Biab

[eppo]

I've been doing 5-10 gallon all grain batches, in a few weeks i'm going to be doing 2 2.5 gallon all grain batches. Its been a while since i've done partial mashes.
I have a 5 gallon pot, going to be using about 6lbs of grain, and about 7 quarts of water in the mash, first... is there a calculator out there to make sure that it will fit?
and is it just as easy as heating up the water, adding the grain in a paint strainer bag and mashing? I'm pretty sure that will work, its just been a while.

 

[bleme]

The hardest part I have had with BIAB is maintaining the temp. The last 2 times I tried direct fire, which produced some really high FG beers. I am guessing that the temp just got too high at the bottom of the pot. Next time I am going to try sticking the pot into a pre-heated 150F oven. Hopefully that works better.

 

[Tinga]

here are some mash calculators that measure how much grain can be mash with your specific mash thickness. I make small 2.5 gallon batches a lot and I'm using a small 2 gallon cooler as my mash tun.

link: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[Fennis]

bleme - I initially had a problem maintaining temperatures because I was doing BIAB brews in my shed, in the winter...so the ambient room temperature was maybe 30 degrees. The easiest way I found to maintain temperature was when I bought my 10gal aluminum pot, I bought a cover...so cover your pot while its mashing if you are not, that has to be the single biggest loss of temperature. Then I found an old blanket and wrapped it around the brew pot while it was on the burner stand. Between insulating the pot and covering it, in the 60 minutes or so the grains would sit there, the water might lose about 4 degrees. On cold, windy days after about 30 minutes I would take the blanket and cover off, kick on the burner for 5 minutes and get the temp back up, and let it sit for another 30. I've done about 5 batches that way now, and its worked well for me to maintain temps.

 

[eppo]

here are some mash calculators that measure how much grain can be mash with your specific mash thickness. I make small 2.5 gallon batches a lot and I'm using a small 2 gallon cooler as my mash tun.

link: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

using that calculator, the 5 gallon pot is the perfect size. Now i think i'm going to have to make one of those dowels that i can put in the pot so i can top off to the correct amount of wort preboil.
Thanks for your help.

 

[bleme]

Then I found an old blanket and wrapped it around the brew pot while it was on the burner stand.

Any idea how hot it would have to be to melt the nylon shell of my sleeping bag?

 

[BPhad]

The hardest part I have had with BIAB is maintaining the temp. The last 2 times I tried direct fire, which produced some really high FG beers. I am guessing that the temp just got too high at the bottom of the pot. Next time I am going to try sticking the pot into a pre-heated 150F oven. Hopefully that works better.

If your pots fit in the oven it works great. I've done this 4 times now and lose maybe 1 degree while in the oven
I've been doing it with two 5 gallon pots do I get about 5.5 gallons at end of boil.
Helps that I have double oven.

 

[Fennis]

Any idea how hot it would have to be to melt the nylon shell of my sleeping bag?

It would probably be too hot. I just use an old comforter that my dog had chewed the corner off when she was a puppy. I believe its nothing more than cotton and polyester--but I bet that can take more heat than a nylon sleeping bag. I always turn off the burner first, then just wrap the blanket around the pot. Nothing has caught fire or melted yet.

 

[pvtschultz]

150 degrees shouldn't melt your sleeping bag, but an old comforter is the ticket IME.