I am doing 11 gallons tomorrow and with 26.5 lbs of grain, I need 15.1 gallons of water (my post is only 15 gallons). Since that won’t work and I really don’t want to mash with a lot less water (which I’m still thinking about) I thought I’d use 2 pots to mash in and then mix the 2 to the proper, pre-boil levels to boil. However, that opens up other possible problems like getting the exact amounts of water in each pot.
So, do you think it’s better to mash in with less water at first, mash for the full amount then add some 170 degree in after the bag is pulled or do 1 big mash and 1 smaller mash and mix the two? Or do you have another suggestion?
Since I’ve already crushed/mixed the grains, it’s too late to reduce the total amount…should have thought about that first huh?
You could mash with 10 gallons about 1.5qts per pound, and then put the bag in your other pot with the other 5 gallons for a sparge bath, then add your 2 pots.
A bit of double work, but not a bad plan otherwise. I vote a trip to Home Depot and Walmart to build a cooler tun. I would get the ~70 qt. Will do about 32 pounds for me at an average thickness.
Sounds like you are more than a little bit over what the kettle can fit. But, if I’m just a little bit over i usually just supplement with DME to get those few extra points. I’ve also heard some people dunk the grain bag into pre-heated water for a pseudo sparge. 90% of the beer is cool side anyhow…but maybe I’m just lazy
let me start out by saying that I think Denny is right here. build a mashtun.
but you could also do a double mash!
mash with half your grain, pull the bag, squeeze as appropriate. Empty the bag and put the other half of the grain in. raise the temp of your wort to strike temp and add the second bag of grain for another mash.
I would pull the bag set it in a colander or on some rods spanning across the top of the pot and rinse with 170 degree water. i still haven’t gone the 3 vessel route i like the simplicity and less to clean up. However I have only been brewing for 6 months so take my opinion with that in mind.
My opinion is that splitting the mash is just making things more complicated than they need to be. Like others have said here, when you hit the limits of your equipment and techniques, it is simplest to develop new equipment or techniques.
You could build a larger mash tun and do a more traditional mash/lauter.
You could get a bigger BIAB kettle & bag and continue a full-volume single vessel mash.
You could use your current system and do some kind of modified sparge after you remove your grains to rinse the grains to get the pre-boil volume you need.
You could modify your recipe to do a smaller batch.
Decisions, decisions! One of the things I love about home brewing is the challenge of solving problems like this!
