IPA Ingredients

[BrewInTheZoo]

I recently brewed my first beer that was not from a kit, but the wort I used was partially made by Bell's, as it was part of their homebrew competition. I'm starting to branch out more into brewing using recipes, and was looking into making a double IPA. All of the recipes I've been looking at say to use somewhere around 15 lbs. of 2-row malt for a 5-gallon batch. I only have a 5-gallon brew pot... do I have the space to do that? How much water do I need to boil that much grain?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[aryoung1980]

You won't be able to mash 15lbs in a 5 gallon pot.

EDIT: I accidentally posted before I was done typing.

I get the impression you will want to research all-grain brewing a bit before jumping in. You won't boil your grain. You'll mash the grain and boil the run-off. A 5 gallon boil kettle is too small for a full boil. To get 5 gallons into the fermenter, I usually have 6.5 - 7 gallons at the start depending on if it's a 60 or 90 minute minute boil.

 

[JJ900]

I think that if you wanted to make the recipes with your existing pot you'd have to read up on converting those recipes to all extract recipes, or also read up on partial mash approach, there is a sticky on that style in the beginner's section.

 

[bobeer]

Yes, you need to read up on all grain brewing. You don't boil the grains. Instead you mash the milled grain in a certain temp of water in a mash tun. You typically get the water volume amount by multiplying 1.25 quarts times the total lbs of grain you have.
So, 1.25x15 lbs= 18.75 qts which is 4.68 gallons of water.

Some people like to use 1.50 qts instead of 1.25 qts but you'll have to read up on the differences of mash density and how it affects the final beer.

Sounds like you should look into a partial mash recipe or even an extract with specialty grains recipe. I'm sure there are some in the recipe section of this forum. Good luck!

 

[rhys333]

As bobeer mentions, one option open to you is partial mash. You can comfortably mash 8-10 lbs grain in your 5 gallon kettle and boost your gravity after the boil with 2-3 lbs (or more) DME.

Say you have 9 lbs of 2Row and specialty grain... you'll mash in approximately 3 gallons water. You can then sparge with about 1.5 gallons (either dunking or rinsing, assuming BIAB) to collect a combined total of about 4 gallons in your kettle for the boil. You'll lose that extra 0.5 gallons to grain absorption. After your boil, stir in the required amount of light DME, cool, pour in the fermentor and then top up with water. You'll have your higher gravity beer without having to boil 6.5+ gallons of water.