BIAB in 10 Gallon Kettle

[cubalz]

I am heading over to a new friends house this weekend to help him brew on his much smaller kettle and I have some worries for a typical 1.050-1.060 beer using 11-13 lbs. of grain:

A) Can the above beer recipe be brewed in a 10 gallon kettle (BIAB, full volume, no sparge) and comfortably fit?

B) Is starting with a strike water volume of 7.8 gallons for a full volume/no sparge for 11-13 lbs. of grain sound correct?

C) He wants to try and finish with 5.5 gallons for the fermenter.

As this is not my dialed in system and being that it is much, much smaller, I am flying blind as I do not have his boil off rate and losses but I want to try to help him and bring along a recipe and grain in tow.

Given the above, should we be ok? Is there anything I should change before heading there this weekend? I am so used to my system that I am totally stressing about how to figure out all the angles with the limited information.

Thanks!
John

 

[brew703]

A) yes it can be done.

note: I have a 10 gal kettle and I brew 1.050-1.060 starting with 8 gal or so of water and I have to withhold 1.5-2 gal. I did brew full volume one time and when lifting the bag a lot of wort overflowed from the kettle. Sticky mess.

B) depends on boil off. When i use propane I start off with 8.2 gal as I have 5.75 gal into fermenter. My boil off is usually around 1 gal/hr. Using electric, which is what i do now, my boil off is about .75 gal/hr.

C) 5.5 gal into fermenter should be good.

 

[mullet6577]

already answered before I could post

 

[cubalz]

A) yes it can be done.

note: I have a 10 gal kettle and I brew 1.050-1.060 starting with 8 gal or so of water and I have to withhold 1.5-2 gal. I did brew full volume one time and when lifting the bag a lot of wort overflowed from the kettle. Sticky mess.

B) depends on boil off. When i use propane I start off with 8.2 gal as I have 5.75 gal into fermenter. My boil off is usually around 1 gal/hr. Using electric, which is what i do now, my boil off is about .75 gal/hr.

C) 5.5 gal into fermenter should be good.

Thanks! I was also considering just having him just use 6 gallons to start and then adding additional water after the mash is completed but I was worried about the water to grist ratio.

 

[RM-MN]

Boil off can be controlled by adjusting the heat. You only need a simmer so turn the heat down as soon as it starts to boil. If you do end up boiling off more than expected, what you boiled off was just water so replace it with water.

 

[brew703]

Thanks! I was also considering just having him just use 6 gallons to start and then adding additional water after the mash is completed but I was worried about the water to grist ratio.

Never had an issue withholding a couple gallons. I think the last brew I held back 1.5 gal and that worked for me. Whatever I hold out I just heat to 170 or so and pour over my grain bag when lifted out. I also squeeze the crap out of the bags.

 

[cubalz]

Just to summarize what I think everyone is saying: He can, for an average 1.050-1.060 beer using 11-13 lbs. of grain, just start with 6 gallons of strike water and after the mash is complete to top off the kettle prior to boil with the remaining 2 gallons of water. That way he can figure out what his boil off rate is and adjust for the next time he brews. Having 13 lbs of grain in 6 gallons of strike water will have no ill effects on his extraction efficiency. Correct?

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I used to use a 9.5 gallon kettle and targeted 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. I would start with 7 gallons of water and always ended up with 5.5 gallons (if not a little more). I wouldn't suggest going too far below 9.5 gallons because it was approaching the top of the kettle when the grain went in, but 10 gallons should be big enough. Just pull the bag slowly after the mash. Also, as mentioned earlier, you don't need a vigorous boil. Turn down the heat for a little and boil-off won't be too bad.

 

[RCope]

I push the limits on my 11 gallon kettle all the time. The trick I found to not spill wort over the kettle edge is to lift the bag a bit to lighten it but still have the bag internal to the kettle edge, then quickly pull it out all the way so that it clears the edge completely. That way the wort runs along the sides of the bag and drains from the middle at the lowest point. I use a ratchet hoist, of course.

 

[Kenmoron]

You may loose a little efficiency. But if you are able to suspend the grains above your BK just use that water that was held back to fly sparge rather then just topping up the kettle.

 

[ba-brewer]

https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Think I would under estimate boil off a little as it is easy to add water if needed but not so easy to boost gravity. I care less about the actually starting gravity lately but I used to just add corn sugar if I came up a bit short.

Sounds like you have time for your buddy to do a boil off test before you brew this weekend, then you are not guessing.

 

[Bobby_M]

There's no problem at all with full volume mashing this. I regularly start with 8 gallons in a 10 gallon kettle. Grain further displaces .075 gallons per pound so 10 pounds is only 3/4 gallon. You could fit 20 lbs in there. When you're pushing limits, I like to drain out about a gallon before stirring the grain in, then put that gallon back once it's fully mixed in.

 

[doug293cz]

It can be done, but it will be tight. I ran a simulation with the following parameters:

Post boil volume: 6 gal (allow 0.5 gal trub left in BK)
Boil off: 1 gal
Grain absorption: 0.10 gal/lb (no squeeze, long drain)
Conversion Efficiency: 100% (very fine grind)
Target OG: 1.060​

The simulation resulted in:

Grain bill: 13.2 lb
Strike water: 8.32 gal
Mash volume: 9.4 gal (tight! in 10 gal kettle)
Mash efficiency: 77%​

Good luck.

Brew on

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

Just another plus 1 on yes to all of your questions. In fact, those are about exactly all my typical numbers only I use 8.5 g of strike water for 11-14 pounds.

Looking at one of my recent batches: 8.5g water, 14 lbs grain, OG 1.065 and I had 6.0 g in fermenter. 10g Kettle.

 

[cubalz]

Thanks everyone! Just one more reason why I love this forum so much!