Limiting the OG of your brews?

[Phil_L]

Does anyone cap the strength of their beers, so much as to say "I am not brewing beers over 6%.... to much like hard work!"
The reason that I ask this, is that the last two big beers, (8%+) have been a friggen chore - they do push the limits of my gear, something of a scratch built sabco type system.

I can knock out 4-6% brews, like shelling peas - but the big'uns take a toll on my gear - any tips as to how I can reduce this load?

[Nate Diggler]

If you're set up to do at least 10g batches, do parti-gyles. That way you can get a big beer and a smaller beer from the same moderate strength recipe. I mash in a 70qt cooler, and I've done a bunch of 10 gallon two way splits, and 2 x 15 gallon three way splits so far.

Strong Ale / IRA
Tripel / Saison
Big Kentucky Common / Small Kentucky Common
Strong Bitter / Ordinary Bitter
Doppelbock / Oktoberfest / Munich Dunkel (sparging through crushed Carafa Special sprinkled on top of mash for last run off)
Imperial Stout / Oatmeal Stout / Mild Stout (Dark Mild?)

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?s=a3bd26551ab14b0c287c4715dae6ab03&showtopic=62046&pid=718622&st=0&#entry718622
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.2/mosher.html

I have found that these splits are closer to what I get on my system than the numbers from Randy Mosher:

[Bugeater]

I don't find doing a big beer a chore at all. I do lots of big beers (wee heavy, barleywine, old ale, belgian strong, etc.) and I find them no more a chore than a 5-6% beer. I do boil them an extra 30-60 minutes and it takes another 3 minutes to mill the extra grain. Sounds like you need to change your process and make some relatively minor changes to your equipment.

I batch sparge in a 52 quart rectangular cooler and boil in a 10 gallon pot. If you are using a smaller pot than that, you will indeed have issues with boiling enough wort. Also if you are using one of those cylindrical drink coolers you will be filling it to the brim and it will be the devil to try to stir.

By switching to a rectangular cooler you can do a thinner mash (around 1.5-1.7 qt/lb) which will be much easier to stir. This will be due to the thinner mash as well as having a shallower grain bed. Theoretically a fly sparge is more efficient. In actual practice, a batch sparge will give you the same or better results 95% of the time. On top of that, you will save over an hour of time on brew day by doing a batch sparge.

Lot's of folks here do batch sparging and will be glad to answer any questions about it. You should probably start by checking out Denny Conn's page at http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ .

I hope this will get you started in figuring out the problem.

Wayne

[Phil_L]

Thanks guys.

Partigyle shoud be a way forward. The kit is based on the sabco thing: I have a 15.5gal US Keg as my kettle, and the others are standard European 11gal kegs. I like to get two 25lt brews going at a time, and the parti gyle idea could fit the bill perfectly - I have a bunch of cornies...