has anyone ever tried to boil one batch in small pot inside another batch large pot

[sheephrdr]

so I have several pots, a large 10 gallon and smaller 5 gallon, I sometimes do full boils and other times half boils with late malt additions..

I got to thinking, could I set my smaller pot inside my large 10 gal pot and do two partial boils? say wheat beer in one and porter in the other.

so the full volume would be close to 10 gallons but there would be the inner pot separating the two worts..

 

[Qhrumphf]

Are you looking to get two batches out of the same boil, essentially? My concern would be wort from the larger kettle seeping in underneath the smaller kettle, and in between the two could get elevated enough to cause problems. Scorching would be a concern. I would just boil them separately.

 

[photobru]

Assuming you could get the smaller pot to keep from moving around too much and spilling, I'm pretty sure the wort in the larger pot would boil off much faster. Which might be fine since you'll obviously have to cool them separately. I imagine you want to do this because you don't have time for two batches? Because this seems like it would be a PITA.

 

[sheephrdr]

ya im re thinking the processs and I think I will run 2 separate burners instead. ive never brewed 10 gal at once I just thought of the idea and wondered if anyone had tried it

 

[BetterSense]

Lots of people like to do split batches with different yeast, but everything else the same. Using coaxial pots might be one way to rigorously test boil-phasechanges like hop additions or specialty grain additions or impact of Irish moss etc.

 

[crash568]

the only thing I think would be an issue is I would guess that the larger pot that is actually touching the burner would get to a boil before the smaller one and then what do you do at the end of your 60min boil for one when the other is only at 50 min

 

[zachattack]

Unless the pots were welded together with no wort in between so that the inner pot saw the burner's heat, I don't see how this would work.

The smaller inner pot would never boil if you had similar (aqueous) liquids in both pots. It would approach 212 degrees and then just stay there, this is why a double boiler is used for cooking or melting sensitive foods like chocolate.

The only way to overcome the latent heat and achieve a boil is to have a heat source above the boiling point (like a stove burner) so that heat can continue entering the liquid once it reaches that point.