Quick BIAB question

[cwwillmon]

Hello,

Quick one. If I plan to do a 5 gallon BIAB brew, what size boil pot is recommended???

Thanks,

 

[pshankstar]

It's not an easy question to answer. Some beers require larger grain bills than others. That in itself will make the size of the kettle vary. Do you use fermcap to keep from boil overs from happening? Do you use whole cones or pellets, whole cones seem to absorb more wort than pellets, so there's another factor. Oh and do you plan to sparge or not to sparge?

I would say you would need a minimum of 12 gallons or so for average beers, but I could be way off. I started off using a keggle which was 15.5 gallons and it worked good for a no sparge DIPA brews with big grain bills with 5.5-6 gallons going into the fermenter.

 

[soccerdad]

For a full volume mash? At leaet 9 gallons.

 

[cwwillmon]

So basically I need to go extract without buying a 12 gallon pot.

 

[soccerdad]

No -add a sparge step.

 

[BeerAddikt]

I do 5 gallon BIAB in a 10 gallon kettle with no sparge. I've done up to 1.065 OG beers and they fit but it's tight.

You can easily do any 5 gallon BIAB recipe in a 10 gallon kettle but it may require sparging if the gravity is very high. If you don't want to mess with a sparge on high gravity beers then I'd recommend a 15 gallon kettle.

 

[njohnsoncs]

I'm hoping to do a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon kettle. I estimated I'll need about 4.75 gallons of water to end with 3 gallons after boil. I'm planning on doing 3 gallons for mash then 1.75 for sparge. Think this will work?

 

[BeerAddikt]

I'm hoping to do a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon kettle. I estimated I'll need about 4.75 gallons of water to end with 3 gallons after boil. I'm planning on doing 3 gallons for mash then 1.75 for sparge. Think this will work?

Yup, no worries there. Just watch for boil overs as usual.

 

[cwwillmon]

Is it ok to use aluminum stock pots??

 

[BeerAddikt]

Is it ok to use aluminum stock pots??

Aluminum is fine but be careful what you clean it with. Many people on this forum use them. Just don't use oxygen based cleaners or caustic cleaners (ie. Oxyclean or PBW).

 

[NSMikeD]

I'm hoping to do a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon kettle. I estimated I'll need about 4.75 gallons of water to end with 3 gallons after boil. I'm planning on doing 3 gallons for mash then 1.75 for sparge. Think this will work?

Pretty much what I do. I use beer smith to confirm my volumes and an excel spread sheet to calculate the math so I can measure with a dip stick (dowel with cm markings - cms are smaller units for more accurate readings).

My 5 gallon stock pot is actually 4.75 gallons, that doesn't seem like much of a difference until you spill trying to squeeze a larger grain bill into the pot. Once i started holding back water, it became second nature and I tend to give myself some leeway and hold back an extra quart or half gallon. lesson learned after spilling beer moving the pot into a warm oven for the mash.