New, 1st beer = awesome

[Phogaboa]

Hello Forum.

I've helped some friends brew many times, maybe about ten times now. Finally my friend made a beer I really liked. It was a kit - brewers best milk stout. I liked it so much I knew I had to brew it. Previous brew were just not to my taste, but this was good. So, I bought an ingredient kit, and me and my buddy brewed it. It was awesome! I've drank half of it now. I also made 5 gallons of apple brew last Sunday.

So, we are grad students and typically poor. He has a nice set with stockpots and buckets and gadgets, wort chiller and a nice, instant read thermometer. He's brewed almost 19 batches now. We have been doing all extract kits. Most of our stuff has come out as session beers after a week or so of fermenting (seems to be fermenting fast, bubbles slow after just a week)

Brew in a bag (BIAB) has caught my eye because it looks like the cheapest way to all grain brewing. I have a 75$ gift certificate to amazon, and am thinking I will spend it on a big brewpot so we can benefit from the reduced cost of all grain brewing. Ingredient kits that make beer I like run $44 at my local brewshop, coming out to a little less than a buck a beer if ingredient costs alone are considered. I like the beer, but I also like commercial beer that has a similar cost. It is still worth it to me to do these extract kits, but I really like beer, and I really like brewing beer, so I'd like to do it more often.

So, I have a few questions:

- I like IPA's and Milk Stouts. I want to BIAB to reduce cost. I don't currently brew high alcohol beers, but would like to be able to in the future. How big a pot do I need to BIAB? I'm thinking of this 15 gallon

- Can BIAB be done on a stove with these big pots?

 

[kapbrew13]

15 gallons great size to future proof. Or you can get a keg cheaper and cut the top.
Stove top hard unless you have a commercial range. Well, depends on how much you'll be boiling.
Get a keg and outdoor burner.

 

[Yooper]

- Can BIAB be done on a stove with these big pots?

Generally not, unless you have a super stove with one of those "high output" specialty chef burners. I can boil 6.5 gallons on my gas stove with that burner, but it still takes an hour to come up to a boil.

A turkey fryer is probably going to be something you need. I think you can get one, with the pot, for $50 or so.

 

[unionrdr]

I have a link in my profile for the electric burners I fot on amazon. They allow me to boil up to 3.5 gallons from mash temp to boiling in about 18 minutes. A vast improvement over the couple hours with the stock burners.
So I am currently able to do anything up to partial boil/partial mash brew in a bag with my 5 gallon (20QT) SS BK/MT. I use a 5G paint strainer bag with a cake cooling rack in the bottom of the kettle to keep the bag/grains from burning.
I heat the BK/MT with rack,bag,& floating thermometer in it lashed to one of the kettles' handles in 2 gallons of spring water. When it hits 150F,I stir in the 5lbs of grains to break up dough balls & evenly wet the grains. When it hits 152-155F (depending on style),I put the lid on & wrap it up in a thick winter hunting coat for the 1 hour mash.
I heat 1.5 gallons of the spring water to 165-168F for the sparge. This gives 3.5 gallons for the partial boil in said 5G kettle. Since 5lbs of grains equals about the same as a 3lb bag of DME,I use this for all hop additions. Stiring in the extract as a late,flameout addition. Works quite well & is doable on a stove...