2 Pot boil

[SkiNuke]

I would like to get into all grain brewing, but my main concern is that I don't want to spend the money on an 8 gallon brew pot (and i think my stove wouldn't be able to handle it). As such, I was thinking I could use the two 5 gallon pots I have been using for extract brewing. I have noticed that a lot of people use 2 pots for their full boils, but they try to maintain both of them and add hops to both pots.

I was thinking, could I just take my two pots of wort, boil one for a short time, and then use the other for my hop additions? If I were to do this, would it drastically affect the contributions from the hops?

As a side note, would a 48 qt cooler be to big for a 5 gallon mash?

 

[TopherM]

No problem using two pots. Lots of people actually do this on purpose to make separate additions to the 1/2 batches.

 

[Pappers_]

Hops utilization (how well hops transmit their bittering quality) depends on a lot of factors in addition to length of the boil. The volume of the boil would affect it, too, I think. You might be able to mess around in Beersmith or other software to check out what the exact impact would be.

 

[cadarnell]

just be sure to measure the volume exactly in each pot pre boil .. and then use software to help figure the hop additions for the one you are adding hops to ... i like hopville.com as it lets me enter the size of my boil .. and it is free

 

[SkiNuke]

I was just looking at Palmer's book and it seems to me that I can just do the calculations as if I were doing a standard full boil. The only time he takes volume into account is for the boil volume when he is calculating the boil sg (since I would be using 2 pots of wort this would be the same as for a full boil), and then in the IBU calculation (IBU=AAU*U/V) where that volume is the batch volume (unchanged since I plan to do 5 gallons either way i do it).

Thats what Palmer's book seems to be saying, but my common sense is saying: if i boil 2 pots of wort and only add hops to one of them and then combine them after, then i am going to get something different than if I boil it all together. What I am wondering is if anyone knows how different the result will be, will it be such a small difference that I will not notice, or will it be significantly changed?

 

[bovinejony]

Significant= relative term. If you are just looking to make BEER, then you can just throw hops into one of them and hope for the best. But, if you want to narrow your IBU's into a certain range, and do so with certainty, then use beersmith to tweek your hop amounts to get relatively close to your desired IBU's. You could also mix the wort from both pots back and forth from each other to level out their gravity levels, get approximately the same volume of liquid in both, and then split the hop additions accordingly, this would decrease the variation of isomerization from your desired levels. You gotta sit around for at least 6 weeks on this beer, might as well spend a few extra hours making sure it's worth it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would simply split the wort and split the hops by eye and call it good. Do ya think you can taste the difference b/w 35 and 38 IBU's?

 

[emetcalf]

I have no idea how much of an effect this would actually have, but the SG change between 6 gallons and 5 gallons is much smaller than the SG change between 3 gallons and 2 gallons. So in the smaller boil, you have a slightly higher gravity at the end of the boil and will get slightly less utilization. I don't think you will actually be able to tell the difference, but it is a possible issue.

 

[corncob]

Search "party gyle" or "parti-gyle" or "parti gyle." That's what you'll be doing, and it will work just fine. I have done it several times with a 15 gallon mash tun and 2 8-gallon pots. You'll just be blending the two worts 50-50 to make one beer.

 

[SkiNuke]

Ok, well it sounds like doing two boils and only hopping one might be a worthy method.

Another quick question, will my grain bed be too shallow for a 5 gallon batch if i use a 48 qt chest cooler? Or does the grain bed depth not matter too terribly much?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Grain bed is somewhat irrelevant when batch sparging...grain bed depth while fly sparging is more critical as "channeling" can occur w/ shallow grain depth. 48qt is a little big for smaller 5 gallon grain bills IMO, but will work fine if you preheat the cooler!!, mash a touch high, and have a bit of boiling water ready to raise a touch should you need to. After a batch or two you will have a feeling of how your MT responds, and it will become second nature.

 

[mrk305]

I use a 48 qt. coleman and it works fine. The main thing to remember is to stir a lot after adding the sparge water. I stir for about 5 minutes and then let it settle.