BIAB/AG - 5 Gallon Cooler work?

So I just converted a 1/4 barrel keg into a brew kettle (was sitting in my parents backyard since they have bought their new house - figured the morality of keg stealing was wiped clean). Heres a pic:



My question is: Can I do a AG BIAB where I bring the correct amount of water to 155, pour into my 5 gallon Gott cooler, add the grains in a large nylon bag, mash for 45 minutes (at the same time heating sparge water-whatever it takes to get to 5 gallons-in the kettle), dunk the grain bag into the kettle when temp is reached, add the mashed wort to the kettle, then continue the boil as usual?

Are there any problems that anyone can see with this setup? It basically boils down to I dont want to go buy a 10 gallon cooler.

Thanks in advance! So geeked to be able to do full(ish) boils now!

I can fit about 12# total grain in my 5 gallon cooler, including the necessary amount of water (around 3.5 gallons). I would do an iodine test to make sure conversion is over instead of just mashing for 45 minutes.

I don't see any issues with it.

I used to do something very similar. I'll tell you what I found though...the bag ends up being a real pain. I decided to spring for a ball valve kit and a stainless 6" bazooka screen for my 5 gallon igloo cooler. It's made huge difference. Much easier to work with, faster to drain, and the resulting wort is cleaner with less hull material. If you already have a cooler and can afford the extra $40-45 it's worth it in my opinion. Plus you'll be able to handle more grain than you can with one bag.

You can buy a good bag for 5.50$ Coolers are nice and all (and some have build them for dirt cheap), but if you do not plan to brew big beers with more than 10-12 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch, you really don't need one to start. Myself I add a pound or two of extract to my batch to bump the gravity a bit if I need to, but I find that for brews that are around 1.035 to 1.055, BIAB works fine as is without adding extract. You just need another vessel to sparge.

He states that he already has the cooler though. Yes the bag is cheaper than buying the ball valve and screen. But you can also make a screen yourself pretty cheaply if you like. But the convenience is well worth it. I've done it both ways, and not using the bag is much easier IMHO. The bag method is great if you already have a couple of big pots and don't have a cooler. I found standing around holding a 5# bag of grain saturated with water for 15 minutes a royal pain. Now I just open a valve and let it drain itself while I tend to other tasks.

jfr1111 said:

You just need another vessel to sparge.

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Cant I just use the brew kettle (with enough water to get the total after boil volume to 5 gallons)?

That's what I did today. Ended up with a perfect 5 gallons, did a AHS Pumpkin Ale PM with target OG of 1.052. I hit 1.051. There was 3.5 lbs of grains and the rest was DME.

Sparging helps with efficiency. If you calculate for lower efficiency, you can skip sparging and just use your total water is mash water. I prefer to sparge since I can mash in a 7.5 gallon pot. With a 10 gal kettle, you probaly wouldn't have that problem unless you decided to brew big AG beers.