mychalg9

Recipes 

I currently have a 7.5 gallon pot that I've used for both extract kits I've made. It seems like the BIAB method is the easiest, cheapest way to make the transition to AG, so I'm thinking all I really need is another pot. What size should I get for 5 gal batches?

david_42

Recipes 

The pot you have will work just fine. I made many batches in a 30 qt pot before making a cooler-based mash tun. For sparge water, 20 quarts will be plenty.

__________________
Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"

mychalg9

Recipes 

Oh ok thanks. I had viewed one of the tutorials and they used two pots, one for mash, and one for sparging. Basically dunked the bag into the sparge after draining into the mash. Thats what I had in mind when I asked about the second pot, because it seemed like you would be combnining the two pots into one and wasn't sure if the 7.5 gal was big enough for that. How do I sparge with just one pot?

Chips

Recipes 

7.5 Gallons might be a tad small for the Aussia BIAB (one pot) method.

I use a 42Quart (10.5 Gallons?) for a standard 6 US Gallon batch, and have only 2 or 3 inches of headspace by the time you get the preboil volume + grains in there.

I picked up the pot & burner for under $100 at walmart and it works great!

mychalg9

Recipes 

"I picked up the pot & burner for under $100 at walmart and it works great"

Great thanks!

jaginger

Recipes 

Don't want to dispute what others have said b/c they are correct; a 10-gallon or so will make your life easier for a 6-gallon BIAB. That said, I have done one with my 32-qt. I did this:

1. Heat mash water in 32-qt pot. Mash in a bag.

2. During mash, heat sparge water in several pots on the stove and dump into a bucket (i used a bottling bucket)

3. Pull out grain bag and sparge in the bucket (not quite the Aussie method, true)

4. Dump bucket contents into 32-qt pot with the 1st runnings

5. I had about 7 gallons collected when i started the boil, so it WAS very full. But with Fermcap you should be able to avoid boilover.

So it is possible with what you have. Easier with a bigger pot though.

bnmir

Recipes 

What about a minimash? How much grain vs extract could I comfortably do with a 32qt pot and a 10qt pot?

slowbie

Recipes 

This calculator will help you determine how big of a pot you need for a given mash.

bnmir

Recipes 

Hmm, so at 1.25qt/lb, i could mash approx 6lbs of grain in the 10qt pot, and use the larger 32qt pot for the sparge, then remove the grain, combine the liquid and boil, adding extract.
If i went with a stiffer mash (like 1qt/lb) would that work? (I assume at a lower efficiency).

HarkinBanks

Recipes 

I would not go less than 1.25 qt/lb, it will be too thick. I just did a small batch BIAB last night with a little over 7 lbs of grain (big beer 1.096) and something I would note to you is that the grain bag gets really heavy when draining, even with 7 lbs. I used a large cookie rack to put over my BK to let it drain during my boil and it worked well.

__________________
Primary:
Secondary: Berliner Weisse
Conditioning:
Drinking: Belgian Wit, Dry Stout, Levitation
On Deck: Pliny the Elder>Ordinary Bitter Partigle

Proud member of the CB20 club
Final Int-E-gration 120v (CB20 HERMS Batch or BIAB)