Help for a first time BIAB brewer?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

oscarman

Well-Known Member
Joined
13/2/13
Messages
64
Reaction score
10
Hello!
So i've done a lot of extract brewing over the last couple of years, mainly just to have cheap beer to drink. Last year i got into craft beers and decided to give it a go, so i did an unhopped extract + hops + specialty grain pale in a 32 litre pot i bought from a wholesale kitchen store with a discount from a cafe i work at (it is glorious).
So basically i have a single huge pot, and i want to do a partial mash BIAB. I have many questions.

  • Is my pot big enough?

  • A guy i know said he does BIAB but just mashes in his brew pot, then pulls it out and let's it drain out, basically he doesn't sparge at all (although i read about people sparging over the bag into the pot). Is this a valid way of doing it? I can't afford another big pot...

  • How much beer could i theoretically make in this 32 litre pot using the BIAB partial mash method?

  • And lastly, i want to make an awesome Chocolate/Coffee porter for my next beer, has anyone got a good recipe that would fit with my equipment?
Thanks brewers!
 
Search for NickJD's All Grain for under $20.00 thread and all your questions will be answered! You already have everything you need to make breat beer using Nicks advice.
 
32L pot is just a bit too small to do a full volume BIAB but only by a small margin.

(edit: by full volume I mean adding all the required water first off)

To sparge, you can do it nicely in a side vessel.

Get ye unto a supermarket, Coles Woolies and IGA all stock them, and get one of these 20L bowls for about $9

Then when the bag is lifted and drained into the stockpot, drop it into the bowl, open it up and put the required amount of boiling water out of a kettle, mix well and re-hoist to drain into the bowl.

Then tip these second runnings into the stockpot, being careful not to fill it to the point you could have a boil over.

I have a couple of these bowls for various uses around the brewery and have always used the 40L urn, but I would be confident you could easily whack out a keg sized brew of around 20L no problems at all.

Classique bowl.jpg
 
Rowy said:
Search for NickJD's All Grain for under $20.00 thread and all your questions will be answered! You already have everything you need to make breat beer using Nicks advice.
Thanks, i just searched for it but couldn't find it. Got a link?

Also, theoretically if i wanted to make a bigger batch couldn't i just do the grains in the pot then add more water and a can of LME into the brewpot after doing the grains? Therefore avoiding boil overs completely?

Thanks for the replies too! Really appreciated.
 
Some great advice above.
I would ditch the extract all grain idea & concentrate solely on all grain.
This programme is great for Biab.
Do you intend to chill your beer after boiling or are you going to have a crack at no chill?
It's probably a good idea to get yourself a cake cooling rack to sit in the bottom of your stock pot so the bag doesn't rest on the bottom of the pot, especially whilst heating to mash out temp. I'd sacc rest for 90mins, do a mashout & drain the bag. Rinse the grains with some additional sparge water ( this amount is taken off your strike in volume ) & add the runnings back to your stock pot.
Too easy.
 
Mate can't find it myself. If you shoot Nick JD a PM he should be able to help out. Even if I found it as an IT numke I wouldn't know how to send it anyway :unsure:
 
If you're looking to fill a keg, ie 20l instead of 23, the 32 litre is big enough to do full volume. I have one so know from firsthand experience :)
 
Crusty said:
Some great advice above.
I would ditch the extract all grain idea & concentrate solely on all grain.
This programme is great for Biab.
Do you intend to chill your beer after boiling or are you going to have a crack at no chill?
It's probably a good idea to get yourself a cake cooling rack to sit in the bottom of your stock pot so the bag doesn't rest on the bottom of the pot, especially whilst heating to mash out temp. I'd sacc rest for 90mins, do a mashout & drain the bag. Rinse the grains with some additional sparge water ( this amount is taken off your strike in volume ) & add the runnings back to your stock pot.
Too easy.
I will chill it, i'm actually thinking about enquiring about some copper tubing from http://www.polyaire.com.au/?s=copper to make a wort chiller, but if i can't afford it i will just go bath with ice. Also, what is the mashout? I could probably just sit the bag in the pot so it doesn't touch the bottom? Thanks!

Rowy said:
Mate can't find it myself. If you shoot Nick JD a PM he should be able to help out. Even if I found it as an IT numke I wouldn't know how to send it anyway :unsure:

I found two by him after some extensive searching:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/38674-move-to-all-grain-for-thirty-bucks/

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/44264-20l-stovetop-all-grain-aussie-lager/

The second one is really great, love the way he simply explains everything.

stakka82 said:
If you're looking to fill a keg, ie 20l instead of 23, the 32 litre is big enough to do full volume. I have one so know from firsthand experience :)
Yeah i was only planning to do 20L anyway!
 
32l is HEAPS of space to do decent sized batches IMO,

I use a 19L pot to produce 15L batches, I "sparge-dunk" my grain bag in a separate big plastic bucket and keep topping up my kettle witht he extra wort, until I hit T-15.

check out this thread http://biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=352 for some ideas.

NickJD's thread here is http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/38674-move-to-all-grain-for-thirty-bucks/

It's damned easy, and great fun!!!

you can definitely do full AG or partials in a 32l pot, just depending on the volume of beer you want at the end :drinks:


lol 3 other replies while i typed. links overload!
 
oscarman said:
I will chill it, i'm actually thinking about enquiring about some copper tubing from http://www.polyaire.com.au/?s=copper to make a wort chiller, but if i can't afford it i will just go bath with ice.


Also, what is the mashout? I could probably just sit the bag in the pot so it doesn't touch the bottom? Thanks!
If you're going to make a chiller I'd recommend looking into making a counterflow chiller instead of an immersion chiller. A lot less water used that way, and if you don't have or cant install a ball valve tap on your kettle I've seen it done with an Easy-Syphon (hand syphon) from the kettle into the coil.


and yeah a cake cooling rack or roasting rack that fits into the bottom of your kettle acts as a false bottom, protecting your bag from melting. Mashing out has something to with quickly stopping the enzyme reactions quickly in the wort i think?
 
Thankyou brother brewers for making up for my lack of IT skills. Happy brewing Oscarman :icon_cheers:
 
oscarman said:
I will chill it, i'm actually thinking about enquiring about some copper tubing from http://www.polyaire.com.au/?s=copper to make a wort chiller, but if i can't afford it i will just go bath with ice. Also, what is the mashout? I could probably just sit the bag in the pot so it doesn't touch the bottom? Thanks!
A mash out is simply raising the temperature from, for eg, 66deg to 78deg.
Here you go

I mash out @78deg & always do a 90min sacc rest. I find that this really boosts efficiency. I have a paint stirrer that I rouse the mash with after the 90mins whilst heating up to 78deg. Once I hit 78deg, I switch off my urn & raise my grain bag.
Not to deter you from chilling but no chill in a 20lt cube is a great way to store your beers to ferment at a later stage. It's cheap, easy & you get great results.
If you download BrewMate, you can set the programme up to match your batch size ( equipment you brew in ) & go from there. It also has a no chill check box that you can select when inputting a recipe that adjusts your hop additions for longer contact time with the hot wort. Plenty of us on here use BrewMate & can help with any questions you have, myself included.................. :beerbang:
 
If weight of numbers helps with your decision, skip the partial mash and go the full mash. I've done full batch boils in a 32L pot for years. You just need to watch it when it comes to the boil with hot break and the first hop addition to avoid boil overs. Others have recommended keeping a spray bottle of water handy to spray down boil overs and I'd definitely recommend this as well until you get your brew day sorted. My batch size was normally 24L into fermenter plus 1L starter for 25L.
I guarantee you won't be back in the extract market after the first brew.
Cheers,
BB
 
Blue Baggers said:
Others have recommended keeping a spray bottle of water handy to spray down boil overs and I'd definitely recommend this as well until you get your brew day sorted. .......
I guarantee you won't be back in the extract market after the first brew.
+1 hell yes the water spray is definitely a brilliant "just in case" measure to have on standby
+1 never look at extracts again! AG is so much more fun imo
 
Crusty said:
A mash out is simply raising the temperature from, for eg, 66deg to 78deg.
Here you go

I mash out @78deg & always do a 90min sacc rest. I find that this really boosts efficiency. I have a paint stirrer that I rouse the mash with after the 90mins whilst heating up to 78deg. Once I hit 78deg, I switch off my urn & raise my grain bag.
Not to deter you from chilling but no chill in a 20lt cube is a great way to store your beers to ferment at a later stage. It's cheap, easy & you get great results.
If you download BrewMate, you can set the programme up to match your batch size ( equipment you brew in ) & go from there. It also has a no chill check box that you can select when inputting a recipe that adjusts your hop additions for longer contact time with the hot wort. Plenty of us on here use BrewMate & can help with any questions you have, myself included.................. :beerbang:
I'm trying to understand what you do with the sack (?) rest, do you do it after mash out? Or before?

Thank all of you for the help by the way! Totally going to go with AG, i mean, doing partial still requires you to mash, so why not do it all? Also i can totally make my dream clone of this bad boy...

moondog1.jpg


moondog2.jpg
 
As far as your chilling goes, i'm with Crusty.I'm new to biab as well, have done 2 batches chilled and about 6 batches no chill.... The immersion chiller I bought has gone into a dark corner in the garage! Only because I found no chill more convenient and chilling also adds another hour to your already long brew day.

Cheers
 
If you need to ask if the sack rest comes before or after mash out, I suggest some more reading and research before moving forward.
 
oscarman said:
I'm trying to understand what you do with the sack (?) rest, do you do it after mash out? Or before?

Thank all of you for the help by the way! Totally going to go with AG, i mean, doing partial still requires you to mash, so why not do it all? Also i can totally make my dream clone of this bad boy...
The Sacc rest, or saccrification rest, is simply soaking your milled grains at a constant temperature for a set period of time, usually 60-90mins. This process in it's simplest form converts starches in the grain to fermentable sugars ( wort ) We then raise this temperature after the stated period to mash out temperatures which will halt the starch to sugar conversion. We now have wort that we boil & add our hops to for bitterness, flavour & aroma.
 
Back
Top