Is a Ale Pail ok to hold pre-boil wort?

[zanemoseley]

I have the following equipment:

10 gal MLT
5.5 gal SS pot
4 gal SS pot
6.5 gal ale pail

I want to try the bobbyM double batch sparge w/ no mash out for my first AG brew and am trying to figure out how to do this with my equipment. I am brewing on the stove if that matters.

Here's my guess on how to do it. Mash with 1.25 qt/gal and drain into 4 gal pot and begin to heat and use the 5.5 gal pot to heat the sparge water. Dump half the sparge water into the MLT and drain into the ale pail then dump the remaining sparge water in and drain into the 5.5 gal kettle and combine with the mash wort currently in the 4 gal kettle. I plan to add all the hops into the 5.5 gal kettle and keep the remaining wort at a high temperature or boil in the 4 gallon kettle to top off the main kettle throughout the boil. Kind of a around about way of doing it but should work well with what I have to work with.

One concern with this method would be putting 170-180F wort in an ale pail. Also my hop utilization may suffer slightly as I will only have 5 gallons in the main kettle at any given time. I will use foam control drops to avoid boil overs.

 

[WBC]

Ale Pail: Sure I have done that a lot. You need to boil all the wort at 1 time though. I guess this time is Ok but put half the hops in ea pot when you boil at the proper intervals. You will be slightly off on hop utilization.

 

[BioBeing]

Make sure you clean the ale pail out well and sanitize it if you are going to brew in it too after holding the (microbe laden) wort in it. And get a bigger kettle

 

[zanemoseley]

I'm wondering how much my hop utilization will be off if I can boil a full 5 gallons in the 5.5 gallon pot and just boil the remaining 1-1.25 gallons without hops in the 4 gallon kettle topping off the 5.5 gallon kettle to keep it with a full 5 gallons of wort the entire time. I don't think my stove can handle a larger pot. I guess the next step is to brew outside but I really like brewing in the kitchen with the sink right by me.

 

[Yooper]

I'm wondering how much my hop utilization will be off if I can boil a full 5 gallons in the 5.5 gallon pot and just boil the remaining 1-1.25 gallons without hops in the 4 gallon kettle topping off the 5.5 gallon kettle to keep it with a full 5 gallons of wort the entire time. I don't think my stove can handle a larger pot. I guess the next step is to brew outside but I really like brewing in the kitchen with the sink right by me.

You're basicially doing a "split boil" but putting all the hops in one pot. What I used to do (before I got a bigger pot) was put 1/2 of the first runnings in each pot, and 1/2 of the sparge runnings in each pot, so that the gravity was basically equal. I added half of the hops in each pot, and then combined the wort at the end. I'm not sure how much the utilization will change by adding unhopped wort to the hopped wort but I expect it won't be a ton. It'll be different, though, simply because the SG of the boil won't be the same as other full boils. I boil down 6-6.25 gallons (lower SG wort) to 5 gallons (final OG wort). You're talking about having 4 gallons of wort for the boil, basically, adding unhopped wort as some evaporates. It will be different, but probably not a big difference.

You won't be able to boil 5 gallons in a 5.5 gallon pot. I boil 6 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot to start, and it comes close to boiling over right before the hot break. You may be able to boil 4 gallons in it, though.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Just split the wort and hops best you can b/w the two pots...not a swiss watch were building here.

 

[zanemoseley]

I will probably stop trying to work around it and just use both pots and split. Maybe not my first batch as its only a 8 IBU Wit and hops won't make as much of a difference but my 2nd batch is scheduled to be a high IBU pale ale so I'll try splitting that one at least.

Yooper, I can boil 5 gallons in the 5.5 gallon pot with Fermcaps. Here's a picture of one of my PM's where I have fresh water boiling on the side for topping off.

 

[Beerbeque]

I use ale pails for all of my gyle runnings. That way I only need one pot. First Its a hot water pot, then its a boil kettle. The good stuff is in ale pails in between.

 

[Bobby_M]

Ale pails are HDPE which can safely handle at least 200f. It gets a little soft, but it's still safe.

 

[scottmd06]

Just wondering if I could put a large nylon bag of my mash grain into my ale pail fermenter with the bottling spigot, dump in my hot mash water, let it mash an hour, open the spigot and drain the mash into my brewpot, and then repeat for my sparge? Would the mash temp melt my bucket, spigot, not retain enough heat for an hour, anything like that?

 

[scottmd06]

Just wondering if I could put a large nylon bag of my mash grain into my ale pail fermenter with the bottling spigot, dump in my hot mash water, let it mash an hour, open the spigot and drain the mash into my brewpot, and then repeat for my sparge? Would the mash temp melt my bucket, spigot, not retain enough heat for an hour, anything like that??