How to use my kettles?

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dancness

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By the end of this weekend I will have done 3 brews; all extract. I am moving on to all grain for my next brew. I have a couple questions about how to use my equipment as efficiently as possible.

I have: 5 gal SS kettle, 9 gal SS kettle. Neither have valves at the bottom. I will be doing the BIAB single sparge method. I have 2 good sturdy bags made from Voile (sp?) fabric. One fits perfectly in the 5 gal pot and the other fits in the 9 gal pot. The 9gal bag of course can fit inside either kettle.

My initial plans were to mash as much grain as I could in the 5 gallon kettle at 1.25 qt/lb which if I'm reading correctly is about 12 lbs grain. Then sparge in the 9 gallon with 4 gallons water, and add the wort from the mashtun to the sparge kettle and boil. I want to make a 5 gallon batch of a medium abv ale (around 6%).

I would like advice on how to use the equipment I have as efficiently as possible. Should I mash in the 5 gallon and sparge in the 9, or vice versa? How much grain have you realistically been able to mash (and stir without spilling) in a 5 gallon mash tun with no false bottom?
 
I'm also interested to know. I have a pot that holds 5.5 gallons, and I previously did 2.5 gal BIAB all grain. Now I want to do 5 gal batches, but I'm worried about overflow with 10.5# of grain. I plan to have another pot with extra boiling water to replenish that lost during the boil.

If I was you I would just mash and boil in the 9 gal pot, aka BIAB. That way you wont run out of space.
 
mash in the larger pot. you will still need to dunk sparge in the smaller pot (put in smaller pot with some water stir, let sit for 10 minutes and remove then squeeze) since 12lbs of grain with a full volume of water would put you over 9 gallons.

batch + absorption + boil off + trub loss = total water needed.

5 + 1.2 + .25 = 6.45 + boil off round it off and say 6.5 gallon plus boil off. if you boil off 1 gallon an hour that's 7.5 gallons of water.. if you boil off more or less adjust from there.
 
I'm also interested to know. I have a pot that holds 5.5 gallons, and I previously did 2.5 gal BIAB all grain. Now I want to do 5 gal batches, but I'm worried about overflow with 10.5# of grain. .

Ok limited equipment, but you could likely mash in the 5 gallon pot and then perform a dunk sparge in an HDPE bucket w/ hot water to gather 4-5 gallons of wort.

You should easily be able to mash 10.5 lbs in a 5 gallon pot.

rackers calculator...can I mash it...http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
 
I thought the common practice was to mash with less water, for example 1.25 qt/lb. And then sparge with a lot more water, for example 1/2 gallon per lb. to get the most residual sugars from the grist.

But you say to mash in the larger pot, and sparge in the smaller. I'm not really understanding why. I need to make a 5 gallon batch of beer. If I achieve a little less than this in final product due to trub loss, I don't really mind that.

I guess I'm just looking for glaring reasons why I should mash in the 9 gal vs the 5 gal. One thing I'm thinking is if I use a much bigger kettle and have lots of headspace, there will be much more heat loss compared to if I fill the 5 gallon kettle almost to the top.
 
One reason to mash in your larger pot is to let you start the boil while your sparging in the other. The times I've done BIAB I mashed in my boil kettle and used a 5 gal bucket to sparge and drain the bag. Let me start boiling the "first runnings" while I waited for the second.
 
But if I'm only going to sparge for like 15 mins, I can keep the first runnings on low heat in the 5 gal. Then add that to the sparge kettle when the sparging is done, right?
 
Normally with BIAB you mash with full volume. The 1.25qt/lb is for a traditional mash. It still works for BIAB just thicker than most BIAB methods

Sent from my Epic 4g using Home Brew Talk
 
I would definitely do the mash in the 9. At 1.25 qts/lb the 5 gallon is going to be very tight. Little room for stirring and likely to make a mess if you're not careful. Mash thinner, between 1.5 and 2.0 qts/lb and do it in the 9 gallon. As someone else said, you can then start the boil while you sparge ... might as well, right?

If you make this your standard process, you can make much larger beers and not have to change things up. I think you'll find find things will work better if you go this route.
 
I decided I am going for a 2 qt/lb mash in the 9 gal (8 lbs so 16 qts) and sparging in the 5 gallon with 3.5 qt.

American Amber
5 gallons
Ingredients:

Malts:
Briess 2-row 5 lb.
American Dextrine 1 lb.
Briess Caramel 60L 2 lb.
Muntons Extra Light LME 3.3 lb.

Hops:
1 oz Cascade @ 1:00
1 oz Challenger @ :30
1 oz Cascade @ :15

Thanks everyone!
 
Oops I didn't mean sparge with 3.5 qts, I meant gallons.

But 6 hours later and I'm done. My OG was 1.051. I'm pretty happy with that.

I did have a couple mishaps. My mash temp ranged from about 156F at dough in, I got it down to 152 after about 10 mins and it held there for a good 30 mins, then it went south to 148 and 146. I added some boiling water and stirred but it didn't seem to help much.

When I pulled the grain from the mashtun it weighed SO MUCH! I'm a 28 year old dude and that thing was heavy. Probably 30-35 lbs to hold in an awkward position. I held it as long as I could and I was rapidly thinking of what I could do. I had a big bowl so I plopped the grain bag in there and it overflowed. I held the bag above the bowl a few times and dumped that wort into my mashtun. Finally I gave up, and when I dunked the grainbag into the 5 gallon sparge kettle with 3.5 gallons of water in it, it overflowed! Ahhhh. Too much leftover moisture in the bag! Anyway that was my last mistake as I rigged a ghetto pulley system above the stove attached to a kitchen cabinet door. haha prob not safe but it worked.

Anyway I'm happy to report my American Amber is in the primary and ready to go! I definitely learned some things from my first all grain. All I gotta say is that was tough. It might be a little while before I try that again haha.

Peace all

DC
 
you could do the whole thing in your 9 gallon pot, no sparging at all, which is part of BAIB's appeal. sounds like you need to hit the weights a little harder. lol...
 
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