Split Mash for my BIAB Barleywine

[Gunslinger711]

I was looking at doing a 2.5 gal BIAB Smash Barleywine. Adapted from another BIAB smash barleywine on the forums here I get the following recipe:

12 lbs Marris Otter
2 oz. EKG (60 Min)
3 oz. EKG (5 min)

Safale US-05 Yeast

60 min boil

My problem: I only have 5 gallon brew pots (not looking to upgrade soon) so I need to split this up.

BeerSmith gives me a pre-boil volume of 3.88 gal which I'll probably bump up 4 since my efficiency won't be great. So is the split mash as easy as it seems? Split the pre-boil @ 2 gallons a piece, split the malt 6 lbs a piece, split the hops in half, then combine everything post boil?

I've done some googling around and haven't come with too many answers besides A) get a bigger pot, which I'm not going to do at this time B) Add extract in which would make the recipe more expensive than it is right now

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Gunslinger711]

Also, another fear I have is not being able to keep a steady steep temp. Beersmith says steep this at 156, the first time I used propane I managed to keep within a 10-15 degree range, how precise do you have to be with the temperature?

 

[klindeman]

You could split the mash, but then combine before you start boiling. You could also mash as much as possible, then sparse until you get the required pre-boil volume. That's what I do for 2.5 gal batches in my 5 gal pot. I just mash around 3.75 gal with 6.5 pounds grain, then squeeze the heck out of grains until I get all the liquid out when the mash is done, then sparge till I get 3.75 gal again (I have 1 gal/ hour boil off)

 

[klindeman]

Also for the mash temp, I preheat my oven to its lowest (170) then put the pot in there with the top on after I put the grains in and get to my mash temp. I turn the oven off before I put it in. It just barely fits on the bottom shelf.

 

[mb82]

What about some kind of a sparge. You could put some room temp water into a fermenting bucket and dunk sparge the bag for 10 minutes then add that water to the mash water and boil. I have a second pot that I do this in but a spare foodsafe bucket would work just fine. I sparge at cooler temps and get the same efficiency as a hot water sparge... and squeezing the bejesus out of the bag afterwords is much more enjoyable when the grains are somewhere closer to body them then lava.

You need to be much more accurate then 10-15 deg. Personally I wrap my kettle in 2 moving blankets and in an hour I lose less then 1 deg F.

 

[elkshadow]

So it sounds like you're mashing and boiling in these two 5 gallon pots. You could definitely do it the way you're thinking of.

I know you said you're not upgrading but you could buy a 5 gallon cooler and a toilet braid for about 30 bucks. I make 3 gallon batches and I've mashed 11 pounds easily in my 5 gallon round cooler. You could probably mash a little over 12 without overflowing it. And you won't have to worry about keeping your temp right. 10-15 degrees is too much variance.

Also, read up on BWs. They are not like regular beers. Treat them with the respect they deserve. Don't just pick a recipe and make it. Really understand what Barley Wine is and how it behaves over time. It will tax your system at every step and you're struggling to figure out how to manage the very first step in the process. I'm not trying to discourage you or talk down to you. BW isn't something you just throw together. You should be thinking about up to a 5 year commitment to this.

Having said all that, they should be mashed a lot lower than 156, 148 to 152 is the range the pros are in. There is so much grain in them that they will be sweet no matter how fermentable your wort is. Also, you want the highest ABV possible so mash low.

The recipe looks good.

 

[Gunslinger711]

So I was reading about dunk sparging the other day and I know it's not the same but maybe its comparable. Mash 6 pounds of the grain like normal, and take the other 6 pounds, put that in my bottling bucket and pour sparge tempature water over it, then sparge until the volume is made up?

Is that a thing?

 

[Gunslinger711]

Or maybe I'll just skip the fanciness and find borrow another 5 gal brewpot then split the grain.