Can I make this beer in a 5 gallon pot?

[SteveFTC]

Hello everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. Used to brew a lot 8-10 years ago, mostly using extracts. Tried some all-grain back then with good results. Moved to Colorado, so many good beers here I never bothered. About a year and a half ago my wife bought me another kit and we tried an all-grain BIAB. We have a five gallon pot. We ended up with half the bottles of what we normally had back using extracts. I was, and still am pretty confused. My brain seems to have forgotten how to brew. I guess we should have added water to the fermenter (?).

Anyway, my wife wants to start brewing again while I am hesitant (learning retention thing as I get older). We got the ingredients for the Great Lakes Christmas Ale clone from this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/great-lakes-christmas-ale-clone-218147/

We also forgot we only had a five gallon pot. So we have 11 lbs of grain with a five gallon pot. Can this be done via the BIAB method? Prefer not to have to get a bigger pot right now.

Can I brew it (hoping it doesn't make too much of a mess) and add cold water later to bring it up to five gallons. I understand that might make our efficiency (still don't fully comprehend that, just the basic idea) lower but I really only care about taste.

Thanks in advance from this second or third time brewing newbie.

Steve

 

[Homercidal]

Welcome SteveFTC!

Firstly, you CAN make 5 gallons of beer in a 5 gallon pot, but you will have to brew it stronger than the final gravity, and then add water to dilute it down a bit. That is what is expected for beginner brewers who want to try brewing but don't want to spend the $$ to upgrade their hardware, and there are usually instructions with extract kits that tell you top up with however much water you need in order to reach 5 gallons. Because the kit maker has supplied the precise amount of fermentables, you HAVE to get the proper gravity as long as you dilute to the 5 gallons in the fermenter. The only thing you could lose is water, and you are putting it back in at the end again.

The difference with All Grain brewing is that your efficiency is really unknown, so there is a good chance that topping up to 5 gallons won't give you the desired gravity. It's not a big deal. I recommend brewing with whatever grains the recipe calls for and after brewing you can measure the gravity and then use an online calculator to figure up how much water you will need to dilute to the expected gravity. You may end up with more or less beer in the fermentor, but it's a small tradeoff in my opinion. If you do this, then you may wish to use a bit less water in the mash so you are more likely to have a HIGHER gravity and then just add water to the fermentor. Alternately, you could buy a bag of Dry malt Extract to have on hand and if your beer is already too low on gravity you can simply add some extract to bring up to the desired gravity.

And yes, you can BIAB on a stovetop very easily. Read up on the method. It really doesn't have any hidden factors.

Another possibility is to simply brew smaller batches. 5 gallons is simply an accepted De Facto amount. Lots of people brew 2.5 gallon batches and plenty of people commonly brew 1 gallon batches (although I admit I think a lot of those people are doing it for experimentation purposes.)

I think the thing do at this point is to BUY A HYDROMETER! You say you had half the bottles, and maybe should have diluted with water, but you would have known this if you had used a hydrometer to measure the gravity when you put it in the fermentor. A hydrometer is practically a required item for all brewers, but especially when starting out with All Grain, or if you are starting out in general.

If All Grain seems too complicated focus on BIAB. It's pretty easy and it very handy on the stovetop. Also, there is NOTHING wrong with using extracts. You may have fewer choices for base malt, but most other malts can be mashed or steeped easily on the stovetop. It's a very useful way to brew without having to worry about efficiency or missing your Gravity by much if at all.

I might also recommend reading How To Brew, by john Palmer, or even Homebrewing for Dummies (It's actually a very nice brewing book!) Or reading up more in the beginner section. Very good homebrew can be made using the suggestions from that area. You don't need to do fancy things to make good beer.

 

[DaNewf]

Google Maxi-BIAB. This is a stove-top BIAB method meant to produce up to 23 litres (~6 us gallons) of beer using a 19 litre (~5US gallon) pot.

 

[SteveFTC]

Thanks folks. I do have a hydrometer already from the brew kit. But after all this research I figured why stress out about calculations. I found an inexpensive 10 gallon pot and will do that in case we want to do more BIAB's in the future.

Steve