BIAB or Straight to Electric?

[ISwearI'mCuttingBack]

Hi all,

Just hoping to get some opinions. I've only done extract brewing in the past and am interested in all grain for a next step. I'm thinking about investing in an all in one electric kettle, I want to start brewing on a regular basis. Would it be wise to first try my hand at BIAB with a 10 gallon kettle? Or would that just be a waste of investment if I plan to eventually go to electric anyways? Thanks, any thoughts appreciated!

 

[Jtvann]

Electric and biab are not exclusive of each other. Electric is just the way you heat. Biab is a way to brew. You can do both, either, or neither. Not sure that answers your question.

 

[doug293cz]

You can do electric BIAB. You just need a suitable kettle with a heating element and a controller for the element. You can also go with one of the all-in-one electric brew systems. If you decide to go BIAB, I would recommend a 15 gal kettle. 10 will work for 5 gal batches, but with 15 you can do high gravity beers, and the occasional 10 gal batch if you throw in a sparge step.

Brew on

 

[Sammy86]

I agree with @doug293cz . If you're going to move to electric in the future, might as well make the future now.

I made the move to a Brewzilla and my brew days are now so much easier! It has the basket w/false bottom but plenty of people are using bags instead. I can't imagine firing up the propane burner anymore.

 

[moreb33rplz]

I like propane instead of electric, but if you already know you want to go electric do it from the start

 

[palmtrees]

If you want to just get a feel for all-grain brewing without having to simultaneously figure out electric brewing, you could do one or two small-batch BIAB recipes with a bag and your existing pot. You can easily do a 2.5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon pot. Your only investment there would be the bag, which is inexpensive and could be used later with an electric setup, if you got one big enough. That would reduce the number of variables for your first all-grain brew without having to buy any extra equipment before you moved to electric. But I definitely wouldn't buy new equipment like a bigger pot or something just to try out BIAB if you think you're going to go electric. As folks say around here, buy once cry once.

 

[ISwearI'mCuttingBack]

Thanks everyone for the advice!