Full-Volume Variations - FVV (diluting and/or sparging)

1. Using two 17.6l pots to do full batch

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   First post by aydanrogers, 12 years ago

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   I really want to get into all grain but I cant spend the money at the moment. Is it possible to do the biab into one of the pots and then once its done mashing, split the wort, top both the pots up to around 15l and boil down till I reach 23l? I was thinking that I could just do my hop additions into one of the pots, is this going to work?
   
   Cheers in advance
   
   Aydan

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   Thanks heaps for that info that is a great help, this site is great. I could spend hours on here ( which I have already done ;) ) looking at all of these threads.
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   Last post by aydanrogers
   12 years ago
2. Maxi BIAB in 40L urn to make a double batch?

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   First post by deebo, 12 years ago

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   Beer stocks are low and wife has a bun in the oven so I think that brew days will shortly be few and far between, which got me thinking about trying to do double batches on my current system without spending much/any more money.
   
   Just wondering if anyone has done this before in a 40l urn? Is it possible without more mucking around than doing 2 seperate batches or moving to 2v?
   
   I do have a large rectangular esky which hasn't yet been used for brewing (no manifold etc) and a number of 20l handy...

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   What is the internal diameter and height of your urn? What is your hourly evaporation? How much kettle loss do you expect for a normal 20L batch?
   
   How many CM of headspace do you *need* when you mash, and boil?
   
   What gravity would you like to do ;)
   
   It should be a simple matter of plugging the numbers into the CE Calc to work out the strike and sparge volumes, and that's pretty much all there is to it :)
   
   I have done 55L batches using a 50L pot. Wasn't exactly pleasant tho ;)
   
   Anyway, you...
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   Last post by stux
   12 years ago
3. Triple Batch Maxi-BIAB in 50L pot

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   First post by stux, 13 years ago

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   So I had a bit of a brew demo today,
   
   To make it interesting, I decided to do a triple batch, two for me, and one for the host...
   
   And I decided to do a Hefeweizen, because I have a Munich Helles and Munich Dunkel queueing up for the ferment fridge, and it seemed like a good idea... :)
   
   And just to make it even more interesting I decided to do a Hochkurz mash... because I like it...
   
   So, I picked up 3 more 15/17L cubes from my LHBS for 6$ :)
   
   The plan was to use 12KG of Pilsner/Wheat (50/50), +...

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   Wow stux, you have a fermenter that will hold 41 liters? I have wanting to try 10 gallon batches but trying to figure out how I will move once it is in the cube and then how I will ferment. I have 2 six gallon carboys.
   
   I have a 60L fermenter which i regurlarly put 43L into. I lift it straight from the fermenting fridge onto a cabinet with wheels. I roll it over to the work bench and then lift it up. So its only 2 quick lifts, although its heavy it ok as your not lifting for long.
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   Last post by Aces high
   12 years ago
4. Help with dilution into fermenter

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   First post by Zelig, 12 years ago

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   My equipment is a 27 lts pot on a kitchen gas burner, and on my first brew I ended up with 13 lts into fermenter.
   I'm thinking about a simple way to increase the batch size. Maxi-biab is an interesting approach, but I want to keep the thing simple and avoid sparging the grains and using more vesseels/kettles/buckets (that's why I choose BIAB!). Anyway my stove burner can't boil more than 20/21 lts of wort, so I really can't top up the pot before or during the boil.
   So the only option left is to...

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   No problem Zelig. Let us know if anything's not making sense.
   
   :peace:
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   Last post by PistolPatch
   12 years ago
5. 1st biab attempt

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   First post by moctez, 12 years ago

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   Hi - I'm awaiting the grain to arrive before starting my first maxi-biab attempt and am looking for some reassurance I suppose that I am on the right track with my process.
   I have an 18l electric urn with a 30cm diameter and about 5 cm of dead space above the max line. Having used the maxi-biab calc I expect to be able to fit 15l of water and 5.7kg of grain into the mash. After mash I will sparge with just boiled water upto roughly 7 or 8 l to take the urn back to capacity. After the 90min boil...

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   Yes, it depends on your lid. Mine clears the mash if the mash is 1cm below the lip
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   Last post by stux
   12 years ago
6. Using Maxi-BIAB with BeerSmith 2

   3 Replies 9013 Views

   First post by stux, 13 years ago

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   I've been trying to work out how to use BeerSmith 2 with Maxi-BIAB
   
   I had created a separate Maxi-BIAB Mash Profile, but I think I've worked out how to get it to work with the standard BIAB profiles :)
   
   Maxi-BIAB 50L (38L NC) Equipment.bsmx
   
   This is an equipment profile for my Maxi-BIAB 50L pot.
   
   I fill 2 17L cubes of wort (34L), which I dilute to about 42.4L, which gives me a double batch, ie 38L of Beer :)
   
   I have a 49L mash limit, and a 40.2 L boil limit
   
   To scale any recipe to Maxi-BIAB,...

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   Been meaning to read this thread since you started it stux. Always love seeing what you have come up with :P
   
   The top up water for kettle seems to simply deduct that amount from the initial strike voluem. It then assumes that you will add that amount back in on the boil instructions of the brew steps sheet where it says, 'Add water to achieve boil volume of x .'
   
   Is the profile working for you okay? eg 'Brewhouse Efficiency' setting etc.
   
   Cheers,
   Pat
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   Last post by Pat
   13 years ago
7. Making up the volume with water

   3 Replies 6556 Views

   First post by sjcampbell, 13 years ago

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   My daughter has lent me a very nice 20 litre stock pot so I'll try using it for my first BIAB.
   
   I want to get 20-21 litres in the fermenter for a 18 litre keg. I was also going to no-chill it. I plug the figures in to the calculator and I get 16.7 litres in to the cube. It then says to add the extra water to the fermenter to make it up to 21 litres. Why wouldn't you add boiling water to the cube and make sure you have no head space?
   
   Cheers
   Steve

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   Stux and Ralph,
   
   Thanks for the info. Think I will not bother with the head space and follow the instructions as directed
   
   Now to work out what to brew :)
   
   Cheers
   Steve
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   Last post by sjcampbell
   13 years ago
8. 2 x 20L urns

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   First post by icoz, 13 years ago

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   Ive been lucky enough to score 2 20L electric urns with a 2400w element. My question is with a 4kg grain bill, is it easiets to simply split the bill in half and use both urns or do a maxi biab and use the 2nd urn as a sparge. Im also unsure if going the first method will effect taste etc if the brewing process is slightly different between the 2 urns.

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   I'd just try each method (side by side or maxi- style) and see which you like best. To my mind, one urn doing the boil is probably more efficient in terms of power, i.e. less thermal losses etc. Also need to keep in mind that running 2 * 2400W elements may trip a breaker on the one circuit? (I'm no sparkie...)
   
   Good luck, hope it works out well! :luck:
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   Last post by Ralph
   13 years ago
9. "Maxi-BIAB" Definitions.

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   First post by Pat, 13 years ago

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   The term, Maxi-BIAB, originally came from this guide written by Ralph. In this guide, Ralph shows how using some additional equipment to sparge a high gravity wort can allow a brewer to move beyond the limitation of their kettle size.
   
   These principles can be applied though to any BIAB set-up. Because of this, we now like to define, Maxi-BIAB, as follows...
   
   A method used to increase brewlength by creating a high gravity wort and then rinsing (sparging) the grain bag (usually in a second...

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   What a great reply, thanks Pat you are always concise and considerate in you responses.
   
   I agree that we need to remove some of the grey areas, how this can be achieved though is something different. We only need to look at the How would you re-name Maxi-BIAB thread to see how difficult it would be.
   
   3v brewers using a bag has always made sense to me, yet they (mostly) seem to avoid it like the plague. When you read of stuck sparges and the drams they go through to clear manifolds, a bag would...
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   Last post by hashie
   13 years ago
10. Using Maxi-BIAB to Brew a 'Single Batch' Mini-BIAB.

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    First post by Ralph, 13 years ago

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    Using Maxi-BIAB to Brew a 'Single Batch' Mini-BIAB.
    by Ralph deVoil (Ralph)
    What is MaxiBIAB?
    MaxiBIAB is a Brew In A Bag, All- Grain (or “All Mash”) method which is useful for making a full- sized batch where the kettle volume is less than the usual 23 L brew length. It is also a relatively simple and effective means for a novice brewer to try All- Grain brewing at full- scale early, so without the annoyance of small batches or a half- empty fermenter. Ordinarily, the de- facto standard...

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    Discussion
    Roots
    Not surprisingly, MaxiBIAB is a variation on MiniBIAB , the main difference is sparging and post- boil dilution, plus a couple of other less- obvious quirks.
    Because MiniBIAB is limited in terms of volume (or 'brew length'), and most brewers would like to work with standard fermenter- full batches (i.e. 23L) if they possibly can but don't want to spend any more on equipment (e.g. a bigger stockpot), some impatient (and bone- idle) brewers have tested and tuned a simple...
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    Last post by Ralph
    13 years ago