Maximising output

[mackenziemicro]

Looking for some advice.... My situation is a little strange... Ex Pat in Asia who got sick of drinking the local brew which costs 5 US dollars for a 660ml bottle or paying up to 9 bucks for a imported English or German bitter not even 500ml!! (I'm British by the way!) So I decided to restart brewing after a 20 year gap!! My LHBS aint so local 400 km away in another country and shipping in costs a fortune so I drive and stock up for about 8 batches. Started with kits, then Extract with spec grains now on PM but want to move to all grain... what started as a cost saving/just wanting decent beer exercise has truly become an obsession!!! My LHBS is expensive too but its the only decent shop in SE Asia excluding Australia!!! I reckon it costs me about 2.4 USD per pint for my PM with all that extract and hope to get that down to about 1.5 USD with all grain but want to maximise my batch size.....

My equipment is limited as are my boil volumes.... Currently doing 19 litre (5US Gallon) batches Mashing in a 5 Gallon Cooler/MT boiling in a 36 inch stockpot on a domestic gas stove... not getting a full boil in as max pre boil volume is about 18 litres so have to top up in Fermentor to 19 Litres (Fermentor is a 30 litre coopers fermenting barrel with screw lid the type that comes in the coopers starter I have 2)

Ive purchased a big 13 gallon Coleman cooler to use as MT to replace my current 5 Gallon set up. Plan to buy a second 36 inch stock pot to do two separate boils at the same time then blend together in the Fermentor.

My question is..... can I increase the mash and sparge to give a pre boil volume of about 32-33 litres split the first and second runnings equally to the two pots and end up with 26 or so litres in the Fermentor? Does anyone see a problem with the head space in the Fermentor or any other issues that I may have doing this. Also how much yeast to use I normally use one 11g pack of Nottingham, US05 or 04 rehydrated per 19 litre batch (cant use liquid yeast as supply and storage are an issue.... )

Thanks in Advance

 

[jro238]

I do split boils without any problem. Just make sure to split your hops as well.

 

[fmr_army]

I have a 6.5 gallon fermentor that I routinely ferment 6 gallons in. With particularly large beers (much over 1.060), I have to keep a close eye on the airlock and clean it out every 8 hours or so, but I definitely maximize my throughput that way.

As an aside, when I lived in Cambodia a few years ago, some of the local breweries were willing to sell a sack of their base malts to local home brewers at cost.

 

[mackenziemicro]

Thanks guys, think ill scale it up... on the Hops Beersmith is telling me I don't need to increase the hops to get the same IBU (17 for a scotish 70 shilling) is that right even though the water volume is increasing! oh and Whirflock split one tablet between the two pots or one each?