biab-10 gallon batches?

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jonstewartstwin

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I've made a half dozen 5 gallon batches...extract and partial mash...5 gallons just ain't enuf... i'd like to switch over to biab, and make 10 gallon batches... how large a brewpot do i need? 44q? 60q? i want plenty of room... thx!
 
You need one bigger than that. i would think somewhere around 90qt or so pot would be what you would need. You need a 40 qt pot to do a 5.5 gallon batch.......

Remember BIAB is all the water and grain in the pot at the same time which takes up a whole bunch of space.

You would also need a really strong bag to hold the weightof the grain and water after the mash, and a pulley to get it out.
 
I just did my first biab last weekend and it was a 10 gallon batch with around 25lbs of grain. I have a 60 qt kettle and it worked great. However u might have to add a little water after the mash if you can't fit all the grain in there. I had to drain a little out when putting my grain in at the start but I ended up where I needed to be
 
I've made a half dozen 5 gallon batches...extract and partial mash...5 gallons just ain't enuf... i'd like to switch over to biab, and make 10 gallon batches... how large a brewpot do i need? 44q? 60q? i want plenty of room... thx!

Do you already have a 7-8 gallon pot? If so you could sparge in it and add that water to a 12-15 gallon pot for a 10 gallon batch.

This calculator should help you decide. Plug in the different size pots and grain bills and it gives you strike water amounts that the pot will hold with the grain. You can use a smaller pot or bucket to sparge and pour that additional wort into the bigger pot for boil volume.

http://up.jamesnweber.com/_brew/biabcalcs.html
 
I just did my first biab last weekend and it was a 10 gallon batch with around 25lbs of grain. I have a 60 qt kettle and it worked great. However u might have to add a little water after the mash if you can't fit all the grain in there. I had to drain a little out when putting my grain in at the start but I ended up where I needed to be

60 q is about 15 gallons... so after i pull the grains out, sparge until i get up to 10 gallons? i'm sure i won't be able to fit 25lb of grain AND 10 gallons of water at once, right? (i'll check out that calculator too...)
 
ps, does your 60q kettle have a valve, or do you siphon to ur fermenter? if you have a valve, did you buy it, or install it? if bought, what brand? thanks so much!
 
I've got a1/2" ball valve from bargainfittings.com with a dip tube. Great business btw.

Yes you can fit 10 gallons and that much grain in a15 gallon pot but you have to account for grain absorption. I think I had around 13 gallons when I added the grain and it was a little too much. So I drained some and added the right amount later to account for the boil off.
 
Yes you can fit 10 gallons and that much grain in a15 gallon pot but you have to account for grain absorption. I think I had around 13 gallons when I added the grain and it was a little too much. So I drained some and added the right amount later to account for the boil off.

That's why a two pot process is good if you already have a smaller pot. Any volume you lose to grain absorption you can make up with the higher temp sparge volume. Its a good idea to mash close to the max volume of your pot. Otherwise you have more air space between the grain and the lid and it will not hold temp as well. You don't want too big of a pot or you will need to insulate it.

My process is something like this doing 5 gallon batches in a 7.5 gallon pot:

1. Start with 5.5 gallons of water
2. Mash grain for 60 minutes at temp
3. turn on heat, stir like crazy and bring it up to 170 for 10 minutes
4. Pull bag and put it in 2 gallons of 175 degree water for 10 minutes.
5 squeeze bag and dump that into brew pot.
6. that usually gives me about 6.5 gallons for the boil
7. leave grain draining in the smaller pot and use those runnings to make up for evaporation during the boil
8. This gives me around 52 12 oz beers on bottling day
 
Standard BIAB from my understanding, you need 2x the final boil amount.

for 5 gal batch, u need 10 gallon pot (i use 2x 5 gallon pots)

for 10 gal batch, u need 20 gallon pot.

There are methods to reduce that size using "maxi-biab", but 2x is the standard.
 
70L pots work really well for 10 galon batches. No need for a sparge, and worst case you just top up a little to your preboil volume.

They work well for single batches too, where as much larger doesnt
 
I haven't made a 10 gallon batch yet, but my last brew had 18 lb of grain. There would be no problems using 25 lb like a poster mentioned with my setup, click on link below.

Are you planning on getting a bigger pot?
 
I do 10 gallon BIAB in a 15.5 gallon Keggle (62 qt), and do my 5 gallon batches in an 11 gallon kettle (44 qt).

My starting water volume on my 10 gallon Citra APA batch last weekend was 13.6 gallons for 20 lbs of grain, and everything fit just fine with a good bit of room to spare. 19 lbs of two row and 1 lb of honey malt displaced about 1.6 gallons, so I was up around 15.2 gallons (including the displacement) of the 15.5 during the mash, then back down to around 12.5 gallons pre-boil for around 10 gallons post boil.

That's about what you need for an average gravity batch (this APA ends around 5.6% ABV).

Hope all that helps!
 
I do 10 gallon BIAB in a 15.5 gallon Keggle (62 qt), and do my 5 gallon batches in an 11 gallon kettle (44 qt).

My starting water volume on my 10 gallon Citra APA batch last weekend was 13.6 gallons for 20 lbs of grain, and everything fit just fine with a good bit of room to spare. 19 lbs of two row and 1 lb of honey malt displaced about 1.6 gallons, so I was up around 15.2 gallons (including the displacement) of the 15.5 during the mash, then back down to around 12.5 gallons pre-boil for around 10 gallons post boil.

That's about what you need for an average gravity batch (this APA ends around 5.6% ABV).

Hope all that helps!

Do you use any sort of pulley system to get your grain bag, or do you just beast mode it?

I'm thinking of doing a 7.5 gal BIAB to break in my new equipment so that I can split off 2.5 gal and ferment it with a different yeast. My pot would be 15.5 gal size, so I know I'd have plenty of room, just wondering what I'll be getting myself into as far as how much of a PITA it is to lift all that.
 
I pulled the bag myself, but I didn't suspend it to drain.

My smaller 11 gallon kettle is one of those Bayou Classic kettles that has a removable perferated basket, so I pulled the grain bag out of the 15.5 gallon keggle and put it straight into the perferated basket that was in my 11 gallon kettle. I then took a lid from a kitchen pot and applied pressure to the top of the grain bag so the wort drained through the perferated basket and into the 3" of space in the bottom of the 11 gallon kettle. Then just poured back into the keggle.

So you might have to get a little creative, but there are easy ways to get the desired result!
 
I did a 22 pound grain bill on a 10 gallon batch in my keggle. Worked fine although I did scoop out some of the grain and put it in a separate bag to make it easier to drain and squeeze.
 
For a 10 gallon BIAB, a 20 Gallon pot would be ideal IMO. Oh and while a pulley system looks kind of neat, a simple hook in the cieling, and rope wrapped around the hook will allow you to pull and hold the bag fairly easily.
 
If you are looking for a super well made bag that will hold more wet grains than you can fit in it look no further than the previous poster! I bought a bag from him for my first 10 gallon batch in my keggle (19.6 lb grain bill). It was a tight fit for the water but, everything fit with no problems. My boil off was a little more than expected and I had to top off an extra gallon.
 
Hey Smokewater....do you start with 5.5 gallons of water in what size pot? How quickly does the absorption from grains occur if you add them slowly and stir? Say about 12 pounds.

I did a 6 gallon batch in my 5.5-6 gallon turkey fryer biab. I sparged the grains and drained after the mash and had around 5.5 gallons. I added about 1 gallon to the mash due to the absorption. I also added about 1/2 gallon to the fermenter to bring to 6 gallons. Not sure if that will water it down??? I will see in about 2 weeks.
 
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