Single vessel brewing

[rdanneskjold]

Newbie here! so, go easy on me....

Would it be possible to brew beer with a single pot? My thought is to use a large aluminum pot for everything. Use a fine mesh bag for all the ingredients, which can neatly be removed after the boil. Seal the lid with a soft closed-cell foam and clamp the lid down with spring clamps. Vent out the top through an air-trap. Bottle via valve outlet at the bottom side of the pot.

This will be an electric system. another advantage to that is that the temperature of the wort can be closely maintained by a temperature controller using the heating element (I would wire it to 120V instead of 240V to decrease power density, or maybe put a triac voltage controller in there.)

I AM a notoriously cheap bastard, to be sure. but it seems like this method could also prevent contamination that would otherwise be exposed to.

(...and let's leave the discussion of Aluminum by the wayside for the purposes of focus....)

Thanks!

RD

 

[RPh_Guy]

Would it be possible to brew beer with a single pot?

Absolutely possible.

 

[IslandLizard]

Sure, very possible.
But you'll have to wait for your next brew session until you've packaged the beer.

Most active fermentations need cooling not heating. Stay on the lower side of your yeasts optimal range for better beer.
I guess you're going to chill the wort before pitching yeast and clamping down the lid?

Use good sanitation around the lid area when clamping it shut.

 

[FatDragon]

Brew in a bag and ferment in the kettle. Doesn't @RM-MN do that?

 

[RPh_Guy]

You can drink it right out of the kettle too.

 

[RM-MN]

Brew in a bag and ferment in the kettle. Doesn't @RM-MN do that?

Not me, I only have 2 kettles and sometimes have 5 beers in the fementer. I like to keep my kettles available for a spur of the moment brew session.

 

[FatDragon]

Not me, I only have 2 kettles and sometimes have 5 beers in the fementer. I like to keep my kettles available for a spur of the moment brew session.

Maybe @wilserbrewer then? One of the big BIAB luminaries, anyway...

 

[IslandLizard]

Use a fine mesh bag for all the ingredients, which can neatly be removed after the boil.

Aside from hops, what other ingredients exactly are you planning to boil?

Are these going to be all grain or extract brews?

it seems like this method could also prevent contamination that would otherwise be exposed to.

That's a very thin argument.
You're still chilling (if that's what you have in mind doing) in an open or mostly open vessel. Then put a foam strip (gasket?) along the rim and clamp the lid shut.

In that light, you may as well transfer the wort to another container (a 'dedicated' vessel for fermentation) as all breweries and pretty much all homebrewers do. You could perform a closed wort transfer to the fermenter if it gives you peace of mind, but seems to be overkill in most homebrew scenarios. Or do a 'no-chill' in a closed container.

 

[kh54s10]

This also brings up the discussion of transferring trub to your fermenter, in this case it is ALL in there. I personally don't see that as a problem.

The single vessel mean to me that you can only brew once every 2 weeks. Depending on how often you brew this may or may not cause any headaches.

Bottling out of the spigot may be a problem depending on the depth of the trub in the bottom.

As IslandLizard said this will only decrease the chance of contamination a little depending on how you chill. And it forces you to prime each bottle individually, which to me is a pain. I batch prime in a bottling bucket.

 

[LittleRiver]

...use a large aluminum pot for everything...electric system....temperature of the wort can be closely maintained by a temperature controller using the heating element...

As others have pointed out, what you are proposing is technically feasible. The problem is that its drawbacks outweigh its potential benefits.

Single vessel BIAB, draining the wort into a separate fermentation vessel, is a very effective and efficient system. I think it has the right balance of simplicity & effectiveness.

...I AM a notoriously cheap bastard, to be sure....

Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Ninoid]

I BIAB in one plastic kettle with electric heating element and boil in same kettle but transfer wort in fermenter because brew kettle not have sealed lid and I sometime use two fermenters in same time. Wort is chilled in fermenter naturally (No Chill) over night. This work well on over of 20 batches.

 

[Werner]

I have tried single vessel, BIAB, ferment in kettle with my last brew, it worked, wasn't ideal though (as long as you can keep the bugs out of the brew you should be ok, I have an Anvil kettle and while waiting for the seal kit I just duct taped my lid edges and put airlock in the lid). You won't get perfect clarity and you'll have a fair bit of trub to deal with when you go to bottle (I'm going to try some gelatin with my next go before giving up on super lazy mode brewing).

I figured it was a great way to reduce infection sources, everything gets heat sanitized w/ boil, is completely UV light safe (stainless steel) and has benefit of keeping my ferment a little cooler as the kettle is a metal heatsink sitting on tile in my apartment.

Edit:
I batch prime in there as well, add priming sugar mix (corn syrup and just enough hot tap water to make it fluid cooked a min in the microwave and let it cool), then pour it in and whirlpool the bejesus out of it, let it settle (an hour ish), whirlpool again when I start pulling off port on kettle. Since I'm bottle conditioning and priming anyway the little bit more trub that ends up in the bottle wasn't game changing with the Belgian table I made.

Will add that depending on what styles of beer you're brewing with this method the trub and hotbreak left in the kettle could effect the final product.

All in all, yes it makes beer and is super easy mode, BUT you need to have slightly tempered expectations on what you can get out of it, it'll be drinkable, tasty but it won't be competition winning.