2 Mashes for one large batch????

[estricklin]

I've brewed a lot of beer, a lot of great beer I might add, and I owe a lot of that to this forum. So thanks to everyone. Now I'm taking the next step in the process.

I've bought some equipment to start on a 1/2 bbl electric system but I've had to put that on hold due to my upcoming wedding, a death in the family, and a cruise in December. So I'm not really looking to spend any money or make any major mods to the equipment that I have.

I currently use a 5 gallon round cooler and a turkey fryer type setup. I was cooling my wort with a 25 ft 3/8 inch copper immersion chiller, I left it outside when it got cold this past winter and it froze and ended up with a gazillion cracks, so I scrapped it. Didn't want to upgrade just yet since I knew I would need one for the size of my new 25 gallon stainless pot; so I've been cooling my wort in a ice bath in a giant rubbermaid tote.

My idea is, I've got the pot and the burner to do larger (let's say 10 gallons but mayyyyybe 15) but not the mash tun. I was thinking about mashing 2-3 times to fill the boil kettle. I thought about just treating it like 2 separate 5 gallon batches regarding my mash. I would heat the first batch of wort to within a few degrees of boiling to kill any enzymes while I started my 2nd mash.

What kind of evaporation rate can I expect from a 10 gallon batch? If I ran off 2 mashes I would end up with something like 14-15 gallons in the kettle? Is this too much? When I say 10 gallons, I mean less than 11 in the kettle when the boil is over. I use only 5 gallon buckets to ferment in.

I was thinking since I do not have a wort chiller for this large of a kettle, I would just cover it with a lid and let it sit all night, then siphon it out since it does not have a valve on it yet.

I'll only be doing this on 15-25 batches, because in January I'll throw some money into the equipment side of this hobby, until then I just wanna brew some beer to drink.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

 

[billl]

You can combine as many mashes as you want, but it will sure make for a long brew day. Since you've presumably got an extra pot from your 5 gallon batches, maybe you could do a BIAB mash at the same time as your tun? Or even just mash in a plain pot and then dump everything into your normal tun to separate and sparge.

You evaporation rate is completely system dependent. You generally won't have twice as much as you would for a 5 gallon though. You can always just boil some water as a test and see.

 

[RonPopeil]

If any of your large kettles has a ball valve you could add a false bottom and flip it into a mash tun. Use your cooler as an HLT for sparge water. Maybe not be the best answer but it will increase your volume over the 5G mash tun.

Without the false bottom but with a ball valve you could mash in a bag. Throw all your grains in a nylon bag to save yourself from cleaning a doughed up kettle.

 

[estricklin]

My turkey fryer pot does not have a ball valve and I don't have one to put on it, BUT I forgot I actually have 2 extra 5 gallon round coolers, no false bottoms or bulk head conversion but I could BIAB in one. Last time I BIAB I used 2 or 3 nylons to do it, and it's been years ago so I can barely remember much about it. Can anyone show me a link to what type of bag most BIABers use?

Oh and the turkey fryer pot can be my HLT.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I've split a mash between my cooler mash tun and a bucket with good results. Batch sparged the mash in the tun, emptied it, dumped the kettle mash in the tun, batch sparged it, all set. If you're trying to do a high temp sach mash, you will probably want to insulate the bucket (toss a down bag over it!) but, in truth, you won't lose all that much heat. Edit: Of course, my 95+ degree garage might minimize the heat loss a bit.

 

[RonPopeil]

In your position I would mash in a bag or BIAB if it came to it. If you converted another cooler you could split your mash into two tun and do full batches that way. I would mash in a bag to avoid having to clean two mash tuns. Yuck.

 

[estricklin]

I've split a mash between my cooler mash tun and a bucket with good results. Batch sparged the mash in the tun, emptied it, dumped the kettle mash in the tun, batch sparged it, all set. If you're trying to do a high temp sach mash, you will probably want to insulate the bucket (toss a down bag over it!) but, in truth, you won't lose all that much heat. Edit: Of course, my 95+ degree garage might minimize the heat loss a bit.

Ok so you mean you split your mash between a cooler and a bucket, a regular unmodified bucket? Then after you've sparged and dumped the spent grain out of the cooler mash tun you dump the mash from the bucket into the cooler and repeat?

I was thinking I could just do the old 2 bucket mash tun thing, where I use my bottling bucket and drill some tiny holes in another bucket, I would need to insulate it but I have a ton of insulation laying around from my remodeling.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Just convert and rinse, controlling the volume of runnings. Yes, that's the way I did it. Converted in two vessels, a simple bucket and the mash tun, then consecutively sparged the two mashes in the tun. Any way you choose will work, so long as you convert and rinse while controlling the volume of the runnings.