Water And Pot Size For First Biab

[6tri6ple6]

Hey all,

Just a quick question and i apologise if this has been covered before. Im a bit of a biab noob and i am trying to work the water needed. I am using the calculator from the biabrewer website and the pot that i will be using is a 40L pot which would put most "standard" brews only few millimeters from the top once mashed in. Bigger beers are out of the question. Would it be ok to lower the water addition about 4-5L for the mash and then top up afterwards so its not quite so full? Would this have a negative effect? Are there any other methods?


Any help would be appreciated



Cheers

Richard

 

[kocken42]

It is perfectly fine to reduce the water by a few liters to fit it all in your pot.

Many people make 23L brews using a 19L pot from Big W, you just make a very high gravity wort and water it down at the end.

Don't forget about sparge water (if you are sparging) as that will probably reduce your need to top up with water at the end, and also improve your efficiency.

 

[keifer33]

What your describing is similar to maxi-biab. On biabrewer have a read threw maxi-biab and there is heaps of useful ideas/info.

 

[seamad]

You could heat the extra water to @ 78 and do a type of sparge into another container then add that to the boil, would get better effeciency that way

 

[argon]

What your describing is similar to maxi-biab. On biabrewer have a read threw maxi-biab and there is heaps of useful ideas/info.

Here you go... back at BIABrewer have a read of Ralph's guide Using Maxi-BIAB to Brew a 'Single Batch' Mini-BIAB.

Just instead of a 19L pot you're using a 40L one. Same method applies when wanting to make more or bigger beers.

 

[Deebo]

I use a 40L Urn (40l is the very rim) with 33L of water and about 5.25kg of grain with no problems.
I normally top up before the boil by sparging a couple of litres of water through the grain bag while its hoisted (you may not need to do this but I tend to lose a fair bit of wort to trub and a bit in the cube)

Edit: Woops missed the bit about bigger beers. I would just sparge with a bit more water if it was me.

 

[6tri6ple6]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm just trying to work it all out and how it'll work for me.

Thanx again
Richard