My Lazy Brewing Plan

[jgarretson]

I love to brew but having a wife, two kids playing sports, a job with a decent commute and a side business kinda gets in the way of my brewing hobby. I've been an extract brewer for about five years and have made some good beers and some okay ones. I want to make better beers so I am making a bit of a change in my processes and I'd like a little feedback on my proposed plan so I haven't overlooked anything.

I have a 8 gallon brew pot with spigot and I plan to start doing BIAB in this kettle. I'm planning 3 or 4 gallon batches depending on the grain bill so I can keep it simple in this kettle.

I've always chilled my extract brews down with an ice bath but I'm planning to now do no-chill. My plan is to brew my 3 or 4 gallon batch and leave it in my brew kettle covered tightly probably overnight until it's cooled down.

Then, my plan is to pitch the yeast the next day and put the fermentor into my fermentation chamber.

Should I be overly worried about leaving that much air space in my brew kettle while the wort cools down overnight? I'm planning to brew Friday night or Saturday and pitch the next day.

What am I missing in this plan? It seems pretty simple and that I've covered most everything after reading tons of threads on here about BIAB and no-chill.

I know I'll have to adjust or potentially chill hoppy beers but most of what I brew will not be heavily hopped.

Thanks!

 

[spence21989]

This is the way I brew. I do 5.5 gallons in a 10.5gal pot with no problems. I make consistently good beer and it is very easy with little clean up. Even with really hoppy beers they turn out great, but you could slightly adjust your hop schedule and still no chill if you are really worried about it. It makes a brew day much more attractive to me because it's not going to take up a whole day and a bunch of work.

There will be naysayers but those are just the ones that haven't caught on yet. I admit that commercial breweries shouldn't take this method, but it makes very very good beer at the homebrew level. This is what I stepped into after a handful of batches of extract brews and the end product is much better. Cheers!

 

[Jeff_H]

Go for it dude! I do BIAB in a 30 quart kettle and have been making some good brews. I actually mash with a more "normal" amount of water....about 1.5 quarts per pound or so....and then just suspend the bag over the kettle for psuedo sparge....I bring my boil volume up for a 5.5 gallon batch by pouring water through the grain bag to wash it and capture residuals and then squeeze the crap out of it. The biggest grain bill I've done so far has been 16.5 pounds....

At the end of the day, we are all our own brew masters....so if you think something makes sense, give it a shot...what's it gonna cost you if it doesn't work out???? Maybe $25 bucks in wasted materials and a little time?