squirt in the turns wrote:I'll have to work out how much wort I can safely boil in my 40 L urn. Maybe I'll stick a ball valve on my old 19 L stockpot and do a split boil.
I use a 40 litre aluminium stock pot for my kettle. I regularly boil 32 litres in mine, and end up with about 25 litres into the fermenter.
I reckon at a pinch I could probably boil 35 litres, but you'd have to watch it like a hawk when it's getting close to the boil. However, turning down the heat as soon as you reach the boil, and using a spray bottle with cold water to spray the froth on top of the boil will all help to prevent boil overs.
I'll be brewing a Mild in the next few days. The test tube of WY1968 I'd saved in the fridge since Jan this year has fired in a ½ litre, and I built it up with a further 3 litres yesterday, and its humming along.
I use 2/3 LDME and 1/3 Coopers Dextrose for my starters to a gravity of around 1.040. Why that mix? Well, to my understanding, LDME wort is mashed high, and is basically designed to be used along with the proverbial kilo of sugar to give a proper balance of fermentables. LDME on its own is not as fermentable as our average AG wort, so by using this mix, I more closely approach the type of wort the yeast will have to work in for the full batch.