Pre-Boil Volume Too Large For Brew Kettle.

[NathanYearout]

I'm new to all grain. I'm about to make my first batch of beer and bought everything I needed. I knew the recipe brewed about 6 gallons of beer but I completely forgot to check the pre boil volume which is about a gallon and a half more than my kettle can hold, and my mash tun only can hold 10 gallons and it calls for more as well. It would be a pain to calculate and weigh all my ingredients again as I've already prepped my stuff. I changed my maximum mash volume on brewfather and it told me to "top off" the extra water at the start of the boil. Can I just boil the wort and slowly add more spring water as it evaporates?

 

[NathanYearout]

I suppose I could also do two kettles and put one on the stove.

 

[RM-MN]

I'm new to all grain. I'm about to make my first batch of beer and bought everything I needed. I knew the recipe brewed about 6 gallons of beer but I completely forgot to check the pre boil volume which is about a gallon and a half more than my kettle can hold, and my mash tun only can hold 10 gallons and it calls for more as well. It would be a pain to calculate and weigh all my ingredients again as I've already prepped my stuff. I changed my maximum mash volume on brewfather and it told me to "top off" the extra water at the start of the boil. Can I just boil the wort and slowly add more spring water as it evaporates?

Simple answer, yes. More involved answer, You will be making a more concentrated wort so you can dilute it whenever you have room in the kettle. It will be similar to making the batch with extract where you add top-off water at the end of the boil.

 

[PCABrewing]

... my mash tun only can hold 10 gallons and it calls for more as well.

Just curious, what do you mean by that?
I have made a lot of 6.5 gallon batches into the fermenter using a 10 gal. kettle and 10 gal. mash tun.
A small kettle can be worked around and a 10 gal. mash tun will hold a lot of grain.

 

[NathanYearout]

Simple answer, yes. More involved answer, You will be making a more concentrated wort so you can dilute it whenever you have room in the kettle. It will be similar to making the batch with extract where you add top-off water at the end of the boil.

That would be fine, I might as well just bite the bullet and reweight everything though to get a more accurate result. Oh well.

 

[wetmk]

A small kettle can be worked around and a 10 gal. mash tun will hold a lot of grain.

This^
How small is your kettle?
How many pounds in your recipe?

 

[IslandLizard]

You don't need to mash with the full volume of water. You could lower your mash water volume and include a small batch sparge,. This will also increase your mash/lauter efficiency (somewhat).

Then either add the reclaimed wort from the sparge to the kettle as it boils off, or boil separately in a 2nd pot on the stove or so, and combine during the boil or at the end.

 

[Bobby_M]

It sounds like you may have brewfather setup as a no sparge process. You wouldn't want to top off your boil with water, just sparge until you've collected the right about of preboil wort, even if a gallon or two of that wort can't fit in the kettle right away. Hold the excess in a bucket and slowly feed it back into the boil as you gain space. You can also just boil that down in a smaller pot on the stove if you want.

Like mentioned before, paste your whole recipe and equipment profile for maximum guidance from this group.

 

[NathanYearout]

It sounds like you may have brewfather setup as a no sparge process. You wouldn't want to top off your boil with water, just sparge until you've collected the right about of preboil wort, even if a gallon or two of that wort can't fit in the kettle right away. Hold the excess in a bucket and slowly feed it back into the boil as you gain space. You can also just boil that down in a smaller pot on the stove if you want.

Like mentioned before, paste your whole recipe and equipment profile for maximum guidance from this group.

Thanks for the advice. I'm doing the Sierra Nevada pale ale clone on Brewfather as it was the best reviewed. I ended up doing no sparge, I just reweighed my ingredients and scaled it down. It's probably better I did though because my fermenter was pretty full. Ended up turning out well with proper OG and smells really good too.

 

[ike8228]

Thanks for the advice. I'm doing the Sierra Nevada pale ale clone on Brewfather as it was the best reviewed. I ended up doing no sparge, I just reweighed my ingredients and scaled it down. It's probably better I did though because my fermenter was pretty full. Ended up turning out well with proper OG and smells really good too.

I’m confused. You did no sparge on an all grain? And yet your fermenter is full? If I understand you scaled down to fit the fermenter, did you only mash around 6-6.5 gal and bring to a boil and transfer? If you don’t sparge you leave a lot of good malt/wort behind. The sparge is to rinse that out, then boil to your desired volume. I am not sure how you got your target OG without doing this method. Clarify?

 

[NathanYearout]

I’m confused. You did no sparge on an all grain? And yet your fermenter is full? If I understand you scaled down to fit the fermenter, did you only mash around 6-6.5 gal and bring to a boil and transfer? If you don’t sparge you leave a lot of good malt/wort behind. The sparge is to rinse that out, then boil to your desired volume. I am not sure how you got your target OG without doing this method. Clarify?

I had about 8.71 gallons of water in my mash and about 7 - 7.5 ish in my boil. Ended up boiling it down to 6 I believe. I included my hops in my fermenter and it's close to full. If I had not scaled down the recipe the boil would've had to be a lot longer. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[LostHopper]

Extra large blow off tube on fermenter?

 

[ike8228]

I had about 8.71 gallons of water in my mash and about 7 - 7.5 ish in my boil. Ended up boiling it down to 6 I believe. I included my hops in my fermenter and it's close to full. If I had not scaled down the recipe the boil would've had to be a lot longer. Sorry for the confusion.

But you said you didn’t sparge?

 

[NathanYearout]

Extra large blow off tube on fermenter?

Blowoff tube on fermenter, surprisingly there's no activity through the tube though. Signs of fermentation are active and hydrometer shows there's fermentation.

 

[NathanYearout]

But you said you didn’t sparge?

Right, I didn't sparge. All water was put in my 10 gallon mash tun then immediately boiled.

 

[Ninoid]

Add water at the end, and if that significantly reduces your ABV, add a little simple sugar.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

You can top off your all-grain batch just like people do with extract. Either adding slowly during the boil or right after flame-out. I wouldn't wait too long after flame-out to do it though because then you can't use the heat to sterilize the top-off water.