Looking for help doing my first AG via BIAB with a SMaSH recipe in a 30 qt pot

Hi guys,

I'm ready to make the jump from extract to AG using my current set-up, which is a plain 'ol 30 qt turkey fryer pot and burner. I'd like to do a no-sparge BIAB and use a simple recipe for the first few beers, mainly so I can focus on technique and process until I get the hang of things.

I've heard varying opinions about whether I can do a full 5 gallon batch with my 30 qt pot, or whether I'll need to scale back to 3 gallon small batches. So, my question is two fold:

1. Can anyone recommend a tasty, simple brown ale SMaSH recipe that would work well with BIAB?

2. Do you think I get a full 5 gallon batch with my pot, or should I focus on 3 gallon brews until I save up enough for a 40+ quart pot?

Thanks!

Woops. I meant to put this in the "Beginners Beer Brewing Forum". Sorry!

1. I don't really have any experience here so I can't help you. sorry

2. If your grain bill is, say, 10 pounds and you mash at 1.2 qts/lb and sparge at 1.9 qts/lb, you may collect after grain absorption between 6.5 and 7 gallons of wort. that's mighty close to the top and the chances of a boil over are pretty significant. you may be able to sparge with less water though... just depends on your boil-off rate. If you sparge with too little water you run the risk of having a low extraction efficiency.

bjork24 said:

Hi guys,

I'm ready to make the jump from extract to AG using my current set-up, which is a plain 'ol 30 qt turkey fryer pot and burner. I'd like to do a no-sparge BIAB and use a simple recipe for the first few beers, mainly so I can focus on technique and process until I get the hang of things.

I've heard varying opinions about whether I can do a full 5 gallon batch with my 30 qt pot, or whether I'll need to scale back to 3 gallon small batches. So, my question is two fold:

1. Can anyone recommend a tasty, simple brown ale SMaSH recipe that would work well with BIAB?

2. Do you think I get a full 5 gallon batch with my pot, or should I focus on 3 gallon brews until I save up enough for a 40+ quart pot?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I don't have any good ideas for #1 because I am pretty new to AG as well, but I might be able to help some with #2.

First, were you planning on using the BIAB No-sparge method outlined in the Sticky thread on homebrewtalk? Because that is what I used the first time, and I believe it recommended using 7.5 gallons at the start, and not adding anymore water ever. If this is what you are planning, I don't think a 30qt pot will be big enough since 30qt=7.5g, leaving no room for grain.

You could use a simple batch/dunk-sparge though and probably still get a full 5g into your fermenter. You could probably find a more math-based method to figure your main volume and sparge volume, but I bet if you start with 5.5g in the main (165-170 strike temp) and then have a 2nd smaller pot with 2 gallons at 170-175 it would work. Just do the BIAB mash like you would with a 7.5g no-sparge, only after your 60min mash pull the grain-bag out and move it over to your smaller pot with the 2 gallons of water. Let it soak there for 5-10 minutes, pull out the bag, squeeze the bag through a colander with a lid, pour the smaller pot into the larger pot.

That should give you about 6-6.5g of pre-boil volume, and after boiling and transferring, should give approx. 5g of wort for fermentation.

To me it would be totally worth it to keep the batches at a nice 5g size, since that seems to be the standard for comparing recipes, and may make it easier when comparing your setup to others when asking questions. Standardization has its advantages. Although if you don't have a 2nd pot that is large enough...that may make it all moot.

Oh, also as far as the risk of a boil-over for approx. 6.5g in a 7.5g pot, I actually don't think it is that great. The odds of a boil over go down dramatically when you are doing a full volume boil. The ratio of "stuff" to water is just much lower.

You would still want to keep an eye on it, but I wouldn't let it stop you from trying.

A smash recipe is single malt and single hop. A brown ale is going to need a base grain like 2 row and some specialty malts ( chocolate, crystal,...). If you want to do a smash then try a pale ale or light ale that uses all 2 row and a single hop. If you want to do a brown ale find a recipe that is well known ( google Janet's Brown for a good hoppy American Brown).

Thanks for the notes, everyone. I think doing a second dunk sparge is the way to go, but I'm not sure if I have a pot big enough for two additional gallons of hot water, plus the grain. If I'm going to need to buy another pot, I'd rather just go ahead and upgrade to a 40 quart now...

Always something new to buy with this hobby.