First BIAB attempt this weekend. I assume my pot is too small.

[atwoheadedcat]

Hey everyone!

Pretty new brewer here. Been brewing for a little over a year with 8 extract brews under my belt so far.

I finally think I am ready to move on to all grain but apartment living makes it tough...BIAB it is!

I am planning to make a pretty simple Belgian Wit. I am primarily looking to improve on flavor at first and will worry about efficiency in my later batches. Haven't nailed down my grain bill yet though and I know that might be important to answer this question (I am predicting like 5lbs most likely). My boil off rait is about 0.75 Gal/hr.

Anyway, down to the question: I have a 3-gallon capacity pot (four gallons total if I filled all the way to the brim) and assume this is too small for a full 2.5 gallon BIAB batch? I am hoping to be wrong but I feel nervous about it. If so, should I do a partial BIAB mash and supplement with some DME? Is it unheard of to do a partial boil with a full grain bill and top off in the carboy? I assume that would create other problems. Or, will my kettle size be ok and just go for it? I don't really have the budget to but a new kettle right now so any advice would be helpful!

 

[jshathaway]

It is going to be too small to mash with the full amount of water that you will want to have post-mash/pre-boil. However, one easy remedy is to rinse the grain bag after taking it out of the water. I do this when i do BIAB, Pull out the bag, put it in a regular kitchen colander/strainer and let it drip, then rinse it with some 170 degree water until you have enough to get to your desired pre-boil volume.
I think for my setup, 8-9 lbs of grain absorb about 1 gal of water, so you'll be less than that, maybe 1/2 - 3/4 gallon.
If you have an iPhone you can download the app BIABCalc and it allows you to set a kettle size and grain amount and then determines how much water you can use for the mash.

My normal course of action is:
mash > pull out the grain bag > start heating the wort up to boil >while heating, let the grain bag drain and rinse the grains > then add that wort to the boil kettle until i reach the needed volume.

Just experiment and see what works best for your set up, but it should be completely do-able

 

[JohnSand]

You can top off in the fermenter, just as you would for extract. You can also top off the pot as you go. After the hot break there is less risk of boil over. If you partial boil and top off, that will let you measure your gravity and calculate the water to add. I do this by pulling a sample near the end of the boil in a pyrex measuring cup, about 6oz will do. That cup gets set into a bowl of ice water to cool. When the pot is chilling, check the sample gravity.

 

[petrolSpice]

Is mash efficiency a concern with using much less water? Or does sparging do well enough to rinse out the sugars from the grain?

 

[Aristotelian]

I do 2.5 gallons in a 3 gallon pot using the mash/sparge process that jshathaway describes and then boiling very carefully. Watch it like a hawk and then start dialing back the heat even before it is boiling. After it foams for a couple of minutes the bubbles disappear and then you are safe to leave it on medium heat. It's not ideal and I am looking to upgrade soon, but you should be absolutely fine with a 4 gallon pot.

 

[RM-MN]

It is going to be too small to mash with the full amount of water that you will want to have post-mash/pre-boil. However, one easy remedy is to rinse the grain bag after taking it out of the water. I do this when i do BIAB, Pull out the bag, put it in a regular kitchen colander/strainer and let it drip, then rinse it with some 170 degree water until you have enough to get to your desired pre-boil volume.
I think for my setup, 8-9 lbs of grain absorb about 1 gal of water, so you'll be less than that, maybe 1/2 - 3/4 gallon.
If you have an iPhone you can download the app BIABCalc and it allows you to set a kettle size and grain amount and then determines how much water you can use for the mash.

My normal course of action is:
mash > pull out the grain bag > start heating the wort up to boil >while heating, let the grain bag drain and rinse the grains > then add that wort to the boil kettle until i reach the needed volume.

Just experiment and see what works best for your set up, but it should be completely do-able

This is about what I do but I leave out the sparge wort until the rest of the wort reaches boiling and the hot break settles. Adding the rest of the wort then gets you another hot break but a much smaller one and it is really easy to keep that from boiling over.