BIAB keggle

[taintedplay]

I am on a super budget equipment wise so i have been doing BIAB in a single pot for the whole process in my 7.5gal pot. I have a keg shell, and was thinking of making a basic keggle, just a whole in the top, for now not even ball valve at the bottom just to prevent boilovers and for larger batches. Is there somewhere I could put that 7.5gal pot to use?

How I was thinking of doing this was brew a batch and rack it to the fermenters below it, and then brew another batch and use the keggle as an actual fermenter. I know I wont get an airtight seal, but using rubber gasket and some redneck engineering I bet i could get it close.

My questions are, is there any reason why this wouldent work? maybe BIAB not working on a batch that size (id like to make 15gal batches out of it)

 

[TopherM]

You aren't going to get 15 gallon batches out of a 15.5 gallon BIAB keggle. Once you factor in the grain displacing water, boil off, loss to trub, absorbtion, etc., you are looking at needing about 18-19 gallons of starting water volume to end up with 15 gallons post boil. Obviously, 18-19 gallons of water won't fit in a 15.5 gallon keggle, much less including 30+ lbs of grain.

HOWEVER, since you have that second pot, you could actually do pretty close to 13 gallon batches, using the 7.5 gallon pot to dunk sparge your BIAB, thus splitting the total water volume between the two pots. It'd go something like this (you'd have to do the exact calculations based on your grain bill and boil off rate):

- 13 gallon BIAB Batch
- 30 lbs grain
- 1.5 qts/lb of grain in the mash = 11.25 gallons of water in the KEGGLE
- Round that up to 12 gallons strike water in the keggle
- Assume a 1.5 gallon/60 min boil off, 0.5 gallon loss to trub, 1.0 gallon loss to absorbtion = 16 gallons total water volume
- So 16 gallons total water volume - 12 gallons in the mash = 4.0 gallons in the SPARGE step in your 7.5 gallon pot
-After the mash, instead of a mashout, dunk sparge into the 4.0 gallons of water int he 7.5 gallon pot at 170F for about 10 minutes

Carry on the normal procedure from there.

That's how it'd look. The 30 lbs of grain in 4.0 gallons of water is pushing it for a 7.5 gallon pot, so that 13 gallon yield is about all you can hope for with the pot and keggle you have, maybe even a bit less.

Hope that helps!

 

[taintedplay]

if i upped the grain bill some, could i make a stronger wort then just add water to the fermenters after? IE brew 13 gallons of stronger beer then add a few gallons of water to make a larger batch.

also, is using the extra sparge step really worth the extra effort? I did a no sparge BIAB and it was super simple

 

[TopherM]

That works, in theory, but let me tell you from experience that handling 10-15 lbs of BIAB grain is hard enough, and you are NOT going to have an easy time handling 30-40 lbs of grain when it comes time to lift the bag out of the keggle, suspend the bag to drain, squeeze the grain, etc. BIAB just isn't particularly practical once you get above 10ish gallon batches.

I do a good number of 10 gallon BIAB batches in my keggle, and it is also fairly difficult just to pull 20ish lbs of grain through the opening in the keggle when it's time to pull the bag. I can't imagine having to do it with 30-40lbs.

If you plan on doing 15 gallon batches, I think you would be better off in the long run investing in a 25-30 gallon pot.

Trust me, it can be done, but you're going to get real tired of messing with an undersized pot real fast.

As far as the dunk sparge, that was mostly an idea to help with your spacial limitations. However, the dunk sparge or a good mashout step will increase BIAB efficiency a good 5+ points. Some people need that extra efficiency, some don't, depends on your equipment and process. Personally, my efficiency was pretty dialed in at about 69-72% before I started doing a mashout, and now I'm pretty consistently around 77-79%, so it worked for me!

 

[taintedplay]

I have a hoist i was planning on using from a past project so the grain weight isnt a problem.

Also, I have a bunch of coolers (too many) I could use for the dunk sparge and have the pot as a backup.

If I could find a decently priced one, I could get a 25-30 gallon pot and ferment possibly into the keg if I fill all of my carboys up. That would be nice if I could then just strait hook it up to my kegerator after fermentation and be good to go.
The reason I was thinking of using the keg is that I already have a spare keg by chance.

So to go over the plan, heat up water in the main pot, put in grain, let sit, then take out grain and put in a cooler with water and let sit, then pour the water from the cooler in the main pot and start a normal boil?

 

[taintedplay]

Ok I found a 20 gallon aluminum pot with lid for 105 bucks. I also have a ten gallon cylinder cooler and tons of normal rectangle coolers. Could I get 15 gallon batches with this setup? I would love to get a 25 or 30 gallon pot but I haven't seen any for 100~ bucks which is my budget.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Do you also have a burner that will boil all that water? It would be terrible to get all setup and not be able to boil it!

 

[wilserbrewer]

I'm not sure if you are talking about using the keggle to boil the second batch or not??? Yes, you can certainly use the keg as a ferrmenter by simply sealing up the opening w/ a carboy cap, saran wrap or alum. foil. Not really sure what your question is...please clarify. Thanks

If you have a 7 gal pot, a keg and an array of coolers, sounds to me like you have plenty of equipment??? What are your goals?

The 30 lbs of grain in 4.0 gallons of water is pushing it for a 7.5 gallon pot

Pushing it??? My guess it will be pushing it all over the back yard trying to fit 30 lbs of saturated grain, plus 4 gallons of water in a 7.5 gallon pot...maybe I'm confused???

With the keg as your kettle, my advice would be to try a couple 10 gallon batches, and move up as you see fit...

 

[conpewter]

If you have a lot of reasons to try to do 15 gallon batches then go for it, but usually 10 gallon batches are enough for most people. If you have a lot of coolers, and a 7.5 gallon pot already, I'd think about just doing a 3 tier stand using your keg as a boil kettle, would allow you to do 10 gallon batches of most beers.

 

[taintedplay]

To clarify, I was trying to decide between a keggle and a big pot. Id like to be able
To do 15 gallons, I don't want to upgrade now and wish I got a bigger pot later. How would I do a ten gallon boil in a 7.5 gallon pot?

 

[taintedplay]

anyone?

what is the largest batch I could brew in a 20 gal pot, assuming dunk sparge

 

[conpewter]

20 gal pot would probably be a 15 gal batch. Possible a gallon or two more, but I think you'd be boiling off 2-3 gallons. So max I'd say would be a 17 gallon batch with a 20 gal pot.

 

[taintedplay]

so a 15 gal boil would not be a problem in a 20 gal pot?

 

[conpewter]

Wouldn't be a problem. I imagine since you are doing a dunk sparge you'd end up having 10 or so gallons in the pot for your BIAB mashing then dunk in a separate 5 gallons right? You wouldn't be able to do really high gravity 15 gallon batches with BIAB 20 gallon pot setup.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Ok, for 15 gallons of finished batch drinkable product of medium gravity beer done BIAB full voume mash I would think a kettle of 25 gallons would be the minumum required.

 

[taintedplay]

Ok i found a 40gal pot like twenty bucks more than a 30 gallon pot, so i might just buy that, for twenty bucks more why not.