Two kettles, one beer??

[BeerMe82]

At the moment on only have a 12 qt stove top kettle. I stick mostly to extract brewing until I get the funds and space for all grain. Any how, I was brainstorming on ways to get my wort to accept more hops flavor and chemicals with this limited quantity of water. My thinking is, to my knowledge, hops is only for flavor these days as the preservative qualities are over shadowed by the ability to refrigerate and sterilize with modern technology. So, Why cant I simply split the batch in half, 2.5 gal for the actual wort production, and another water only boil, for the hops. Now keeping the same schedule as as I normally would, I think this would give better results for the hops, and without any thing else in the water, I may even be able to use less hops or get bigger results.

Any opinions on this idea would be great, what do you all think????

 

[bernerbrau]

Easiest way to improve your hop utilization in a partial boil is to save 2/3 of your extract to add in the last 15 minutes.

 

[BeerMe82]

Easiest way to improve your hop utilization in a partial boil is to save 2/3 of your extract to add in the last 15 minutes.

So that would be similar to what I am getting at then?? Leaving the wort rather "light" so the hops infuses better? Then add the last 2/3 at the end to boil a bit???

 

[bernerbrau]

Yep. Similar and less messy than mixing wort with hop tea. Also helps prevent the extract from caramelizing.

 

[BeerMe82]

Ok then, tnx for the info. Ill try that.