Sid's One Vessel All Grain Brewing System

[sidbedi]

Greetings! I am a longtime lurker on the forums; I have taken a lot from these pages, this is my go - to brewing website. I have a technique I have been using for the last six months that I want to share.

This is a simple refinement on a well known technique along with a few other tips and tricks. Using this system I can brew twenty gallons solo with two keggles, two propane burners, and a chiller. I use gravity to do all my transfers. Here is a video of the first half of the brew day along with the end product:




For the impatient, the heart of the technique is detailed starting around 4:30. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for looking!
Sid Bedi

 

[olefattguy]

Nice movie!
I do a similar technique, but I am using an electric urn (30 l) so I usually go for 5-6 gallons.
I have developed a "partigyle" technique using a 10 l pot for the first runnings and also for a sidemash in the oven.
Might do a write-up on it, or convince my brother to help me make a film like yours.
Cheers!

 

[sidbedi]

Nice movie!
I do a similar technique, but I am using an electric urn (30 l) so I usually go for 5-6 gallons.
I have developed a "partigyle" technique using a 10 l pot for the first runnings and also for a sidemash in the oven.
Might do a write-up on it, or convince my brother to help me make a film like yours.
Cheers!

Very cool, electric urns seem to be more popular for brewing on the other side of the pond. This system works great for electric brewing as well. Same thing, solo, ten gallon, all grain, one vessel batches. I use heatsticks for electric brewing but my goal is to have a controller driven system with the element plumbed into the keggle ready for the winter capable of ten gallon batches. I use two heatsticks to achieve the same thing right now.

 

[Jay1]

That's a great set-up. I might have to try that one!

Hey I gotta tell ya. My beers went to another level when I started using a food grade RV hose. I had been making great beers for a while (in my opinion) but there was a weird flavor that I couldn't figure out. I tried everything. After about a yearly dealing with this, I filled a pint of water out of the tap And one out of my hose I fill the kettle with, BINGO! Beers have been better ever since!

 

[acidrain]

Nice video. Well done sir and madame.
I see the value in multiple bags... they do get heavy, especially on a 10 gallon batch.
A couple questions though:
Why cold water sparge? You already have the second pot (so it's really not a one-vessel brew), why not heat that up to 170 to get all the sugars?
Do you squeeze the bags at the end of your sparge?
What is your efficiency, and how consistent is it?
Thanks for sharing!

 

[jfrizzell]

Hose water is cool, but you might want to get one of those white RV drinking water hoses. Green hoses seem to really funk up the taste of your water.

 

[sidbedi]

That's a great set-up. I might have to try that one!

Hey I gotta tell ya. My beers went to another level when I started using a food grade RV hose. I had been making great beers for a while (in my opinion) but there was a weird flavor that I couldn't figure out. I tried everything. After about a yearly dealing with this, I filled a pint of water out of the tap And one out of my hose I fill the kettle with, BINGO! Beers have been better ever since!

Jay1 and jfrizzell, thanks for the tip! This alone made posting this video worth it. I am going to get one of these before I brew next (maybe this weekend!). Also, thank you Jay1, you gotta try it. It's just so easy and there is very little barrier to doing a 10 gallon batch.

:rockin:

 

[acidrain]

Nice video. Well done sir and madame.
I see the value in multiple bags... they do get heavy, especially on a 10 gallon batch.
A couple questions though:
Why cold water sparge?
Why not heat that up to 170 to get all the sugars?
Do you squeeze the bags at the end of your sparge?
What is your efficiency, and how consistent is it?
Thanks for sharing!

My Questions aren't worthy?

 

[sidbedi]

Nice video. Well done sir and madame.
I see the value in multiple bags... they do get heavy, especially on a 10 gallon batch.
A couple questions though:
Why cold water sparge? You already have the second pot (so it's really not a one-vessel brew), why not heat that up to 170 to get all the sugars?
Do you squeeze the bags at the end of your sparge?
What is your efficiency, and how consistent is it?
Thanks for sharing!

Of course they are, I had limited time when I was answering before, your questions required a bit more of a thorough answer. And thank you for the compliment on the video, it means a lot.

The cold water sparge is really just to get some extra sugar out of the mash without doing a ton of extra work. This way you don't need to be heating more water and you can do other things. It is an effort to find the best ratio of ease and efficiency, for me this fits the bill. I get a bit more efficiency with very little extra effort. In addition, if you have two people you can do this without another vessel with one person holding and one spraying. Lastly, you can skip this step altogether and sacrifice some efficiency. Grain is cheap in today's day and age.

Sometimes I squeeze the bags and sometimes I don't. I would rather do enough of a cold sparge to make up my volume. The bags are a bit hot right out of the mash and they hold heat for a while, so adding the cold water sparge step can help if you want to squeeze the bags.


The last time I brewed with this method my efficiency was spot on at around 75%. Without the sparge I would guess the efficiency might be 70%, but that is pure speculation. Unfortunately I have not had a working hydrometer for a while so I don't have any data about my efficiency consistency.

Thanks for the great questions acidrain! Keep them coming.

 

[acidrain]

Wow, good efficiency!
Come to think of it, squeezing 170F grain bags... hurts.

 

[BOBTHEukBREWER]

Do you mash out at the end raising all liquor to 190 F - and you could put a very large stainless steel sieve on the pop of your spare vessel collect all grain in it and rinse with water at 190 F running all this liquor through a very fine nylon bag to aid clarity.

 

[Mysticmead]

well done sid! you have shown yet another way to do BIAB and that's a good thing.

 

[F250]

Nice work, Sid.

Once I get a few more extract batches under my belt I'm going to try this.

Rick

 

[Saint George]

A good innovation and very well done video presentation! Thank you for spending the time to put it all together and pass on.

 

[awarediver]

Great video, and method. I am considering buying a Boil kettle, saving some extra equipment. This will allow me to do just that. I have a couple of questions.
How large are the nylon bags? How many pounds of grain do see as a limitation to this method? To allow for the extra displacement of water by the larger amount of grain You mentioned using less water for bigger beer recipes. Would I be better off using a 20 gallon kettle, than a 15 gallon? If I do use a 15 gallon boil kettle. Is lower amount of water then made up during the sparge?

 

[beertastic]

Another comment on the green garden hose. I made that mistake...once. I'm not saying your hose imparts a plastic flavor, but most of the time they will. Anybody watching this video, use one of the white drinking water hoses instead.

 

[vnzjunk]

In RV camping circles attention is paid to the water hookup hose that connects the campground source of water to the camper. I have seen it stated that the problem with the hoses arises from the hose sitting out in the hot sun for extended periods of time and breaking down the chemical make up of the hose in which case the white drinking water hose is preferred. The hose I use in my brewing does not sit out in the sun other than for a short 45 minute period on brewday. The rest of the time it is stored away from the suns rays. Therefore I am not as concerned about the hose issue as someone might be if they store their hose out in the sunshine for extended periods. I do have a 25' white hose for RV'ing that I have never used for beer brewing.

Your mileage may vary from mine in regards to the above situation..........

Another comment on the green garden hose. I made that mistake...once. I'm not saying your hose imparts a plastic flavor, but most of the time they will. Anybody watching this video, use one of the white drinking water hoses instead.

 

[broffi_1027]

This video really showed me an easy way to get into all-grain brewing. Been doing mostly extracts and some partial mashes for the last year and a half and I feel I'm ready to jump into all-grain. Now I just gotta find an old keg like yours and convert it to a brew kettle. Thanks for posting.

CHEERS!

 

[SDJay]

I have a 10 gal Blichmann, and was wondering if it was feasible to do 5 gal batches on an electric stove? I currently do 5 gal extract kits. My kettle has the thermometer, and I worry about it causing problems with bags. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[tmendick]

can you boil 5 gallons on the stove? are you concerned with ripping the bag?

 

[SDJay]

Yes, I can boil 5 gallons on stove, but my main concern is the thermometer probe that sticks out, possibly ripping the bag(s) while dunking/stirring during the mash.

 

[tmendick]

i dont usually move the bag itself around too much once i put the grain in. I just stir it with a spoon every 10 mins or so. What are you planning on using as a bag? I would try to set it up in a way that it doesnt touch the probe too much if possible

 

[SDJay]

I was thinking of splitting grain bill into two bags to save my back from hoisting a single large, water soaked bag. SWMBO not keen on installing a hoist/pulley over kitchen stove. I was considering using a paint strainer bag, but I have also noticed on other threads that premade bags are available to purchase online.

 

[ApothecaryBrewing]

The only other issue I could see would be attempting a decoction mash since you have the grain and strike water separated. It would be more of a process to pull some grain out of a bag, pull out some mash water, combine the two in a pot, do the heating of the mash then add it back.

Decoction is messy regardless, but it seems with this route you have a couple added steps.

 

[SDJay]

The only other issue I could see would be attempting a decoction mash since you have the grain and strike water separated. It would be more of a process to pull some grain out of a bag, pull out some mash water, combine the two in a pot, do the heating of the mash then add it back.

Decoction is messy regardless, but it seems with this route you have a couple added steps.

My thought is to do the "one vessel", BIAB all grain brew, as displayed in the video at the beginning of this thread. Just curious if it can be done on a stove with the 10 Gal Blichmann etc.., using multiple bags for grain, since I was proposing a 5 gallon batch.

 

[pvtschultz]

It takes about 9 gallons to do the traditional full volume BiaB mash. I used to do it in an eight gallon pot and seemed to have to top up with water after the mash creating chloramine issues for me. It takes me 15 gallons to do a 75% efficiency 1.050, 11 gallon batch.