Too small of pot?

[bradthebold]

I bought a 10 gallon pot and matching bag thinking it was going to be big enough, but it's not even close for high gravity beers. My last batch I just kept out a portion of the mash water, mashed with less water, then added the water prior to boiling. Is there any issue with this? It was just under 2qt water/lb of grain still. I got ~72% efficiency on a 14.5lb grainbill.

Otherwise I wasted $130+ on too small of a pot/bag I'll need to immediately replace and try to sell.

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

I have an 8 Gallon pot and ran into the same thing.

Similar to what you're doing, what works for me is heating some additional sparge water via a smaller pot (usually 1 to 2 gallons of water), and using it to rinse the grains once I hit the flame to get the boil going. Honestly, I just use tap water that is as hot as it will go and don't worry about getting it to typical sparge temps. In addition, this has helped improve my efficiency by 10% give or take.

 

[triethylborane]

I had that issue with my 10gal when doing RIS. I got a 15 that handles RIS grain bills with space to spare, kept the 10 for smaller grain bills.

 

[soccerdad]

I always prefer a Full Volume Mash, but nothing rhymes with curtiss is correct .. you likely have a 5 gallon 'starter' kettle that you can 'dunk sparge' with a gallon or so of tepid water.

by the way - vagina rhymes with curtiss - just sayin'

 

[bradthebold]

Ok, if I can just add extra sparge water without issue, then I'll do that for higher grainbills. Maybe in the future I'll get a 15gal, but I've only done 2 batches so far. And yeah, I just added water, didn't heat it, after mash-out right before boiling.

 

[PADave]

How much water are you using? The biggest I've done has been 13.5 pounds, with 7.6 gallons of water, and there was plenty of room for another few pounds.

 

[Brew_G]

I've been brewing with my 9-gallon kettle for a couple years now and have been putting out some pretty good beers without any issue. Would I prefer larger? Yeah...I could probably go for an 11-gallon kettle. But it's not necessary to have one.

I generally "pour-over sparge" with anywhere from a half a gallon to a gallon of hot water, then squeeze the bag afterwards. It's not difficult at all and I don't have any major concerns about boil overs if I watch it early in the boil. Once it's been boiling for about ten minutes I'm more than happy to let it rock on its own.

 

[Griffin495]

There's nothing wrong with doing a dunk sparge or a pour-over sparge, but if you really wanted to do a full volume mash, you could always cut down your batch. I don't know your system variable (trub loss, boil off rate or absorption), but I'm sure you could do a 4 G batch and it would fit.

 

[RM-MN]

I bought a 10 gallon pot and matching bag thinking it was going to be big enough, but it's not even close for high gravity beers. My last batch I just kept out a portion of the mash water, mashed with less water, then added the water prior to boiling. Is there any issue with this? It was just under 2qt water/lb of grain still. I got ~72% efficiency on a 14.5lb grainbill.

Otherwise I wasted $130+ on too small of a pot/bag I'll need to immediately replace and try to sell.

If you only added water instead of sparging to get your volume and hit 72% efficiency, you probably could have gotten near or over 80% had you sparged. That would have put you over your projected OG so you would need to reduce the amount of grain to compensate, leaving you with more room in your pot. If you also reduced the boil off you wouldn't have needed so much water to start with, again leaving you with more room. I only boil off about half a gallon with my barely rolling boil.

 

[bradthebold]

I just used biab calculator and followed its numbers. I brewed BM's centennial blonde first and hit 77% full volume. I thought about trying the pour over sparge, but I use a pulley to lift my bag and it seeemed like it was going to be hard to do.

This was the zombie dust clone and the calculator wanted 8 gallons to start. I did 7 and then added a gallon before boil.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I just used biab calculator and followed its numbers. I brewed BM's centennial blonde first and hit 77% full volume. I thought about trying the pour over sparge, but I use a pulley to lift my bag and it seeemed like it was going to be hard to do.

This was the zombie dust clone and the calculator wanted 8 gallons to start. I did 7 and then added a gallon before boil.

A pour over sparge is rather simple, I just slowly trickle the sparge water over the top / side of the bag above the grain as it is hanging over the pot on the pulley. I know, intuitively you think the water will cascade outside the bag and run straight to the kettle, but in practice the bag is so porous that the sparge actually enters the top of the grain ball and drips out the bottom into the kettle. It works surprisingly well and is very easy. Use a small cup or pitcher and sparge a bit slow, a little at a time.

I sometimes do this as a pre boil volume adjustment, not because my kettle is small. Handy trick, and you can avoid obsessing over your initial water volume. and still be spot on pre boil where it really matters.

 

[radwizard]

I also do the pour over sparge, mainly as mentioned above, so I don't need to be super dialed in on water volumes. I like to have a smaller sized pot because I found it is a lot easier to maintain mash temps if the kettle volume is maximized. I'm not super worried about boil overs either, I have always found it a non-issue, even with a pretty full kettle. Just keep an eye on what you are doing.

 

[bradthebold]

I will give that a shot, thanks.

 

[mbobhat]

Not trying to be a naysayer, but with all that hot scalding water I just find it more safe to use a cooler. Transfer easier and batch sparge. Heavy grain dunking in hot water-just not all that safe IMHO.

Brew on!