Hey everyone,
So far I have only been making 5 gallon batches (or less) when doing all grain brews. I just purchased a new kettle, and decided to get a 15 gallon kettle so I can move to 10 gallon batches in the future.
Problem is, on one of my favorite beers to brew, I know I can’t continue to use my current cooler mash tun for 10 gallons. I have been looking around for bigger tuns, but they’re super expensive (understandable). I was thinking… What about using two separate mash tuns? That would require splitting the grain, which would obviously not be 2 identical grain bills inside. Not sure if I can then combine the wort from both into one pot? Or could the two different wort makeups result in weird mixture in the kettle?
You certainly can do separate mashes. The other thing you can do is just mash the base grains and steep the specialty
Ok yea that was my concern. If I am making a stout, and the majority of the specialty made it into tun #1, while the other tun had majority of the base, it would obviously look weird because one tun would be lighter and one would be darker. Wasn’t sure if there were compounds and flavors that only appear when mashed all together, and mixing them in the kettle would not taste the same.
2 Tuns and the outputs to a Tee where the single out put, of the combined Tuns, goes into a single grant (Vorlauf pitcher) so you can recirc/set the grain bed… or just let it drain into yer boil kettle(BK)… Give each one half the grain bill…
Sneezles61
But what if the grain bill is not split evenly? Would that result in something weird?
No… they are both dumping into one kettle… You could split if you decided NOT to use a Tee… Even use just one, should the grainbill allow…
If you will… Each Tun would have a “barbed” fitting for 1/2" tubing which has a short section of tubing going to a Tee… if held horizontal, would have a barbed at each end, for each tun…The output end, which would be vertical, and pointing down, would have a valve fitting so you could adjust volume or stop… Then at the output of the valve would be another barbed fitting, which tubing of a desired length would be attached… Adjust-a-Tun!!
Sneezles61
makes no difference as long as you mash at the same approximate temperatures. Ive done it with a brew bag in the kettle and one in the tun ive also mashed back to back but obviously that doubles your mash time.
Sounds like the HLT has the potential…
Sneezles61
Conversion is conversion. I would try to split the grist as evenly as I could but I wouldn’t stress too much. Another way to save space is your grist:water ratio. Heck as long as you ferment it together you’ll get it all to mix.
1 Like
