8.5 gallon kettle

[meridianomrebel]

I have been an extract brewer for years, and I am thinking about trying a BIAB brew. My kettle is only 8.5 gallons, and have been looking at some recipes to try out. Here is one I'm looking at:

https://www.boomchugalug.com/downloadables/recipes/velvet_all_grain.pdf

Think it'll be possible for me to brew this one with my 8.5 gallon kettle?

 

[MaxStout]

With a 9.5 lb grain bill you should be OK. Total mash volume should be about 7.5 gallons or so.

 

[McKnuckle]

It is possible. I do BIAB and I'm coming up with about 7.5 gallons of needed mash volume (that's 6.8 gal water PLUS 9.5 lbs of grains). I use an absorption rate of 0.065 gal/lb and boil-off rate of 1 gal/hr in my calculations. At 75% efficiency, it yields 1.052 OG which is the lower limit in the recipe's range.

You could reduce the recipe a bit and have no problems - 6.4 gallons at the start requires only 7.16 gal mash volume with the same grains, and produces 1.056 OG.

Or you could also hold back a gallon to sparge with, and pour it over the bag at the end.

End of the day, it's not a big deal if you are just a little flexible. And YMMV on the estimates - these are from my system.

 

[TexasWine]

Lots of folks do 5 gallon batches in 7.5 gallon turkey fryers, so yes. Just remember you might need to sparge. Use the priceless BIAB calculator to figure that out.

Personally I have a 9 gallon kettle and it works fine. Most preboil volumes are 7 gallons or less.

Another option if you want to do a full volume mash is to simply make a smaller batch.