looking for tips and opinions for full AG BIAB batches

i just bought this thick bottomed SS 20qt pot yesterday for doing my small partial mash, and it honestly wasn't cheap, but it was all i could find. what i'm wondering, is when i start going for full (5ish) gallon batches, can i still use this 20qt pot for something? i've also got a 32qt aluminum pot that i've used for my extract brews...

i guess i'm looking for someone to say that buying this pot wasn't a waste of money because it's useless for full batches and just some pointers on running through a AG BIAB brew session, i want my next batch to be 100% AG

I use a 5 gallon cooler as an MLT. I use a 20qt pot, filled to the handle rivets, to heat my strike water. I then do a double batch sparge using the 20qt pot to heat the sparge water. I thin this technically makes the 20qt pot an HLT?

Maybe not the fastest way to do things, but I have a commercial type range in my kitchen. I pour the wort into my 44qt pot and start bringing to boiling temp while I'm sparging.

I would get a large cooler to use to mash/sparge with for any PM or AG brews (did one PM in the pots, made a mess)... A cooler that's at least 40 quarts (10 gallons) would be a good start (I have one that's 70 quarts that I picked up years ago)... With the BIAB method, all you need to do is install a ball valve into the cooler (pretty damned easy) and you're good to go. You can use the existing pots to heat the water, and use the 32 quart for your full boil. I actually just picked up a 32 quart aluminum stock pot (under $50 with the lid) from a restaurant supplier which will be my full boil kettle... I might install a ball valve into that at some point in the future (would be pretty easy to do, and then just drain directly into the fermenter)...

You can ALWAYS find uses for large pots. Next crab boil, lobster bake, etc. that you (or your family) is having, bring one (provided you're not using it for brewing anymore)... That's probably what I'll end up using my second 20 quart SS (thin walled) pot for... Don't need two now.

Carrying strike and sparge water, resting grain bags in, etc.

Are you always going to be so confident in a recipe that you are willing to make a full batch of it? Why not use that 20 qt kettle for a 1/2 batch brew in a bag to test out your experimental batch?

I use my 20qt pot when doing full BIAB brews.. I use it by placing a colander in it to let the grain bag drain. Same for the hops bag.

When doing BIAB you will TOTALLY need AT LEAST two good sized kettles (5g and 7.5g would work great) one for mash, one for sparge (and whichever is bigger for the final boil obviously). You would also need something else such as an empty ale pail to hold the spent grains before they are discarded.

Personally I did a few batches of BIAB to find out that AG is SUPER FUN. However IMHO it is kind of a PITA and messy to be lifting out the grain by hand, transferring it from mash to sparge kettle, then to discard pale, squeezing grains, etc. I just bought a 10g rubbermaid cooler with spigot and false bottom. It makes everything sooooo much easier.

I am now finding my 7.5g kettle may not even be enough... DOH

MikeRoBrew1 said:

When doing BIAB you will TOTALLY need AT LEAST two good sized kettles (5g and 7.5g would work great). You would also need something else such as an empty ale pail to hold the spent grains before they are discarded.

Personally I did a few batches of BIAB to find out that AG is SUPER FUN. However IMHO it is kind of a PITA and messy to be lifting out the grain by hand, transferring it from mash to sparge kettle, then to discard pale, squeezing grains, etc. I just bought a 10g rubbermaid cooler with spigot and false bottom. It makes everything sooooo much easier.

I am now finding my 7.5g kettle may not even be enough... DOH

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if you have a 10g kettle there's no need to sparge with BIAB.. that's really kinda the whole point of it.. pull bag.. let it drain...you're done...squeeze if ya want..OR.. set the bag in a colander in your ale pail or 20qt pot you used to use whit extract batches.. it'll drain itself

RM-MN said:

Are you always going to be so confident in a recipe that you are willing to make a full batch of it? Why not use that 20 qt kettle for a 1/2 batch brew in a bag to test out your experimental batch?

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this is a very good point.

i'm sure this kettle will definitely not go to waste

Mysticmead said:

if you have a 10g kettle there's no need to sparge with BIAB.. that's really kinda the whole point of it.. pull bag.. let it drain...you're done...squeeze if ya want..OR.. set the bag in a colander in your ale pail or 20qt pot you used to use whit extract batches.. it'll drain itself

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Bingo. Sparging can be useful if all you have is 5gal pots. www.biabrewer.info has a good guide on how to get full-size batches on your stovetop. But if you have a big enough pot that allows you to full-volume mash, there's no point in sparging - that'd defeat the purpose of BIAB.

The OP stated he had a 32qt kettle, so that is why I recommended he prepare two vessels. It seems kinda obvious to me that if you had a 10g kettle you would be set to go...

true.. but he said he used that for extract batches.. I thought maybe he was going to get a larger brew kettle.. my mistake..

I just did my 2nd all grain batch the other day. I have an 11 gallon pot that I used for my mash. I started out with the grain in a BAG. But I wasn't impressed because the inside of the grain stayed 20 degrees cooler for 15+ minutes.
I dumped the grain straight into the pot of water, mashed, then dumped the whole pot into my bottling bucket (which had a paint strainer bag in it) Elevated it off the bottom and opened the valve into my boiling pot. Added sparge water, let it sit, then opened the valve again. Worked pretty good for me and I managed to get a little over 70% efficiency.

I plan on doing my altered BIAB method for awhile. Once I got the water temperature right, I set the stove to low and after 1 hour the temperature had only changed 1 degree. Much easier than having a cooler/strainer set up (if you are okay with lifting heavy pots)

did you stir the grains for 3-4 minutes while in the bag?

I stirred for a minute then let it sit. Repeated that a few times. It was slowly getting up to temp but I figured it would be much easier to just dump in the grains and filter them later.