taking the homebrew plunge- please help me decide the best route!

[BroStefan]

Lots of excellent comments here. Just a few comments.

BIAB IS all grain brewing. It is not a matter of "I'll do BIAB or AG."

One of the advantages of small batch brewing Is that you can brew a lot an dial in your process.

Get John Palmers book "how to brew." It is the best overview I know of.

Good luck

 

[mkyl428]

my concern with biab is the space issue. i don't have a garage or anything like that. also my microwave and cabinets are position about 2 feet over two of my burners, so i have limited space.
and then there's the pulley situation.

i guess if i did small batch biab...

If you are planing on using your regular kitchen stove small batch my be the way to go that or partial boil I doubt you can get 5gal of wort up to a boil on a regular stove... I know I can't on my gas stove even using 2 burners.

You can move the pot to the counter or something to pull the grain bag out so you don't have to deal with the space issue. You shouldn't need a pulley I don't use one on my 5gal BIAB setup I pull the bag by hand, the heat doesn't bother me (I work in a kitchen) & it has never been too heavy for me. If your hands are not used to heat you may want to invest in some gloves though...

 

[doverox]

Lots of excellent comments here. Just a few comments.

BIAB IS all grain brewing. It is not a matter of "I'll do BIAB or AG."

One of the advantages of small batch brewing Is that you can brew a lot an dial in your process.

Get John Palmers book "how to brew." It is the best overview I know of.

Good luck

thanks! yes, i have that book. and i was aware that biab is ag, i just meant i was deciding between using the bag or not.

it appears more and more that small batch biab is the best option for me seeing as i will be stovetop brewing.

 

[doverox]

If you are planing on using your regular kitchen stove small batch my be the way to go that or partial boil I doubt you can get 5gal of wort up to a boil on a regular stove... I know I can't on my gas stove even using 2 burners.

yea, i was concerned about that.

if i brew a small batch in a larger pot will it affect the temperature maintenance?
or should i just get a smaller kettle for now?

what material holds the heat best?

 

[mkyl428]

I would imagine SS would hold heat better than aluminum but IDK for sure. A larger pot may effect it a bit but the beauty of BIAB is you can directly heat your mash using the stove just make sure the bag is off the bottom of the pot first and continuously stir any time you are applying heat with the grain in the pot so you don't scorch it.

A lot of people wrap their kettle in a blanket or a winter coat during the mash to keep heat in.

 

[unionrdr]

After partial mash in the biab style for more than a year now, I've found the size of the kettle versus the amount of grains in the bag & water volume definitely matter. A mash of, say, 2lbs of grains in nearly a gallon of water will loose heat faster in a 5G kettle than 6lbs+ with 2 1/4 gallons of water. Head space also governs heat exchange, in other words. I gave up on trying to maintain temp on the stove while mashing. I wrap it up in my quilted winter hunting coat to do so, as mentioned earlier. So small mash should have small kettle to minimize head space & thusly, heat loss in my experiences.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Nothing wrong with the pot you have listed, even being aluminum. Just means you'll need to be careful with cleaning it (no BKF!). You may want to check the size (height) to make sure it clears your microwave, I know if I would try that with my frier pot it won't.

Also as a heads up, that size pot works GREAT with the nylon 5gal paint strainer bags from the home box stores. There's your bag for BIAB - you get two for 5 bucks. Then when you're ready do drain, just pick up the bag and put it in a colander over the pot. You probably have a cheap colander that'll work fine.

AFA retaining heat, you can do it a couple ways - like mentioned before, you can wrap it in insulation (that silver Reflectix stuff from HD/Lowes/Men works great and isn't too expensive) like a coat/foam/etc. Make sure the burner is off if using something flammable (duh). If you pot is short enough, you could even put it in the oven on low to mash in, just make sure it fits first!

Don't stress over holding the temps perfectly, there'll be some drift. If it gets low, heat it up and stir. Not a huge deal, IMO, especially for a beginner brewer so long as you keep it within a few degs of your optimum temp.

 

[doverox]

in case you guys are curious, i've finally made a decision.
i'm going to get that 24 qt. aluminum kettle that i posted earlier, and i plan to start with 2.5 gallon brew in a bag batches.
we are probably going to move next summer, so i'll be sure we find a place that allows for an upgrade. hopefully by then i'll know what i'm doing haha

thank you very much for all of your help! you'll be seeing me around.

 

[sportpak]

Go to basicbrewing.com and watch all the video podcasts. The guys are great and show you how easy a lot of things are. The radio podcasts are a little more in depth, but you don't get visuals.

 

[doverox]

OK so, i did it!

thank you for all your encouragement and help.
i have a follow up question for you, though.

i created a simple american ipa recipe for biab. seeing as this was my first time brewing, i set it for a fairly low efficiency (72%).
when i checked my pre-boil gravity, i was actually .010 over, which means i underestimated my efficiency, right?
i also ended up with almost a gallon in the fermenter more than predicted by my software.
would this also be due to underestimating my efficiency? i did not squeeze my grain bag, i just let it drain in a strainer.
incidentally, they told me to use 5.12 gallons for 5.5 lbs. grain and i ended up with just under 4 gallons. i was able to keep mash temp fairly consistent and did a full 60 min boil with no problem.

it's in the fermenter and i saw activity within like 15 mins. it's been 13 hours and she's bubbling away, i assume this is a good sign.

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like you could set your efficiency higher. But boil off rate will govern how much wort you wind up with.

 

[doverox]

Sounds like you could set your efficiency higher. But boil off rate will govern how much wort you wind up with.

so could it end up being a happy coincidence that the boil off rate was low since the gravity was higher pre-boil? will the extra volume help balance it out?

 

[unionrdr]

Ideally, you want the full boil to wind up at recipe volume. But if your OG is within range with the added volume it'd be fine technically.

 

[m00ps]

yea, i was concerned about that.

if i brew a small batch in a larger pot will it affect the temperature maintenance?
or should i just get a smaller kettle for now?

what material holds the heat best?

I have a gas stove and I can get a full 5gal batch boiling (which is usually 6.5gal Im guessing at the start of the boil). I straddle 2 burners which are at max. If I'm having trouble getting it rolling, ill halfway cover the pot with the lid.

Just try it out with water. Keep in mind it won't happen immediately. It will hold at 212 for a while before it gains enough thermal energy to actually boil. Then if you can maintain it with the lid off, you;re golden

 

[doverox]

I have a gas stove and I can get a full 5gal batch boiling (which is usually 6.5gal Im guessing at the start of the boil). I straddle 2 burners which are at max. If I'm having trouble getting it rolling, ill halfway cover the pot with the lid.

Just try it out with water. Keep in mind it won't happen immediately. It will hold at 212 for a while before it gains enough thermal energy to actually boil. Then if you can maintain it with the lid off, you;re golden

i was actually able to maintain a pretty good boil for the whole time without the lid because i have a "power burner" which is basically just one burner bigger than the other 3.
that is why i was so confused with the volume i ended up with. the program i used might be wonky. i got it for free on google play, it's called "wort".

maybe this is a stupid question, but if my post boil volume is 4 gal. why did it predict volume into fermenter at 3 gal.? where is that other gallon going?

 

[m00ps]

i was actually able to maintain a pretty good boil for the whole time without the lid because i have a "power burner" which is basically just one burner bigger than the other 3.
that is why i was so confused with the volume i ended up with. the program i used might be wonky. i got it for free on google play, it's called "wort".

maybe this is a stupid question, but if my post boil volume is 4 gal. why did it predict volume into fermenter at 3 gal.? where is that other gallon going?

Hmm I'm not familiar with that program but you're saying you measured 4gal after boil and only got 3gal into the fermentor? Because usually there's maybe 1/2gal of trub for me in my kettle that my dip tube cant reach.

If its the program saying that, maybe it figures a 1gal loss over the transfer, which does seem high. I just use this site to design recipes. Its great because it has the most complete bank of sugars/grains I've come across, you can adjust efficiency, add custom ingredients, choose your yeast strain for attenuation...it even has a colored SRM predictor
https://brewgr.com/homebrew-recipe-calculator

But I stopped measuring the amount of water I put in a while ago. Very unscientific, but I just eye it based on how close to the top of the pot the water is. For larger grain bills, ill fill it less then add a bit more after sparging to make it up. I always end up with 4.75-5.5 gals so it works for me...

 

[doverox]

Hmm I'm not familiar with that program but you're saying you measured 4gal after boil and only got 3gal into the fermentor? Because usually there's maybe 1/2gal of trub for me in my kettle that my dip tube cant reach.

If its the program saying that, maybe it figures a 1gal loss over the transfer, which does seem high. I just use this site to design recipes. Its great because it has the most complete bank of sugars/grains I've come across, you can adjust efficiency, add custom ingredients, choose your yeast strain for attenuation...it even has a colored SRM predictor
https://brewgr.com/homebrew-recipe-calculator

But I stopped measuring the amount of water I put in a while ago. Very unscientific, but I just eye it based on how close to the top of the pot the water is. For larger grain bills, ill fill it less then add a bit more after sparging to make it up. I always end up with 4.75-5.5 gals so it works for me...

no, i had 4 gallons after boil, which is what that program predicted. but the program said i'd have 3 gallons in fermenter, meaning i would lose a full gallon from post boil to fermenter.
that's gotta be an error, right?
anyway thanks for the program recommendation. i will try that one next time.

 

[m00ps]

Yeah, well if its not an "error" its definitely "wrong"
Try designing a 5 gal (post boil) recipe and see if its spits out 4 gals into the fermentor. If it does, I'd find another program that uses better loss estimations

 

[normonster]

no, i had 4 gallons after boil, which is what that program predicted. but the program said i'd have 3 gallons in fermenter, meaning i would lose a full gallon from post boil to fermenter.

that's gotta be an error, right?

anyway thanks for the program recommendation. i will try that one next time.

Not an error. There must be a spot where you can tell it how much you lose to cooling shrinkage, trub and transfer lines.

I brew in 15 gallon morebeer kettles and I lose .5 gallons in the kettle just cuz the valve doesn't get to the bottom (mist of that full of trub anyway) then another .5 gallon at least due to the hoses and my therminator chiller, plus the loss from shrinkage. I also lose another .5 gallon to each of my conical fermenter/yeast/hops....so for me to get 10 gallons in the kegs I have to hit a post boil volume of at least 12 gallons.

This is tough with a 90 boil where 1.25-1.5 gallon per hour is floating away. Nothing more scary than a 14.5 gallon boil going down in a 15 gallon kettle!!!!