punching above my mash tun's weight?...

[bigdave]

After the success that is my Suburban Stout, I've decided to brew a pumped up version with an estimated target abv of 8+% (cleverly code named Suburban Stout MK2). Im happy with the recipe but the grain bill will weigh in at over 9.5kg and I know from the last brew that filled the mash tun to the brim (6.8kg), I cant mash that amount of grain in my 30ltr mash tun! Is it feasible to consider splitting the grain bill into 2x 4.75kg mashes? perhaps one over night and the other on the brew day? If so, would it be better to mix the various grains together before splitting or one all pale mash and another with the remainder of the pale malt and the speciality malts?

 

[phettebs]

How close does your full mashtun get you to your target OG? If it's close, you could supplement the remainder with DME to reach your OG. I've done that in the past and it has worked well.

 

[Mark1964]

sounds like the best idea not sure if you would hit target sg by splitting into two seperate mashes

 

[markp]

Perhaps a mixure of DME/LME and some brown sugar?
The sugar addition will help you get the OG and reach a better FG (in my opinion for a stout).

ATB

 

[bigdave]

A solution that has been suggested is to mash at a ratio of 2:1 which will just about fill the tun and then do 2 batch sparges to collect the required liquor.

 

[prolix]

A shorter brew length would also work and be less hassle.

 

[evanvine]

It should fit for a 23ltr length + 5 ltrs of ullage!
For many years I mashed 3.86kg in a 10ltr mash tun for 23ltrs at 4.8%.