Large Grain Bill Recipe - Limited Grain Capacity

[Architect-Dave]

I have the Anvil Foundry 10.5. It has a 16-pound grain capacity. I have pushed it to 18 pounds, but was really pushing it. I am looking at a Scottish Ale recipe that has a 22-pound grain bill. I could make it out of LME / DME, but want to use the authentic Scottish Malts. It’s it possible to split the grain bill and make two batches of wort, then combine them in the boil kettle for boiling and hop additions? Or, maybe do half the grain bill with all-gran and add equivalent in DME / LME for the remainder?

 

[Sammy86]

I have the Anvil Foundry 10.5. It has a 16-pound grain capacity. I have pushed it to 18 pounds, but was really pushing it. I am looking at a Scottish Ale recipe that has a 22-pound grain bill. I could make it out of LME / DME, but want to use the authentic Scottish Malts. It’s it possible to split the grain bill and make two batches of wort, then combine them in the boil kettle for boiling and hop additions? Or, maybe do half the grain bill with all-gran and add equivalent in DME / LME for the remainder?

My suggestion would be use the grains to mash and add DME to the boil to hit your numbers. Easy peasy.

 

[doug293cz]

You can definitely do two smaller mashes, and combine the wort for boiling. You could also do a reiterated mash (mash 1/2 the grain, and then mash the 2nd 1/2 in the wort from the first mash) - this allows you to work with thinner mashes. Doing part grain and part DME/LME is also an option. For all of the options, you need to make sure to choose the malts that get mashed to have enough diastatic power to convert all of the grain in the mash (ie don't have a mash that is all/mostly low/no DP malt.)

Brew on

 

[Malticulous]

Partial mash is the simple anwer. Mash 16 lbs and add extract. A bigger mash tun is a better answer.

 

[Knightshade]

Goto the Anvil Foundry thread. IIRC (I haven’t visited it in awhile) @Noob_Brewer has some explanations and pictures of how he got around the grain bill “limitations” of the Foundry.

 

[RM-MN]

I am looking at a Scottish Ale recipe that has a 22-pound grain bill.

That recipe is based on a certain brewhouse efficiency. There is no real reason that you need to have the same efficiency. If you increase the efficiency the grain bill goes down, perhaps enough to fit into your Anvil Foundry 10.5, How do you increase the efficiency? Mill finer and use a filter bag.

 

[Ulisses4677]

I have the Anvil Foundry 10.5. It has a 16-pound grain capacity. I have pushed it to 18 pounds, but was really pushing it. I am looking at a Scottish Ale recipe that has a 22-pound grain bill. I could make it out of LME / DME, but want to use the authentic Scottish Malts. It’s it possible to split the grain bill and make two batches of wort, then combine them in the boil kettle for boiling and hop additions? Or, maybe do half the grain bill with all-gran and add equivalent in DME / LME for the remainder?

Buy a brew bag and replace it for the mash pipe. I brewed up a double ipa all grain more than 22 lbs.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Reiterated mash. It only adds about an hour or so to the brew day.

 

[Dancy]

I’ve had the same concern with large grain bills on my M&B. Just my opinion, but I haven’t found a couple of pounds of DME to be detrimental but understand your taste could be more discerning than mine.

 

[Velnerj]

There are diminishing returns with large grain bills. Your efficiency will tend to go down as you add more grains past a certain point.

My advice is to either use extract to make up for the missed gravity (if it's less than 10% I can't imagine it would make a taste difference). Or finish with a smaller volume.