Mash question on a bigun'

[Bombo80]

I am getting ready to make a Westy 12 clone. The recipe I am going to follow has ~20# grain bill. I am new to the Beersmith software, so I am having a small issue with the amount of water I need to use. (mash-in, mash-out, sparge)

I just built a MLT, out of a 60qt cooler, and made a copper manifold. My problem area is in my boiling pot. I can get 8 gallons in it, at most, and then it takes 2 hours to boil it down to a 5 gallon batch.

If I set my brewing parameters to that (8 gal), I get 20.45 qts @163* for the mash at 149*. 12.27 qts @ 212* for mash-out at 170*. Then it only allows me 2.77 gallons @ 170*, to batch sparge.

The dough-in is set at 1qt/lb. With a 20# grain bill, do I dare go to a lower ratio ?? Or do I just sparge with around 5 gallons of water. If I up the boil pot to 10 gal, it gives me 4.77gal to sparge. I have a second pot that I can split up the runnings, and boil in two different pots.

Just trying to get a good plan together before going ahead with this brew.

WWYD ??

Thanks

 

[ohiobrewtus]

My short and smart-*** answer - buy a bigger pot or brew a smaller beer.

Seriously though...without making either of the above changes, it seems as if you're going to be doing a long boil. I did AG with a similar issue for a while. I'd fill up my kettle as much as I could then once I'd boiled some off I would add my the rest of the wort from my 1st and 2nd sparges. I usually ended up with about a 90 minute boil.

Sounds to me like you need a keggle... I know a guy:

 

[Bombo80]

If I would have talked to a friend of mine, I'd have one NOW. He's got an empty keg, and looking to get rid of it. I am going to get it from him, I just don't know if I'll be able to get it before I brew.

Thanks

 

[PseudoChef]

I would say just set yourself up for a long brew day. I've done 17# and 15.5# grain bills with a 7.5 gallon pot and just collected extra runnings into my bottling bucket. I would add them into the boil as it decreased. It sucked, but I did it anyway.

 

[iamjonsharp]

Equipment doesn't seem to be an issue. I wouldn't boil for longer than 2 hours. You can always up the grain bill to compensate for loss of efficiency since you are sparging with less water. And when you add the sparge water after your first runnings, stir for several minutes and wait about 15 minutes before draining second runnings to up the efficiency. Also, since it's the first time you'll be using this setup, I would have some extra dry extract on hand if you end up with a lower efficiency than expected to hit your target OG.

 

[CBBaron]

I would sparge with the 2.75 gals recommend and get the 8gal pre-boil volume. However expect to get a lower efficiency than you normally would see. You can get better efficiencies by sparging a larger volume but it takes a long time and alot of fuel to boil off that liquid. Add an extra # or 2 to your mash to make up the difference and save yourself the headache of exceeding your brew pot size.
Craig

 

[Bombo80]

Here is the answer to my large runnings/boiling dilema.

Enjoy :rockin:

 

[Bombo80]

The question now is, what can I use that center keg stem for ???