Part grain advice

[Libigage]

Hi, I have a 1.2kg pouch of lme plenty of grain, hops and yeast. I have an 11 litre stove top pot. Is there a way I can do a 20 to 23 litre brew? I normally do all grain in my brewzilla but I want to try something different, any advice please

 

[jof]

If you want to go stove top, then I would use a max of 1kg base malt in a pot that size.
So you will get a faitly low abv if you go for 20-23l end volume. Without calculating I would guess no more than 3%.

Back when I did partial grain, I would use 2 * 1kg bags of DME for a similar 21l batch.

Just try experimenting. I would be tempted to go for say 15l of wort with your extract & partial grain & see what OG you get.
Or if you must go to 20l, look at adding soft dark brown sugar to make up the shortfall. (Based on my preferred bitter/ale preferences. If you like hazy hop water you're on your own)

 

[clib]

I disagree with jof. Sorry jof. I have done many partial mash beers and you can certainly mash and boil more than 1kg grain in an 11 litre pot. And create a 20+ litre brew.

2kg pale malt plus 1.2kg lme will get you to about 1.040 for a 21 litre brew. You could go up to 2.5kg I reckon, at a push. You can always split the boil and use another pan for part of the wort.

Mash in about 8 litres of water. Sparge a bit so you can top up the boil. Use enough bittering hops for 21 litres you may need more than you think as utilisation of alpha acids may not be good. But I have tended to taste the beer after fermentation and boiled a hop tea to add bitterness if required.

I steep aroma hops after the boil. Then transfer to FV, mix your lme into it, and top up with cold water.

 

[jof]

You might be correct clib.
You could go to a thick porrige mash.
My comments were based on my past boil over events using 2kg malt in a 15l stockpot, so I erred on the side of caution.
1.5kg malt + another 300g of crystal/choc malt would push the limit of what I would try with 11l capacity.

Also depends on if you sparge (like I do) or just go for a single pass biab, so you may need a backup saucepan to split the boil if your post sparge wort volume is more than say 8l so you have head space in the pan for the boil

 

[Sandimas]

I've got a 15L stockpot and can mash about 2.8kg grain max, after the boil I add 1kg DME and this can give me 20L of a 1040ish beer or 17L of a 1050ish beer.

This was initally a stepping-stone to full-grain brews but it works for me and I've stuck with it for 9 years, it's a fun way of brewing! Use Brewers Friend or another recipe builder to size your recipe to include the DME.

 

[Libigage]

So this is what I did yesterday, thanks for the advice
I did 2kg MO extra pale ale malt and 300g carapils, mashed in 8 litres at 66°C for 60 mins. Had trouble holding 66 ,went up to 69 at one stage. Sparged in another pot with 5 litres at 77 ish °C. Got 10.5 litres in the pot and boiled for 60 mins adding 5g nectaron and 5g vic secret at 15mins (protofloc) 10 mins and 5 mins. Then whirlpooled 30g each of nectaron and vic secret for 20 mins. Ended up with 9 litres in the fermenter. Added 1.2kg of lme and topped up to 21 litres. Made one big mistake and knocked the sieve into the fermenter when adding the wort. Hopefully not contaminating it when fishing it out but probably adding a bit of hop debris. OG 1045 ,Verdant ipa yeast, hop boost from dark rock that comes with their kits which I forgot to add on a previous kit and britewort. Fermenting nicely at 20°C, going to dry hop with 55g of vic secret and 40g of nectaron. All I know is its going to be beer.