Make Concentrated Wort?

I bought a water cooler to use as a mash tun and bought ingredients for about 8 beers only to find out that I'm getting very low efficiency due to not enough sparge water as I cannot handle more than 6 gals in my brew pot.

Too many things requiring $$$ so I've had to forfeit my hobby funds, and with Christmas fast approaching I'm assuming I'll not be funded until next year.

As I have the grain to do a full batch I wondered about mashing and boiling the remainder I'd need maybe 2 days in advance. I'm uncertain whether or not I'd need to boil this longer to reduce the volume or not. Maybe I ought to try this with the one I may not cry as much about.

Anyone else do this? I only found one thread but it didn't get anywhere.

I'm not understanding what you're suggesting, but if it's what I think it is, a lot of breweries have larger fermenters than their boil kettles. They will brew twice in order to fill it. You could maybe do something along those lines?

Something like that I suppose. Let me see if I can clarify...

I generally make 5.25-5.5 gal batches. My brew pot can only handle 6 gals and so to do a good sparge I can only mash about 7 lbs I grains, but my recipes call for quite a bit more than that. To use what I have I'd need to reduce my end volume to about 3.25 gals to brew as is, but I don't want such little return for the work.

What I'm considering doing is mashing the excess grains that won't fit and storing a day or two and using it as top off in essence. But I'm uncertain if I'll need to extend the boil to reduce the volume and concentrate the wort.

Can you use two kettles? Your 6 gal one and maybe a 3 gal one from the kitchen to collect the extra sparge you want? Once you boil down the first runnings a bit add the extra wort. Throw in the 60min hops once it's all added together and boiling.

ThomasPaine said:

Can you use two kettles? Your 6 gal one and maybe a 3 gal one from the kitchen to collect the extra sparge you want? Once you boil down the first runnings a bit add the extra wort. Throw in the 60min hops once it's all added together and boiling.

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So I get your question now. Your first running will be concentrated enough to compensate for the low gravity of the second runnings

I think I understand.

What some people do to save space is brew a concentrated brew and then add water to dilute, sort of like an extract batch.

Tasty McDole had mentioned brewing 5 gallons of concentrated pilsner and then adding 5 gallons of water to end up with 10 gallons of wort.

Ergo, make a 3 gallon batch and double up on final volume until you hit targeted OG.

Does that seem helpful?

Hey I just looked you up, my wife and I spent a couple nights in Lago Vista this past summer. Really nice area. I'll let you know if I have a Keggle to give away down the line.

I'm juggling 3 pots as is (2 are used to hold sparge water kept hot on the stove).

A concentrated wort to begin with makes sense and is so much easier. Thanks!

Now to see if I can figure exactly what I need to do to make this work correctly...

The more I'm considering this the less I'm certain it will work. A bit more background:

I did BIAB partial mashes using a pot that I made a koozie for (it dropped about 5-6* over time). I bought a 5 gal water jug and for cost reasons decided to use my BIAB bag as the filter and modified the spigot hole to accept a bottling bucket spigot.

I found that having the grain bag right on the spigot hindered the draining so I took a metal riser from a pressure canner to keep the grain bag above the spigot. This takes up a bit of my space.

I always shot for a 1.5 qt/lb ratio but this just doesn't leave me with enough sparge leftover. I've dropped to about 1.15 and this is about as low as I can go and cover the grains fairly well.

So this still leaves me at about 7 lbs I can mash as one time and be able to sparge well enough. Adding more grains will create a situation where I'm not converting the top layer I'm thinking.

I keep responding and you respond [emoji3]

ThomasPaine said:

Hey I just looked you up, my wife and I spent a couple nights in Lago Vista this past summer. Really nice area. I'll let you know if I have a Keggle to give away down the line.

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I certainly appreciate the offer but I don't want to brew outside as it's far too hot and humid and buggy. Plus I love he way the house smells all day on brew days! I've been known to step outside a moment just to take it al in again!

My pot was stated to be 8 gals but they lied (as they did with my 8 qt pot). When we move and have a better stove (this glasstop is terrible!) I'll look into a bigger pot.

Doesn't the wort need to be boiled for a period of time?

I do have the 5 gal pot I used as my mash tun but I has expanding foam on it. Thought about sanding it so it can be heated again, but didn't bother.

I'm also concerned that I'd need to reduce the volume as well.

Just brew twice and add both 3 gallon brews to one fermenter. Twice the work. Also, it's 67degrees out right now. Perfect brewing weather.

rodwha said:

Doesn't the wort need to be boiled for a period of time?



I do have the 5 gal pot I used as my mash tun but I has expanding foam on it. Thought about sanding it so it can be heated again, but didn't bother.

Click to expand...

You're limited on batch size due to small mash tun. If 7lbs of grain won't get you there than you have no choice but to mash twice. But you can mash twice and sparge into all the containers in your house and just start boiling it all down in one kettle. Once you're down to 6 gals add hops and boil for an hour.

Figure I'm going to have to try this out and see. Let's see which is cry the least over...

Thanks fellas!