Maine Homebrewer
Grandmaster Brewer
I mash in a brewbucket, the ones where the start of the lid/handle part is six gallons. It sits in a big insulated box.
Two more, one with a spigot and another with a million holes drilled into the bottom serve as my lauter tun.
I've got a sparge arm that I feed from another of these buckets.
The result ends up in a 8 gallon brewpot on a burner that came from a turkey fryer kit.
It is cooled with an immersion coil.
For a while I did 5 gallon batches and kegged it all. Lately I've been making six gallon batches, putting some in bottles and kegging the difference.
I came up with a bright (or hair-brained, but you don't know until you try, right?) idea that perhaps I could squeeze two five gallon batches out of the system.
I figured that the max dry crushed grain that will fit into my lauter tun without making a mess to be eighteen pounds. I use ten pounds base in a six gallon batch with starting gravity in the high forties. Eighteen pounds should be enough grain to make ten gallons with a starting gravity in the high thirties. Assuming I get similar efficiency.
My first idea was to boil whatever made it into the brewpot, split it between two buckets, then top it with previously boiled and chilled water.
My second idea was to boil whatever made it into the brewpot, continue to fly sparge, chill what was boiled and split it between buckets, boil runnings collected during the boil for ten minutes or so, cool split between buckets. That would add an hour or so, but an hour is a small price to pay for four gallons of beer.
I'm just wondering if anyone has tried anything similar.
In your opinion is this realistic or hair-brained?
Two more, one with a spigot and another with a million holes drilled into the bottom serve as my lauter tun.
I've got a sparge arm that I feed from another of these buckets.
The result ends up in a 8 gallon brewpot on a burner that came from a turkey fryer kit.
It is cooled with an immersion coil.
For a while I did 5 gallon batches and kegged it all. Lately I've been making six gallon batches, putting some in bottles and kegging the difference.
I came up with a bright (or hair-brained, but you don't know until you try, right?) idea that perhaps I could squeeze two five gallon batches out of the system.
I figured that the max dry crushed grain that will fit into my lauter tun without making a mess to be eighteen pounds. I use ten pounds base in a six gallon batch with starting gravity in the high forties. Eighteen pounds should be enough grain to make ten gallons with a starting gravity in the high thirties. Assuming I get similar efficiency.
My first idea was to boil whatever made it into the brewpot, split it between two buckets, then top it with previously boiled and chilled water.
My second idea was to boil whatever made it into the brewpot, continue to fly sparge, chill what was boiled and split it between buckets, boil runnings collected during the boil for ten minutes or so, cool split between buckets. That would add an hour or so, but an hour is a small price to pay for four gallons of beer.
I'm just wondering if anyone has tried anything similar.
In your opinion is this realistic or hair-brained?