BIAB Question

[JCasey1992]

Hi all!

I am brand new to BIAB (brewing my first one tomorrow) and I had a question. I only have an eight gallon kettle and one of the kits I will eventually be brewing has 16 pounds worth of grain. Knowing full well that there isn't enough room in the kettle for everything, I eventually want to buy a bigger boil kettle but until I can afford it, is there any reason I can't just add water later on in the boil to top it off? Also, what is the logic behind that?

Thank you,
Casey

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

You could do that or do a second mash with the grains if you have a second kettle. I use a canning pot and a lobster steamer pot sometimes when I brew a batch larger than 3 gallons. I hope that helps, and we'll see what more experienced folks have to say.

 

[rupert130]

Just batch sparge it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

You can mash it all in your 8 gallon kettle and conduct a sparge in a bucket, or a cooler.

Aim to get 7 gallons preboil.

Yes, your 8 gallon pot is on the small side, but it really isn't preventing you from brewing AG beers. a larger kettle would be more convenient, but 8 will work.

 

[RM-MN]

What efficiency does that recipe expect? You might have good enough efficiency with your BIAB and finely crushed grains that you don't really need 10 pounds of grain. If not, your 8 gallon pot might work out fine.

 

[shetc]

This is a really good deal https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...in-20&linkId=27accfec6fac0eae4e0f4b6009fc562a

 

[cegan09]

Here is what I do for larger beers. I have an 8.5 gallon kettle for BIAB.

Go buy a 5 gallon bucket from home depot. Drill a bunch of holes in the bottom. Then grab your larger bottling bucket. Place the 5-gallon in the larger bucket. Use a tool like beer smith when you calculate your recipe. If you look at the vols tab it will calculate how large of a mash tun you need and compare it to your equipment profile. Make sure you're using a BIAB/Full Vol Mash profile. In the Vols tab there is a kettle top up cell. Keep increasing that until the mash volume fits in your kettle size.

Example, the last beer I made was probably 12 lbs of grains. For my setup I was able to put about 6.8 gallons of water in the kettle, then the grains, and I was right at the top. I had 1.5-2 gallons in the top off cell (can't remember exactly). That top up water gets heated up to about 168°F.

When your mash is done, pull the bag, and drop it in your bucket setup. Then take the heated top up water and pour it over the grains. I use a strainer to help spread it. This is a sort of "rinse sparge" that helps grab the extra sugars. Now squeeze the bag a bit, and add this collected wort back to the kettle and you should be good to go.


This is a quick almost batch sparge approach, and it works fairly well if you don't want to go buy a bunch of other equipment. Your 8 gallon kettle is still going to limit you a little. For a full 5 gallon batch (I'm usually aiming for almost 6 gallons post boil to account for losses to trub and whatnot) I'm sitting fairly close to the top of the kettle at the start of boil. (I boil off about 1.5 gallons an hour, so at least 7 gallons pre-boil). If you get into really really big beers where you want 90-120 minute boils, you're going to have a more exciting time, and probably will need to go down in batch size a little.

 

[wilserbrewer]

This is a really good deal https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...in-20&linkId=27accfec6fac0eae4e0f4b6009fc562a

That is a steal, 50 bucks for an 80 qt kettle with strainer with free shipping.

 

[andrewmaixner]

To directly answer your question:
No, there is no reason you couldn't do that. It's very common to mash low volume and top up. Pour the needed water through the grain bag, and you will also get better efficiency.

 

[myelo]

That is a steal, 50 bucks for an 80 qt kettle with strainer with free shipping.

And a lid. I don't even need a pot but am tempted to get this because it's such a great deal.

 

[RdeVjun]

Here, the Maxi-BIAB guide might also help.

 

[JCasey1992]

This is a really good deal https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...in-20&linkId=27accfec6fac0eae4e0f4b6009fc562a

I ended up going with this kettle. Thanks for pointing it out. Much of what I found in that size was hundreds of dollars. What a deal!

 

[shetc]

I ended up going with this kettle. Thanks for pointing it out. Much of what I found in that size was hundreds of dollars. What a deal!

Congrats! I paid 40 clams for an unused 11 gallon version via Craigslist, and I thought that was a good deal 😆 I highly recommend using Reflectix around it when mashing -- I get like a 3 degree temp drop over a 90 minute mash.

Finally, most of the deals I get come from http://www.homebrewfinds.com/ including that pot you bought.