Russian Imperial Stout-max brew for 66 Litre mash-tun?

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kitoog

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Going be doing a Russian Imperial Stout in the near future and was wondering what max brew length I could get out my Coleman Xtreme 66L cooler? A 34L batch needs 16kg of grain and a mash volume of 40 litres for example Going to be using batch sparging method. The top up is -3 litres :D for batch #1 and 20 litre for batch # 2. Do you think I can increase the brew length? Should I drop efficiency to about 60% compared to my usual 75%. Might even bottle it in 330ml bottles as 500ml is probably too much :)
 
Rather than maximise your brew length, reduce it to something sensible and concentrate on getting the best quality wort. 65% is a good figure for higher gravity worts as well.
My Imperial Stout Brewday is here, which might help you . . . The tun is 50L and I had to do three batch sparges ;)
 
Was think about sparging three times too. Should I do three sparges anyway as possibly I will get a better efficiency from getting more sugars? I will have to get me a proper big spoon for mixing the grains in, my plastic paddle bends too much even for normal brews. :D
 
The issue with doing three sparges is that if you oversparge, you end up with a lot of wort to evaporate off during the boil to get to your target OG . . . This was my problem I should have boiled for another 30-45 minutes to get the gravity up to 1.105 rather than the paltry 1.096 :roll:
 
Do you have to worry about caremlisation when boiling a high gravity wort for 3 hours say?

Can you use the different batches for another beer? Like they do with big IPAs? Say Batch 1 becomes your Imperial Stout (with high gravity runnings not needing reducing) and Batches 2 and 3, rather than having to be boiled for ever become a different less alcoholic beer?
 
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