BIAB advice

[marko65]

Afternoon all

Have been using kits for the past year but now looking at doing BIAB in small batches - I've got hold of an 11 litre stockpot and was wondering what the maximum volume I'll be able to brew with this volume pot?

Cheers

 

[Martybhoy]

I reckon you'd be able to boil 8ltrs in an 11ltr stock pot without fear of boiling over. Maybe even 9ltrs.

I'd go with a 2kg grain bill, 6ltrs of water in the mash, and 5ltrs for sparging. You'll lose about 2-2.5ltrs of water to grain absorption, leaving you with 8.5-9ltrs to boil.

I'm basing these figures on one-third of my regular brews as my stock pot is 33ltrs.

 

[foxbat]

It depends on how much grain there is in your recipe, your boil off rate and other losses throughout the process. As a very vague guide using my equipment profile for a recipe of about 1kg I would end up with a finished volume of 5 litres, and that's with saving back enough from the pot to use as sparge water so that adding the grain won't overflow it.

 

[Duxuk]

You could get more beer by using a maxi BIAB technique. You make a more concentrated brew and dilute in the FV. So do as Martybhoy1980 suggests but use 50% more grain. It tends to be less efficient doing it this way but who cares? It's still a cheap way to make great beer.
You would obviously need to up the hops by a similar percentage. You can dilute using bottled water to make things simple.

 

[Martybhoy]

+1 on what duxuk says about increasing the grain quantity and diluting the wort once it is in the FV.

 

[ExpatBrewer]

I use an 11 litre pot for my partial mash brews. I use it to mash 2kg grain and try I get the water/grain ratio as high as I can... maybe 3.5:1, 4:1 at a stretch. With batch sparging I usually collect about 12 litres of wort. That of course creates a bit of a problem as I now have more wort than my pot can hold! So, I have to split it. I can actually boil 10 litres in the stock pot and as long as you keep an eye on things boil over can be avoided. The surplus 2 litres of wort I put in a second large sauce pan. As I'm also using 50% LME in my 23 litre PM brews I dissolve it and boil together with the surplus wort in this extra pan.

On a good day I achieve around 70-75% efficiency.

 

[Sandimas]

I used to use a 12L pot but it isn't quite big enough: the brewday takes the same length whatever the volume, and I felt it was too much effort for too little beer so have moved up to a 15L catering stockpot - 17 quid delivered off eBay. I can do 12L BIAB batches with this. I've recently started doing larger-volume brews supplemented with 1kg DME (is this Maxi BIAB?).

I still use the 12L pot but just for the mash: it conveniently fits in the oven, so I can turn it on low for 10mins then turn it off and put the mash pot in there, and it keeps the temp stable during the mash.

Like Expat I get around 70% efficiency with a dunk sparge.

 

[marko65]

OK - maybe a bigger pot is needed - I can take the 11L back for a refund - I like the sound of the 15L stockpot to end up with 12L - BUT will I be able to achieve a boil of this volume on a 3.6kw wok burner on my gas hob?
Cheers

 

[Martybhoy]

My Buffalo induction hob is 3kw and it's a beast, so 3.6kw should be fine.

Remember to factor in water loss due to the boil. I lose 1ltr per 15mins.

 

[Martybhoy]

Oh, and that's me boiling 27ltrs. If you're boiling 12ltrs then I can't see a problem

 

[Sandimas]

I like the sound of the 15L stockpot to end up with 12L - BUT will I be able to achieve a boil of this volume on a 3.6kw wok burner on my gas hob?
Cheers

Yes, I don't even have to do use the wok burner on my gas hob, the biggest burner set around 60% will do. Thats the beauty with the smaller volume, less water to heat.

You can always upscale later if you want larger volume brews, but to be honest I get bored with 23L of the same beer, 12L is a perfect volume for me.

 

[Covrich]

If you want to do a full BIAB the full volume way without a sparge.

The rule of thumb would be your desired volume x 2. so for a 10l brew you'd want a 20l pot

A lot of people like to do a hybrid method half biab half brew with a sparge normally in a seperate vessel (FV works well for this) which certainly helps with a smaller pot. you can then top up the pot as needed.

Using the second method I find a 15L pot will get a 10L brew

for 23L I do true BIAB with a 50L pot

 

[ExpatBrewer]

I used to use a 12L pot but it isn't quite big enough: the brewday takes the same length whatever the volume, and I felt it was too much effort for too little beer...

That's my thinking too and the main reason I only ever did a small batch AG once! I actually brewed a 10 litre AG version of a previous 23 litre PM APA. I wanted to compare the AG with the partial which was made up of 50/50 grain/LME. I was keen to see if I was missing out on anything. If there was a difference between the two it was certainly beyond me! The beers tasted near identical. If it was a blind test I doubt I'd have known for sure which was which. So, since then I decided for the same amount of time and effort there really was no obvious advantage brewing a small-batch AG.

I still use the 12L pot but just for the mash: it conveniently fits in the oven, so I can turn it on low for 10mins then turn it off and put the mash pot in there, and it keeps the temp stable during the mash.

Yes, exactly what I do too. Works well. :thumb:

 

[marko65]

Nice one- thanks for all of your help - I'll source a 15L pot and crack on - will surely be back for further advice!!

 

[Sandimas]

I found some pictures I'd taken of my process, here they are.

• 1st pic is doughing-in the mash in the bag in the 12L pot.
• 2nd pic is the mash in the 12L pot keeping warm in the oven.
• 3rd pic is getting ready for the dunk sparge in the 15L pot (you could just do this in the FV if you don't have 2 pans).
• 4th pic is the boil on the hob.
• 5th pic is cooling down the pan in the sink - you need to change the water several times and stir a lot. I get the temp down in 30mins.