All Grain BIAB Kit & Recipe tweaks

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photek1000

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After receiving a couple of All Grain kits for Christmas I need to upgrade some of my kit and want to check on how to adjust the kit notes for a BIAB method.

The kit upgrade is necessary as before my small batch all grain (5 Litre) or extract brews have only needed my 20 litre boiler and these kits are for 19 and 23 litre batches.

I am torn a bit with kit, my head (price) says go for this deal http://www.geterbrewed.com/basic-biab-starter-kit-kit-brewers-upgrade/ as it has all I need for around �£100 including another bundle of grains, my heart would like to go shiny, http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=2519 but that would be almost �£200 once I add a wort chiller.

One kit issue I wonder about is whether the 32 litre Peco can handle all the wort and not boil over??

Now onto the recipes, both have notes for a three vessel AG brew so how do I calculate the water for BIAB? Do I add all the water, Mash and Sparge, or do I mash then add the full amount of sparge water into the boiler over the BIAB grains?

1st kit 23Litre Batch - Tim Taylor Landlord Clone - 17.81L Mash (67 for 90min) 14.21L Sparge @ 75

2nd Kit 19Litre Batch - Hobgoblin Clone - 17L Mash (67 for 90min) 19L sparge + 5L for losses

My previous small batch AG have come as stove top kits with instructions as such, so I'm needing a little guidance so as not end up with too much water..
 
Cheers, another good price, the Geterbrewed kit has a couple extras that may swing it, but all good.

Do you have any comments on whether the 33L offers enough head space for boils etc.
 
I've been using my peco (from the hbc) for 9months with minimal issues (my own fault when they have happened).

With the hop filter I have(have just ordered the geterbrewed false bottom to help things further) I have about 2.5 litres of dead space.

This is my current method, other methods exist and may work better for you.

My last couple of brews I have tried minimal sparging (what I was doing previously was making very little difference). I have been mashing in 25-27litres and collecting about 10 litres of boilng water to "sparge"/mash out with.

After mashing for 60mins I pour the sparge water in a jug at a time until the boiler is almost full with the bag still intact, after a giving the bag a few final stirs I remove it and dump it in my old 15litre pan, which has a few litres of sparge water left and switch the boiler on. I have let my bag drip into the boiler before the dunk sparge on at least one occasion.

With the dead space, boil off (3-4 litres) and hop absorption (varies) I need about 30litres in the boiler and can fill up to this with the few litres from the dunk sparge and/or squeezing as required.

This has worked well for me my last few brews.

And I guess the short answer is yes the peco is sufficient at 33litres.

I would recommend gently stirring while building to a rolling boil to prevent boil over.
 
Thanks wfr42, that gives me some direction and thoughts on the boiler.

I would like to go three vessel eventually but space is a major issue at the moment for that kind of set up, and BIAB has always been the path I was going to initially follow.

2.5 litres of dead space sounds a lot? Is it?

I assume that the tap on Peco is mounted quite high.

I'll have to have a play with a few of the tools as I have the expected OG range and the recommended water usage, plus grain bill to see what gets chucked out.

I'm not going to be rushing into this at the weeknd, equipment needs purchasing etc so any other input before I buy or brew is greatly appreciated from the wealth of knowledge on here :-)
 
In brews with a lot of leaf hops (the swell alot) the dead space can have very little liquid left in it. A lot of the dead space has the various protein breaks and other debris which you don't necessarily want in your brew. Some people tip everything in to the fv with no ill effects - if I ever miss my target volume I have this as an option.

Attached a couple of pics showing hop debris and "max" fill without a boil over.

20161015_135623.jpg


20161203_111647.jpg
 
33l peco boiler is great but shiny pot for a good price.

I use a peco. No issues with boil overs etc.

You can do no sparge if you prefer. Use brewing software to calculate amounts etc. I tend to do a dunk sparge. I also pour about 4/5 litres through the grain.
 
Thanks for the pics wfr42, how much wort do you reckon is is in the boiling photo?

And probably not the last question, but how long does it take to get that volume to Mash temp and then the boil with one element?

Cheers Leon, yes the call of the shiny is great but the extra cost is the major factor, I know it's probably better value in the long run but double the cost now for all that I need, decisions, decisions......
 
I think that's about 30 litres the (inaccurate) boiler scale stope at 28lites just below the handle lip.

I generally put my mash water (from the hot tap) on as I finish sanitising my remaining equipment or finishing weighing out my grain so about 15-20mins

Waiting for the last 10 degrees of boiling/cooling seems like ages but again is around 20 maybe 25mins total - hence while I start to boil while dunk sparging/let the bag drain.

Have you already got a gas burner and gas supply sourced for the shiny pot?
 
Timings for heating and getting to the boil sound pretty good for a single element.

If I was to go shiny, the deal I have linked comes with a burner for gas and would only either need a new bottle purchasing or the one off the BBQ stolen :-)

But that then throws open the questions about how much gas it uses etc, not wanting to be caught short on a brew day, not an issue with electric, part of me prefers electric and I could always get an element for the shiny pot, I have a Q-Max cutter already from building my smaller pot set up.
 
After playing with the current offers it's not out of the realms of possibility to step up the kit another level with a cooler box Mash tun, plus the HBC BIAB kit deal, using my existing stock pot boiler as the HLT.

Would I see massive benefits from going this route over BIAB only, for the extra �£81?
 
There's experiments that suggest biab is no less efficient than a 3 vessel system.

This is a pretty good discussion (from what I've quickly read)

I've considered a mash tun as it may allow me to do a double brew day, mashing brew 2 while brew 1 boils and then chilling in the fv, though I only have one trug and aquarium heater for temperature control and don't really need to produce that much in one go.
 
Thanks again, food for thought, I would only be fermenting one at a time, space constraints, but the cooler MT almost feels like it makes some of the processes easier, even if there is more to clean at the end.

Hopefully by the time I have raised the funds I'll have made the plastic\shiny & 3V\BIAB decision.
 
Well it looks like the head (wallet) is going to win this one, totalling up the options between the BIAB bundles available and the shiny + plus extras options the difference is around £100, and I'd get a third grain kit to use, shiny will have to wait.

Still the weekend to mull it over, thanks for the help in weighing the options.
 
Went with the Geterbrewed bundle in the end, offered the best "bang for buck" and provides a good jump on point for 5Gal AG brew days, now just need a day free to actually brew :-)
 
Well it's arrived, it does look smaller than I was expecting, but then I had nothing really to compare it against, the Chiller is really well made, and another grain kit to use at a later date.

Day booked off next Wednesday for a Brewday, so hopefully it'll be nice and dry for brewing outdoors, if I get anywhere near the expected gravity when it's in the FV without covering the patio in sticky wort I'll be dead chuffed.

I'm going to try the Tim Taylors clone first, and in a rough follow of the 3V notes that came with it Mash in 22L for 60 and have 10L for sparging with, aiming for 23L in the FV :-)

No doubt that session will spawn a few more questions.
 
i have a peco as well, i too was a little underwhelmed by it when it arrived. but as it turns out,, boiling water is boiling water weather its on gas or electric, one thing ive done,as mentioned by another forum member is adding a second element, only cause im impatient when it comes to waiting for the boil.
first time i used it last week with the second element and i turned it on while waiting the 15mins for the batch sparge, it boiled way before the sparge was up and had to turn it off again, till the sparge was done,
its not necessary but worth thinking about if you want to reduce your brew time .
 
oh just to say i turn the second element off when boil is reached,
i loose 2/3ltrs at boil over 60 mins and 1.5/2 ltrs of dead space if i use loose hops,
 
Yes I can see the possibility of fitting another element to speed things along.

Initial observations would be that the tap will get replaced as it's definitely a weak area and very slow.

Water heating was good though, outdoors today so 3 or 4° air temp, and it was up to 75°c in 45 minutes.

I have some foam to build and insulation jacket for it and my FV so it should be a bit quicker.
 

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