I know this topic has likely come up before but it is new to me and I was hoping someone had some practical advice for me. I am doing 3 gallon brews to try as many beers as possible without ending up with an apartment full of beer. That being said, I do live in an apartment and it poses certain challenges to brewing beer. I am wondering if i can have two different 1 gallon boils going with the ingredients for the recipe split between them, and then combined them both with an extra gallon of water to reach 3 gallons. Has anyone split their brew like this or think this will work out?
Yes, you can split your batch between two brew kettles. And you can top off afterward just as with any partial boil batch. But you say "two different 1 gallon boils." You'll need to start with more than one gallon in each kettle if you plan to top off to 3 gallons by adding one gallon. i.e. you need to account for boil-off.
Why not just do your entire boil in one pot? I brew 5-6 gallon batches on my stovetop in a 10 gallon kettle... Doing 2-3 gallon should be nothing.
Good point. An apartment full of beer is not a bad thing. And thanks Vikeman this is the best news I have received all day!
What is the typical amount of time it takes for your boil to start? And are you able to return to a biol easily? I timed the amount of time from a start to boil with the crumy stove and it took 25 minutes with 2 gallons of water for a slow boil to start. I am mostly concerned with the electricity use.
It really depends on your heat source. If you are using an element stovetop, then it will take some time. The speed of returning to a boil will also depend on how low the temperature dropped in the meantime and the volume of the water.
I split my batches this way most of the time. I brew on a gas range pretty frequently. I have a 7 gallon kettle and a 5 gallon kettle. For a 5 gallon batch, I end up splitting about 7.5 gallons pre boil between them, with the larger kettle getting a little bit more than half the volume and going on the largest burner. I split my bittering hops among the two. With 15 min left in the boil, there has been enough boiloff that I can merge the two, which I do by hand, using a 1qt pot. Once merged, I add an immersion chiller, bring back to boil, add flavor aroma hops as the recipe demands, etc. When I first went all grain, I had a 2 gallon, 3 gallon, and 4 gallon pot and I split my boil 3-ways. On an electric studio apartment sized 3-burner stove. Took a long time to get to a boil. But the point is, if there is a will, there is a way.
Welcome to the BA site, Anthonie, and to the Homebrewing forum. Your question does come occasionally, so here is a link that I did to find some previous threads on this topic. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/31998831/?q=stove&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8
Thank you for the additional link. When I am able to brew outdoors I enjoy brewing a nice IPA, is splitting the brew into two smaller batches going to diminish the effectiveness of the bittering hops in any way? Would I continue to be able to do two 60 minute boils with less than 2 gallons of water in each kettle? I had read that t is better if hops are boiled in larger amounts of water, although it did not make sense to me that this was the case.
You read right that the less volume of liquid will make a difference in the bittering oils coming out of the hops. If you are brewing an extract recipe you can hold back on some of the malt until the last 15 minutes of the boil to have a thinner liquid in the pot, thus the hop oils can be utilized a little better (but still not as efficient as if you are boiling 5 gallons). I'll suggest adding 15% of the extract at the beginning of the boil and the rest at 15 minutes (watch out for boil over at these times). That's a work-around, but you don't have many options on a weak electric stove.
I split wort between stock pots to get to a boil quickly. I pour them all into my main kettle after I'm up to 211F. I add my hops and 1 big electric element is enough to continue the boil for 60 or 90 min.
First things first. How much liquid can the OP's stove bring to a boil with or without a lid? Once the stove's capacity has been determined ... only then can the other questions can be addressed. --- With all due respect to fellow BA home-boy brewers ... many responders don't brew 'small' batches in their kitchens. Caveat emptor.
You definitely can. I've done it before with success. Ideally, if you split all your ingredients 50/50, and then combine at the end, your finished product should be no different to if you did it all in one vessel.
