I have recently upgraded most of my equipment to allow 11 gallon batches. I have a double IPA that I scaled up from the original 6 gallon recipe. The problem I have is the strike water volume for this recipe is 15 gallons. I have no way to heat 15 gallons at one time (for now) I thought that perhaps i could split the strike water into two additions. What would be the best way to accomplish this? Should I split the strike volume in half for the initial infusion shoot for say 145ish, with the second addition bringing my final mash temp to 154? Or would it be better to go straight to 154 and use the second addition to maintain that temperature?
Second question, water adjustment, should I add all the minerals in one of the infusions, or split them among both?
Could you store then first batch of water in a cooler to keep it hot, then add after the second batch is heated?
I could do that, did not even occur to me…
Yeh, thats why I brought it up.
This is what happens when you try to overthink things, you miss the plainly obvious. Thank you.
One other consideration. Is the kettle you’re using for your strike water the same as the boil kettle for your wort? If so, it won’t be large enough for all of the pre-boil wort. Unless you split the boil volume.
I prefer to use my DigiBoil for strike water as temperature control is a bit easier. This is only 8 gallons.
My kettle can handle 14 gallons, which is just barely enough to fit this particular pre-boil volume.