I've read about Bavarian brewers using it in Dunkels, (it is supposed to break down the protiens from the hotbreak and helps lead to the velvety mouthfeel/taste that the Dunkels are famous for) and the guy at the LHBS has done it in a stout, so I'm trying it just to try it. The whole thing is just an experiment, anyway, so.....

kjung said:

But if I add the reserved liquor to the boiling pot, is that going to affect the boil time, or the wort at all?

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It shouldn't affect the boil time. Your evaporation rate is a function of heat and surface area, and that doesn't change whether you have seven or eight gallons in the pot. So you're evaporating the same amount of water either way and you'll get down to your desired concentration at the same time either way.

I suppose technically it would have an impact on the wort (as boiling impacts color, hop utilization, etc.) but again the difference between boiling eight gallons for three hours versus boiling seven gallons for three hours and one gallon for two hours would be negligible.

kjung said:

I'm doing the three hour just to try it. I've read about Bavarian brewers using it in Dunkels, (it is supposed to break down the protiens from the hotbreak and helps lead to the velvety mouthfeel/taste that the Dunkels are famous for) and the guy at the LHBS has done it in a stout, so I'm trying it just to try it. The whole thing is just an experiment, anyway, so.....

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Gotcha, was just curious. I'd say you'd be okay just reserving the wort and adding it as you room. Good luck and let us know if you think it made a difference in the final product.

Ichthy said:

Gotcha, was just curious. I'd say you'd be okay just reserving the wort and adding it as you room. Good luck and let us know if you think it made a difference in the final product.

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Thanks for all the help. I won't know how it turns out for a while. I'm going to cellar it for a year. I'm brewing it on the Winter Solstice, to be opened on the NEXT Winter Solstice.

Like you'll be able to wait that long .

Good luck and happy brewing!

Ichthy said:

Like you'll be able to wait that long .

Good luck and happy brewing!

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Well, I WILL have to sample one or two every couple of months, just to make notes and check it's progress!.