BIAB & Boil Pot size

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shoreman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
1,346
Reaction score
396
Hey Everyone - first post - been checking out these forums after getting back into brewing.

I've been brewing for about 10 years or so on and off - kits, extract, all grain. I sold all of my stuff at one point b/c I had a small apartment.

Right now I've been doing partial mashing in the 1.035-1.055 range and have been happy with the results - generally I only need about 3lbs of DME - and everything is on the stove.

I have a 5 gallon pot, and a 2 gallon pot - it works.

I've been reading alot about BIAB and was wondering about pulling off a 5 gallon batch in the 5 gallon pot. I don't want to buy any more gear as it is.

I will do high gravity or partial boil brewing similar to Guiness or Bud (even when I was all grain I did) and find the beer just as good if not better (better clarity) - just bump the hops up a bit.

So do you think I could do the mash of say 9lbs of grain BIAB in my 5 gallon pot - mash thick, then maybe pour some water over the bag (after its pulled out) to do a somewhat sparge? Get the 3.5 gallons I need - then cut it with water as usual after the boil?

Would that mash be too thick?

Thanks in advance.
 
My math says you need about 11.25qt of mash water, just under 3 gallons. My thought was to pull the bag up near the top some after mash, then slowly add another gallon to the top, let it settle out for 10 minutes.

You'd be boiling just under 4 gallons, probably doable if you're careful.
 
The Green Bay Rackers' "Can I Mash It?" calculator says that 10lb of grain with 1.5qt/lb is 4.55gal of volume. Thats 3.75gal of mash water, of which 1.25gal will stay in the grain so you'll have 2.5gal of wort. You could always sparge with another 1.5gal (heated in your 2gal pot) in a plastic bucket (#2, HDPE) and add that to your first runnings to get 4gal total. That'd give you a decent enough efficiency. Fermcap S is great for preventing a boilover in a full pot. Then you just top up for your 5gal.
 
Yes, you can certainly plan a "work around" for a five gallon batch w/ your 5 and 2 gallon kettles. You can easily mash in the 5 gallon pot gravities up to about 1.060. Mash full volume (so the pot is nearly full) in the five gallon, while heating additional sparge water in the 2 gallon. When your mash is complete, conduct a dunk sparge of the bag in either a bucket or your 2 gallon pot. Distribute runnings b/w the two pots and proceed w/ the boil, or just fill the 5 gallon and top off post boil. you can also consider reserving some of the runnings and adding them as you boiloff. You could even consider cold sparging if required to get more runnings.
 
I just did my first partial mash on Sunday using a 5 gal pot and a 4 gal pot, 6 lbs of grain and 3 lbs DME. I ended up with a 5 gallon fermenter @ 1.050...not bad for a crap efficiency I got (55%).
 
I can't post yet...what's up?

I guess I can - I put up a few of lengthy posts here that never showed up b/c they needed to be approved? is that a n00b restriction?
 
I just got 1.06 for a 5 (or 5.5, I don't remember) batch mashing in a 5 gallon pot. I tried to hit 1.25 qts/lb but if you go thicker it'll fit better, then just heat up more water for a sparge, which is key to good efficiency, and squeeze those grains out!
 
So I have an extra morebeer bucket - are those safe up to about 180 or so I guess?

This is great information - thanks everyone.
 
I just watched a pretty good video on BIAB at Northern Brewer. It might help you visualize how you can tweak the process to suit you.

Or you might decide that a 3 gallon batch is just fine. :)
 
Thanks - I'll check out the video - I did the whole 3 gallon all grain gig at one point - even had two 3 gallon kegs that I picked up for $30 each before they were so popular. I liked brewing alot - but when I made a great beer (1.000 apartment saison comes to mind), it sucked to only have that little of it.
 
I do 5-5.5 gallon batches all grain biab in a 5 gallon pot. My efficiency ends up sucking (55-60%) but it still makes great beer. I make sure I calculate the maximum volume of strike water I can use to fit that and my grain bill in the pot to get the highest mash water / grain ratio I can. Make sure you calculate your strike temperature ahead of time because there is little room for adjusting it with additional cold water.

When you are done mashing and squeeze the bag you won't loose a whole lot of water. I usually have over 3 gallons before boil. If I had my notes here I'd post my calculations for one of my recent brews. Boil as if you're doing an extract batch (concentrated wort) and top up in the fermenter as usual. When my boil is finished I actually add the first lot of cold water into my kettle to speed the cooling process.
 
I do 5-5.5 gallon batches all grain biab in a 5 gallon pot. My efficiency ends up sucking (55-60%) but it still makes great beer. I make sure I calculate the maximum volume of strike water I can use to fit that and my grain bill in the pot to get the highest mash water / grain ratio I can. Make sure you calculate your strike temperature ahead of time because there is little room for adjusting it with additional cold water.

When you are done mashing and squeeze the bag you won't loose a whole lot of water. I usually have over 3 gallons before boil. If I had my notes here I'd post my calculations for one of my recent brews. Boil as if you're doing an extract batch (concentrated wort) and top up in the fermenter as usual. When my boil is finished I actually add the first lot of cold water into my kettle to speed the cooling process.

Why not do a sparge in a bucket to add to your brew kettle? That'd maximize your volume and increase your efficiency. Even a cold water sparge would help your efficiency and maximize the volume of your kettle.
 
Why not do a sparge in a bucket to add to your brew kettle? That'd maximize your volume and increase your efficiency. Even a cold water sparge would help your efficiency and maximize the volume of your kettle.

I would but my ceramic stove top has a hard time keeping that much up to a good boil. Otherwise, good plan, and it certainly helps with efficiency. I'm working on a basement brewery so this setup is only temporary (although dragging on, lol).
 
Back
Top