Brew Day: Multiple Boils, Blended in Primary?

[Vedexent]

I'm currently only setup to do stove top boiling, and I've done 1 stove top, full-volume, BIAB SMaSH, in a 5 gallon kettle - which yields me a "half-batch" of ~10L in my fermenting bucket.

I'll probably be "scaling up" to a 32-Quart kettle - which is probably the limit of my electric range, from what I've been able to tell; and honestly, small batches meet my current consumption needs nicely.

However ... if I wanted to go for a larger batch - say a full 5 gallon batch, can I do it in two stages: heat, mash, lauter (i.e. pull the bag out of the water), boil, cool, strain through paint strainer bag into the fermeter, seal up the bucket - then repeat, and add the two batches of wort together, before pitching the yeast into the combined wort?

I think this works better in my case that moving to sparging, as the bottleneck is probably going to be my boil kettle volume.

Are there any drawbacks - apart the obvious twice-as-much-time - to this approach?

Any special considerations I'd need to watch out for (like beware having sugary cooled wort un-colonized by yeast, and open to infection)?

Any advantages - like being able to blend two different recipes of wort?

Thanks,

 

[Bosh]

That souns like a lot of work for no real gain. What I'd do is buy an electric heating coil that you can put in the pot to help you boil larger volumes.

 

[mongoose33]

Brewers are known to blend beers, so there's no reason you cannot blend them as well.

I think you know the issues--infection is one, twice the time (though not quite--you can be chilling the first batch while you do the second batch, and if you chilled it down near 32 degrees it would help chill the second batch. I can't think of any reason why you couldn't then combine a 32-degree batch with a 110-degree batch to get you a pitch temperature of about 70 degrees.

 

[microbusbrewery]

No problem doing this. It could be a fun experiment too, to see how consistent you are brewing the same recipe back to back. For example, you can calculate your mash efficiency, measure and compare starting gravities before blending in primary, etc.

 

[Vedexent]

That souns like a lot of work for no real gain. What I'd do is buy an electric heating coil that you can put in the pot to help you boil larger volumes.

I've been kicking this around as well - but from what I can tell, this might require me using one of the 220V outlets.

Certainly not impossible, but not convenient as they're all tucked behind large appliances.

Can you make a 200V power bar?

 

[Bosh]

I've been kicking this around as well - but from what I can tell, this might require me using one of the 220V outlets.

Certainly not impossible, but not convenient as they're all tucked behind large appliances.

Can you make a 200V power bar?

Dunno I'm in Korea if that makes any difference but I always just plug them into regular outlets. If I have two on the same circuit and am also running the air conditioning I can have the circuit breaker flip which is annoying as the things are really power hogs. But with two I can get a POWERFULLY roiling boil with nearly 50 liters of wort without any stove at all. Lets me brew away from the kitchen and the wrath of SWMBO.

 

[dwhite60]

Brew more often.

I do only 2.5 to 3.5 gallon batches. At this volume I get to brew at least monthly.

Few years ago I was struggling using two pots on my stove to make five gallons. I finally asked myself why. Answer was because everyone else does. Smaller batches work better for me and make for a more enjoyable brew day.

I also keep more variety around as I brew more often.

All the Best,
D. White