I have a 5 gallon kettle that was great for extract, but is not effecient for AG. My question is can I collect wort into 2 kettles and divide my hops for the boil?
I know I need to upgrade my boil kettle, but $$ are low and I am brewing a batch of beer for a friend as a gift. The occassion is 6 weeks away and I need to get it going now.
Yes, you can divide the wort, boil (and scale the hops to the individual volumes), and then combine in one fermenter.
Sweet! Have you ever had to do this? Noticed any difference? I’m brewing an ESB.
Are you planning to mix all the wort up before boiling? I would think that would be better than boiling the first and second runnings differently
Never split wort and combined again, but have split wort for seperate beers (partigyle). As long as you have the same OG in each kettle and scale the hops, you’ll be making the same beer in each kettle.
I use a half barrel keg to boil. I will boil 14 gal in the keg and collect another 2-3 gals and boil on the stove. Around halfway into the boil when there is enough room. I add the extra into the kettle.
You could do basically the same. You might want to mix the wort back and forth somewhere in the middle and put it all in the same kettle at the end.
The OP has a 5 gal kettle, so there would never be enough room.
You could do what is called high gravity brewing, where you make a stronger wort like you’d do with extract and then add water after boiling. I suppose it might hurt efficiency somewhat since you are using less water, but it does work.
I do this for all mine as I never upgraded my extract kettle. I cut every thing in half and do two half batches for 5 gallons.
Occasionally, I’ll just make a half batch if it’s a new brew and I’m on the fence as to whether or not I’m going to like it.
edit: I’m not actually “splitting” the wort, just making two half batches. I get approx 3.3.5 gallons of wort (preboil) and finish with approx 2.5-2.75 post boil for each half batch.
cheers.
