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william_shakes_beer · 07-15-2011, 07:30 PM

Presently I do partial boils exract and steeping grains. What is the max grain bill I could expect to do in my 7.5 gallon brew pot? I'm thinking of easing into AG and would like to select a first recipie....

cfonnes · 07-15-2011, 07:34 PM

The size of the grain bill is limited by the size of your mash tun.

I use a round 10 gallon cooler. I have not pushed it to the limit yet, but I would imagine that I would be lucky to get 20 lbs in to it along with mash water.

**jww9618** · 07-15-2011, 07:34 PM

The max grain bill isn't decided by how big your brew pot is, rather how big your mash tun is.

cfonnes · 07-15-2011, 07:37 PM

A 7.5 gallon brew pot is kind of small for all grain, if you expect to lose a gallon due to evaporation for an hour boil. You would have very little top room to prevent a boil over during hot break.

william_shakes_beer · 07-15-2011, 07:37 PM

Sorry, I was planning on starting with brew in a bag, pop the grains into a paint strainer and "mash" on the stove in my brew pot.

**jww9618** · 07-15-2011, 07:47 PM

You might want to test the full boil on the stove method before you try a batch. Most stoves won't come close to boiling the 7+ gallons you need for a 5 gallon batch. My 3 year old stove could barely bring 3 gallons to a boil.

BryceL · 07-15-2011, 07:57 PM

If you are mashing in your kettle then you could do up to about 16# if you use 1.25 qt/lb. I have the same size pot and am moving into AG also. My plan is to mash (BIAB) in my kettle then drain my wort into a bucket to hold it. Then fill my kettle with sparge water, heat and rinse my grains. I can then dump the wort from my bucket back into my kettle and continue. As others mentioned, you may want to see if your stove is able to handle a full boil. If not, you could always do small AG batches. Here is a calculator that I use for mash volumes.

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

**shawnbou** · 07-15-2011, 07:59 PM

Bobby_M on this site has done an analysis of the grain bill / OG you can brew in various mash tun sizes here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/ But that's for the more traditional cooler MLT AG method.

I realize we're talking about BIAB here, but it would make sense to me that if you can make an average (OG 1.059) beer in a 5-gallon cooler, you could conceivably do it in a 7.5-gallon kettle. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm just guessing ... the mechanics of the BIAB lauter/sparge process are completely foreign to me.

@william_shakes_beer: If you can't do AG, you may consider moving to a partial mash just as a stepping stone for now. It does give you a lot more control than even extract + steeping.

**jww9618** · 07-15-2011, 08:23 PM

If you use 1.25 qts/lb you can fit 19 lbs in a 7.5 gallon kettle. At least that's what Beersmith says.

After the mash you will have about 5.125 gallons of wort. You can then sparge up to your preboil volume.

BryceL · 07-15-2011, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jww9618

If you use 1.25 qts/lb you can fit 19 lbs in a 7.5 gallon kettle. At least that's what Beersmith says.

After the mash you will have about 5.125 gallons of wort. You can then sparge up to your preboil volume.

That would bring you right to 7.5 gallons. He's going to need some room to stir the mash...could get messy if you go with 19#.