Smaller kettle options for BIAB

Hi everyone,

I'm new to BIAB, and I've got a 7.5g kettle. I'd like to brew a normal 5g batch, but I understand I'll need ~2x the volume if not more. Would it be possible to mash more grain to reach a higher OG, then top off with additional water to hit my target volume before the boil?

i.e, 12lbs in 5 gallons to mash hitting 1.102 OG, then adding 2 gallons to dilute to 1.061?

I understand that the real answer is getting a bigger vessel, but any input on this would be helpful.

 

There's no rule saying BIAB needs to be full volume no-sparge.

If you have a second vessel, or even a food-grade bucket, you could dunk sparge.

 

Or you could make a smaller batch.....

 

Hey! That's an idea! I've got a large insulated beverage dispenser that should work, thanks for the tip. Now that I know what to look for (dunk sparge), of course there are tons of threads.

I sure could, but who wants 4 gallons of beer when they could have 5?

 

Oh and welcome to HBT!

Good luck!

 

Here is link to help determine if a given amount of grain will fit your kettle
https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Brewing stronger then adding top up water works but it need slightly more hops vs a full volume boil.

You can play with a shorter boil time to help fit in your smaller kettle too.

 

This is exactly what I do. Mash then do a 5L dunk sparge.

I target the gravity at this point to be what I want post boil. Then after the boil I top up the hot wort with enough water to bring me back to my target gravity.

beersmith has the capability to work all the calcs out with the dunk sparge and kettle top up. Works great means I generally get 24L out of a 27L sized kettle.

 

Do you keg or bottle? There is no hard reason that a batch needs to be 5.00 gals. Even if you keg into 5 gal kegs, there are ways to purge the headspace. I know, I also have that desire to max out volumes, but I also have really started to love doing 2.5 gal batches. I would guess that 4 gal batches would work nicely in a 7.5 gal pot.

As mentioned, a sparge would help on the mash side. To get 5 gals in a keg, I start my boil at 7 gals. Boiling 7 gals in a 7.5 pot is a gamble. To help on the boil side, you could reduce boil off rate (I boil off 1 gal over 60 min), do what you can to reduce losses (I only lose a little to trub and hop absorption...only so much you can do there), live with a little less packaging volume (I target 5.5 gals into my fermenter to get 5.0 in a keg...I transfer a good amount of trub into the fermenter).

Supplementing your wort with some extract seems viable as well.