Make 2 batches with 1 10 gallon kettle

[bctdi]

I'm doing a 1.051 cream ale with an 11 lb grain bill. I have a 48 qt cooler mash tun and a 10 gallon kettle. I would like double this recipe and get 2 5 gallon batches for 2 seperate fermenters. I want them both to be the same beer.I've read about partigyle brewing , but that seems to be more about getting 2 different beers out of 1 batch. Would it be feasable to just double my grain bill and mash / sparge till I get my normal boil volume , then dilute with water after the boil to bring my gravity back down to 1.051? I've never tried this before and it seems like it should work out, but not sure about scaling up the hop additions or how much water to dilute with to get my target gravity. Anyone have any experience doing it this way?

 

[a10t2]

That should work fine. I tried it recently, going from a 3 gal boil to a 5.5 gal total volume. On a low-gravity beer like that I don't think you'll have any problems.

http://seanterrill.com/2011/01/16/of-ice-and-10p/

 

[bctdi]

That should work fine. I tried it recently, going from a 3 gal boil to a 5.5 gal total volume. On a low-gravity beer like that I don't think you'll have any problems.

http://seanterrill.com/2011/01/16/of-ice-and-10p/

thanks, I'll give it a try. Not sure if I should just double my hop additions or not. Seems like I should.

 

[TBrosBrewing]

You should be able to do exactly what you wanted the first time around. The only issue I see is if your kettle is on only 10 gal, you wont be able to boil down the same way. You just have to add water to make your final volume. A 48qt cooler is more than enough to make 10 gal batches and if you going to 10 gal batches a keggle is a good way to go for a pot, 14 gal will fit, all be it a little tight. As for hop additions just calculate based on your new volume.

 

[devilishprune]

You can almost do that, but it's not going to work quite like you want it to. When you do bigger beers you have to compensate by lowering your efficiency, mainly because you can't sparge the grains as much (same volume of liquid being spread around 1.5x the grain, for example). Aim for a batch that's as big as you can reasonably fit in the kettle for this effect to be minimized. I brewed a batch with an og of 1.081 and I lowered my efficiency by 10%; I ended up overshooting by a bit, but I would rather be over than under.

For example, you want 10 gals at 1.051 gravity. If you can boil 8.5 gallons, then you can try to shoot for a final gravity of 1.068 at 7.5 gallons and dilute to 10 to get 1.051. Using a program like beersmith can help you get the IBUs that you want in the boil based on your hops, but if you follow my example and you want 15 IBUs after dilution, then you want to have 20 IBUs in your 7.5 gallon finished batch.

Does that help?

 

[bctdi]

You should be able to do exactly what you wanted the first time around. The only issue I see is if your kettle is on only 10 gal, you wont be able to boil down the same way. You just have to add water to make your final volume. A 48qt cooler is more than enough to make 10 gal batches and if you going to 10 gal batches a keggle is a good way to go for a pot, 14 gal will fit, all be it a little tight. As for hop additions just calculate based on your new volume.

Adding water at the end is how I plan on doing it. I normally need 8 gallons preboil for a 5 gallon batch , so I plan on getting 8.5 gallons of high gravity wort from 22 lbs of grain and doing a 90 minute boil .... Then split evenly between the 2 fermenters , then top up with water , mix , and pitch all the while hoping for 2 equal batches of 1.051 wort. I really thought this might be a common practice, but after searching quite a bit on hbt , I could only find examples of people splitting between 1st and 2nd runnings for 2 different beers... I guess it's kind of boring to do the same beer, but I need a 10 gallon batch this time and can't figure another way around it with my 10 gallon kettle.

 

[bctdi]

You can almost do that, but it's not going to work quite like you want it to. When you do bigger beers you have to compensate by lowering your efficiency, mainly because you can't sparge the grains as much (same volume of liquid being spread around 1.5x the grain, for example). Aim for a batch that's as big as you can reasonably fit in the kettle for this effect to be minimized. I brewed a batch with an og of 1.081 and I lowered my efficiency by 10%; I ended up overshooting by a bit, but I would rather be over than under.

For example, you want 10 gals at 1.051 gravity. If you can boil 8.5 gallons, then you can try to shoot for a final gravity of 1.068 at 7.5 gallons and dilute to 10 to get 1.051. Using a program like beersmith can help you get the IBUs that you want in the boil based on your hops, but if you follow my example and you want 15 IBUs after dilution, then you want to have 20 IBUs in your 7.5 gallon finished batch.

Does that help?

Yes , that helps a lot.... So I just need to basically overshoot my target og , then fix it in the end with the correct amount of water?

 

[devilishprune]

Yes , that helps a lot.... So I just need to basically overshoot my target og , then fix it in the end with the correct amount of water?

You are correct.

Use the formula:

OG (undiluted) * Volume (undiluted) = OG (diluted) * Volume (diluted)

You should do the same with IBUs as well.

 

[bctdi]

You are correct.

Use the formula:

OG (undiluted) * Volume (undiluted) = OG (diluted) * Volume (diluted)

You should do the same with IBUs as well.

Ok , thanks for the help. Kettle limits be damned.... I'm doin a 10 gallon batch this weekend!

 

[a10t2]

I really thought this might be a common practice, but after searching quite a bit on hbt , I could only find examples of people splitting between 1st and 2nd runnings for 2 different beers...

It probably isn't as common for home brewers just because kettles at this scale are so cheap. Quite a few commercial breweries (including, famously - or infamously, the macro lager producers) do dilute in their fermenters. A fermenter that isn't filled to the brim is wasted space.