Size issue

[fdemt84]

So I am going to be doing my first AG in a couple weeks, But my problem lays with my equipement and wanting to do a 10gal batch. I have a 7.5 gal pot, I will have a 10 gal cooler for my mash, and I have a 1 gal stock pot. I can probably come up with another pot up to 3.5 gals. I would like to do a 10 gal AG batch a few beers I really like, but can I do them like I do my Partial Mash and add water at the end of the boil in the fermentors to bring the wort up to 10 gal? Or do I just have to stick to 5 gal batches until I can get the bigger equipement needed?

Thanks

 

[hamiltont]

You can but your mash efficiency may suffer & if it's a hoppy beer your hop extraction will suffer as well. Sounds like you really need a bigger pot. Cheers!!!

 

[cheezydemon3]

You could do it in 2 halves.

 

[nebben]

I concur on the two halves part. Just know that unless you can physically mix up the ~12-13 gallons (pre-boil volume) of wort extracted from the mashtun, you will have a strong first beer and a less strong/session second beer. If you want 10 gallons of finished product of one kind of beer, definitely make each split-boil batch (6.5ish first, 6.5ish second) the same gravity.

 

[phished880]

I have similar equipment here is what do. I use a concentrated boil method. I take beersmith and figure out how much extra hops I need to get my target ibu's and the post boil I transfer my wort to a marked bucket and the siphon off 1/2 of the wort to a Carboy and top both off. So far when I've been making 10g it has been session beers. The last batch was a brown ale 1/2 fermented with wlp007 and dry hopped the other with wlp500 and then Oaked with rum soaked oak.
I realize this method is not optimal but for me it has allowed me to
1. Have more beer on hand, and not take too much time away from my young baby
2. Experiment
3. Keep the brewing equipment costs down.