boil 23L tank - advices

[mirceadobre78]

Hi guys,

i am planning on building a small brewery at home to produce around 18-20 L into the fermenter (probably around 16L final wort going to to bottling).
I have an oven of 23L kettle thinking to transform it into the boiler+chiller.
But I think my boiling tank it's a little small. My plan is to add a false bottom to it, a thermometer and an exit at the bottom of the kettle. Most probably I will start with smaller quantities of wort (I will do all grain). Can I start the mash with lower water than normal, start to boil then almost at the end of the boil complete with hot water until the desire quantity?
Let's say 20L final, mash 16L+4 sparge, start boiling at 20L for 60 min until will go down probably around 15-16 L then add the extra 4L of clean boiled water to get the desired 20L? Of course the ingredients will be used for the 20L desired. Or should I add it to the fermenter before adding the yeast?
What you guys recommend?


Thanks in advance,
Mircea

 

[day_trippr]

If the top-up water is sanitized and your boil kettle is tight for space, you can certainly add the top-up water directly to the fermentor...

Cheers!

 

[mirceadobre78]

Oh cool, yeah, my boil kettle actually it's smaller than 23L (in fact it's 17.5L now that I checked).
The water I'm using will be bottled water, so should be ok to add it straight to the fermenter?

Thanks,

 

[day_trippr]

I'd be surprised if there were beer-spoiling bugs in bottled water, but that's all I have to offer on the topic...

Cheers!

 

[mirceadobre78]

jaja, I hope no bugs swimming into the water.
Considering that the water is boiled, all organisms will be dead.
Bottling water should be ok, considering that anyway its going to be boiled.
I was not sure about adding cold bottling water to the fermenter will affect in any way (contamination maybe from what bottling water contain). Just asking...

Thanks for your answers day_trippr.
Cheers,

 

[mirceadobre78]

Found it, MaxiBIAB it's the name of this process.