Kettle size for 5 gallon BIAB

[Brewing1976]

Im looking to go from extract to BIAB. I have 8 gallon kettle now. But will that be enough to do a full 5 gallon boil?

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I use a 10.5 gallon kettle for full-volume BIAB. I have pushed it to the limit with a huge grain bill but there are ways around that by sparging etc. and other than that have never had issues.

 

[Tarpon87]

Im looking to go from extract to BIAB. I have 8 gallon kettle now. But will that be enough to do a full 5 gallon boil?

Boil yes, but it wont be enough to do a full volume mash for most recipes more than likely

 

[bleme]

8 gallons will do about 9 pounds of grain with a full volume mash.

If you have another 2 gallon pot, you can use that to heat sparge water for mid-ABV beers.

A 10 gallon pot would make your life a lot easier though.

 

[enkamania]

I started with a 10 gallon and switched to 15 gallon.

 

[LittleRiver]

Love my 15gal kettle, it's what I started out with. I've never had a boilover, it can handle larger grain bills for big beers, and I have the option of doing 10gal batches.

 

[cnash]

I would say 10gal minimum. 15gal optimal.
I have a 15gal kettle and do mostly 5gal batches (6gal to fermenter), but can also do 10gal batches with it.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

I use 11 gallon Bayou Classic -- good for most styles.

 

[fendersrule]

Went from 15 to 20 Gallon here...cuz I though I was going to do double batches right away. Since I started to get more into the beer science, it's been strictly 5 Gallon batches during experimentation.

Making 5 gallon batches in a 20 gallon is fine and dandy though.

Agree with others that I think it's time to move up to a 10 gallon kettle....or a 20 gallon if you even think you'll double batch.

 

[wilserbrewer]

10 is fine, w/ a big beer you can do a simple sparge...bayou classic 11 gallon gives you a little more headspace.
Concord offers a 12.5 gallon as a tweener size...
Or you can go full on 15 gal...
Must consider best to have a kettle that fits batch size....
15 gal may be too large for most 5 gal batches.

A ten gal kettle will likely hold mash temps better than a kettle that is too large. I have a slew of kettles, and don’t like using one that is too large...
Jmo

 

[BruceH]

Im looking to go from extract to BIAB. I have 8 gallon kettle now. But will that be enough to do a full 5 gallon boil?

Yes it will. Provided you aren't going for more than 1.05x. You will have to watch the boil closely but it's doable. On another line of thought does the batch have to be 5 gallons? When I make a higher gravity wort I just accept that it will be a 4.x gallon batch due to the limitations of my kettle.

Would it be nice to have a bigger kettle, burner, and cooling? Of course it would but it's not necessary.

 

[Brewing1976]

Love my 15gal kettle, it's what I started out with. I've never had a boilover, it can handle larger grain bills for big beers, and I have the option of doing 10gal batches.

Do you have thermometer port?

 

[bgmac]

I used to do BIAB in an 8 gallon kettle (Tall Boy). It worked fine. Never had an overflow and used some fairly heavy grain bills for 5 gallon batches. You'll be fine. I think I pushed it to a 14lb grain bill one time. I would said that was the max limit. Recently upgraded to a 22 gallon kettle with a 240volt boil coil and a 10 gallon pot that sits inside the coil for mashing with a bag (10 gallon batches) and 22-26lb grain bills. Now the 8 gallon Tall Boy is just used for heating up sparge water. Oh and seafood boils from time to time. That's the problem with this hobby, you start out small and simple but end up with some heavy equipment in the end.

 

[LittleRiver]

Here's my 15gal kettle immediately after dumping in 1oz of bittering hops at the beginning of the boil. This was a 5gal full volume BIAB batch, and it was only a simmering boil. Yes I know I could have used additives to reduce foaming, or I could have killed the heat, or used a spray bottle, etc. But why, when my kettle takes care of that for me?

 

[Brewing1976]

Here's my 15gal kettle immediately after dumping in 1oz of bittering hops at the beginning of the boil. This was a 5gal full volume BIAB batch, and it was only a simmering boil. Yes I know I could have used additives to reduce foaming, or I could have killed the heat, or used a spray bottle, etc. But why, when my kettle takes care of that for me?

View attachment 625175

I think I’m definitely going to go with 15 gallons

 

[hezagenius]

I think I’m definitely going to go with 15 gallons

Yep, just get a 15 gallon kettle and save yourself the stress. No boilovers and it will handle as much grain as you want for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[BongoYodeler]

15 gallon kettle here. No regrets.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I think I’m definitely going to go with 15 gallons

Good idea. Here is a shot of a Dubbel I recently brewed with 12.75 lbs of grain into 7.6 gals of mash water in my 10 gal pot. In this case I even scaled back my normal amount of mash water to give me a little more headroom in the fermenter (5.2 gal vs my normal target of 5.5 gal). [On the other hand, it is not that much more effort to work in a dunk or pour over sparge...the 6.7 pre-boil volume is no problem for the 10 gal pot.]

 

[cswant88]

If it were me on a budget, I would get a 2nd vessel, like a 10gal beverage cooler, and MIAB inside of that, dump into your kettle. You can do a simple batch sparge if you are doing a bigger beer. If you want to heat your sparge water in your kettle, dump your first runnings into a food grade bucket first.

If it were me not on a budget, get a 15gal kettle as others have said, and save yourself the effort.

 

[LittleRiver]

...If it were me not on a budget, get a 15gal kettle...

15gal kettles do not have to be prohibitively expensive. I bought my Bayou Classic kettle for an amazingly low price on a clearance sale. I added a drain valve to it, and have not had any problems with it.

 

[Vinman58]

Wow! That is full as it gets

If it were me on a budget, I would get a 2nd vessel, like a 10gal beverage cooler, and MIAB inside of that, dump into your kettle. You can do a simple batch sparge if you are doing a bigger beer. If you want to heat your sparge water in your kettle, dump your first runnings into a food grade bucket first.

If it were me not on a budget, get a 15gal kettle as others have said, and save yourself the effort.

 

[Vinman58]

Good idea. Here is a shot of a Dubbel I recently brewed with 12.75 lbs of grain into 7.6 gals of mash water in my 10 gal pot. In this case I even scaled back my normal amount of mash water to give me a little more headroom in the fermenter (5.2 gal vs my normal target of 5.5 gal). [On the other hand, it is not that much more effort to work in a dunk or pour over sparge...the 6.7 pre-boil volume is no problem for the 10 gal pot.]

View attachment 625718

Wow! That's full

 

[jpakstis]

I have a 10g kettle. I used to BIAB; now I BIAC (cooler). But a couple of times I was at the very top of the kettle when mashing. It made for some very delicate stirring!

 

[John Murray]

you can use pricelessbrewing calculator to determine your total mash and strike water volumes. and you can always take away a gallon of strike water and save it for a fly sparge or rinse of the grains and add that second runnings to the boil. stir your mash every 15 min to increase gravity because you can't just add more grain with a 8 gal kettle.

I was able to do a 5 gal fermenter volume batch in an 8 gal kettle with starting with 5.5 gal of strike water and adding a gallon of second runnings sparge/ squeez preboil volume was 6 gal. after boil SG was 1070 before pitching yeast.

 

[Morrey]

I would say 10gal minimum. 15gal optimal.

+1. A small, cramped kettle makes for an unhappy brewer.

 

[wepeeler]

I brewed forever on a 10 gallon kettle, but I love the flexibility my 15 gallon kettle gives me. Full volume 5.5 or 11 gallon batches easily. Just grab some fermcap for the big beers. I've done 30 lbs of grain in 12.5 gallons of water, and I had to sparge a little to reach pre-boil gravity. Worth it.

 

[Mic Carp]

I just bought a cheap 15 gallon kettle and an immersion chiller. They are awesome! I would never go back. I can chill a full 5.5 gallon batch quicker than when I was pouring my partial boiled extracts over a bag of ice. I should have bought this setup years ago!

 

[cwise]

Hey Brewing1976! I think you have gotten some great advice above, but I just wanted to put out a different viewpoint than the others. I got a deal on a 7.5g Blichmann with a boilcoil, for my first kettle, and I am still using it to this day. At first I had boilovers, batches that were closer to 4 gallons than 5, and major messes when I drained the bag. Since then, I refined my process and brought my efficiency way up. I heat up full volume to my mash in temp, drain off three gallons of sparge water, then mash in. My last IPA came in at a little under 9.5ABV. Yes, my mash is a little thick, and yes it would be great to have a larger pot, but for me it is very doable. My advice would be to jump in with your current setup. Buying a good bag is cheap (Wilser rock!). get a couple of brews under your belt and plan your upgrades from there!

 

[LittleRiver]

When I sparge (which is not often), I do it this way:

• heat half of the water
• put the bag and grains in the kettle, mash for 60min, drain the wort into a bucket (leave the bag and grains in the kettle)
• add the second half of the water to the grains, stir thoroughly
• raise the bag and tie it off over the kettle, immediately fire the heat for the boil
• pour the wort that's in the bucket into the kettle
• after the boil, take down the bag (which is now fully drained by gravity, and cooled off)

That's the most efficient and easiest way I've found to do it. It's a lot easier than tediously doing a pour over sparge, and it's easier and less messy than moving a dripping bag to another vessel for a dunk sparge.