BIAB Process with Small Kettle

[cmschlatt]

Hi all, Like many I'm new to BIAB, but want to get better. In my past extract brews, I would throw the ingredients and water in without much measurement and it produced... OK beer. My new focus is to measure and record metrics to be able to replicate future recipes and make my brewing more efficient.

I'm making a porter this weekend (recipe if interested) and am trying to figure out the most efficient way to BIAB with my set up. My biggest limitation is a 6 gallon kettle and lack of a wort chiller.

Here are the modified steps I was thinking about taking. If you can think of a better way, please let me know!!

Fit as much water as possible for mash. With 14lbs of grain, I can probably fit 4.5 gallons of water in my kettle.

Sparge with as much water as it takes to fill the kettle up (2 gallons?) and squeeze like crazy.

When it comes to chilling the wort after the boil, I only have two options, ice bath or ice in wort. In my extract days, an ice bath worked perfectly because I was only cooling a couple gallons, but with 5+ gallons of wort, that would take days!! For this batch, I'm planning on freezing a gallon of water and putting it in the wort to quickly cool.

Again, feedback is welcome!

 

[RdeVjun]

To me the obvious solution for the chilling challenge is the No Chill method, while it should be particularly reliable with this recipe where there isn't such a great emphasis on the late hops character.
If that isn't desirable then Ice Bath would be my preference provided the full kettle can be moved safely. FWIW when I was doing Stovetop MaxiBIAB in a 19L pot I did exactly this, however I didn't use ice, initially just several changes of cooling water and then it was left overnight, pitching the following day.

You've covered off on pretty much everything else, hope it goes famously!

 

[cmschlatt]

Interesting, I've never heard of a no chill. Wouldn't that mess up the cold break? Something about off flavors if it doesn't cool quickly?

I've never heard of MaxiBIAB, but after reading about it, it makes me feel better! Thanks!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Interesting, I've never heard of a no chill. Wouldn't that mess up the cold break? Something about off flavors if it doesn't cool quickly?

I've never heard of MaxiBIAB, but after reading about it, it makes me feel better! Thanks!

NO worries on cold break or off flavors. Tons of brewers use it all of the world. Only thing to keep in mind is to adjust your hop timings appropriately.

I used sparging methods for a long time to do 5G full volume boil batches in a 7.5G pot for about a year, 12 batches. Recently bought a 9G pot with a valve during black friday. Still haven't used it yet, due to finals week. Can't wait to not have to sparge.

For measurements, and calculations, check out my blog (and calculator) listed below in my sig.

Direct link to calculator at: http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/

 

[chuckcomm]

NO worries on cold break or off flavors. Tons of brewers use it all of the world. Only thing to keep in mind is to adjust your hop timings appropriately.

I used sparging methods for a long time to do 5G full volume boil batches in a 7.5G pot for about a year, 12 batches. Recently bought a 9G pot with a valve during black friday. Still haven't used it yet, due to finals week. Can't wait to not have to sparge.

For measurements, and calculations, check out my blog (and calculator) listed below in my sig.

Direct link to calculator at: http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/

Nice calculator saved it to my brewing stuff

 

[dobes]

I use the no chill method. For my 5 gallon batches it takes about 20 hours to get into the 60's when the temp is in the 30's outside.

 

[Vedder014]

I just did my first BIAB last week using a 7.5 gallon pot. I used the sparge method as well and it worked great. As for chilling, I used to chill 5 gal extract brews in the bathtub full of ice water. It took about 90 to 120 minutes to chill it. I just bought an immersion chiller and it is worth every penny.

 

[cmschlatt]

Thanks all for the advice, I'll report back on how it goes!

 

[cmschlatt]

Happy to say everything went great today. Ended up with 75% efficiency!

 

[z-bob]

I used to brew partial mash 10 or 15 years ago. I've just got back in the game, doing BIAB with a 5 gallon kettle. I still have my wort chiller from way back when (not sure I could afford the copper now.) So I'm brewing 3 gallon big beers and 4 gallon normal-gravity ones. I think I could do a 4 gallon high-gravity mash and then top it up to 5 gallons in the fermentor but I haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[cmschlatt]

Do it! I got 75% efficiency and 1.063 sg with a 6 gallon kettle