Splitting between 2 pots?

[Agate]

Hello folks:

First time posting in this forum, so I apologize if this has been asked dozens of times. I'm getting back into brewing beer after a 10-year break, and looking for some feedback as to whether this is a stupid idea.

Rather than doing a partial boil with extract, I'm thinking about doing a full boil split between a 5- and 10-gallon pot. Small pot would get half the water, the steeping grains, half the extract, and the flavoring/aroma hops. This one would only boil for 10 or 15 minutes at most, and would start cooling immediately.

Larger pot would start heating the other half of the water at the same time. Assuming temp was OK, grains would get rinsed in larger pot, and then remaining extract and bittering hops would go in for full hour-long boil.

Once this one was done, the pre-cooled pot would get strained into the larger pot, and then the whole batch would start cooling to room temperature.

I'm hoping this would compress the time required to heat and cool a 5 gallon batch and not caramelize the sugars too much.

Thoughts? Bad idea?

 

[jbaysurfer]

It could work, but boil off rate for different sized pots (especially on different burners) is kind of tricky to get your head around. So final volume may be an issue. Just make sure you 100% understand your boil off rates.
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I do something similar when I want to make a double batch as I only have 10G kettles for my MT and bk. My HLT is 8G. So when I'm doing my last draining of the MT (batch sparger here) I empty it into my HLT while the rest is in my BK. I split the hops just like you do and reblend the worts back into the fermenter when it's all done. The only other trick is cooling two vessels, but seems like you'll reblend them back into one vessel for that so it may not be a problem for you.
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My best suggestion is to do a water only dry run and make sure you can hit your volumes before you invest all those ingredients into a batch. Not doing this "could" lead you to missing on volume and/or gravity.

 

[Yooper]

That could work, but I'd be more inclined to split the batch up proportionately, and do a 60 minute boil total so that the IBUs are correct. It'd be tough to get the IBUs and bittering balanced well in a smaller volume boil, and then mixing it with wort without the hops.

I'd split up the batch 1/2 and 1/2, or 2/3 and 1/3, and divide the ingredients among them.

I used to do that when I first started brewing, and didn't have a big enough pot. I just split it between two pots. The only thing to keep in mind is you have double the boil off so you want to start with more wort.

 

[grem135]

If you have a 10 gallon pot then why split a 5 gallon patch?
To avoid caramelizing your extract try late or flame out extract additions and make sure flame is off for any extract addition. Also a full boil will change the hop profile since you get better hop utilization with more liquid. Use a program like beersmith to recalculate hop amounts. My first full boil extract was a cream ale and I did not change the hop amounts.. turned out bitter and was not a well balanced beer. lots was used for cooking.

 

[JR_Brewer]

It will be beer!

Yes it should work, but as you've heard there are some things to consider, boil off rate, hops utilization rate, etc. If you're trying to follow a specific recipe (especially a clone), I think you're unlikely to match it. However, if you're just brewing up a basic beer of your own creation, go for it. That's the beauty of homebrewing, you have ultimate freedom in your process.

Try it out and see if it's worth the time you save bringing water up to temperature. Let us know how much time you save and what modifications you end up making. Good luck!

 

[twistr25]

If you have a 10 gallon pot then why split a 5 gallon patch?
To avoid caramelizing your extract try late or flame out extract additions and make sure flame is off for any extract addition. Also a full boil will change the hop profile since you get better hop utilization with more liquid. Use a program like beersmith to recalculate hop amounts. My first full boil extract was a cream ale and I did not change the hop amounts.. turned out bitter and was not a well balanced beer. lots was used for cooking.

Sounded like he was trying to be more efficient in heating and cooling the full amount by splitting it. Though I agree just to do it all if you have the means, part of the process

 

[Agate]

Thanks for the help you all... My main concern was trying to find a way to cool it as quickly as possible. I don't have a wort chiller and don't want to try to sneak one into my supplies at the moment, if you know what I mean. I could make it as one large batch and cool it in the sink, but I have three small kids running around and my safest bet would be to let it chill outside in the -10F weather. The two pots would definitely cool faster than one large batch, especially if I blended the pre-chilled one with the other.

This is probably a tough question to answer, but what do you all think would be better, to make one large batch and cool slowly, or to split it and cool quickly?

I'm trying to make a wheat beer kind-of like Oberon, but it's not a big deal to me if it's not all that close. I would like to maintain a light color, hence the limited boiling on the one part. That's only cosmetic, so no big deal if it doesn't turn out. It's mostly as an experiment with hopefully beer as an end result. I've been cultivating some yeast from a few bottles over the last week or so. I have to say, growing the yeast has to be one of the more satisfying things I've done as far as brewing goes!

 

[twistr25]

I'd say there are pros and cons to both. But you won't know how the split method works until you try. FWIW, I have left my wort overnight to cool and pitching the next morning.

Add all of your LME at flameout. That will help to reduce the darkening of the wort.

 

[Agate]

So just boil the hops in pure water? Does it affect the hops to not have any sugar present?

I'm using DME... What's the minimum boiling I will need to get hot break?

 

[Yooper]

So just boil the hops in pure water? Does it affect the hops to not have any sugar present?

I'm using DME... What's the minimum boiling I will need to get hot break?

No, not just pure water. You want some sugars from the wort, so normally I'd use 1 pound of extract (more or less, not an exact amount) per gallon of liquid boiled. So, for a 3 gallon boil, I"d use 3 pounds of extract. I'd add the rest at flame out. If you're doing a partial mash, that's probably sufficient.

You get hops utilization in plain water, but people who have done it claim it makes a "harsher" bitterness. I'm sure there would be science behind that, but I haven't looked into it.

 

[Agate]

No, not just pure water. You want some sugars from the wort, so normally I'd use 1 pound of extract (more or less, not an exact amount) per gallon of liquid boiled. So, for a 3 gallon boil, I"d use 3 pounds of extract. I'd add the rest at flame out. If you're doing a partial mash, that's probably sufficient. You get hops utilization in plain water, but people who have done it claim it makes a "harsher" bitterness. I'm sure there would be science behind that, but I haven't looked into it.

Sounds good, I'm going to give that a try. I don't mind experimenting, but I made my share of lousy beer back in college and I don't think it'll be as easy to dispose of it now as it was then. Thanks eh!

 

[Agate]

Here it is at 12 hours... Seems to be infected with yeast or something. Looks a little dark, but maybe it's appropriate for making it on the solstice.

 

[grem135]

Looks normal

 

[Agate]

Just to close this out, it worked fine. At the same time, it ended up being a stupid f'ing idea. In the amount of work to monitor two pots with various additions and what not, I could have made two separate batches and not had to clean up anything else.

Since this batch, I got around to getting an IC, a blichmann floor burner to replace my turkey frier (honest, it's REALLY for making maple syrup and not beer...), and about to start all grain. (That cooler works great for storing sap...)

I think she'll see right through it when I put it all together. But I have to try.