2nd Stove Top, First BIAB

[Tribe Fan]

I have a 20 qt canning pot that I used to brew a batch of pale ale on the stove last week, and learned a few things. Definitely knew BIAB was the way to go after that.

I wanted to do a big Russian Imperial Stout. I've never done any stouts and 3 gal sounded like a perfect batch size for it. I shamelessly copped a clone recipe from Portsmith Brewery I believe and tweaked it to substitute 1/2 lb of oat grains for some of the Cara III and Black malt (not all of it), oh and I used Maris Otter as the base.

Grain bill was 13 lbs and I was mashing in with 3 gallons and didn't like the potential of mash all over my kitchen, so I pulled 5 lb of MO base out and mashed in the rest at 150 for an hour.

With the help of a nifty wire basket in tray from the office that fit perfectly over the kettle with the plastic clips on it, I drained the first bag (and I pressed it out pretty good). I then brought another 10 quarts up to temp and put the mash bag back it, full, and added the 5lbs base in. Mashed at 148 for another hour. Was nice to be able to apply some heat to the mash vs the 10 gal cooler single infusion.

Mash efficiency was 69%, which I thought was pretty good. Whole leaf hops in the boil killed my overall effc to 70%, but considering I get 72% overall on my 10 gal all grain batches, that's pretty good. I forgot the whirlflock (again dammit), but this beer will have to condition for a long time and I'll get it then.

The wort was absolutely fantastic. 12 different grains and 5 hop varieties. I posted in another thread I could drink this stuff for breakfast.

Pretty happy to get a 3 gal yield out of a 5 gal pot, inside, with minimal clean up. I can see some pretty tasty specialty beers coming this winter.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Way to make it work! Sounds like you're going to need to scale up your equipment this Christmas!

 

[rouge_brewer]

If you like that size of grain bill 5 gallons should get you by. Ive done 12 without a problem, 15 was just a bit too much. I think max is about 13.

 

[Tribe Fan]

If you like that size of grain bill 5 gallons should get you by. Ive done 12 without a problem, 15 was just a bit too much. I think max is about 13.

At the end of the day, the entire grain bill was in and mashing at 13 lbs, and that is the max I would want to go. 10.5 to 11% is the biggest beer I've made and won't want to go much bigger than that.

I can do 10 gal with my outdoor set up, so this is a nice way to do multi step mashes, or more complex smaller batch beer. I wasn't kidding, that wort was some of the best I've ever made, so good.

I did a small batch with a pretty simple grain bill but did a 3 step pilsner mash. I split the wort in half and pitched half ale and half lager. The clarity of the ale so far is amazing. Lager looks pretty good too, but will take a while to finish.

It's nice not having to deal with propane and HLT's full of hot water, rain, weather yada, yada, yada... Besides, I don't know what I would do with 10 gallons of a big RIS.

 

[rouge_brewer]

One thing I have been playing with is brewing stronger varieties in 3 or 4 gallon sizes that can be watered down into other beers.

For instance:
Dobblebock with ale yeast - get a few gallons of nice heavy beer at 9% water it down to 5% and you get a red ale. I call it doppleganger!

IPA's easily convert to pale ales, English special bitters or test different dry hopping.

I haven't done a RIS, wonder if you can get a watered down variety that's tasty from it.