Converting to partial boil/ working with an undersized kettle

Brewing Processes
1

I have, for various reasons, been unable to obtain a proper brew kettle and have only a 2 gallon stock pot. For that reason, I can really only do a 1.5 gallon boil and then dilute to the full 5 gal. My question is, do I scale down my malt addition accordingly, and add only 1/3 of the malt at the beginning of the boil, then the additional 2/3 at the end (I would do it at 10 minutes to make sure it all dissolves)?

Any advice on how to work with such a small boil but still get a full beer? My last beers have been thin and I speculate that adding all the malt at 60 in a partial boil may have something to do with it. Or maybe not. Ideas?

Thanks as always for the collective wisdom!

PS - I am making a robust porter, so I will steep my grains in 1 gal first, then add .5 gal water, boil, add malt.

2

You are on the right track! That will work quite well.

3

A two gallon pot is tough. Adding some extract later will help. My only other suggestion would be to brew smaller batches.  The biggest concern would be too much caramelization, though. If you think they are comming out too thin then I’d say you have room to experiment.

4

I am doing smaller batches and I like it.  I have a five gallon pot but it’s not enough for a full boil for a five gallon batch with a wort chiller.  So I switched to 3.5 gallon batches and it works great.  I get to brew more often that way too, which is a good thing