Possible to do AG in 4 gallon pot?

[prey]

Hi guys, I was just wondering if it was possible to do AG in a 4 gallon pot if somehow I could just reintroduce the wort into the mash to 'concentrate' it?

 

[david_42]

That won't work. Concentrated wort will not pick up more sugar and you run the risk of tannins. About the only way you could make a five gallon batch would be to boil the first runnings, cool & dump it, then boil the rest.

Why not make smaller batches or do PM? I've done many with a 3 gallons boil, just add the extract at the end.

 

[magno]

Ive done it the way david describes. It is possible, but you are looking at LONG brewdays.

I sparged the first three gallons or so into the brew kettle, and the rest into one gallon jugs, spare pots and such. I would get most of my gravity points from the first boil, and I would only put hops in the second boil to maximize hop efficiency.

I just got a turkey fryer setup, and I cant wait to brew with it.

- magno

 

[FlyGuy]

You could do it if you had TWO 4 gal pots (barely).

 

[Porcelon]

I brew 3 gallon batches with a 4 gallon pot. It's enough to make a case, and small enough that I don't have to drink a lot of so-so experiments.

 

[BadKarma]

david and porcelon are right on the money. Do 3 or 2.5 gal batches till you find that recipe that trips your trigger and then scale up to a 5 gal. Economical on the money too.

 

[Cregar]

I just started doing 2.5 gallon AG boil... and am loving it!!!

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Yes you can do full boils. Yes you can do all grain.

Use a plastic bucket (bottling bucket or fermenter) to hold the runnings from the MLT.

Pour 3 or 3.5 gallons into the pot, boil it, cool it, add it to your fermenter, pitch the yeast. Then boil the rest, cool it, add it to the fermenter.

Just do it in two batches. It'll add 40 to 90 minutes to your brew day, depending on how quickly you can chill the wort and a few other factors.

Actually, since you can start boiling before you collect your sparge, maybe it wouldn't even take all that much longer....

 

[prey]

Thanks for the replies guys, I've only done one AG batch that was a hefeweizen and that was sort of a failure and been doing PMs since. Now I may go back to AG and try a corona clone recipe or something.