New BIAB help

[idyllbrew]

Hello,

I am new at BIAB. I have been brewing with extract for 2 1/2 years. I have a 7.5 gallon Anvil brew pot. I cannot afford to purchase a 10 or 15 gallon brew pot at this time. Is there any adjustments I can make and still be able to end up with a 5 gallon wort. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you,

Bob

 

[jmcnamara]

You can always just top off your fermentor with clean water to get the right volume. That's what I do since I don't have a pot big enough for a full boil

 

[CRUNK]

I second that, don't forget to adjust your recipe for the added water.

 

[LlewellynBrewHaus]

If looking to do full volume boil...
When I was doing BIAB 5 gallon batches in my 7.5 gal pot. I would always mash with 20 qt of water that would give me room in the pot for 10.5-11 pounds of gist. At the end of the mash I would raise the bag out of the pot and place a strainer under the bag on top of the pot. To finish I poured 170-175 degree water slowly over the grain to bring the wort up to the level I needed [usually 6.75-7 gal for my boil off rate]
You could also pull your bag out and place in a bucket of mash out temp water let rest for 15 min, pull the bag and let drain then add that additional mash out water to your kettle
Hope that helps

 

[J A]

I've done that^^^, too. Just have to watch the boil at the hot break so it doesn't boil over.

Depending on the actual volume of your pot ( I had a 30 quart pot that went almost right to the top for 7.5 gallons) you can boil enough to get your target volume.

For around a 10 gallon grain bill start with something like 29-30 quarts of water total for infusion and sparge if you don't squeeze the bag, a little less if you squeeze. You should end up with around 6.75 gallons in your pot. You should boil off somewhere around 1 to 1.25 gallons unless you have a really low, wide pot. That should give you 5.25 to 5.5 gallons at the end of the boil. That's enough to give you a solid 5 gallons of clean beer out of the fermenter. You'll have to run it a few times to see where your best results are.

On occasions when I needed a 90 minute boil with that pot, I'd split out a gallon or two and boil in 2 pots for the first half hour and then recombine the wort and start the hop additions. Worked like a charm.

 

[idyllbrew]

Thank you for the advise. Will adding water after the grain process change the processes of the wort.

 

[idyllbrew]

jmcnamara, LlewellynBrewHaus and J A. Thank you for the advise. I will see how it goes. That is what makes our process so great. We can always see how things turn out. I will let you know but looks like at end of May.

Bob

 

[Brew Cat]

You can do two boils or split your recipe to two brew days and combine at bottling. Easiest thing is top off like mentioned above or get a bigger pot. All grain is so much cheaper than extract you will soon be able to afford that pot

 

[Mase]

Be careful not to go over 170 degrees with the grains... tannins and estringents (sp?) will release... and that is not a good thing

 

[idyllbrew]

Thanks everyone. Still learning so appreciate the info!

 

[The Brew Mentor]

You could always add a little ferm-cap to the boil as well.
Brian

 

[idyllbrew]

Good idea Mentor thanks!