Is this all the equipment I need for small batches?

[BarberSurgeon]

I've been studying up for the switch to AG and think I'm about ready. The biggest hangup I'm having is committing to the extra equipment. Since I prefer to do small two-gallon batches, though, I think it might be easier than having to do 5-10 gal. So here's what I have and plan to acquire:

Own:

4 gal SS kettle
3 gal carboy
5 gal Coleman cylindrical cooler

Need:

Weldless valve-system for the cooler
Steel braid
???

I plan to do batch sparging, so no need for a fly sparge. Also, since the batches are so small, I do not think I will need an IC. As far as I can tell, the kettle ought to be big enough. My biggest concern which none of the material I've read or watched covered was transferring from the kettle to the tun during the mashing process. Can I just dump it in there slowly? I can see that causing the temps to drop a few degrees, but I doubt I'm going to be picky over that small range. I might need an additional kettle for heating sparge water, but that shouldn't be hard to come by, as I probably already own one large enough. Anything I'm not considering? I really want to get into this, but I want to be sure I've got everything covered!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Looks good to me. You don't really need another kettle either. If you're doing batch sparging, all of your liquid will be in the mash before you drain to your kettle. Unless you're doing double batch sparging, then you'll need another small pot. I used to dump it right in, and theres no problems with that if you take it easy.

You may want a scale for measuring out grains if you don't already have one.

 

[JonM]

Get a length of thermoplastic tubing to drain liquid from the tun to the kettle. Otherwise, looks good!

I do pretty much what you do (small batch AG). I find an extra kettle for sparge water to be pretty handy.

 

[JonM]

Oh, and I use 3-gal fermenters too. You can easily fit 2.75 gals in there. Only came close to a blowoff once and that was with a 1.084 wee heavy.

I usually take a 5 gal recipe, reduce everything by 40%, then make a 3 gal batch. I leave a .25 gal of trub in the kettle and wind up with 2.75 gals in the fermenter.

 

[TopherM]

I guess you are planning on doing less than 2.5 gallon batches, as that's about the max your carboy can handle?

You could do all-grain BIAB with just the equipment you have now and just have to buy an appropriate bag. I use 5 gallon paint strainer bags from Home Depot/Lowes for $4.00 a two pack.

You could even do a hybrid brew in a bag in your Coleman cooler to eliminate the need for insulating your mash, then just pour everything into your boil kettle, drain the bag into the boil kettle, and do a normal boil from there.

If you want more info, let me know, but you could be doing AG today for $4.00 with your existing equipment!

 

[BarberSurgeon]

Excellent news all around!

For anyone who is wondering, I do 2-gallon batches, so a 3 gal carboy should be enough.

TopherM (or anyone), I've heard a little about BIAB, but I'm not very familiar with the process. Would you care to link me to a particular thread relevant to my situation (I'll check out the sticky again as well) and explain to me how this hybrid idea would work?

EDIT: Just a follow-up, but I started reading the BIAB thread again. When I saw things about pullies (I'm not handy at all) and that turkey frying strainer thing, I remembered why I didn't spend more time researching this. Am I to assume these are not necessary to the process?

Much thanks.

 

[JonM]

Check this out - it comments on (and has photos) to show how much you can fit into a 3-gal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/3-gallon-carboy-2-5-gal-batch-144940/

 

[robcj]

EDIT: Just a follow-up, but I started reading the BIAB thread again. When I saw things about pullies (I'm not handy at all) and that turkey frying strainer thing, I remembered why I didn't spend more time researching this. Am I to assume these are not necessary to the process?

Much thanks.

They are not necessary for smaller batches. They are only used to make it easier to lift larger bags of grain. BIAB is a simple, single vessel brewing process. A mesh bag is used in place of a manifold or false bottom to separate the wort and grain. The process is essentially this: heat water in kettle to mash temperature, put mesh bag in kettle, put grain in bag, mash, lift bag out and heat wort to boiling temperature. That's it, really, though numerous variations and additional techniques exist to overcome BIAB's potential limitations, namely mash temperature control, lower efficiency and the fact that a larger kettle is required to accommodate the higher water volume. I say potential because these limitations are easily addressed and overcome.

 

[TopherM]

Barber,

Here's a good place to start:

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

You would basically do this same thing, except get the water up to your strike temp in the pot, like a Hot Liquor Tank (HLT/MLT) in a three-vessel AG setup.

Same process whether you do it on a stove top or on a burner outside.

Once the water in your pot is up to strike temp, you transfer the heated strike water to your cooler, mash in with your BIAB bag in the cooler, then mash for 60-90 min in the cooler, depending on the recipe. Because of the bag, you won't have any grain that you have to filter out with a bazooka screen, false bottom, etc..

Once the mash is done, drain the bag. You don't need a pulley, because at 2-3 gallons of wort, you won't have more than 5-10 lbs of grain, so it is easy to lift and drain without a pulley. The guys that have pulleys are either old, lazy, or do 20+ pound grain bills. I do 10-15 lb grain bills and do the lifting myself pretty easily without a pulley.

Tranfer the wort back to the pot (dump or go ahead and get the ball valve kit so you can gravity transfer), then continue with the boil just like in Extract brewing.

Mechanically, the same processes that happen in traditional all-grain brewing with a batch sparge happen with the BIAB process, you are just having your two vessels pull double duty, and instead of actually sparging the grains, you are pulling the grains out of the wort and letting it drain back in, which is basically like an inside-out sparge that accomplishes the same thing. I think BIAB actually does the whole process more simply and even efficiently.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

 

[brando632]

I'm two batches into AG, doing half batches with a 4 gal pot and no pulleys. I've got two more batches planned for next week. The only additional equipment I got on top of my extract equipment was a bunch of voile fabric to make a grain bag. You're looking at about 4-5 pounds of grain per batch, it'll be soaked with water, but even I don't have any trouble and I'm a scrawny guy. It's really handy to be able to do everything in the kitchen too. The only adjustment I have to make to the standard BIAB process is to leave out 1/2-1 gal of water for the mashing process. The volume needed for a half batch is about 3.7-4.2 gals, and my kettle is four gals. Even though I leave out some mash water, the mash is still thinner than the standard brewing grain to water ratio, and once the mash is done and grains removed there is enough room to add in the water that was left out. I highly recommend taking a good look at the sticky AG thread at the top of this forum, scale it to your equipment and give it a shot. Oh and get Beersmith. They offer a 30 day free trial. It's a bit of a pain to get set up to your equipment and specifications, but once it's set up it's a fantastic resource for the half batcher. You can dig through the recipes on here, drop them into beersmith as is, and use the scale down feature to create a batch size to your liking. BIAB is easy.

 

[BarberSurgeon]

Thanks again for the responses. I feel pretty confident about this and will definitely be trying BIAB before I make any more purchases.

The only question I have remaining is whether or not I can do step mashing with BIAB. If my thinking is correct, I would either just have to do all the mashing in the kettle or transfer back and forth between the kettle and cooler for increases?

 

[TopherM]

You can step mash in the cooler without transfering back and forth so much. Let's say you start at 145 and want to do two steps up to 156. You would put just enough water in the cooler to do the initial mash and save the rest in your boil kettle. So you are at 145 in the mash and let's say your middle step is 150. You would heat the remaining volume of water int he boil kettle up to about 155-157 or whatever (BeerSmith has the exact calculations, or you could do the math yourself, I'm just using round numbers), add 1/2 of the remaining volume to the BIAB mash in your cooler to heat the mash up to 150. So now you are at 150 and have the rest of your full volume water still in the boil pot (serving as a HLT/MLT). Heat that water up to 160-162 or whatever and add that to the mash to heat the overall mash up to your final step target 156.

Agian, if you have BeerSmith, it calculates all of this for you. You would just select BIAB with a step mash as your brew technique and it would tell you the proper water volumes and temperatures to add at each step, including the rest times.

 

[gclunde]

The only additional equipment I got on top of my extract equipment was a bunch of voile fabric to make a grain bag.

I found some large nylon pool filter bags (14" x 20"). The cost about $4.00 and have been perfect for this...

 

[BarberSurgeon]

Thanks so much! I feel I'm pretty ready for this now. You guys have been a tremendous help!

 

[LandoLincoln]

Excellent news all around!

For anyone who is wondering, I do 2-gallon batches, so a 3 gal carboy should be enough.

TopherM (or anyone), I've heard a little about BIAB, but I'm not very familiar with the process. Would you care to link me to a particular thread relevant to my situation (I'll check out the sticky again as well) and explain to me how this hybrid idea would work?

EDIT: Just a follow-up, but I started reading the BIAB thread again. When I saw things about pullies (I'm not handy at all) and that turkey frying strainer thing, I remembered why I didn't spend more time researching this. Am I to assume these are not necessary to the process?

Much thanks.

I did my first small-batch (2 gal) BIAB this past weekend. It worked really well and I didn't need a pulley system or a metal strainer inside the pot. I just used a 5-gallon paint strainer bag from HD and lifted it out, put it in a colander inside a bowl and then about five minutes later drained the contents of the bowl into the pot.

 

[brando632]

I found some large nylon pool filter bags (14" x 20"). The cost about $4.00 and have been perfect for this...

Where did you find them?