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HomeBrewMasterRace

Enthusiastic Homebrewer
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I'm interesting in doing a 5 Gallon Batch of a hefeweizen. I just bought the grain as well a brewing bag to clamp over the sides. I know i need to not tie it off and clamp it so i can stir to avoid clumps.

My question needs a little background I only have a 5 gallon kettle, If i was to make the mash in this (i'm calculating i'll be left with about 2.5~3 gallons as i anticipate the grain to suck up about 1 gallon) and then sparge in a second pot with 1 gallon of water. Bringing my total boil to somewhere between 3~4 gallons in it.

When i transfer this to the fermenter, could i top off with Water at the end as I've done for my extract brews in the past to reach the 5 gallon mark?

Thanks for the help!
 
That's what I do, sparge until you rate about 1 inch from the top of the pot, do your boil, if you don't have an ic chuck some ice into the pot to get cold break to happen then use a sieve into the fv and top up with cold water. Should be about pitching temp then too.

Edit
You make take an efficiency hit so work on 60% for your first one
 
That will get you beer but your efficiency is going to be terrible.
You can get a cheap 10-12 gallon aluminum tamale pot for about $25 at the warehouse grocery stores.
 
That will get you beer but your efficiency is going to be terrible.
You can get a cheap 10-12 gallon aluminum tamale pot for about $25 at the warehouse grocery stores.
I so wish pots were that cheap here in the UK. A 10 gal is easily pushing £50 (~$75)
 
Do you guys think an 8 gallon (32 QT) would be sufficient? That's the only ones i can find on walmart or amazon.

Maybe if you could send me a recommendation that'd be awesome!
 
Do you guys think an 8 gallon (32 QT) would be sufficient? That's the only ones i can find on walmart or amazon.

Maybe if you could send me a recommendation that'd be awesome!

I use an 8 gallon pot for 5 gallon BIAB batches with no problems, as long as my grain bill is about 12 lbs or less. Depending on how vigorously you boil, more than that than you'll probably need to sparge in another pot or bucket.

Along with beersmith, I use the following calculator - http://www.biabcalculator.com/. You can plug in your pot size to see if it will fit your grainbill. The only thing I alter is boil-off, I use 0.50 gal/hr since I don't boil as vigorously. With an 8 gallon pot you have to watch the hot-break boilover closely.
 

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