My SS BIABasket - A tribute to GreenMonti

Having back to back lil stinkers I have been MIA for a while but I finally got some free time to put the work and ideas GreenMonti and I bounced back and forth over a year ago into action, so GM hope this serves as some closure for you

It all started with an idea of how to make AG brewing quick and efficient for me (a first time brewer of anything) and BIAB seemed the answer but I figured if I was going to get into a new hobby why not go big or go home.

So the basic idea was this:

Utilize my on demand water heater, feeding hot water into a pot or keggle that a large basket also fit in so I could essentially BIAB with a burner incorporated to regulate the temp and for boils.

This is how it pieced together:
Scored a good deal on a SS 100qt, triclad NSF pot in which GM worked his magic on and welded in a 1" coupler:


Then found a cheap 75L 316 pot on ebay which I took to my local guy and he took the plasma to the bottom and then took his TIG to attach some 16 ga SS perfed sheet with 3/32 diameter holes spaced 5/32:


As well as add some eye bolts so I can hoist the pot up.
Finally, got the kick a banjo burner and mounted it my stand:

Of course all this means nothing unless it works and I am happy to report... it :rockin:

Part II:
Since our water heater is new I am afraid to void the 12yr warranty by adding the mod chip which will allow it kick out 180F water on demand, so I pushed the button to get it up to 140 and proceeded to fill the pot up with 16 gallons of water. With nothing more than some Reflectix the temp held solid at 133.2, not bad.
With the burner only cranked a little it took under 10 mins to get the strike up to 156 per my BrewSmith instructions, dumped in the grains and learned my system holds heat pretty well. I Was trying to target 149, held steady at 152.3. Stir, stir and more stirring finally got me down to where I needed to be.

Finally it was time to see if GreenMonti's suggestion and fluid dynamics knowledge paid off (the idea being if the basket only had holes on the bottom this would force all the worth through the grain bed and offer better effiecency as opposed to holes also on the side of the basket):


Perfect drain. After it drained I then took my spoon and pressed on the bed and was surprised at just how much more wort was forced out. Thinking next time I will add a plastic disk on top and press it down sort of like how they do on an apple cider press.
And best of all, no grains made it through the perfed bottom!

Took around 15-20 minutes to get to a boil, held it for 90 minutes and then proceeded to go the no chill route into new 20L cubes that I scored from work.
All in all, including clean up it took around 5 hours start to finish, not bad for 1,280 oz of pleasure.
Learned some things, recalled many things from Palmers book after the fact but happy to report the Polish Eagle Brewery has officially spread its wings and things will only improve!

A big thanks to Craig who helped make this all happen.

Looks good. Hope to hear more on how it works.

Thats great, I have a 25 gallon steam kettle I picked up on CL a long time ago for 200. I might have to try this approach to use it.

Birdgunner said:

Finally it was time to see if GreenMonti's suggestion and fluid dynamics knowledge paid off (the idea being if the basket only had holes on the bottom this would force all the worth through the grain bed and offer better effiecency as opposed to holes also on the side of the basket):

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How was the efficiency compared to using a turkey fryer basket with holes in the sides?

So far so good, it is the one pot wonder.

Seven said:

How was the efficiency compared to using a turkey fryer basket with holes in the sides?

Click to expand...

Calculated it out to 76% which isn't the best but far from the worst and given this was my first go, hopefully it only goes up.

I average 70 to 75 percent with my turkey fryer basket. I like your setup!