How much top off water?

[Tommy1858]

my stove top will only boil aboit 3 gallon brews my question is can i mash enough grain for a 5 gallon batch in that ammount of water and then just add top off water to bring it to 5 gallons after i boil?

 

[temple240]

I once mashed 10lb of grain using a 4gal partial boil. My efficiency was only 60% so i had to add about a pound of dme to hit my og. You'll be able to do it but it's better to just stick with partial mashes for now, they make great beer!

Our you could reduce your batch size if you really want to do ag.

 

[Tommy1858]

im doing all grain now but only 2.5 gallon batches with a 3 gallon boil it makes about 24 beers when im done.Its BIAB im doing and i can fit enough grain in the bag for a 5 gallon batch but cant collect the approximamate 6 gallons i would need to do a hour boil and my stove wouldnt bring it to a boil anyway

 

[sirmeowsalot]

What size is your pot though? Your stove might only be able to boil 3 gallons but do you have a 5, 8, 10, etc, gallon pot? If it's only a 5 gallon pot I imagine you can get about 6-8# of grains. (1.5quarts per pound, for 6 pounds is a bit over 2 gallons, with a little less than 1 gallon for sparge which equals roughly 3 gallons). Without any additional sugars and a 75% efficiency it would translate to a 3.0-4.0% beer after topping off to 5 gallons.

So yea you can, but they're gonna be really sessionable beers. Adding an extra couple pounds of extract or dextrose isn't the end of the world though which is what I would recommend doing.

 

[Tommy1858]

Thanks for all the input it looks like im gonna have to add some extract or dextrose like you suggested and a 3-4 % session beer isnt all bad lol most of my brews are 4-5% now and i do a few lower session beers to keep the bottles full in the time im waiting for the others i hate to buy beer anymore now that i have been home brewing. my brew pot is 5 gallons but more than 3-3.5 gallons in it and my stove just wont do it

 

[unionrdr]

I have a 5 gallon SSBK & do partial mash/partial boil biab in it. I use the 4 gallon kettle to heat sparge water. I do 5lbs of grains in 1.5 gallons od water for an hour @ 155F,then sparge with 1.5 gallons @ 165F for 3 gallons total. I do hop additiond with the fresh wort. Then add either 3lb plain DME or 3.3lb of gold LME as a late addition. Gives me 1.044-1.046 OG. Chill wort with 3 gallons or so in the fridge overnight for top off. I pour all through a fine mesh strainer & stir 5 minutes roughly. I got the current batch down to 66F this way.

 

[sirmeowsalot]

Yea in retrospect the size of the pot wasn't really needed, seeing how if all you can boil is 3 gallons it wouldn't matter if the pot was 15 gallons big seeing as how you can only boil up to 3 gallons after taking grain amount into account.

If you kept it at 3 gallons without any top off or additional sugars 6-8# of grains will give you about a 5-6.5ish% beer.