1 gallon BIAB?

[GeorgiaMead]

Ill a 12 qt pot work for BIAB? I am getting one for free and I want to start brewing beer. The cash flow is tight cause of my wedding and figured start small and work my way up... Just wanna make sure that a free 12qt pot can work

 

[Mozart]

You'll be constrained on the sizes of the batches you can produce, but yes, a 12 quart pot can certainly work.

I comfortably get 6 lbs. of grain and two gallons of water in my 20 quart pot for my BIAB brews. I can brew up to about a 3 gallon all-grain batch of normal gravity wort (more if I do a partial mash and backfill with extract).

Given that your pot will be a little over half the size of mine, you should be able to mash 3 pounds of grain in a gallon of water, and produce 1.5 gallons of normal gravity wort using the BIAB process. Again, you can make larger batches if you do add extract and then top up with water in the fermentation vessel.

 

[GeorgiaMead]

I'm just lookin to get my feet wet and 1 gallon batches

 

[Mozart]

I'm just lookin to get my feet wet and 1 gallon batches

In that case, a 12 quart pot should be sufficient to produce 1 gallon batches using the BIAB technique.

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Calichusetts]

Plenty big...I got a 3 gallon sparge/boil kettle and 2.5 gallon mash pot. I get over 4 pounds in it all the time and still mash pretty thin. I usually start my boil with 2 gallons, but I also like longer boils

 

[GeorgiaMead]

I already do wines meads and ciders, but I'm a huge beer fan... And my wife ( very soon to be) wants to try it 😊 so we will fine tune our skills till I get a kettle large enough for 5 gallon batches

 

[harebearva]

I do 2.5 gallon BIAB in a 16qt stock pot with no problems and average 70% efficiency. I typically mash about 5 lbs of grain in 3 gal of water. A lot of BIABer's just drain squeeze and go after mash but I'm not a fan of squeezing the bag. I transfer my bag to a strainer after it's done draining and do a mini sparge by just nuking 2 quarts of water to 170 and sprinkling it over my grains. I typically get 2 quarts of 1.030 wort out of that.

You can easily do 1 gallon batches in a 12qt and have fun with it! Experiment to find your happy place!

 

[JDGator]

it will work. and you can always sparge some if need be to increase your volume. not exactly true BIAB style, but who really cares.

That's what i do when i brew 10gal batches BIAB in my 60 quart pot.

 

[C-Rider]

I do 2.5 gallon BIAB in a 16qt stock pot with no problems and average 70% efficiency. I typically mash about 5 lbs of grain in 3 gal of water. A lot of BIABer's just drain squeeze and go after mash but I'm not a fan of squeezing the bag. I transfer my bag to a strainer after it's done draining and do a mini sparge by just nuking 2 quarts of water to 170 and sprinkling it over my grains. I typically get 2 quarts of 1.030 wort out of that.

You can easily do 1 gallon batches in a 12qt and have fun with it! Experiment to find your happy place!

Why don't you squeeze the bag? With as small amt of grain as that you can get evey last drop out by pressing instead of squeezing. I press w/a coffee cup in each hand as the bag sits in a collendar over my mash tun. No off flavor by squeezing every last drop.

But to each his own. Main thing is we make beer we like to drink.

 

[harebearva]

Why don't you squeeze the bag? With as small amt of grain as that you can get evey last drop out by pressing instead of squeezing. I press w/a coffee cup in each hand as the bag sits in a collendar over my mash tun. No off flavor by squeezing every last drop.

But to each his own. Main thing is we make beer we like to drink.

I've squeezed in the past and never had off flavors, it works fine. I just decided one day to try the make-shift sparge and essentially rinse my grains with the water I planned to top off with to get my pre-boil amount. I was impressed with the level of wort I extracted that way. Also I custom made my grain bag to exactly fit my kettle. Even though I triple stitched it with Kevlar thread, I was always a little nervous about busting a seam on my bag with squeezing. Those things are a pain in the arse to stitch. I made a cylinder shaped bag with a flat bottom which makes my mash a lot easier to stir.

 

[wilserbrewer]

... Just wanna make sure that a free 12qt pot can work

Sure a 12 qt pot can easily handle a 1 gallon batch...or even a 1 1/2 gallon batch.

I would try a a 1 or 1 1/2 gallon batch, then perhaps try a 2 gallon batch...just watch for boilover...maybe try fermcap s.

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

I have a 12 quart pot at home that i used to brew extract batches when i first made beer. When i upgraded to a 40 quart pot, i kept the 12 qt for mashing - i can get about 6.5 lbs of grains and the needed water in there.

What ive only done recently is make 1 gallon all grain batches in the 12 qt pot. It's a perfect size, easy to cool in the sink and clean up is a breeze. All my mashing is done BIAB style for what its worth.

 

[OswaldvW]

I use an 12 quart and a 16 quart pot. The smaller one for mashing and the larger for sparging. I only do 2.5 gallons at a time with this current setup...

I started off making 1 gallon batches, but soon saw it as more economical to move up my production to the 2.5 gallon model.