Two Non-Simultaneous Boils for 5 Gallon Batch

[Dheovan]

I've searched for my question in the forms but to no avail. I apologize if this has been asked and I'm just missing it, or if this is the wrong spot to ask. (If it is, please let me know and I'll repost!)

I am a new brewer and only have access to an electric stove. For my previous brews this hasn't been a problem, as the boils only called for 2.5-3 gallons of water, and then topping off with cool water in the carboy to 5 gallons. These brews have gone off marvelously.

I'm about to try my first brew that requires 4.5 gallons of water in the boil and I'm worried my stove won't have the necessary power. If it does have the power then awesome. But in case it doesn't I'd like to have a backup plan. Unfortunately, I also only have the one boil pot, so I can't feasibly do two simultaneous boils. (That's what most of the other posts seem to be about.)

I was wondering, if I took the ingredients and divided them in half and did the (halved) recipe in 2.25 gallons of water, put them in the carboy, plugged the carboy, and then did the other half of the recipe and added it to what was already in the carboy, am I setting myself up for disaster? I have a wort chiller so cooling the wort won't take too long, and I wouldn't add the yeast until I had both boils in the carboy. I'm just trying to brainstorm possible solutions. Thanks for any advice!

 

[RM-MN]

You'll be just fine. It would take hours for any bacteria to take off and long before that you will have added the second batch and pitched so much yeast that the bacteria won't have a chance.

 

[JonM]

There's nothing wrong with doing a 2.5 gallon batch, you know!

 

[Dheovan]

Awesome! Thank you both. I feel much more confident about it now.

JonM, do you mean doing all the ingredients in just 2.5 gallons of water and then adding water in the fermenter for a full 5 gallons, or just doing a batch that comes out to 2.5 gallons of beer at the end of the day? I've thought about doing smaller overall batches and may give it a shot, but I've been pleasantly surprised with how powerful my electric stove has been so far so I wanted to give this a go.

 

[Wldthang87]

put 5 gallons of water in the pot and see if the electric stove will boil it. if it does it in and in a timely fashion then boiling wort should be the same.

 

[dstockwell]

Good luck, I tried to boil that much on electric, never made it and took to much time to not make a boil.

 

[tgolanos]

I had a very similar situation on one of my first brews. I didn't realize from the start that my ceramic stove top couldn't handle a full 10 liter boil so I had to split it in half in the middle of the boil after the stove shut itself off. I was nervous as anything that it was going to be a wasted brew session, but all turned out good- It's a decent beer and I'm still enjoying it now.

 

[lakota]

Do a Google search for "Texas Two Step brewing". May be the answer you're looking for to accomplish a "full volume boil" in a small pot.