Doubles?

[jakester]

Is anyone out there doing double batches using the BIAB method? A mate and i want to get an AG setup big enough to each fill a keg at the end of brew day and this method will be alot cheaper to setup.
Any tips or links to photos of your setups would be a great help. Cheers.

 

[Mantis]

Is anyone out there doing double batches using the BIAB method? A mate and i want to get an AG setup big enough to each fill a keg at the end of brew day and this method will be alot cheaper to setup.
Any tips or links to photos of your setups would be a great help. Cheers.

I have done double batches the last 3 weekends with BIAB and it has convinced me to go for a mash tun.
With two of you brewing it would make it a lot easier but its still messy, having to try and batch sparge in a bucket or other container. I have a 50L pot.

If you have a 70L pot it would be easy then as you could do it in one go as per normal BIAB single batches

 

[Fourstar]

Is anyone out there doing double batches using the BIAB method? A mate and i want to get an AG setup big enough to each fill a keg at the end of brew day and this method will be alot cheaper to setup.
Any tips or links to photos of your setups would be a great help. Cheers.

Maybe do a high gravity BIAB and aim to dillute to your full volume? Maybe thirstyboy can chime in on this? It might not be viable cost wise todo this comparitive to traditional mashing/sparging techniques/efficiencies. The biggest issue id say would be AA isomerisation with the high gravity beer. You might need to increase your hop bill size along with your malt bill size.

Personally i'd just do two batches if you want to go for tradition BIAB methods unelss you can get a 80-100L kettle and a burner big enough to get it rolling.

 

[br33zy]

Is anyone out there doing double batches using the BIAB method? A mate and i want to get an AG setup big enough to each fill a keg at the end of brew day and this method will be alot cheaper to setup.
Any tips or links to photos of your setups would be a great help. Cheers.

We have a 98l pot over an Italian Spiral and can manage most double batches comfortably.

The big gravity beers push the limits a little. We had 18kg of grain in for a big stout clone (OG 1077) recently. 48 litres into the fermenter meant 72 odd litres (we factor in nearly a litre lost per kilo of grain when removing the grain) in pre-mash - that didn't leave too much room once we poured all the grain in.

Quite entertaining swinging that big bag up and out of the wort at the end of the mash too. Certainly tested the stitching on the bag! And that's important because obviously that big bag is hanging over a pot of reasonably hot wort...

Of course once the grain's out there's no problem at all - we've boiled 76l safely with no bubbling or splashing over.

See http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...st&p=522671 for a pic of our setup with benny on the other end of an 11kg grain bill post mash. Amazing how small that 98l pot looks...

So, in summary if you can possible afford it then err on the side of caution and get a bigger pot. We're very thankful now that we went for the 98l jobby.

Cheers

Mike

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I sometimes do a double-sized batch in my 75-litre (maybe 70, whatever) pot and if the beer is high enough gravity (such as a big IPA), things get a bit tight during the mash. Southern English Brown ales are easier. Things got easier when I moved to kegging because I now see a batch as being 17-18 litres of beer rather than 20-something.

Brewing high gravity and diluting should work happily and easily if you have BeerSmith (and perhaps other softwares) as it/they will do the recipe conversions for you, although I admit to never having actually done such a thing myself.

Some of the distressingly cheap pots come in quite big sizes, but you would need some (perhaps mechanical) assistance to hoist and hold what started out as 10+kilograms of dry grain.

 

[argon]

I've been looking into the double BIAB thing myself...

With my post size of 50L I think it is acheivable doing full volume doubles... however as high OG and dillution as a way around it... with all the tweaking, loss of efficiencies and adding water (which I hate doing... makes me feel somehow as if i'm cheating by adding more than what came out of the kettle) it's a bit of a pain.

I've come to the conclusion that it's probably going to be easier (for me) to do do two batches in 2 pots simultaneously. My rig is set up with my 2 50L pots next to each other with a burner under each. Mash simultaneously for an hour, remove the bags with 2 ropes/pulleys/cleats and boil for an hour with hop additions. That way also i can experiment with the same ingredients side-by-side, with different temps and hop schedules, or even 2 recipes at once. And it's ony slightly more in the way of prep and clean up.

Although i'm sure one day i'll get desperate and attempt 2 simultaneous double batches, but as i'm not yet kegging i'll have to have alot of spare bottles.

 

[reviled]

I have done double batches the last 3 weekends with BIAB and it has convinced me to go for a mash tun.

Youve changed Mantis <_<

 

[Mantis]

Youve changed Mantis <_<

The Beerbelly falsie is ordered h34r:

 

[jakester]

So... it can be done, with some difficulty. Well whatever system we buy, we still need a large boiling pot with attachments and a burner with a medium reg. Beerbelly has 100L pots for $175 plus having to buy a burner and reg, we are halving the costs wich makes it easier. I think if we have a crack at this and fail, hey we still have a large boiler and burner, nothing wasted really. As i have already done a modified version of BIAB for the last year with a 20L pot and bucket, this method appeals to me the most.
We both pretty much enjoy the same sorts of beers, being APA's mainly, not really high end gravity beers, so do i still get the 100L pot or can maybe drop to about 80L. And to go with that are the cheapo pots a waste of money, do you really get what you pay for when it comes to pots?

 

[br33zy]

So... it can be done, with some difficulty. Well whatever system we buy, we still need a large boiling pot with attachments and a burner with a medium reg. Beerbelly has 100L pots for $175 plus having to buy a burner and reg, we are halving the costs wich makes it easier. I think if we have a crack at this and fail, hey we still have a large boiler and burner, nothing wasted really. As i have already done a modified version of BIAB for the last year with a 20L pot and bucket, this method appeals to me the most.
We both pretty much enjoy the same sorts of beers, being APA's mainly, not really high end gravity beers, so do i still get the 100L pot or can maybe drop to about 80L. And to go with that are the cheapo pots a waste of money, do you really get what you pay for when it comes to pots?

Ahhh, we're heading into Aluminium vs SS territory here. I bought our pot from Beerbelly and agonised for too long over whether to pay extra for the SS; or extra to have a tap fitted; or extra to have a thermometer fitted. In the end I sucked it up and went for all three. Wayne's workmanship was sensational and we just love it:

1. The SS means we have been able to use our pot to make a stupendous batch of tomato sauce (acidic) which would surely have marked an Aluminium pot. It's also very, very easy to clean brew after brew.
2. The tap just makes it lots safer when dealing with the large volumes - I'm not sure how I thought I could do without it.
3. The thermometer makes things a lot safer and easier - but we could do without it at a pinch I guess. Having said that, I don't think I would bother trying to do without it

The pot will last a lifetime. And the cost soon amortises down once you've brewed and bottled and drunk a few litres. We've bottled 600 litres (we only count them if they're a good batch!) or so since we bought the big pot (plus plate chiller and SS fittings and mashmaster mill) and our cost per litre including all purchases and fermentables is just under $5 - and that can only keep dropping.

Hope that helps

Mike