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How small can you go with Mini BIAB?

Post #1 made 14 years ago
by Trizza
I'm thinking about upgrading from kit brewing by trying Mini BIAB on a very small scale, using equipment I already have. My biggest stock pot is 9L when full to the brim. I made up a brew bag to fit it on the weekend - the materials were so cheap that I figured its good practice even if its ultimately useless. If I like BIAB then I'll invest in a bigger pot, wort chiller, etc.

So - how small can/should I go for a little experimental batch? What size batch could I make with my existing 9L pot? Would it be feasible to shoot for a one-gallon batch? It sounds like I could get a decent quantity if I use Maxi BIAB..

Any suggestions for first recipe are welcome too :) I was thinking of scaling a simple IPA from the "Brewing Classic Styles" book with BrewSmith, but if anyone has some recipes pre-scaled to tiny batch size then I'm all ears!

Post #2 made 14 years ago
by PistolPatch
Hi Trizza and welcome to the forum :salute:,

1 gallon into the fermentor should be fine. I'd try one or two brews of mini-BIAB before you go maxi-BIAB as mini-BIAB is an easier process to understand.

BeerSmith can be tricky to scale with. It's very easy to press the wrong buttons. I have the 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe I think you are talking about in the BIABacus beta version which is very quick and easy to scale with. I'll PM you a recipe report shortly and you can use this to make sure you have pressed the right buttons in BeerSmith.

:peace:
PP
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Post #3 made 14 years ago
by housecat
Hi Trizza,

I have recently started doing Mini Batches myself. I have a 10L urn and brew enough wort to make 5-6L. This is enough to make about 12 x 375ml(12oz) bottles.
I have done 3 batches now and despite a higher evaporation rate from my boil than I would like (25-35%) the beer that I have been making is coming out just as if I had done a full batch.
All I have been doing is scaling the recipe down from whatever the original batch size was. All additions grain, hops and anything else are then done as a normal brew.
I am really enjoying brewing this way as it gives me the chance to try out styles I may never get to try before I commit to making a double batch of it.
It is also good because I can do it during a normal brew day as well. I can now pump out 2 x 23L cubes and one 5L cube each brew day.

Once you have done a few batches, you can work out if you need to make any adjustments to your recipes ie: more or less bitterness etc.

Good luck. Once you have started you'll have a ball :party:

HC
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Post #4 made 14 years ago
by Trizza
Wow, cheers for the rapid response folks! Thanks for the recipe PistolPatch - I guess its time to head down to the local brew shop and pick up some ingredients :D

housecat: I'm originally a Radelaidean myself :)

Do you folks use a refractometer to take gravity readings when using such small batches? It seems like you'd lose a significant portion of your brew if you do it with a hydrometer.

Post #5 made 14 years ago
by PistolPatch
(Nice post housecat ;))

Trizza,

I don't think taking accurate gravity readings is as easy as we all think. I've seen too many variations in my own personal gravity readings (hydrometer and refractometer) to trust a single reading.

In your situation, I think I would, at the end of the boil, when everything is stirred up, use a sanitised coffee cup (to be safe) and collect a full cup of wort. Cover it with glad-wrap, put it in the freezer, or sink of cold water and let it cool. Once it has cooled, drain off all the clear stuff into a second sterilised mug. Why? To get rid of the trub and to mix the wort so there is no 'layering.'

Use your pipette to take a reading. Give the mug another stir and take another reading (I reckon it will be the same but who knows with air bubbles etc?). Once done, put the contents of your second mug into the fermentor. You have to aerate anyway - this small sample will be aerated :).

The same layering problem occurs when taking readings from a fermentor tap. With experience, you get to know how long a brew takes. 14 days at the right temperature for this brew should be more than enough.

;)
PP
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Post #6 made 14 years ago
by housecat
Radelaide rocks!
I could have call them stubbies (or even echoes!) after all.

I use a refractometer during my brew days but always take a hydrometer sample just before pitching and at the end of fermentation.
If you are bottling, you want to make sure fermentation has finished. Losing a small amount of beer for this is much better than an eye from exploding bottles.
I have also marked my hydrometer tube with a minimum fill line so I only take the smallest amount of beer possible each time!

HC

PS: Thanks PP you beat my post both times by about 30seconds!

Edit: 30 seconds/5minutes, in Australia everything the same!
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Post #8 made 14 years ago
by stux
A friend of mine has been doing 6L batches like this for a while :)
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #9 made 14 years ago
by Trizza
After a trip to London I decided instead that I needed to make an Extra Special Bitter, so I scaled down Programmer's Elbow from "Brewing Classic Styles". My local homebrew store didn't have 15L malt or 120L malt and had just run out of British pale ale malt so I ended up bringing home Finnish pale ale malt, 20L malt and Special B malt. I also grabbed chocolate malt for adding to a "toucan" (Coopers Dark, Coopers Stout plus instant oats & choc malt). I practiced my technique with the toucan, since its basically the same process but with shorter mash (well, steep I guess) and boil times. It went well, enjoyed it very much, so the next day I stepped up to try the BIAB. I decided to toss in just a little bit of choc malt as well to make things interesting - I've read that ESB often benefits from special B and choc malt. All of the calculations had it smack bang in the middle of the ESB parameter range so I went with it :) I tossed in a couple hundred grams of raw sugar, too.

Anyway, apart from crushing the grains the whole process was highly enjoyable :) I think my electric stove is a bit wimpy, bringing the wort to the boil took about 20 minutes. I wouldn't want to try it with a bigger batch. The only major mistake was that I had left the tap on the fermenter open after sanitizing it! Major facepalm right there. I noticed before I had lost too much wort and averted complete disaster. I topped up the fermenter with a bit of extra water to get to 5.5L. After dilution the OG was 1.035. Its been fermenting happily for nearly 7 days now so I tested the gravity today - its at 1.005 so it looks like I'll get a good level of alcohol still :) Of course, I had to taste the sample - and its tasting awesome! Delicious maltiness, good caramel, a hint of raisins which I guess must be from the Special B. Lovely bit of hoppiness from the Goldings. No off flavours. A bit more bitter than ESB normally is, but I did toss in a few more bittering hop pellets than planned. I expect that it will mellow somewhat with conditioning. Can't wait to get this conditioned and carbonated!

So, first experiment so far has been a fantastic success. Delicious beer, better than any kit beer I've had! Now I'm researching how best to scale up a bit from here - being able to do around 12 - 13 litre batches would be about perfect I think. I believe I'll get a 30L catering urn and a cube for eBIAB with no-chill. 30L urns can be had from Amazon for a similar price to a big stock pot and my stove won't handle boiling much more than the 9L pot I've got now.

Post #10 made 14 years ago
by thughes
As they say: "Welcome to the obsession". Glad to hear all went well and you are thinking of scaling up. It's relatively easy to do a large batch with a smaller brewing rig, simply ask whenever you have questions.....we're all here to help.

---Todd
WWBBD?
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Post #11 made 13 years ago
by CptFrederickson
I'm in a similar situation in terms of limited size for brews; my stockpot is an 11 ltr jobby.
I've just done my first kit and to be honest, I was a bit bored...not nearly enough to do to make it interesting! But then, I have been making mead for some time...
Anyways, I'm trying to hone in on a recipe for a good Premium Ale, in the vein of Spitfire for example. Something with some good hoppiness, preferably EKG (hell, I live in Kent...can you blame me for my loyalist tendencies?!)
Any ideas for a scaled recipe?

Post #12 made 13 years ago
by joshua
Good Day CptFredrickson,

I have scaled a 23L batch to a 4L batch, by dividing the recipe by 6, a bit more than 5.

The only prblem I have is the hops, they scaled a bit stronger, Maybe I measured a bit High, (IE. 28grams divide by 5 or 6 is a pellet or two, or 5grams of dust).

But If your looking to make a HOPPY brew it may be scaled great.

11/23 is .478 or 1/2 if you can use a slightly higher gravity!
Last edited by joshua on 17 Jul 2012, 04:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #13 made 13 years ago
by Trizza
I bought a 30L tea urn from Amazon straight after this first batch - BIAB is easy and fun. Although I now mostly do traditional all-grain with the guys from work - we set up a little brewery in the basement of the office after the boss was inspired by my results. BIAB is definitely easier, but we've had more consistent results at work - I put that down mostly to the fact that I no-chill at home (takes 2 days to get down to a suitable fermentation temp) and at the office we have a plate counterflow wort chiller. We also have a temperature controlled server room that keeps the beer at a lovely constant 18 degrees.

Check out Jamil Zainasheff's book for fantastic places to start. There is a nice chapter Every recipe we've done from there has been a roaring success, and the latest one in the fermenter is tasting amazing so far. Its an English IPA, but I didn't have the called for bittering hop so I swapped in some Cascade hops to use up some that I had lying around, and did first wort hopping - there are some 100g of EKG in this one :D
I'm sure folks around here could help you with scaling.

Post #14 made 13 years ago
by thughes
Trizza wrote:We also have a temperature controlled server room that keeps the beer at a lovely constant 18 degrees.
Brilliant! I work with several other home brewers here at a Tier 4 data center, wonder how corporate would feel about us fermenting beer in there?. :think:


---Todd
Last edited by thughes on 17 Jul 2012, 04:08, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #15 made 13 years ago
by lambert
CptFrederickson wrote:I'm in a similar situation in terms of limited size for brews; my stockpot is an 11 ltr jobby.
I've just done my first kit and to be honest, I was a bit bored...not nearly enough to do to make it interesting! But then, I have been making mead for some time...
Anyways, I'm trying to hone in on a recipe for a good Premium Ale, in the vein of Spitfire for example. Something with some good hoppiness, preferably EKG (hell, I live in Kent...can you blame me for my loyalist tendencies?!)
Any ideas for a scaled recipe?
Cpt
This is a nice recipe Bosun Best Bitter. Recipe attached - you need to dial in your own kettle size and brew length.

And sorry for the thread hi-jack!!
Lambert
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Last edited by lambert on 17 Jul 2012, 04:45, edited 3 times in total.
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