Went for a 10 gallon bayou brew pot... coming in the mail... but ughhhh...

[DSorenson]

I might already have a problem. I wanted to do a 5 gallon biab, so after reading my homebrew book, I thought a 10 gallon pot would work. Now I've been reading on here that people opt for pots twice that size. I plan on doing beers around 1.055. For bigger beers I'll brew 2.5 gallon batches.

I checked out some all grain recipes and to get that og I'll need about 11 lbs of grain. According to my homebrew book, I need about 3 quarts per lbs. That's 8.25 gallons. I feel like there is no way I'd have enough room for the grains and the water. But I've also read death brewers thread and he seems to use less then three quarts per lbs of grain.

HBT... do your thing. What's the deal with biab?

My other problem is that kettle will arrive in a week...but you can't make that happen any faster...

 

[chocotaco]

I do 2.5 gallon BIAB in a 5-gallon kettle with pretty high gravities (I have gotten up to 1.090, though not on purpose). There is juuuuust enough room in the kettle to pull off the mash. I think you will probably be OK doing mid-gravity beers in a 10 gallon kettle. I would just try it and see.

Go into Beersmith and tell it you are doing BIAB and that you have a 10-gallon kettle. Beersmith will figure out how to make it work for you. If you don't have Beersmith, get it. It's the best $25 you'll ever spend on brewing IMHO.

 

[rklinck]

You should be fine. I did BIAB when I did partial mash. I followed the sticky on the top of this forum. He suggested 2 gallons for 5-6 pounds of grain. For your grain bills, that would suggest you need about 4-5 gallons of water. You should be able to do that without too much trouble.

 

[lowtones84]

I use a two vessel system for BIAB, but I think you will be fine. I mash in a 5 gallon pot and can do 11 lbs. of grain in there at a 1.25 qt./lb. ratio. It's a little scary but it works

So if you have an 11 lb. grain bill and use 1.25 qts. of water/lb. or grain, that comes in at not quite 3.5 gallons. You have the rest of the water you will need in another vessel at 170F and do a "dunk sparge" for about 10 minutes, then remove the bag, strain, dump your mash water into the pot you "sparge" in, and bring to a boil. Using the bigger pot for the "sparge" and main boil kettle is usually a good idea.

If you want to do single vessel, only mash with around 1.25 qts then add enough boiling water to come to a "mash out" temperature I guess? Then remove the grain, and if you still need more water, just add it after the grain is removed, or use it for however you're going to sparge, if you are.

This page is great, by the way: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

[tnsen]

Hey Dsorenson...I have a 10 gallon pot, and do 5 gallon batches all the time, and get 1 gravitys up to 1.07...my last batch was 14 lbs of grain...and yes it was close...I dont use beersmith or any other type program...I use on of the biab calculators online...yup...a bigger pot would of been nice , but my 10 gallon works ok...yer fine....Tom

 

[jb1677]

I can fit 8.5 gallons of water and just under 14lbs of grain in my 10 gallon kettle - its right at the top but it fits. If my boiloff was not so bad I could start with less water and more grain for bigger beers but I get by for now.

 

[weirdboy]

10 gallons might be a little tight for bigger gravity batches BIAB single vessel, but for normal sized batches you ought to be totally fine. If worse comes to worst, you can always sparge in a spare bucket for higher gravity/higher volume batches. Or if you don't want to sparge in another vessel, you can just suck it up, get a bit lower efficiency, and top off after your mash.

 

[ron,ar]

I have a 10 gallon pot, my pre-boil volume for a 6 gal batch is 7.5 gallons. Thats cutting it close, but with a watchful eye and a spray bottle of water I have avoided any boilover so far. It can be done...but then again you want to do BIAB, I only do those on smaller batches, but my 10 gallon pot works for me.