Too much grain - how to brew

[rod1916]

I have a recipe I am dying to brew (http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/201...outs-part-1-bourbon-county-done/#.VBRI-Id0x84). The problem is that I don't have enough space to mash all of the grain at one time. I have the Blichmann Breweasy (7.5g top and 10g bottom), but I also have my old igloo cooler system still sitting around.

The options as I see it are:

1) brew two separate times with half the water and combine at boil or fermenter.
2) run the full amount of water through two separate sets of grain.
3) use my old igloo cooler system (it doesn't work as well as the Blichmann, but does have enough space for all that grain)

Anyone have any thoughts on which would be better or if there is a third option I am not thinking about? My brew kettle is big enough, I just need to figure out the best way to deal with the grain.

thanks!

rod.

 

[ericbw]

Reduce the recipe size?

 

[rod1916]

Reduce the recipe size?

I could, just hoping there is a way to get 5g out of it instead of 2.5 or 3. Although such a strong beer may find less than 5g is OK. Or I could split and have two kegs of 2.5 each, I suppose.

 

[Hello]

Can you do it in a way so you get a super concentrated wort and you top off like you would if you uses extract and partial boils?

 

[JayDubWill]

I have a recipe I am dying to brew (http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/201...outs-part-1-bourbon-county-done/#.VBRI-Id0x84). The problem is that I don't have enough space to mash all of the grain at one time. I have the Blichmann Breweasy (7.5g top and 10g bottom), but I also have my old igloo cooler system still sitting around.

The options as I see it are:

1) brew two separate times with half the water and combine at boil or fermenter.
2) run the full amount of water through two separate sets of grain.
3) use my old igloo cooler system (it doesn't work as well as the Blichmann, but does have enough space for all that grain)

Anyone have any thoughts on which would be better or if there is a third option I am not thinking about? My brew kettle is big enough, I just need to figure out the best way to deal with the grain.

thanks!

rod.

When you say your igloo doesn't work as well as the blichmann, do you mean you get significantly less efficiency or is it a huge increase in the amount of work it takes? Other than these two extremes I think sacrificing a little efficiency or a little more work would justify the time saved by mashing all your grains at once. Option 2 doesn't sound like something I would try, but thats just me.

 

[Tombstone0]

I could, just hoping there is a way to get 5g out of it instead of 2.5 or 3. Although such a strong beer may find less than 5g is OK. Or I could split and have two kegs of 2.5 each, I suppose.

I used to split my mashes when I was using a 5 gallon igloo mash tun and wanted to make a 5gallon batch bigger than 1.060. I would use the igloo for half and biab for the other half simultaneously. It worked fine.

 

[psymonkey]

I have a recipe I am dying to brew (http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/201...outs-part-1-bourbon-county-done/#.VBRI-Id0x84). The problem is that I don't have enough space to mash all of the grain at one time. I have the Blichmann Breweasy (7.5g top and 10g bottom), but I also have my old igloo cooler system still sitting around.

The options as I see it are:

1) brew two separate times with half the water and combine at boil or fermenter.
2) run the full amount of water through two separate sets of grain.
3) use my old igloo cooler system (it doesn't work as well as the Blichmann, but does have enough space for all that grain)

Anyone have any thoughts on which would be better or if there is a third option I am not thinking about? My brew kettle is big enough, I just need to figure out the best way to deal with the grain.

thanks!

rod.

Hi Rod - you could always substitute some DME for some of the grain since it's largely domestic 2-row.

Out of curiosity, I'm seriously thinking about a breweasy. Have you regretted the 7.5/10G setup? Obviously this beer is a major exception with its HUGE grain bill, but what about the other more normal beers? Have you had issues with the MT not being large enough for normal 1.040-1.080-ish?

I still feel like their 5G setup should have been 10/15G vessels.

 

[tootal]

We make a 10 gallon Imperial stout that won't fit in our half barrel system so we mash roughly 60 percent of the base malt at 148 degrees and sparge it till we fill 60 percent of our kettle and start boiling. We then dump that grain and refill with the rest of the malts and mash at 158 and sparge that into the kettle to get to our usual starting point in the kettle for 10 gallons. We then restart the boil and boil for our usual 90 minutes. Takes a little more time but it seems to work well.