First BIAB - looking for advice...

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banks412

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I'm looking to try my first BIAB after successfully brewing about 5 extract batches as new homebrewer, and I noticed the recipe in Norther Brewer's catalog and website for an oatmeal cookie brown ale. It says this is a 3 gallon batch, but to start, you must have the capacity to start with 5.5 gallons of water. I only have a 4 gallon kettle, so do I need to upgrade my kettle size to attempt BIAB? I'd switch to a 5 gal extract recipe as I can boil about 3 to 3.5 gallons total and then just top off, but can't seem to find any for this type of beer. :confused:

Thoughts? TIA...:mug:
tb
 
I don't see why you would have to boil that much. Just shoot for 1.5qts/lb for your mash, sparge by whatever means you like (put the bag in a colander and dump over, dunk in a second pot, etc. - or not at all), add a little water to get around your max boil volume and proceed from there. Add extract at flameout, top off/cool, and get to fermenting.

It may make a little better beer to do a full boil (I don't notice, but I'm sure some do) and it may be a little lighter, but that doesn't really matter.
 
Hey thanks a lot for the advice!

So could I use the BIAB kit and just start with a bit less water - maybe between 3.5 and 4gallons? Seems like if I start with 5.5 gallons of high quality H2O, it'd take me forever and a day to boil off to three gallons. I love this homebrewing thing, but DANG - I'd be in the garage all day! :)

I don't have a 5gal extract recipe, otherwise I'd just go with that.

Thanks again....
 
You should post this over in the biab subforum else you might get people talking about adding extract and what not.

Final volume = desired volume + grain soak up + hop soak up + boil off + trub loss.
You need 3 gallons. You have 9.33 lbs of grains that are going to soak up near a gallon of water. That's 3 1/2 - 4 gallons there. You have boil off you have to account for which could be around a gallon/hour. You have hot break/cold break/hops loss if you want to filter or siphon into your FV. That could be anywhere from a cup to a gallon.

You could do less than the total mash volume but it seems like you are on the edge. You could boil 3.5 gallons of wort down then add the rest of the wort later but that is going to change the beer profile.

I just did a 5 gallon biab with 9.5 pounds of grain. When I put in my first hop additions, it was a race to get the burner off before it boiled over in my 10 gallon pot. I was really glad to have 3 gallons of space.

BTW, my aluminum 10 gallon pot with lid was only $42.95 at an Asian store. While it'd be nice to have a blinged out stainless pot I guess, I'll just brew more beer instead.
 
banks said, " ... in the garage."
Does that mean you have a real burner? You are using the boil to get hop extraction and to drive off undesired compounds that could give off flavors like DMS. You are also using the boil to concentrate the sugars as it is more efficient to extract sugars at a lower concentration.

No matter what, you need and are going to have evaporation and need to account for that to hit your final volume. It is related to the diameter of your pot and how vigorous you boil but your setup will be unique and you should test it with water to see how much you lose in an hour.
 
Not sure what you mean by a real burner - I just bought one of those 58,000 BTU turkey fryer burners for $29 from the local sporting goods store. It seems to do the trick, but I've been looking at the Dark Star burner in the NB catalog for the same price. I've been torn because the Dark Star burner is only 54,000 BTU's but I'm wondering if somehow it's more efficient than mine. :off: -Sorry....

Back to the topic at hand - I realize the grain and hops will soak up water, but I guess I never realized it would soak up that MUCH. I still have so much to learn about all of this. Maybe I should just try and find a 5 gallon extract recipe for now where I can boil 3 to 3.5 gallons and top off and save my pennies for a larger kettle down the road...
 
dgr said:
You should post this over in the biab subforum else you might get people talking about adding extract and what not.

My bad. I never read PM, but somehow I did not assume AG.

Anyway, what was said is correct. You CAN top off at the end, but this does affect efficiency and hop utilization. A calculator will help you adjust the recipe to fit a smaller boil volume. As long as your pot is big enough to mash, I don't see why it would be the end of the world to do a partial boil. Not perfect, but certainly acceptable, IMHO.
 
Banks (great name, btw :mug: ), I'd definitely look into getting a larger kettle, especially since you have the burner to handle it. The larger the better when it comes to all grain and partial mash, especially when doing BIAB. Ideally, something that could handle the full volume of your mash and sparge. When doing BIAB you can use a single vessel for this, plus one to heat additional water. Then run the boil right in the large kettle you mashed/sparged in. The other option would be to scale back the recipes you brew to one that suits your largest kettle, though 4 gallons is small and would require <2 gal batches. YMMV, but my recommendation would be to get the largest kettle you can justify buying (within reason, 5 gal batches, ~10 gal kettle).
 
I've got my eye on a 10gal kettle ($180) on NB.com that would suit me just fine but I'm trying to not go crazy with expenses as I'm hoping to get a "fermentation chilling room" build underway in my garage soon, and the most expensive part (the window A/C unit) hasn't been purchased yet. Thanks guys for all the advice. I've just found an extract recipe for an oatmeal stout that I might use and just alter the secondary ingredients a bit. So, switch it from a brown ale to a stout (my first ever) and see what happens. Even more reason to get the chilling room done!
 
Sounds like you have a real burner as opposed to a camping stove or boiling on the kitchen stove.

Contrary to the advice to buy it once and be done with it, I would encourage you to find a cheap 10 gallon aluminum pot. You'll gain experience with it and you can use it for heating water for other steps when you decide what you really need is a 15 gallon keggle or whatever direction you decide to go. You may find you want to do 10 gallon batches or high gravity 5 gallon batches and really wish you had got a 48 or 60 quart pot. Without diving in and trying it, you won't know. In the meantime, you're money ahead for buying that AC unit.

OT: While your at the asian market, pick up some yeast balls and try your hand at rice wine. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/making-traditional-rice-wine-cheap-fun-different-361095/
 
I don't see why you would have to boil that much. Just shoot for 1.5qts/lb for your mash, sparge by whatever means you like (put the bag in a colander and dump over, dunk in a second pot, etc. - or not at all), add a little water to get around your max boil volume and proceed from there.

Agreed. You might try upping your grain bill by a bit. But this is really not my area of expertise.


You should post this over in the biab subforum else you might get people talking about adding extract and what not.

Oh, I don't know. There is plenty of All-grain talk on this forum. It's easy to assume "beginner" = "extract" but when a post is stated clearly, as the original post was, that doesn't need to happen.
 
Seems like if I start with 5.5 gallons of high quality H2O, it'd take me forever and a day to boil off to three gallons. I love this homebrewing thing, but DANG - I'd be in the garage all day! :)

You may not have to use that much water to start with. What sort of boil-off does you system do? I have a wide kettle, so I NEED to start with 7-7.5 gallons for a 5 gallon final amount. If I had a narrower, taller kettle, I could possibly have less boil-off.

So keep in mind your system's boil-off. YMMV.

And let me know how this turns out; I've wanted to brew this for a while now. I really should just do it! :D
 
I did BIAB 2x's after doing 4 extracts. This past weekend I did my first AG w cooler MT etc. I honestly liked the AG better and was able to get better efficiency with it. It seemed to me to be easier to do and was much less messy.
The issue I had w BIAB was my grain was not ground properly so that had a large impact on it. If you are able to I would almost just save up to go to AG. I am buying a 5 gal MT/HLT kit from guy in my club for 100 and instead of using the HLT i'm going to get another false bottom and use it as another MT.
I will say BIAB was easy to do and really was a nice segway for me to AG and seemed a bit quicker but lifting a bag of 15lbs of grain/water out when its 150 degrees was a bit of a challenge.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!!!
 
sok454 - you may be right. Either way I think I need to save up for that 10 gal kettle so I can do full 5gal boils. I don't really ever see myself going past that quantity at one time. To be honest, I really like the smaller batches as I like the diversity.

It sounds like I need to boil up some water and figure out what my boil off rate is also. What do you guys suggest for methods on doing this? Right now, I'm thinking of throwing in 2-3 gallons, bringing it to a boil and seeing how long it takes to lose a gallon. Once I know that though - what exactly should I do with that info? Any way I cut it, I still don't think my 'starter kettle' has the capacity for the NB 3 gal BIAB Oatmeal Cookie Brown Ale... :(
 
Your 4 gallon pot is fine for BIAB, especially since it's a 3 gallon final volume. I have done MANY BIAB beers with my 4 gallon kitchen kettle on my kitchen stove. It's how I do my half-batches now. You'll be fine.
 
I'm looking to try my first BIAB after successfully brewing about 5 extract batches as new homebrewer, and I noticed the recipe in Norther Brewer's catalog and website for an oatmeal cookie brown ale. It says this is a 3 gallon batch, but to start, you must have the capacity to start with 5.5 gallons of water. I only have a 4 gallon kettle, so do I need to upgrade my kettle size to attempt BIAB? I'd switch to a 5 gal extract recipe as I can boil about 3 to 3.5 gallons total and then just top off, but can't seem to find any for this type of beer. :confused:

Thoughts? TIA...:mug:
tb

Check out this link https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

Great way to do BIAB. This is how I do it and I do 3 gallon batches with 5 gallon pot with great results.
 
Oh my goodness. I don't know HOW many times I referenced that link! I did my batches with 4 gallon stock pots. Thanks again, DeathBrewer!
 
Most people go with BIAB for one of 2 reasons. 1 - It has a much lower $ investment to get started. Get a pot and a bag and you are good to go. 2 - It saves time because you eliminate a number of time consuming steps like sparging.

Detractors of the BIAB method point to issues with efficiency and the difficulty of lifting the grain bag. I don't argue you can have some efficiency issues until you get your process dialed in, but they should not be severe. The key to BIAB, and all brewing really, is a good crush. Some LHBS don't set the grind close enough to give you the efficiency you need. then you ask for a double crush. The other key to getting efficiency is to STIR THE MASH. I check temp and stir my mash every 15 minutes. I hit 80% my last brew using this method and a single crush from my LHBS. For lifting the grain bag, this is not as big an issue as most make this out to be. Yes if you had to hold the bag for the entire time it was draining, it would be a bear. You don't have to do this though. I hold it until it is dripping slowly, about a minute, then put it in a bucket to let it continue draining. Once the wort is boiling, I dump the wort in the bucket into the kettle. easy-peasy. Other people use pulley systems. That would work too, but every one has their own method.

I BIAB in a 10 gal aluminum pot I got from AMazon for $40. Works great and will work for me for a long time, regardless if I decide to change brewing methods. I have a friend with a double keggle 10 gal system with pumps and he hates how long it takes him. He is considering going BIAB. The time it saves is a real benefit. And the real key is this... The beer tastes just as good.

If I was you, I'd get a bigger pot (go cheap, you won't be sorry) and invest in fermentation temp control. Fermentation temp control has a much bigger impact on the final result than how you get the sugars in your wort.
 
Yep - I agree. I'm going to stick with extract brewing and invest my money in a fermentation chamber build in my garage. I have a 2" 4x8 sheet of EPS foam I was going to build a son of a fermentation chiller with but I'm not home enough to swap out the ice as often as need be ( I travel a LOT for work) so I'm going the A/C route. Little more expensive, yes, but worth it to me in the long run.

In the meantime, I WILL continue to look for a cheap 10-15 gallon pot for BIAB or maybe making the switch one day to all grain, but right now I think my biggest issue is getting my fermentation temps under control. I'm fermenting in a closet with tile floor and still barely manage to stay below 78 F.
 
It depends on the size of the grain bill. I've done a couple of 5 gal batch BIABs in a 6 gal pot. One was a big IPA and I had to substitute extract for some of the 2row, simply because I couldn't fit 15 lb of grains plus 5.5 gals of water in the pot. On the other hand, 10-11 lb batches work fine. I mash in about 1.5 qt water per lb of grain. In a separate pot (or pots) I boil enough water to get to 5.5 gal after I take out the grains. I put that in a bucket and drop the bag in for 5-10 min when I take it out of the pot. Then I pour the bucket water into the pot and boil. I lose about 1 gal in the boil, so I add 1/2 gal of ice to help cool at the end of the boil (made from water I boiled the night before). So far, people seem to like the end product.
 
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