5 gallon batch with a 5 gallon pot?

[pixelhussar]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately I have only a 5 gallon pot at the moment. This lets me to boil 4 gallon (after boil) beer. But I really miss that one gallon.

I can increase the amount the mash. Obviously the resulting wort would be more than 5 gallon after lautering, so I can't boil it at once. But as the water boils away I can fill up the pot with the colder wort (what I couldn't put in the pot for first). What do you think?
Would this make any harm?

Thanks!

 

[KeythL]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately I have only a 5 gallon pot at the moment. This lets me to boil 4 gallon (after boil) beer. But I really miss that one gallon.

I can increase the amount the mash. Obviously the resulting wort would be more than 5 gallon after lautering, so I can't boil it at once. But as the water boils away I can fill up the pot with the colder wort (what I couldn't put in the pot for first). What do you think?
Would this make any harm?

Thanks!

Using excess running to make up boil off will work to a point, but I'd want to have at least 30~40 minutes of rolling boil after the last addition(longer if style, ie DMS, is a concern) .

Another way to deal with this limiting factor would be to increase your wort OG by increasing your grain bill slightly and then add 1 gallon of distilled (preboiled\cooled) water to your fermentor to make a "full" batch. In other words, You can adjust your pre-boil gravity so as to arrive at the same place.

Here's a thread that explains it in detail

 

[jmprdood]

You adjust your grain bill and boil the more concentrated wort in your smaller pot and then top up - I have to do that every batch because of equipment limitations.

It'll make good beer!

Cheers!

 

[Gear101]

You adjust your grain bill and boil the more concentrated wort in your smaller pot and then top up - I have to do that every batch because of equipment limitations.

It'll make good beer!

Cheers!

At this time I have to do the same. I have made 10 gallons at one time doing just that. Mine will hold 5.5 gallon, so I have gone up to 7# of grain and 9# of DME. I just spilt the concentrated wort into two 6 gallon carboys and top off, so each one gets about 2 gallons of wort and the rest is water from the tap.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately I have only a 5 gallon pot at the moment. This lets me to boil 4 gallon (after boil) beer. But I really miss that one gallon.

I can increase the amount the mash. Obviously the resulting wort would be more than 5 gallon after lautering, so I can't boil it at once. But as the water boils away I can fill up the pot with the colder wort (what I couldn't put in the pot for first). What do you think?
Would this make any harm?

Thanks!

Yes you can do this...but as mentioned above best to boil for 20-30 minutes after additions. Not really that much difference b/w adding second runnings, low gravity wort or water. Use a bit more grain to account for the small pot no worries!

 

[Nohup]

I set my beersmith up with an equipment profile that has 0.00 boil-off, then just add distilled water to keep the level where I want it, or top up the water at the end of the boil. Works fine. (Fermcap helps a lot too when doing 14 gallons in a 15 gallon pot)

I'd be leery of adding more runnings throughout the boil; like others have said, you could end up with DMS.

 

[opusx11]

Using excess running to make up boil off will work to a point, but I'd want to have at least 30~40 minutes of rolling boil after the last addition(longer if style, ie DMS, is a concern) .

Another way to deal with this limiting factor would be to increase your wort OG by increasing your grain bill slightly and then add 1 gallon of distilled (preboiled\cooled) water to your fermentor to make a "full" batch. In other words, You can adjust your pre-boil gravity so as to arrive at the same place.

Here's a thread that explains it in detail

In BeerSmith2, instead of using the Dilution tool, could you not just setup an equipment profile that takes into account Fermentor top up volume?