Kettle size and design for eBIABasket

I'm in the process of purchasing my first brewing kettle. I plan to start with a simple brew in a bag setup powered by propane. I've been in contact with Spike Brewing and plan to order a custom kettle through them. I really like the looks of the Colorado Nano Brewer systems, and would like to expand to a similar BIABasket setup in the future. With that in mind, I want to buy a kettle that is flexible enough to use for a long time, and has all the ports I need in all the right places.

My first question is concerning size. I'm pretty set on 5 gallon batches, and after reading lots of advice online I thought I was set on a 15 gallon kettle for the extra headspace. When I started to consider the BIABasket setup however, I realized I should make sure the basket will be submerged enough in a 15 gallon kettle for a 5 gallon batch.

I estimate that the lowest volume I'll ever have in the kettle for a 5 gallon batch is 5 gallons. I'll likely have more in the kettle most of the time, but I think 5 gallons is a safe number to work with. 5 gallons in the 15 gallon kettle will fill to the 6" mark.

My kettle will have 1.5" tri clamp ports. Spike can place the centers as low as 2", so that's the height I'll place the ULWD element port. I have searched high and low, but can't find the diameter of the ULWD elements anywhere. I estimate it to be about 1.5", which would put the top of the element at the 2.75" mark. Say a quarter inch gap between the basket and the element, and the basket is submerged by 3" at a minimum. Does this sound sufficient? I could go with a 10 gallon kettle to allow the basket to be further submerged in the wort during mash, but would I be placing any limitations on myself in doing so?

My second question is regarding port placement. As far as height is concerned, I should put the drain port and the element port as low as possible, so 2" centers. Does it make sense to place the thermocouple port and whirpool port at the same height? This appears to be the seutp with the Nano Brewer systems. Where should I orient the ports on the circumference of the kettle? If the drain valve is at 12:00 looking from the top, does 6:00 for the ULWD port make sense? I could then place the thermocouple and whirlpool ports somewhere between those two.

Sorry for all the questions. I do plan to start simple with brew in a bag, but want a kettle that is adaptable and will last me for a long time, so it seems wise to get all this stuff nailed down once rather than buy a second kettle down the line.

Any input is greatly appreciated, thank you!

Just a quick note as other people are going to chime in as well.

A) If you want to end with 5 gallons of beer, you're going to have a few more gallons on top of that for water. Grain absorption, evaporation, losses, etc. So if you have a 10lb batch, you're going to have 7 gallons of water to mash with, so that's roughly half the pot. so you're going to be higher then what you're thinking.

That's a good point. I think I'll typically have a lot more than 5 gallons in there, 5 gallons just seemed like a good safe number to use as an absolute minimum. Based on that, do you think a 15 gallon kettle is an appropriate size for the setup I described?

Thanks for the input.

For Spike, you will be at 3" with a 5500 watt curly. Figure bottom of basket at 3".

see link; https://goo.gl/photos/XPC4rAo1CC6BP51t9

so, there was a bit to read... not your fault, but i'm at work so it's hard to decipher it all in my noggin haha.

however, if you're going the brew in a basket realm, i would place absolutely everything that would get in the way of the basket at the lowest point that you can as to not interfere with the basket itself, if that makes sense?
You would really want the 15 gallon pot for 5 gallon BIAB just for the space, 10 gallons is somewhat small.
check out my 9 gallon doing a mash of just under 7lb, i was about a gallon over on water. But still, this will give you an idea of how tight it would be in a 10 gallon pot (add an inch)

20160705_110251 by Noah Scott, on Flickr

Also, just to add some fun, you can always get something custom made.

Check out this dude and his basket, it's flat fronted to work with his blichmann kettle.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LrQVRCG2D8[/ame]

might cost more, but you might be able to have them make a more custom pot with indents for the element and such.

One last thing about the placement of stuff. You might want to think about cleaning as well. I have all my stuff kind of tucked over on one 1/3rd of the pot, that way if i'm having it on it's side for cleaning it wont roll and hit the fittings constantly. it'll hit and stop on one of the pot handles before it hits any valves or fittings.

Hopefully that helps!

1MadScientist said:

For Spike, you will be at 3" with a 5500 watt curly. Figure bottom of basket at 3".

see link; https://goo.gl/photos/XPC4rAo1CC6BP51t9

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Awesome, thanks for posting that! Looks like I was pretty close with my estimation, but I feel much better with an actual measurement. Do you have that element mounted in your Spike kettle with a 1.5" tri clamp? I'm assuming you're at 2" center height for the port?

Rivenin said:

however, if you're going the brew in a basket realm, i would place absolutely everything that would get in the way of the basket at the lowest point that you can as to not interfere with the basket itself, if that makes sense?

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That makes total sense. 2" height it is!

You would really want the 15 gallon pot for 5 gallon BIAB just for the space, 10 gallons is somewhat small.

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You're right, things do look pretty tight in that kettle. That helps me feel better about a 15gal kettle. Should be a good size for 5gal batches and let me go up to 7.5gal if I decide to, but I'm 99% sure I'll just stick with 5gal.

One last thing about the placement of stuff. You might want to think about cleaning as well. I have all my stuff kind of tucked over on one 1/3rd of the pot, that way if i'm having it on it's side for cleaning it wont roll and hit the fittings constantly. it'll hit and stop on one of the pot handles before it hits any valves or fittings.

Hopefully that helps!

Click to expand...

Good point re: cleaning. I've noticed Colorado does what you've described, placing all four ports around one third of the kettle. This seems like a wise decision, and as long as I'm picturing everything correctly, should allow for everything to fit. Something like ports at 12 o'clock, 10:30, 9:00, and 7:30.

Epos7 said:

Awesome, thanks for posting that! Looks like I was pretty close with my estimation, but I feel much better with an actual measurement. Do you have that element mounted in your Spike kettle with a 1.5" tri clamp? I'm assuming you're at 2" center height for the port?

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A 2" center is as low as Spike will go, don't ask me how I know, lol.

No, I'm not using the curly. I bought a 5500 w bend over from Bobby. I bent it some to get it further away from the center. I am making a custom stainless steel wire mesh screen now so as to minimize to distance the bag will be off the bottom.

see link; https://goo.gl/photos/dteCj2ocjqRcAPQA6

P.S. Please ignore my short temp probe. I have an 8" going in there.

Rivenin said:

Check out this dude and his basket...

Click to expand...

That dude is me.

This is the port layout I've drawn up.



Or I could do this, keeping all the ports on the same side of the handles:

hafmpty said:

That dude is me.

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hah! Howdy dude! and from my old town Lived in northside and worked in blue ash for 2 years not too long back.

Epos7 said:

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Personally i like this one best just due to handle placement.

That's the one I decided on. Like you mentioned earlier, keeping all the ports to one side of the handles should make it easier to tip the kettle on its side for cleaning.

Design has been sent off to Spike. Hopefully I'll have my new kettle in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for all the input, this forum is great resource!

Awesome! and good luck! :rockin:

In my experience, Spike would only install ports at 90° angles. Let us know how it goes.

Rivenin said:

hah! Howdy dude! and from my old town Lived in northside and worked in blue ash for 2 years not too long back.

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It's a great city. I'm a transplant, but I really like it here. There's always lots going on. The beer scene is great too. Northside has it's own brewery now called Urban Artifact. You can check them out online.

1MadScientist said:

In my experience, Spike would only install ports at 90° angles. Let us know how it goes.

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They had no problem with my design, so it appears they can do ports at 45 degree angles as well. Maybe they updated their tooling recently.

hafmpty said:

That dude is me.

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That's a pretty sweet setup. Where did you get your basket made? I might have some more questions for you once I get a few batches under my belt and start to design my basket setup

Epos7 said:

That's a pretty sweet setup. Where did you get your basket made? I might have some more questions for you once I get a few batches under my belt and start to design my basket setup

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No problem. Happy to help. I had the basket designed at ArborFab by Chad. He did a great job. Definitely recommend you getting in touch with him when you get to the point where you want to have something made.

Let me know if you need any other info or input. I really like my system. It works well for what I want to do with it.

Epos7 said:

They had no problem with my design, so it appears they can do ports at 45 degree angles as well. Maybe they updated their tooling recently.

Click to expand...

I re-read my E-mail thread and see that I didn't ask Spike directly about 45 degree angles. I'm happy with what I do have. Spike does make a good product.

hafmpty said:

No problem. Happy to help. I had the basket designed at ArborFab by Chad. He did a great job. Definitely recommend you getting in touch with him when you get to the point where you want to have something made.

Let me know if you need any other info or input. I really like my system. It works well for what I want to do with it.

Click to expand...

Would de willing to post and describe your basket? I'm doing a very similar build?

1MadScientist said:

I re-read my E-mail thread and see that I didn't ask Spike directly about 45 degree angles. I'm happy with what I do have. Spike does make a good product.

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Do you know if I can have ports (I'm not doing TCs) installed at intervals smaller than 90 and 45 degrees? An example would be drain port at 6:00(front), thermometer port at 7:00, sight-glass at 8:00, and 1.5" TC for element at 19:00.

Thx

swimIan said:

Would de willing to post and describe your basket? I'm doing a very similar build?

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Chad built me a 400 micron basket to use for BIAB in my 10G Blichmann non electric kettle. Since I have the dip tube and therm probe installed, I had him design the basket as a D shape. The flat D side is 3" deep and clears the obstacles. I also had him make me a D shaped press plate so I can apply gently pressure to the grain bed for extraction. It is a heavy duty and well made basket and I'm glad I had this made. I am doing a Saison this Saturday, and I'll take you a few pics to post if you'd like the see the basket in action. Let me know.

swimIan said:

Would de willing to post and describe your basket? I'm doing a very similar build?

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I'd be happy to. If you PM me your email address, I can send you the drawings & letter I sent to Chad at ArborFab. If you're looking for something else, let me know.