BIAB in two pots?

[mxpx5678]

Thinking about trying BIAB for the first time. I have a 30qt pot and a 20qt pot. Can I do 5 gallons in the 30qt pot for my main BIAB/mash and then heat up another 3.5 gallons for a sparge in the smaller pot and then combine the two afterwards for my total volume?

This will be just my 4th brew but I think I am ready to make the jump from extract.

 

[beninan]

Yup, but I would do it the other way around. Mash in the 20qt pot with a smaller amount of water than 5 gallons depending on the amount of grain, like maybe 3 gallons. Then sparge in the bigger pot with another 3.5-4 gallons. The grain will soak up about 1-1.5 gallons of water for an average size grain bill.

If you mash in the bigger pot, then transfer to the 20qt (4 gallon) that's filled with 3.5 gallons already, the 1 gallon soaked up in the grain will over flow the pot.

 

[tre9er]

^ this

I've seen this stuff happen first hand. I actually try to mash with a higher ratio so that I have less sparge water in the BK for this reason. That way when I dunk my grains and soak them in sparge water there's less chance of overflow due to displacement.

I actually put my bag in a 22qt. cooler I had and mash in that, then pull it, put it in BK (that has sparge water heated) and stir, rest 10 minutes, lift, squeeze, then pour runnings from cooler into BK and boil.

 

[mxpx5678]

^ this

I've seen this stuff happen first hand. I actually try to mash with a higher ratio so that I have less sparge water in the BK for this reason. That way when I dunk my grains and soak them in sparge water there's less chance of overflow due to displacement.

I actually put my bag in a 22qt. cooler I had and mash in that, then pull it, put it in BK (that has sparge water heated) and stir, rest 10 minutes, lift, squeeze, then pour runnings from cooler into BK and boil.

My thought was that I would sparge in the smaller pot and then pour that volume into the larger pot when I am done with the sparge. Is there a reason this wouldnt work?

 

[tre9er]

My thought was that I would sparge in the smaller pot and then pour that volume into the larger pot when I am done with the sparge. Is there a reason this wouldnt work?

Yes, generally sparge volume is much higher than mash volume unless you're making a stout or something big. You'll have more water plus the grains in the bag going into a smaller pot...overflow.

Most 5g. batches mash in 3g. of water or so and sparge with 4.25, YMMV, but close. Same amount of grain in both pots...you can see which needs to be bigger.

 

[mxpx5678]

Yes, generally sparge volume is much higher than mash volume unless you're making a stout or something big. You'll have more water plus the grains in the bag going into a smaller pot...overflow.

Most 5g. batches mash in 3g. of water or so and sparge with 4.25, YMMV, but close. Same amount of grain in both pots...you can see which needs to be bigger.

Oh ok that Makes sense. I didnt realize that you mash with such a small volume of water. I have a 10lb recipe that I am looking at. So this should work out well for that.

Thanks for the help!

 

[storunner13]

YOU SURE CAN DO IT! Check out the thread below for some information. This is how I do it all the time. Works like a champ!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

 

[mxpx5678]

YOU SURE CAN DO IT! Check out the thread below for some information. This is how I do it all the time. Works like a champ!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

AWESOME, my 4th batch will for sure be done using this method. I also just cleared out my garage so I can start to use that for brewing. Thanks for the link.

 

[tre9er]

Notice he does what I said, mashes in smaller pot and sparge in larger pot

 

[RM-MN]

I put about 5 gallons in my 30 qt pot and mash in that, then put the grain in the 20 qt pot and run or pour cold water over them. With the cold water you still rinse out the sugars and it cools the grain so you can squeeze more wort out of the bag of grain.

 

[tre9er]

Crap that's what I wanted to order today was those rubberized type high temp gloves. I like denaturing but it is hard to squeeze a super hot bag

 

[dbsmith]

I have (2) 5 gallon pots and mash in both of them for a thinner mash, and then just use a siphon with high temperature tubing to combine them. I then use my 3 gallon pot full of 170-175 degree water to pour over the grains to batch sparge the grain. I then transfer the first sparge runnings into the 1st large pot with the original wort from the mash until it is near the top. Then I pour more sparge water over the grains in my 2nd pot. After that, I remove the grains and I boil both both pots and transfer the sparge water over when there is about 15 mins left into the vessel with the main wort until it is near the top again (trying to utilize the hops better, since I only boil them with the main wort). After they chill, I pour the main wort into the fermentor and then top off to 5 gal with the sparge water. My efficiency is usually 65-70 percent, which is fine for me with my ghetto BIAB dual pot method.

 

[Grumpybumpy]

I've done the double pot method a few times and it works like a charm. I used 2 bottling/fermenting buckets to split my runnings evenly for the boil.

 

[bschoenb]

I put the most water in my pot I can (usually 8 gallons) and Mash/Mash out/ etc. Then as the bag is draining and heating up, I'll add the remaining water that I need for my full boil at Room Temp. Usually it's a gallon-ish

 

[wilserbrewer]

Since you will be mashing in a small vessel, might be a good idea to check your mash volume here, "Can I mash it" rackers calculator

http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/

Lots of good ideas above for using a dunk sparge, you can even perform a dunk sparge in an HDPE bucket if one were to only have one pot. Only instance that this will get tricky is for a really large beer where you will have to mash in both pots to to total mash volume.

 

[mxpx5678]

Since you will be mashing in a small vessel, might be a good idea to check your mash volume here, "Can I mash it" rackers calculator

http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/

Lots of good ideas above for using a dunk sparge, you can even perform a dunk sparge in an HDPE bucket if one were to only have one pot. Only instance that this will get tricky is for a really large beer where you will have to mash in both pots to to total mash volume.

Thanks. I plan on doing a Pliny clone. Should be about a 12 lb grain bill. So I should be ok. I will mash in my 5 gallon pot and sparge in my 7.5 gallon. Should workout pretty well. Also going to be my first brew in my garage using an outdoor burner.