partial boil for 10 gallon batch - possible ?

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kappclark

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HI:

I started out doing partial boils on stove for 5 gal batches, then got a 32 qt pot, and am doing 5 gal full boils.

I have extra fermenters and glass carboys -

I was wondering if I can use this existing equip to do 10 gal batches if I just double the ingredients. Boil 6 gals in pot, then add wort to chilled water in each fermenter. I cld even experiment with different yeasts since I wld use 2 fermenters.

I am not looking for any "BIG" beer with this system - just some simple English Ales which might require 12-14 lbs of extract for 10 gal batch.

Comments appreciated ..

Bill Clark
Windham, VT
 
I think it would work fine and in fact I'm planning on trying the same thing myself. I need a lot of beer for an upcoming trip and don't have any extra time to brew.

Has anyone been doing double-batch partial boils (if that makes any sense)?
 
Would certainly work, you would just need to be sure to get the same amount of the condensed wort into each fermenter or you would get different OG's (not that that is a big deal necessarily). You would probably want to add the cooled wort first so it is easier to judge - then top up with water.
 
I was planning on eyeballing the wort between 2 buckets, then bridging the buckets with a siphon hose to equalize them before topping off.

Also plan on doing some yeast comparisons since I'll have 2 batches of identical wort.
 
I was thinking of doing something similiar as well but more like a big PM. MAsh for a five gallon recipe and the add some extract later in the boil and split between the two fermenters and top off.
 
Thx to all for replies -

I was thinking of aerating 2 gals of cold VT spring water FIRST by shaking containers .. add to fermenters, then pour cooled wort into vessels...I wld need to mark outside of fermenters with 5 gal marks, BUT ... if I poured too much wort into 1 vessel, then the second wld not have as much, altering the gravity ...

If I top off 1 fermenter with water, the OG in each batch will not be the same (but really - wld it be off by that much - the starting gravity is abt 1046

Very interesting ... how can you be sure that you are adding the sane amt to each fermenter so that the gravity is the same ...

I never thought of that

Bill Clark
 
Yup, Sirsloop and I just made 17 gallons by boiling 11. I mean, with extracts you can go pretty concentrated and you're only limiting your hop utilization and possibly darkening the color a bit but boiling 2 for 5 is the same as boiling 4 for 10. Go for it.
 
kappclark said:
... how can you be sure that you are adding the sane amt to each fermenter so that the gravity is the same ...

If you put a filled siphon hose between the 2 fermenters the fluid levels will equalize. The buckets need to be on the same level, like both on the floor.

Also, you don't need to aerate the spring water, it's already chock full of oxygen. It's the water (or wort) you boil that needs to be aerated to replace the oxygen that's been boiled off.
 
Ok, so say you buy to 5 gal kits, do you use all the hops or not? How would you figure this? I can see using all the extract to go from 5 gal to 10, but I'm unsure about the hops.......
 
I'm also concerned about hops. If you are able to double the boil volume for the kit then all should be well, but if you're reducing the volume of the boil you're also reducing hop utilization.

I'm considering boiling the hops only and adding the extract at the end (last 15 min).
 
Yeah, that's one way to make up for the lowered utilization but if the kit instructions assume you're making a 5 gallon batch by boiling 2 gallons, you can just boil 4 gallons using two kits and the utilization remains exactly where they expected it to be. Now, if you try two 5 gallon kits and still stick with only 2 gallons, you not only get way lower IBU, but also a sticky mess.
 
If beertoolspro had anything over the other software, it's the ability to enter both kettle volume and final topped up volume and as long as you turn on one of the utilization algorithms, it compensates IBU for higher/lower gravity worts.
 
I willlet the group know how it goes...what a time saver to do 10 instead of 5 ..

Beer will serve as house-guest present this Aug vacation (among other things)
 
You all have inspired me, so I bought 2 of the same kits from HBS in Northampton MA.

bought 2 new fermenters...

Partial mash ... got all ingredients into 7 gall boil.... emptied into 2 5 gal pails, each with 2 gal of nice clean cold VT well water ... but used differnt yeasts in each, so will be interested in results..

both pails are bubbling away quite nicely, in less than 24 hours.. ... I am very pleased to know that I can get 10 gallons in roughly the same amt of time as for 5...definitely a plus for me ..

NOT concerned abt hop utilization with this english ale ... there will be extra time expended preparing the extra secondary, and (of course) .. the extra 55 bottles !
 
I did the same thing, will be racking to secondaries in a few days.

A carbonation problem messed up my anticipated supply, and I have a spike in demand coming up, so I needed a 10 gal batch.

If all goes well there'll be more down the road, it was the same as brewing a 5 gal batch.
 
A friend and I are planning to try a few "double batches," a six gallon partial boil the into two primaries. The idea is to use different yeasts and finishing hops to see how the two batches differ.
 
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