So I'm thinking of doing a 100% heavy peated single malt wash and as I want the filthiest smokiness possible I would like to ferment on the grain.
My grain bill will be 12.5kg Baird's Heavy Peated with 38l strike water.
I would like to end up with 40l in the boiler and as there will be 12.5kg of grain in the fermenter does that mean I need to fill the fermenter up to 52.5l to take into account for grain absobtion?
My keggles are 50l and I can only really mash to about 38l in total before things get too messy so with 12.5 kg of grain remaining that means that once I chuck it in the fermenter I can only rack off 25.5l into my still boiler.
If i wanted to aim for an OG of 1.072 would I mash for longer until my OG is sky high and then dilute it down with water to get a total of 52l in my fermenter? If so how can I work out what gravity to aim for before topping up to 52.5l?
Should I reduce some strike water to reach a higher gravity and then dilute it?
What's are my options guys?