Half Batch Questions

[eandersen]

For the past 6 months or so my living situation has not allowed me to brew....this will FINALLY be changing in the next two weeks or so. I plan on getting a few extract batches under my belt to get back into the swing of things, measure boil off rates on the new stove, etc. then get an all grain setup going.
You may have noticed that I said STOVE, so likely at least for the winter I will be limited to 2.5/3 gallon batches. I plan on essentially doing this just like a full 5 gallon batch but I'm sure there are issues that I am overlooking. Can I use a 10 gallon cooler for a mash tun to allow for future larger batches? Will I run into efficiency issues with a scaled down recipe?

Basically I'm asking for anything that I may not have thought of when doing a smaller than 5 gallon batch that could cause me trouble, so that I don't have any surprises on the first AG day.

Thanks

 

[C-Rider]

I guess as long as you can soak all the grain in water it's ok. Only problem I can see is fermenting in to big a container. Perhaps to much head space.

 

[FRS]

Headspace is not usually an issue in primary; the yeast make plenty of CO2 to displace the O2 from even a fairly large area.

For stove top all grain I would look into brew in a bag before I would buy and convert a cooler. I used to do 3 gal batches on the stove in a 5 gal pot (up to about 11 lb of grain) with no problem.

 

[eandersen]

Headspace is not usually an issue in primary; the yeast make plenty of CO2 to displace the O2 from even a fairly large area. For stove top all grain I would look into brew in a bag before I would buy and convert a cooler. I used to do 3 gal batches on the stove in a 5 gal pot (up to about 11 lb of grain) with no problem.

I've considered brew in a bag but I always worry about maintaining mash temp. Should this not be a concern?

 

[FRS]

I used to preheat the oven to 'warm'(about 160-170 for my oven) , shut it off, then stick the pot and mash inside. I didn't have any trouble maintaining mash temps this way.

 

[hophop]

I've mashed 3 gallon batches in my 10 gallon cooler with no problems. You will loose about 3 degrees during the mash as opposed to about 1 degree drop for a 5.5 gallon batch.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

I used to preheat the oven to 'warm'(about 160-170 for my oven) , shut it off, then stick the pot and mash inside. I didn't have any trouble maintaining mash temps this way.

^^^^^ this. I heat my oven to 170 while my strike water is heating. Turn it off just as I put it in and never even lose a degree during the mass. I generally also take it out and stir every 20 minutes.

 

[eandersen]

Awesome, never thought of that. Looks like I'll be giving brew in a bag a try...maybe even before the extract batches considering the lack of required equipment.