Apartment Woes: Pot Too Small?

[Derick_Z]

I have an all grain kit of ingredients ready to go, but for the forseeable future I'm stuck without my propane burner and big pot. It's only 10.25 pounds of grain, but the only pots I have available are one that can hold 4 to 4.5 gallons and one that'll do 3 to 3.5. Is there any way I can get this batch done in 4 to 4.5 gallons?

I know I'd have to top off the fermenter, but you do that with extract to, so I figure it's not ideal but it won't destroy anything. My biggest concern is the mash.. I'm pretty sure I'll get some bad conversion with such little volume, but really don't know enough about the stuff (I've only done 2 all grain batches before, both in my big pot at home).

What would you do? Split into the two pots on the stove? Squeeze into the bigger?

Thanks

 

[Beernik]

My vote is for split boil.

 

[fartinmartin]

I brewed tonight,
2.5 kg pale malt
.1 crystal malt
47grams cascade

I did this in three boils on the stove top, the first 4litre drawn off before any sparge in one pot at SG 1.066, the second 4litres with some sparge in it SG 1.047 , the last 4litre would be nearly all sparge SG 1.032
From that I have three demijohns bubbling already. I get my mash liquor up via three 1.7litre ordinary kitchen kettles.
It ain't so bad for so much interesting stuff, 3 brews from one mash ,
And I've had an evening on quality hombrew, smashin.

 

[OaklandHills]

So is this a 5 gallon batch and a 60 minute boil? So roughly 7+ gallons to boil assuming 1 gallon loss boiling, ~1 gallon adsorbed to the grain, right. Yup, two pots. Mashing in the 5 gallon pot might work, right, if you mash with ~1.25 qrts of water per lb of grain., But its going to be tight.

 

[wilserbrewer]

No problem! Mash in your largest kettle, and sparge in the smaller...keep sparging to almost fill both and boil...git it done...very possible!
Cheers enjoy!
Wilser

 

[Rdom]

If you don't think you can pull it off, you could split the grain in half and brew 2 separate 2.5gal batches on different days. Maybe brew the same beer but with different hopping schedules?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Texas two step...brew half, pitch the yeast, then brew the other half the following day and add to the fermenter.

Or just brew it all!

 

[Riot]

You can mash as thick as 1 quart per pound if you want to do the whole mash in the bigger pot and then split your boil. It is kind of hard to stir at that thickness, but it's definitely doable.

 

[C-Rider]

Or as long as you are in the apartment you can switch to 2 g BIAB and do smaller batches. I do 2 gallon AG brews and try to hit 1.75 into the bottling bucket. That gives me 3 six packs each brew and a choice as what to drink when I open the fridge.

I mash in a 5 gallon Colman cooler, boil in a 4 gallon pot and ferment and bottle in 2 gallon HD paint buckets.

 

[Derick_Z]

I'm only stuck here for another 3ish months, and one of the main requirements for my next place is enough room to brew! I think I'm going to try to BIAB mash in the bigger pot then split for the boil as soon as I get some free time to brew!

 

[Ahhh-smooth]

See my post about my low volume experiment. All worked very well.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f244/experiment-low-volume-biab-459789/

 

[Derick_Z]

That's really interesting. Maybe I'll try that! How much water do you usually lose to grain absorption? I used to have a calculator bookmarked but lost it.