10 Gallon batch dilemma

[alers22]

My BIAB setup utilizes a 15 gallon keggle. I need to brew a 10 gallon batch of a Flanders Red for a barrel project. The problem is that the mash volume is at 17.25 gallons according to BeerSmith. I thought about splitting the mash into (2) 60 minute sessions then combining the wort for the boil.

If I were to mash per a typical 5 gallon batch (x2) it still leaves me with more wort than can fit into the keggle preboil.

Can I mash the 2nd half of the grain with a lesser amount of water and what effect will that have on the mash?

OR...can I just mash the entire grain bill with less water and top off with water preboil?

Thanks for your help! I am brewing tomorrow.

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

Not to point out the obvious, but why not do two 5gal batches?

Edit: what's the grain weight? You probably could mash the whole thing thicker and add back water before the boil, but if you can't fit the whole preboil volume your hop utilization will be off, though for a Flanders you probably won't have much hops to worry about

 

[bcltoys]

If it were me I would do a 5 to 7 gallon sparge. Dunk of coarse.

 

[doug293cz]

What's your boil-off rate? At 2 gal/hr, a pre-boil volume of 13 gal should net you close to 10 gal to the barrel. You should be able to boil 13 gal in a keggle.

You will have to do some kind of sparge, since you don't have enough volume to do a full volume mash.

Brew on

 

[Gnomebrewer]

My BIAB setup utilizes a 15 gallon keggle. I need to brew a 10 gallon batch of a Flanders Red for a barrel project. The problem is that the mash volume is at 17.25 gallons according to BeerSmith. I thought about splitting the mash into (2) 60 minute sessions then combining the wort for the boil.

If I were to mash per a typical 5 gallon batch (x2) it still leaves me with more wort than can fit into the keggle preboil.

Can I mash the 2nd half of the grain with a lesser amount of water and what effect will that have on the mash?

You can, you'll get a slightly lower mash pH and slightly lower efficiency.

OR...can I just mash the entire grain bill with less water and top off with water preboil?

Thanks for your help! I am brewing tomorrow.

You can do this as well, again you'll get slightly lower efficiency.

EDIT: removed some content as I realised the water top-off was pre-boil, not post-boil.

 

[alers22]

Thanks for all the quick responses! I was definitely making it more difficult. I did consider doing (2) 5 gallon batches but I don't have the time. I think a thicker mash with a dunk sparge of several gallons should work well. No problems getting the entire 13+ gallons of pre-boil wort in the boil kettle.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[sikkingj]

I've done just this (larger grain bill, not using the full volume of liquid), stir like mad, because the mash will be much thicker. Also save yourself some time and do a 30 min mash.