5.5 gallon batch in a 8 gallon kettle?

[wentsj28]

Hello all,

My friend would like to get into homebrewing all grain beer. I told him his best bet would be to start with BIAB brewing. The trouble is, he only has an 8 gallon kettle. He would like to brew a recipe that calls for 14.5 lbs of grain in it. If he does this though, there is physically NO WAY for him to be able to fit all his water into the vessel. So my question is: Could he fill the vessel as much as possible? then top off water just before the boil? I've never had a problem like this but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Even if he lost some quality.

Anyways, let me know what you think!

 

[govner1]

The other issue is that a 5.5 gal batch is going to have a pre-boil volume of around 7 gal.
I think you need a bigger BK (min. 10 gal) or adjust your brew size to 3 gal.

 

[chickypad]

Yeah looks like he'll be about 2 gallons short if he maxes out his pot with mash water. Rather than topping off with plain water I would recommend doing a dunk sparge, he could do it in a bucket (per Kai's experiment the water doesn't need to be hot with batch sparging). In other words lift and drain the bag after mash, dunk it in 2-3 gal of water in the bucket and stir really well, lift and drain again and add that wort to the kettle. He would get better efficiency than topping off with water on a big grainbill like that.

 

[Samuelouellette]

Personally I think it would work using the top off method or even with full volume if its under 7 gal while reducing batch size to 5 gal. I recently use Ferm Cap-S and it works wonders to reduce boil overs so no need to worry about them anymore. Also for the top off method, it was discussed in this forum.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/ag-4-gallon-boil-but-5-gallon-batch-size-243910/

 

[chickypad]

The top off method definitely works, I do it sometimes on my 3 gal BIAB set up when I want a 5 gal batch - i.e. brew a stronger wort then top off at the end since I'm limited by the boil kettle. The concern I have with this batch is it's already a pretty big grainbill. He's going to be maxed out with just 6 gals of water, which is not much total water for that much grain.

 

[McKnuckle]

Why in the world do people, including brand new brewers, always think that one MUST brew 5 gallons of beer? It's not a law. Got an 8 gallon kettle? Brew 3 or 4 gallons of beer. Problem solved. Especially for a first-timer.

 

[jeff62217]

I do 5.5 gallon batches in a 10 gal rubbermail MLT and an 8 gallon 'economy' ss pot from morebeer.com with temp gauge and ball valve. My brewhouse efficiency suffers on grain bills over 15-16 lbs due to not being able to hold as much runnings, but I still got 68% for my last 20-21lb mash and usually hit around 75% with 9-13lb grain bills.

 

[JohnSand]

So the answer is: yes he can. Smaller batch, top off, sparge and top off all work. I have used a five gallon pot for five gallon batches. I topped off the kettle with sparge a bit at a time. As it boiled off, add more. When it goes into the fermenter, take a gravity reading and top off with water. There are plenty of ways to make great beer. You can even do a partial mash, or what I call a "Mostly Mash": mash and boil a four gallon batch, late addition a little extract, top off water. Have fun.