Brew 5 Gallons All-Grain with a 5 Gallon Kettle?!? (Irish Red)

[@jaggersbrewingco]

Nice video! Lots of cool tips here, and the idea is awesome especially for the outsise all grain brewers on a rainy days!

[@justhomebrew]

There are a ton a great little tips in this video, nice work!

[@CascadesHomebrew]

Glad it was helpful!

[@markluxton3402]

I thought this would work! I have a nice 5 gal stock pot with a layered bottom. Got it for big canning projects. I would have done the sparg regardless. It pulled a lot more out of your grains.

[@ssadams]

I thought about trying this method as it's all the equipment I have. Thanks for the video! Cheers 😀 👍 🍻

[@CascadesHomebrew]

Good luck! Let me know how it turns out. It might take a few batches to dial in your efficiency and volume numbers. Brewing a 3-4 gallon batch and fermenting that in a 5-gallon keg has also worked out well for me in the past.

[@mooseunbehagen6320]

Great video! Alot of really good information especially on how to create and adjust the receipe in software. Thanks for showing this process!

[@ssadams]

nice video! I stick to 2.5-3.5 gal in my 5 gallon pot mainly because of the cost of electricity and the time it takes to get the water up to temp. Cheers 😀 👍 🍻

[@CascadesHomebrew]

What volume to you target into the fermenter?

[@clevelandmortician3887]

I started with this technique as a kid back in 1994, made some great beers even then

[@CascadesHomebrew]

Do you still follow a process like this? If so, what efficiency do you see for lower OG beers? How high of an OG can you go?

[@GREEENZO]

You’ve got a point on the US liking high-ABV beers. I saw a 8% Irish Red just the other day at a brewery restaurant I like to go to. Clearly not to style 😂 Great video by the way. Wonder if this could be scaled up to do 10 gallon batches in a 10 gallon kettle!

[@CascadesHomebrew]

Yeah, sometimes I get excited to see a Pale Ale listed on tap, but then wonder why it is 6.5%. Yeah, I think you could scale up to 10 gallons from a 10 gallon kettle. I am not positive what the maximum OG would be, but 1.050 or 1.055 seems in range.

[@indiekiduk]

Don't forget to add acid to the sparge water to prevent polyphenol/tannin astringency

[@CascadesHomebrew]

My understanding is that might be more of an issue when fly sparging, and not so much with a batch or dunk sparge. Also, based on my experience with my tap water, a grain bill like this one would have been fine without any acid adjustments. I think when I brewed this batch, my pH meter was out of commission waiting for a replacement probe, so I did not measure my pH.

[@xycooking634]

Great video! If someone wanted to do a high gravity or barley wine could this process still work by just adjusting the grain bill?

[@CascadesHomebrew]

I think it would be tough with all-grain to push above maybe 1.065 with a 2 gallon dilution. That would require creating 3.5 gals of wort after boil at 1.100 which would yield 5.5 gals at 1.064. As your raise the grain bill, you will start to take a hit in efficiency. Also, for high gravity beers it is common to use a long boil to boil off maybe 2 gallons. If I wanted to make a Imperial Stout or Barleywine on my stove, I would add extract to the boil to get the target gravity.

[@xycooking634]

@@CascadesHomebrew Wonderful! Thank you for the input. In lieu of extract could there be two mashes of half the required grain bill? If someone just had extra grain on hand and no extract?

[@CascadesHomebrew]

@@xycooking634 I have heard of "reiterated mashing" but it is not something I have tried. It might be a way to push up the gravity.

[@markluxton3402]

I watched again as I am not prepared to purchase an 8 to 10 gal pot. There is one thing I would have done differently. I would change the additional water to one gallon, from two. Then avoid the two squeezing steps by letting your bag drip for a few minutes, then gently pour your one gallon same temp water over the grain bag. Let it drip a few minutes. Maybe, give a bit of a squeeze if you must lol

[@CascadesHomebrew]

I suspect the dunk sparge like I did would get a little better efficiency, but I have not tried a pour over sparge. Adding some DME to the boil is likely the easiest way to squeeze out larger batches.

[@markluxton3402]

@@CascadesHomebrew I watched The Apartment Brewer do a batch BIAB and instead of lifting up the bag, he just opened the tap to a boil kettle. At this point one can easily sparge or even hold back some for a decoction. After all is drained the bag will be easy to lift out. I plan to either put a tap in my 5 gal pot or do this when I can get a bigger pot.