How big a pot should I buy?

[Snotpoodle]

Hi Everyone,

Moving from Kit (skipping Extract) to all grain BIAB.

Want to get my hands on a pot (i have gas burner + bag), but not sure how big a pot I need.

My FV is a plastic bin (25L - standard coopers plastic one) with airlock.

How big does my pot need to be so that I can add water + grains and come out with enough to fill my FV, but obviously leave space for krausen etc. I am not sure on the calculations involved, but pretty sure with boiling off and adding grain, a 25L pot is too small?

I guess what i want is . (Z) malt X (y) Water = input. - What i lose to evaporation over 1 hour @ boil = How much i need to top up to get a final brew length of 23L.

thanks!

 

[MalFet]

Check out the calculator "can I mash it"
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[Snotpoodle]

i can mash it!

Thanks Malfet, in one fell swoop, the question is answered

 

[gunner65]

If you decide to go bigger I would look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VXD94A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

15.5 gallon stainless with lid. If I did not already have the keg converted this is what I would buy.

 

[mtbiker278]

That's the one I have, work great!

 

[Mysticmead]

for full boil BIAB in my 40qt (37.854 L) I have done 12.50lbs (5.6699 kg) of grain with 8 gallons (30.283 L)of mash water. that accommodated the grain absorption, hops absorption, and loss to trub as well as boil off leaving me with 5.5 gallons (20L) into the fermentor. that was for a 1.059 beer. a 25L stock pot is going to either mean lighter beers or mashing, then sparging to make up the volumes. that can I mash it website doesn't take into account that you'd be doing BIAB. it also doesn't account for lower grain absorption since in BIAB we squeeze the grain bag to get as much liquid as possible.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

If you decide to go bigger I would look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VXD94A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

15.5 gallon stainless with lid. If I did not already have the keg converted this is what I would buy.

Man that's a great price for that thing

 

[paraordnance]

you need atleast 40 qt pot to do BIABs with medium grain bill. I have 40 qt and will be getting 60 qt in near future

 

[mattmcl]

Austin Homebrew has a 10 gal stainless pot for $70 or so.

 

[Righlander]

why not just build a mash tun and use a 40q pot?

 

[MalFet]

that can I mash it website doesn't take into account that you'd be doing BIAB. it also doesn't account for lower grain absorption since in BIAB we squeeze the grain bag to get as much liquid as possible.

I'm not sure I follow...I use that website for BIAB all the time. As far as I can tell, all the website is doing is converting a weight of grain into a volume and adding it to a volume of water. It is completely agnostic about fly sparging, batch sparging, or no sparging. All it is saying is how much grain and water you can fit into a pot. It's up to you to decide how much water and grain you need to fit into the pot based on your system, but that's no more true for BIAB than anything else.

It also doesn't make any claims about how much of your water you are or aren't losing to absorption. Whether you're putting in 24 quarts and getting out 23 or putting in 24 and getting out 18, you've still got to fit 24 quarts plus grain into the pot. You might not need to put in as much water for BIAB, but the calculator doesn't claim to figure that out for you.