Big Beer with small equipment??

[JayPowHound]

I'm geaering up to make a big Imperial Stout for Christmas but it's looking like it will be too big! My recipe calls for just shy of 20# of grain and I have a 10 gal rubbermaid MLT and an 8 gal kettle. There's no way they're going to be able to handle the recommended amounts of strike and sparge water, thoughts? ideas??

 

[jpc]

Anyone can make a "big beer"... It doesn't matter how well endowed you are. Even my SWMBO can brew big beers, and she has typical "girl" equipment.

Some people ask the weirdest questions!!

 

[Hammy71]

Split the mash in half and combine in the port before you boil. The small pot is another problem.....

 

[Teaman]

This is interesting. I am getting ready to do exactly the same thing (imperial) with a 9 gal cooler and a 9 gal pot.

why can't you put 20 lbs in a 10 gal cooler?
20 x 1.2?

the 8 gal pot can boil 26-28 qts.

 

[JayPowHound]

Anyone can make a "big beer"... It doesn't matter how well endowed you are.

Split the mash in half and combine in the port before you boil. The small pot is another problem.....

Any ideas for a solution to that problem other than buying a biggger kettle? Do I just sparge less (like almost none at all?) Try a thicker mash?

This is interesting. I am getting ready to do exactly the same thing (imperial) with a 9 gal cooler and a 9 gal pot.

why can't you put 20 lbs in a 10 gal cooler?
20 x 1.2?

the 8 gal pot can boil 26-28 qts.

20 lbs + 5 gal (using 1 qt per #) will really be pushing it in the cooler and the 10 gal. of sparge water (the amount recommended by most everything I've read) will more than overflow my kettle...

I understand that big beers need lots of water and then long boils to get back down to 5(ish) gallon batches but I'm just not set up to deal with them yet. Should I have substituted in some extract? (too late, bought and crushed grains today...)

 

[Teaman]

My plan is to do 18 lbs x 1.2 = 21.5 mash h2o - 10.5 for grain soak up and equip loss = first run off of 11 qts. sparge with 9 qts and run off then sparge with 8 qts and run off. puts 28 qts in pot for 75 min boil.
Are you doing no sparge?? That won't work. You are right about that.
I am really new to all grain but I am sure that I have read that when you do a high gravity beer and batch sparge a 3rd run off is needed to get the efficiency up a bit more.
I see what you are saying though. I have never tried to cram that much grain in. What's the most you have had in yours?

http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Batch_Sparging_Analysis

 

[Ziggybrew]

I feel your pain brother. It makes for a very long brew day.
I just start boling down my first runnings while sparging and add it to the pot as room opens up. Until I am at desred volume, then start the hops.
The other way is to have a second dude help you boil in his pot then combne them for the actual boil.
Both methods are not desirable for obvious reasons, but they make good tastng beer anyway.
Like I said: That LONG brew day wll inspire you to sell your wifes car to get a bigger kettle. You won't be dumb enough to do it. But you'll think about it.

 

[tschoolman]

This folder is named all grain & partial mash brewing -- why not do a partial mash? Cut back on the grains, and use some malt extract. You can even steep the specialty grains in the sparge water and run that through the base malt. But I get better results with specialty grains in the mash. There was a presentation at the NHC several years ago that walked through converting all grain recipes to partial mash to extract recipes and back.

Found the paper... it was more than a few years; '98 NHC. Presentation by Ken Schwartz. Here's the link - the paper is near the bottom of the page:

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/

 

[Teaman]

Just looked at my notes for an IPA I did. I had 14.5 lbs of grain at 1.5 qts/lb and still had room to spare in my 9 gal mash cooler. I would think you can get it in a 10 gal for sure especially if you had a lower water ratio.

 

[lumpher]

This is interesting. I am getting ready to do exactly the same thing (imperial) with a 9 gal cooler and a 9 gal pot.

why can't you put 20 lbs in a 10 gal cooler?
20 x 1.2?

the 8 gal pot can boil 26-28 qts.

boilover could be a problem; just have to watch it very closely at that level. what you could do is to get the first batch boiling, let it hit hot-break, then add in the second runnings, let it hot-break, then add in 3rd runnings. if you did that, you could get by with 7-7.5 gallons

 

[Hammy71]

Simple calculator for mash tun volume...

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

I just did an Imperial Stout on Saturday.

25# @ 1.25 left me within a 1/2" of the top of my 10 gallon round cooler. Made for some interesting stirring.

 

[JayPowHound]

Less concerned about the mlt than the kettle. Especially with the full batch sparge I would like to do! Boiling first rubbings down a not and then each subsequent sparge down and adding hops in the last boil could work. No concern about losing gravity points that way? Could lead to many hours of boiling as I heat each rilunning back up to temp...

 

[Ziggybrew]

Less concerned about the mlt than the kettle. Especially with the full batch sparge I would like to do! Boiling first rubbings down a not and then each subsequent sparge down and adding hops in the last boil could work. No concern about losing gravity points that way? Could lead to many hours of boiling as I heat each rilunning back up to temp...

yep! you got it. Then sell your spouses car... LOL that 15 gal boilermaker is looking good right now LOL

 

[lumpher]

craigslist. 15 gallon sanke keggle

 

[wacko]

I did a 5 gallon batch of RIS in a 8.5 gallon pot using biab style and let me assure you it was tight. 24 pounds of grain + 5 gallons of water were at the brim.

 

[Ziggybrew]

craigslist. 15 gallon sanke keggle

only in TX LOL

 

[studmonk3y]

If I were you I'd probably just aim to reduce my final volume by a gallon or so. A big imperial stout isn't a session beer anyways so you might not even miss those few extra bottles.

 

[iijakii]

Yeah, your MLT is fine but your pot blows. Either boil twice or make a smaller batch.

 

[Bobby_M]

Get some of the fermentables from malt extract and table sugar.

 

[david_42]

Real simple: do it as a PM and add DME to bring the gravity up. Just cut the 2-row until the numbers work for your gear. Why risk a big fail?

 

[NuclearRich]

Anyone can make a "big beer"... It doesn't matter how well endowed you are. Even my SWMBO can brew big beers, and she has typical "girl" equipment.

Some people ask the weirdest questions!!

LOL

Big beers need love too. Just because I am used to using my big equipment doesn't mean you have to have MLT envy. Besides, even with my big equipemnt, I like little beers more. I feel like a real man when I bang out a small beer so quickly and efficiently. Especially if the beer in question is a blonde!

Too bad my refractory period has been too long lately... haven't been in the BR but once a month. BR is brew room, pig.

...and of useful note... a partial mash where you add DME might work better for you. I don't recommend thickening your mash too much to compensate. Thats like buying a shiny sportscar...
:fro:

 

[jfr1111]

Smaller batch ?