Hey, So i got some great help on my last post and I have been looking around other threads for future brewing. I currently do extract brewing and have been for a while, on my stove top in my 5 gallon pot. Its a cheaper stainless steel and well as though that's not really the point. I am looking to want to brew outside more or at least get off the stove top and hopefully in the future brew more BIAB. I would like to do all grain in the future but I would like to take steps to get there, plus not have my wife freak out with 100's of dollars of newer equipment. hah. So what I've seemed to read and liked was getting a bigger pot cannot hurt. Would a 10 gallon pot be alright to full volume boil BIAB 5 gallon batch? I have seen a lot of nicer more expensive ones on brew store websites, but seeing this one on overstock has me wanting it. http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garde...llon-4-piece-Brew-Kettle/8229086/product.html I like that it has the thermometer and valve as well. Would it make a big difference for volume when doing a 5 gallon BIAB batch if i got a 62 quart pot. A lot of people say to just buy a 15 gallon pot just for the choice to do 10 gallon batches. I just wanna start to do less extract and not fully jump into all grain. But I do not wanna buy a pot that may not be efficient for the process. I also know I can get a 44 qt pot that doesn't have a thermometer or ball valve in it. I can get it from a site for around 100 dollars. Do you think the ball valve and the built in thermometer are worth the extra cost and time and effort? thanks for all the help in advance.
I took a peek at the site, and see you can get a 16 gallon model for $30 more. If you are going to spend $165 already, I would spend the extra $30. There's no substitute for head space if you get an aggressive boil going. I look at it this way: if I decide I need a bigger pot after using the smaller one, I need to buy a whole other pot. If not, I spent $30 more for the piece of mind, and also the pot will be worth more if you decided to sell it. You can't give away a pot that's too small for the job.
I have a 15 gallon brew kettle with a valve and thermometer. I really like having both. The valve makes transferring into the fermenter a piece of cake. The thermometer is great for me as I use an immersion cooler; I can cool with the lid on and continuously monitor the temperature as the wort cools.
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. I Was just not sure if i wanted to get the bigger one and have it be too big to do a 5 gallon full boil brew in a bag. I appreciate the help and most likely will be getting the 16 gallon one then. Having the bigger size will always allow me to brew bigger batches.
I'm upgrading to a 20gal kettle for 10gal BIAG batches. I'll continue using my racking cane in lieu of a ball valve. I have several fine thermometers that I can place where ever to not bother the BIAB or IC. If I get pumps somewhere down the road, I'll install a ball valve. Concord kettles on eBay have pretty good reviews and seem to be a pretty good value. I'm looking at ~$100 for my 20gal kettle. Just another option
The general rule of thumb for BIAB is to use a kettle at least 2x the size of the final batch size ie. amount transferred into fermenter(s). So you should use a 10+ gallon kettle for a 5 gallon BIAB batch. I used to make 5.65 gallon BIAB batches in a 15 gallon kettle and had plenty of room. When I upgraded to a 3 kettle system that I use to produce 11.25 gallon batches, I was sure happy that I originally bought a 15 gallon kettle as it works perfectly in my newer / larger system.
I have an 7.5 g pot, and i think it will be fine for 5 gallon batches, but I haven't gone full all grain. I have done a mini-mash with it with about 6 lbs of grain and that was plenty big enough for that. I have heard that the thermowell can cause problems catching on the bag when doing BIAB, but I don't have one.
Trust me, the general rule for BIAB (unless you are only planning on doing low gravity beers) is to have a kettle at least 2x the size of your desired batch size. Say your 5 gallon batch requires 14 pounds of grain (roughly a 1.062 OG with a typical BIAB efficiency), that's roughly 1.75 gallons of wort you will lose to grain absorption unless you are a bag squeezer. Also estimate 1 gallon of loss due to boil off and 0.5 gallon due to tun dead space and transfer loss. That means you will have roughly 3.25 gallons of total loss. So if you want 5 gallons into a fermenter, you would need to fit 8.25 gallons of water plus 14 pounds of grain in the kettle for the mash alone. That's not happening in a 7.5 gallon pot. Plus I didn't factor heat expansion / cooling expansion loss in either.
While wort expands 4% at boiling (compared to pitching temp), I believe that wort at mash temp is about 3% expanded (compared to pitching temp). So that means you'd need a kettle that could handle 8.25 gallons of water (expanded to 8.5 gallons) plus 14 pounds of grain to mash the hypothetical batch I described above. I could be wrong, but I believe the grain takes up roughly 0.08 gallons of space per pound, so that would be about 1.12 gallons of space needed for the grain. That puts you at needing 9.62 gallons of kettle space to mash this batch via a no-sparge BIAB technique. P.S. If you do squeeze the mash bag, you could probably recover an additional 0.75 gallons of wort from it at the risk (arguably) of tannin extraction. So you could probably get by with a 9 gallon kettle if you did so.
Ok. Update. I have come to the conclusion, with time and what not, that I do want to upgrade from extract. But don't have the time and area to do all grain. BIAB is my best option and I am fine with that. With that being said. I am reading around and well wondering if I should or shouldn't have certain things in there. Either reviews of some things or over thinking others. I am not made of money haha, but don't want cheap equipment. I have come to the conclusion of this one. http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic...p/B0082X3D06/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 16 gallon kettle with the spigot and thermometer with a false bottom and bazooka screen. Now in my head going all grain, without a false bottom, may scorch the grains or the bag. So I am thinking the false bottom is going to be helpful, plus using an immersion chiller at the end it will have a nice resting place as well. Having the ball valve I am excited for, to transfer the wort, which will make my life a lot easier. Question regarding the thermometer built in. Is it fully necessary? I imagine it is more helpful, especially when mashing to keep a constant eye on temp, but questioning with BIAB method will it interfere with the bag?? Seeing that it does sit higher on the kettle. Also, reading some reviews this may need to be calibrated multiple times, so I will eventually either upgrade it, or buy a nice thermo pen or something to check and qualify that it is in fact reading correctly. Just nonsense I guess, as I am looking to purchase it sooner than later and don't want to regret a purchase. Looking for a little insight or help on the matter. On a side note, I am looking to do full 5 gallon batches and is there any place that is perfect to go for reference for recipes for this? I know a few, and obviously here in another section. But should I also look at Beersmith and look at purchasing or running the free trial of that? Just curious, thanks in advance for the info and help.
I do 5 gallon BIAB batches in a 10 gallon kettle (probably more like 10.75 in reality). It's not quite big enough to fit all the water needed plus grain. I end up sparging a couple gallons. 16 gallons should be more than big enough. My kettle has a valve and a thermometer. I don't find the thermometer probe getting in the way much while mashing, where it is a little annoying is with my immersion chiller. It is nice to have while mashing, but if you plan on ever getting a real mash tun and using your kettle as only a boil kettle, I'd skip the the thermometer. I also don't see the need for a false bottom right now. Ball valve is great! Just my 2 cents.
There's a chance that the probe on the thermometer would snag/puncture the mesh in your bag - hard to tell without seeing a photo of it (I removed mine). The false bottom seems a good idea, but you can always suspend the bag by using small c-clamps or binder clips on the rim of the kettle. As mbbransc mentioned a good quality 15 gallon Concord pot can be had for less than $100 including shipping, add a 3-piece SS valve and bulkhead from bargainfittings.com and you can have a nice pot for about half the price of the Bayou Classic from Amazon. I've used Beersmith with great success, one function that you'd find useful is the ability to scale recipe size - get the trial and see what you think. Good luck!
I use a 15.5 gallon keggle for 5 gallon batches and it is nice not having to worry about headspace. I can also do 8 gallon batches and split into different carboys if i desire.
FWIW, I do 5.5 gal BIAB batches with a 10g kettle. I also sparge 1-1.5 gals and it works fine (for me) for OG up to 1.080. Anything bigger would be pushing it IMO.
Skip the thermometer and get a digital instant read instead. Once you get the hang of things you won't need to be checking your temp all the time, and you would need to open the kettle to stir if you want an accurate reading anyway. False bottom would be nice. Also, not to derail but you don't have to think that BIAB is a second best option to all grain. It IS all grain, not some starter or intermediate method that you'll eventually want to "step up" from. Also, check out brewersfriend.com. I found it more intuitive and convenient than beersmith. You might find yourself tweaking recipes on your phone at any spare moment though.
If you're direct heating your tun/kettle to maintain temps, I don't think the false bottom will help keep the bag from melting. I could be wrong, depending on how your false bottom fits. Just make sure the bag is at least an inch and a half from the bottom of the pot. I use a colander that holds the bag up a couple inches from the heat.
