Doubling capacity by dilution

[mattvincent24]

hey guys,

Since moving home to NL i've been having trouble keeping up with my thirsty friends and family so i've been thinking of ways of increasing the amount of beer I'm making without brewing more often. I'm contemplating brewing a low gravity bitter by first brewing a high gravity beer and diluting it 50/50 with water post boil. I know doing concentrated boils is pretty common, but does anyone see a problem with diluting the wort by half? I figure if i double my grain bill of my original bitter recipe and add a few extra hops to offset the lower utilization i should be fine. thoughts/experiences? also, does anyone know if beer alchemy automatically adjusts for hop utilization based on OG?


matt

[gm-]

I've done it multiple times with bitters, APAs, and even bigger beers like winter warmers, you can set it up in Beersmith pretty easily. Not sure if beersmith adjusts for hop utilization on the higher O.G, but I've always just added 5-10 extra IBUs to play it safe.

[bluenose]

hey guys,

Since moving home to NL i've been having trouble keeping up with my thirsty friends and family so i've been thinking of ways of increasing the amount of beer I'm making without brewing more often. I'm contemplating brewing a low gravity bitter by first brewing a high gravity beer and diluting it 50/50 with water post boil. I know doing concentrated boils is pretty common, but does anyone see a problem with diluting the wort by half? I figure if i double my grain bill of my original bitter recipe and add a few extra hops to offset the lower utilization i should be fine. thoughts/experiences? also, does anyone know if beer alchemy automatically adjusts for hop utilization based on OG?


matt

I like the way you think

[NASH]

If you dilute wort by more than ~ 30% or so you'll get into less than desirable wort composition which leads to less than desirable beer composition. Chemical reactions, Maillard reaction, break, water chem, PH, yeast function, enzymes, shelf-life, stability, everything becomes skewed. Sure you can dilute it a hell of a lot more if you want, it certainly won't be the same as you've been making but if you're happy (or happy enough) with it that's all that counts. Professionally speaking, going beyond that point is big a no-no otherwise we'd all be doing it. That'd be the shit.

[mattvincent24]

If you dilute wort by more than ~ 30% or so you'll get into less than desirable wort composition which leads to less than desirable beer composition. Chemical reactions, Maillard reaction, break, water chem, PH, yeast function, enzymes, shelf-life, stability, everything becomes skewed. Sure you can dilute it a hell of a lot more if you want, it certainly won't be the same as you've been making but if you're happy (or happy enough) with it that's all that counts. Professionally speaking, going beyond that point is big a no-no otherwise we'd all be doing it. That'd be the shit.

Now this is more or less what i was expecting to hear. Perhaps ill try diluting my 10 gal batch to a 15 gal instead of 20 gal. But this does make be curious as to how extract brewers do a super concentrated boil and still manage to make decent and sometimes award winning beers.

[NASH]

If you dilute wort by more than ~ 30% or so you'll get into less than desirable wort composition which leads to less than desirable beer composition. Chemical reactions, Maillard reaction, break, water chem, PH, yeast function, enzymes, shelf-life, stability, everything becomes skewed. Sure you can dilute it a hell of a lot more if you want, it certainly won't be the same as you've been making but if you're happy (or happy enough) with it that's all that counts. Professionally speaking, going beyond that point is big a no-no otherwise we'd all be doing it. That'd be the shit.

Now this is more or less what i was expecting to hear. Perhaps ill try diluting my 10 gal batch to a 15 gal instead of 20 gal. But this does make be curious as to how extract brewers do a super concentrated boil and still manage to make decent and sometimes award winning beers.

Seems you may be taking that out of context somewhat. First, extract isn't made at high gravity, it's made as normal wort then dehydrated. Hopped kits etc have all been fully boiled as well, actually, I think it's all been boiled but I might be wrong.

Also, cutting with water doesn't mean it'll make bad beer. It won't be the same, and it will not have the stability or other 'targeted' properties of 'the' beer you've been making without dilution.

[mattvincent24]

I totally get what your saying, and the beer turning out different from what i expect is my primary concern. But back to extract vs all grain dilution, if a extract brewer makes a 1.090 wort and dilutes to 1.045 how is that different than an all grain brewer doing the same? I would have to assume its no different, just not ideal in either case?

[bluenose]

I believe Nash has already spoken

[NASH]

I totally get what your saying, and the beer turning out different from what i expect is my primary concern. But back to extract vs all grain dilution, if a extract brewer makes a 1.090 wort and dilutes to 1.045 how is that different than an all grain brewer doing the same? I would have to assume its no different, just not ideal in either case?

Well yeah, boil chemistry would be the same. Extract brews can be great but generally speaking they are better with full volume boils. I know when I when I graduated from concentrated extract boils to full volume boils my beer suddenly got a fuck of a lot better!

[NASH]

I believe Nash has already spoken

[gm-]

Oh, I should add to my comment that I have never doubled my capacity, I've usually brewed around 7 gallons which is my max capacity in my small kettle to make 10 gallons. I have done comparisons between my cream ale brewed that way and the regular way and I failed a double blind test, so I guess around 30% is fine.

[mattvincent24]

I have done comparisons between my cream ale brewed that way and the regular way and I failed a double blind test, so I guess around 30% is fine.

good to know thanks!