5 gallon pot for biab

i tried to sift through all the posts, but i want a quick and simple hopefully. i have a 5 gallon pot can i do biab and just add top up to what ever i need? i was going to get a turkey fryer, aluminum pot with a 30qt pot.
don

Biab is usually done with full volume mash and boil. I use a 42 qt (10.5 gal) pot for 5.5 gal batches, and I wouldn't want to go too much smaller than that.

5 gal pot is too small for BIAB (5 gal batch). 30qt (7.5 gal) is tight, but it should be big enough. I'm not sure if aluminum pots can be used for mashing, because of the bad pH they can create during mashing process.

I still use my 5G kettle for partial boil partial mash biab. It'll easilly boil 3.5 gallons & top up to 5 or 6 gallons. but def too small for AG.

It would be fine for smaller batches but if you plan on 5 gal batches then no it is too small. I use a 6 gal pot for 3 gal batches personally.

bxtzd3 said:

i tried to sift through all the posts, but i want a quick and simple hopefully. i have a 5 gallon pot can i do biab and just add top up to what ever i need? i was going to get a turkey fryer, aluminum pot with a 30qt pot.
don

Click to expand...

In short, yes, you can do BIAB and top up to whatever you need. That's pretty much what I plan on doing for my next batch.

Doing BIAB in a smaller pot like that and topping up afterward is called partial or mini-mashing. Since you're not getting all the grain you need for a full 5 gallon batch, along with the mash water, in a 5 gallon pot, you'll need to backfill with some extract (hence why they call it a partial mash).

But you can certainly do what you are thinking.

In fact, DeathBrewer wrote a great sticky on the subject, in which he does this exact thing with a 5 gallon pot.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

If you want to go all grain BIAB, without backfilling with extract, you will need a larger pot and likely a turkey fryer as others have suggested.

Cheers!

ya i am looking for a fryer. i found one at the kitchen wharehouse on line for 54. aluminum pot 30 qt with an open base so i can expand.

Yesterday I bought the ingredients to do a 5 gallon batch of BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde. I will be brewing this in my 5 gallon aluminum pot on my electric stove top sometime in the upcoming week. I will be using the Maxi-BIAB method. This is a method of doing BIAB that involves brewing in a pot that has less volume than the final batch size. It involves creating a high gravity wort using one or more dunk sparges and performing post boil dilution to get the desired gravity. One drawback to this method is that you need to increase the bittering hop weight a little to compensate for boiling at a lower volume/higher gravity.

I'm not sure what the policy is here for posting links to other brewing sites so I'll just tell you to google "Maxi-BIAB" for more details.

This will be my first 5 gallon all grain attempt after several brews using BIAB for partial mash batches. Hopefully it will go well.

Yes yes, go ahead and post all the links you like to other brewing sites...it's free here!

You may take a slight efficiency hit w/ maxi bag technique, so targeting 4.5 gallons might not be a bad idea since you are brewing a low abv beer to begin with and don't have much room to fall short...jmo

wilserbrewer said:

Yes yes, go ahead and post all the links you like to other brewing sites...it's free here!

You may take a slight efficiency hit w/ maxi bag technique, so targeting 4.5 gallons might not be a bad idea since you are brewing a low abv beer to begin with and don't have much room to fall short...jmo

Click to expand...

Good point. I'll check my gravity before topping up. At the rate I drink it, 4.5 gallons is still plenty.

well i just scored a 35 qt saf t fryer for 40 on craigslist. brand new in a sealed box. even has the faucet thing on the bottom for draining. so i just upped my game.

with the above info, i would have to keep my batches to 6 gallons. so im guessing i would have to sparge to get to a pre boil, is this right?

Ok update. After a week and three days, my gravity reading is 1.010, final should be 1.016. And it appears my abv is I'm guessing 2%. It should be 4.5%. Now I took a reading with plain water and it was between .99- 1.000. So does all this sound right? Thanks in advance.

Disregard. Posted I. Wrong thread. That's what I get for using a phone to post.