5 gallons just wont do anymore. Its just not enough. Im looking to invest a little, keg setups so I can say to hell with bottling, large fementing buckets or a demi john. The problem is I only have a 9 gallon brew kettle and even though Im looking to spend money on these other things I would hate to have to buy an expensive new brew kettle when the one I have has barely seen 15 brews days. I have always done full boils so Im not sure how a partial boil really differs. Im thinking of just doing a 6 gallon or so concentrated boil and adding the rest of the water like you would a normal partial boil. Is this just what everybody does when they start making more beer? How diffrent is my beer gonna taste? Seems like a cheesy way to go hense the reason when I started I went all out and got a real brew kettle...
Must have more beer!
- Thread starter dhoyt
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It will be different. But maybe the best approach is to get your other things and try a batch, see for yourself. And then, if you want to get a larger pot, you can. Plus keep your 9 gallon pot, it will definitely come in useful for something later - a hot liqour tank, a mash tun, an extra pot for transferring wort, stove top pasteurizing of sparkling cider, who knows what nutty stuff you'll end up doing 
sportscrazed2
Well-Known Member
why not brew more 5 gallon batches so you have more variety of beer to drink?
It wont be any different then now Ill just have more volume. It will take about the same amount of time and Ill have twice as much... Guess I dont know what you mean??? I have or will have the means to store all the beer so why not make more? Ill still have 5 different types or more but ill have double the amount. Sounds fantastic to me!!!
I have done this before and you don't need a demijohn. Just split your cooled wort into two fermenters and top each up to 5 gallons. You can pitch different yeasts if you want. I did this with a Belgian and American Pale Ale. BTW, Kegs are AWESOME!!!
Did you do a full boil or just top the fermentors off?
I have a 9 gallon stainless kettle that I usually do full boils in (6 gallons concentrated down to 5 gallon batch). When I do a double batch I can boil more if I want up to about 7.5 gallons but the only time I did it I just boiled my standard 6 gallons. I was using a recipe that was designed for a partial boil so I didn't have to adjust my hop rate. I chilled with my CFC into my 7.9 gallon bucket. The graduations on the side let me know what volume I had collected. I then racked half into one of my 6 gallon carboys and topped both fermenters up to 5 gallons and pitched two different yeasts. Both beers were excellent.
I've done 10 gallon partial mashes in my 7 gallon pot. When I started all grain I still had 12 pounds of LME. I used it up with my first 10 gallon batches. Now that I use a 15 gallon pot I could easily do 20+ gallon batches with extract.
