new pot pics and questions

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spam

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this is a 20 gallon SS pot. I used some old junk I had to fashion a makeshift valve and strainer. I would like to try my hand at all-grain brewing. I also have a 5 gallon SS stock pot.

What would work to insulate this(mash tun) ??

Does this look like it would work?

From what I understand I will need to have about 7.5 gallons of mashing water ,then some of that water will be absorbed and boiled off leaving me with 5 gallons of wort ??

brew pics 001.jpg


brew pics 002.jpg
 
1) Clean that pot! It looks absolutely filthy. You may even need to sand it.
2) Do a search for BIAB, or read the sticky at the top of this AG forum. You can do AG brewing with just that pot without insulating anything. You'll need to spend about $3.00 to get some paint strainer bags and you are good to go.

Good luck!
 
1. Of course I will clean it lol
2. Why not use the pot as a mash tun? How would the mesh bag help maintain temp.?
3. I do not mind the brew in a bag thing (tried it once) ,,but thought this would be better,,no?
 
Ok guys after more reading I now see the error of my ways. It seems I have one pot that is way to big and one that is way to small for all grain unless I use a huge bag inside the 20 gallon pot and purchase a lid and wort chiller for the big pot :(

Guess I will save a few bucks and purchase a 7-8 gallon turkey fry pot and basket,,then BIAB?
 
You can BIAB in the 20 gallon pot, you just need to buy/make a bag big enough to drape it. A full volume BIAB for a 5 gallon batch is typically around 7 gallons, so there would be plenty of water to cover the grain bed as long as you are careful to keep the grain bag off the bottom of the pot when you have the burner on. A little hastle, but very doable.

You could also very easily do partial volume BIAB by mashing in the 5 gallon pot with like 3-3.5 gallons of water, then use your other pot to dunk sparge your BIAB at mashout with the remaining 3.5-4 gallons of water, combine the wort from the 5 gallon pot into the 20 gallon pot wort, then boil in the 20 gallon pot.

You have all you need besides the BIAB bag. It would be more convienient with a 10-11 gallon pot (7-8 isn't quite big enough), but you can easily pull it off with what you have. Just decide which way you want to go!
 
If you want to try a brew with what you have on hand, you could do a mash in your 20 gal pot, drain the wort to a bucket, clean out the pot and then boil in the same pot. Not the easiest or fastest method, but can be done, just a little extra effort. Your manifold would likely clog after the boil w/ hops and trub, so I would either remove it for the boil or siphon out of the brew pot.

A large pot like that is ideal for BIAB FWIW.

You can simply wrap the pot w/ blankets to insulate.
 
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