I'm interested in trying the all grain brew in a bag method. Can you do five gallon batches this way? The recipe I have calls for 11 pounds of grains. Is that to much for a five gallon kettle? I would appreciate any info.
Brew in a bag
- Thread starter ryno1981
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PackerfaninSanDiego
Member
you will need atleast a 36 quart kettle. Can your 5 gallon kettle hold 7.5 gal of water??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lk5goLlq8nw#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lk5goLlq8nw#!
you could biab 11lbs in a 5gal kettle : http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml - see can i mash it calc
but you won't be able to do it the full volume method, so you'll need a second kettle to sparge with. no biggie if you can't do full boil, just top off after, there's no real loss in quality in doing so
but you won't be able to do it the full volume method, so you'll need a second kettle to sparge with. no biggie if you can't do full boil, just top off after, there's no real loss in quality in doing so
DaNewf
Well-Known Member
I'm looking at pretty much the same thing myself. The two methods I am considering are Maxi-BIAB or a split volume boil using BIAB for mashing.
The other thing to consider if you don't want/can't afford/don't have space for a larger kettle is to do 2.5 or 3 gal batches. You end up with about a little more than a case of beer and you can still do it on your stove. I have a 5gal kettle and can do 3 gal batches of up to about 1.070 OG with just grains. When I want a bigger beer (barleywine, RIS, tripel, etc.) I just throw in a pound or two of light DME.
el_caro
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Totally agree and this is my approach to BIAB. I am not a big drinker but like to brew at least fortnightly. Smaller volume brewing allows me to enjoy brewing and trying lots of different styles without having an oversupply of beer on hand.
While you can certainly cut your recipe in half and brew twice, you do have other options if you are more of an adventurous type...
To those that say you can't brew five gallons in a five gallon kettle, I say, well just hold on a minute, perhaps we can??
Mash all the grain in your 5 gallon kettle w/ say 3 gallons of water at say 162
for an hour...the resultant temp should be low 150's
After an hour, add water (hotter the better) to bring the level near the rim of your five gallon kettle....stir well, wait 5 minutes and stir again...wait a few minutes and remove the bag...
Measure how much wort you have in the kettle and subtract that from 5 and call it X.
Put X amount of water in a bucket or whatever you have and then dunk sparge the bag in the sparge water...open the bag and stir to rinse the grain well.
Fill your 5 gallon kettle w/ 4.25 to 4.5 gallons that you have collected, both in the kettle and from the bucket and begin boiling...as you boil down keep adding the runnings from the bucket to the boil to keep around 4 to 4.5 gallons until you have boiled all the collected wort for at least 15 minutes after your last wort addition to the kettle.
End result, you have over 4 gallons of nice boiled wort, chill and add top off water to make 5 gallons.
Sure you might not make prize winning efficiency, but you will have nearly a full 5 gallon batch and may get decent efficiency to boot, w/ an 11 lb grain bill youcan afford moderate efficiency IMHO.
This is common practice over at BIABbrewer.com or whatever they call it???
You can also collect 4.5 gallons and boil, then top off with water...topping off as you boil w/ runnings will help efficiency.
Sounds difficult, but really not that hard....cheers!
whew...I'm out...cheers!
That's the nice thing about brewing, more then one way to skin at cat!!!
Sure man...forgot to mention that with "partial boils", you can measure gravity post boil chilled, and add top off water to reach intended gravity rather than merely topping up to batch size. This gives you a little more flexibility. Say for example, you get horrible efficiency, you may not add any top up water, or if your efficiency is excellent, you may add a bit more than anticipated. Not mandatory, just another tool to consider....cheers!
