Big volume and small boiling

[GerritT]

So, I have been thinking: largest pot I have is about 6 liters, second largest is 5 liters. Most beer all-grain would be achieved by high-gravity steeping, mashing and boiling and diluting with an equal amount of (cold) water in the fermenter. Boil 5 liters of 1080 wort, end up with 10 liters of 1040-ish wort. How does hop handle in high-gravity wort? And stirring would become unpleasant, I assume.
Not eager to do it that way, but anyone might have positive experiences to share?

Another way would be, and this is getting interesting: steep a kilo of maris otter in 4 liters of water, after half an hour sparge etc, heat to the boil and start the hop schedule.
And after an hour, empty the pan in the bucket. Where already 17 liter cold water is waiting with 4 kilo of DME dissolved. Tadaa. Yeast away!
Results: 20 liters of beer, from my humble stovetop.
:grin:

Assuming everything is sanitised: is there anything that would not work? Does extract need to be boiled for better taste? I know grain needs it to get rid of unpleasantries, hence even boiling without the lid.

 

[Slid]

OK, so,

An AG addition is almost always going to give a beer a good lift.

4kg of DME is a huge amount in any beer - are you sure on this one?

Stove top AG beer is a great way to get your understanding of brewing on a firm platform. Nothing short of actually hand-balling a beer from start to finish really gets you to understand the finer points.

Just ask for better information at any time. :thumb:

 

[H0PM0NSTER]

This is how I brew - it's a sort of maxi-BIAB method. I have a 20ltr stove pot but struggle to get a good rolling boil on much more than 15ltrs with my electric hob, so normally brew with half the amount of base malt and the add DME at the end of the boil before transferring to the FV and topping up to full volume with extra water.

A recipe with 4kg of base malt can be reduced to 2kg with the addition of approx 1.5kg of malt extract. You obviously need to add any specialty malts in the full quantities of a recipe and increase the recommended hops quantities a little to allow for the concentrated wort. Otherwise, it works a treat and means you still get a full 23ltr batch for your efforts. The extra water needed for FV also helps reduce the wort temp which means less cooling time after the boil before it's ready to pitch the yeast.

 

[MyQul]

I'm also a maxi-biaber and have tried a few different things.

Tbh, the best solution would to buy a bigger pot. I use a 15L one from wilko (it's advertised as 12L but holds 15L to the rim) on my stove top

With the first option, you get lower hop utilisation in more concentrated wort. There are calculators to work it out but I found trial and error better.

What your proposing for the second option would work. It's a basic partial mash brew.

 

[MyQul]

This is how I brew - it's a sort of maxi-BIAB method. I have a 20ltr stove pot but struggle to get a good rolling boil on much more than 15ltrs with my electric hob, so normally brew with half the amount of base malt and the add DME at the end of the boil before transferring to the FV and topping up to full volume with extra water.

A recipe with 4kg of base malt can be reduced to 2kg with the addition of approx 1.5kg of malt extract. You obviously need to add any specialty malts in the full quantities of a recipe and increase the recommended hops quantities a little to allow for the concentrated wort. Otherwise, it works a treat and means you still get a full 23ltr batch for your efforts. The extra water needed for FV also helps reduce the wort temp which means less cooling time after the boil before it's ready to pitch the yeast.

From what I've read, the way to get around this is to boil longer. So you'd do a 90 min boil instead of a 60

 

[GerritT]

OK, so,

An AG addition is almost always going to give a beer a good lift.

4kg of DME is a huge amount in any beer - are you sure on this one?

<...>

Just ask for better information at any time. :thumb:

:thumb:
Just extrapolated this recipe a bit, and rounded off to the nearest kilo, in reality it would be gravity-wise identicallish to that recipe.

 

[GerritT]

I'm also a maxi-biaber and have tried a few different things.

Tbh, the best solution would to buy a bigger pot. I use a 15L one from wilko (it's advertised as 12L but holds 15L to the rim) on my stove top

With the first option, you get lower hop utilisation in more concentrated wort. There are calculators to work it out but I found trial and error better.

What your proposing for the second option would work. It's a basic partial mash brew.

Bigger pot is not an option sadly. And I've had too many brews that were sooo nice, but only had 4 liter, tops.

 

[H0PM0NSTER]

From what I've read, the way to get around this is to boil longer. So you'd do a 90 min boil instead of a 60

Thanks MyQul, that's something I hadn't thought of before.