help with high gravity beer small kettle BIAB

[jdonley]

Would like to take a shot at brewing an Old Ale and other HG brews but only have just under a 8 gallon kettle and I brew in a bag. I have some old "Ale Pale" buckets and was wondering if I could just do my normal mash, transfer 1st wort into an Ale Pale, do a new 2nd mash and just boil that down while continuously adding the 1st mash until I get to the volume I usually add my bittering hops. Would this work? How could I project my gravity?

 

[kevinlassen]

What ratio are you doing for your mash? 1.25qt/1pound grain?

 

[sgwink]

If your technique doesn't work, you could always add some malt extract (DME/LME)

 

[jdonley]

What ratio are you doing for your mash? 1.25qt/1pound grain?

I usually mash pretty thin 2-2.25 quarts/lb of grain

If your technique doesn't work, you could always add some malt extract (DME/LME)

I know, I was just hoping to save some $$ and keep it AG

 

[Smellyglove]

That should work. With higher OG brews the extract efficiency suffers due to higher grain to water ratio. If you mash several times, you're using more water, and will extract more sugars from the grains. Then you can do an extended boil to get your volume right, and just see where you'll end up OG-wise. You can mash with a thickness of 2.5 to 1 (water - grains), and just drain and do it over until the wort starts to taste thin (or getting low readings, like 1.015ish) or astringent, and just boil it down. Go for it.

 

[kevinlassen]

I go 1.25-1 then sparge to 7-7.5 then boil to 6-6.5

What I used to use in the apartment was :

Mash in a boil kettle, then pour into a 5 gallon bucket )I drilled with holes) that was inside my bottling bucket
Have my sparge water that I have heating up on the stove in a bunch of pots and slowly pour it over the grains to get to my pre boil yield

Then I would pour the beer back into the kettle and boil it.

Always worked for me.