Now that winter is just about here, brewing outdoors has become less appealing. I have decided to move my operations indoors. For me this means scaling down to a 3 gallon BIAB process for two reasons; my stove won't fit my outdoor kettle and won't heat it either. I wasn't able to find much information about doing a smaller 3 gallon batch size for BIAB which is why I put this post together.
Equipment Required:
- Kettle - I chose a 24 qt (6 gallon) kettle. I had googled around and determined this just might work for the 3 gallon batch and most importantly it fit my stove. One bonus with the one I chose is the basket. It is perfect for holding the bag and grains a few inches above the bottom of the kettle.
- BIAB Bag - I didn't go all out on this, just picked up a cheap one. I figured if the process works I can invest in a better one later on.
- Wort Chiller - I just have a standard immersion chiller.
- Sieve
- Bottling Bucket with spigot
- 5 gallon glass carboy or other fermentation vessel
- Starsan
- Air lock
- Thermometer
- Hydrometer
- Scale
Recipe: Brew Brew Brew Brew Brew aka 5 Brew - 3 Gallon BIAB
My daughter Helena named this one. She claims it's all I ever talk about. I created this recipe in
BeerSmith Mobile from a 5 gallon recipe that I have had success with in the past and scaled it down for 3 gallons.
- 6lb 8oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
- 7.8 oz Munich Malt
- 5.2 oz Cara-Pils
- .35 oz Columbus (60 min)
- .35 oz Columbus (10 min)
- .35 oz Simcoe (10 min)
- 1/4 teaspoon irish moss (10 min)
- .64 oz Simcoe (0 min) - steep 20 min or until 190 degrees
- Safale US-05 - 1 packet
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 53.4
ABV: 6.72%
The Process:
1. Fill the bottling bucket with approximately 4.785 gallons of water. I have decent water, nothing needs to be added or removed from it. Skip this if you're able to measure directly in your kettle.
2. Transfer the water to the kettle and heat to 159 degrees.
3. Turn off the heat, add crushed grains, mix well, take several temperature readings, cover, fold bag over the top of the lid. I measured 151 degrees in several spots after mixing. For once hit my target mash temperature throughout.
4. Mash at 151 degrees for 60 minutes.
5. At 20 minutes and 40 minutes into the mash I turned the burner on for 2 minutes, gave the mash a quick stir.
6. After the mash remove the bag and strainer from the kettle, turn the burner on to get the boil going. Place the bag over the bottling bucket(see picture) and give it several good squeezes. Careful as it will be hot. Empty this wort back into the kettle. You'll want to take a gravity reading and note the amount of wort collected so that you can determine your efficiency.
7. Next up, once you reach a rolling boil, keep it going for 60 minutes and follow the hop schedule. During this process clean and sanitize the bottling bucket. I prepare 5 gallons of starsan and leave it in the bottling bucket. I leave the sieve and wort chiller in the bucket as well to sanitize them.
8. After the boil and hop stand cool the wort to as close to 70 (pitching/fermentation temp) as you can. At this point remember that anything that's going to touch the wort must be sanitized. For my process I make sure it has been in contact with Starsan for at least 2 minutes. Take your original gravity reading.
9. Transfer the starsan into the carboy. Pour the wort through the sanitized sieve into the clean and sanitized bottling bucket. The sieve helps clear out most of the trub and hops that you might not want in the fermenter. It gets messy toward the end, be sure you're able to easily clear out the sieve a few times. Using the sieve also helps aerate the wort. Once in the bottling bucket take a gravity reading.
10. Last steps are to transfer the wort from the bottling bucket into the sanitized carboy. Aerate the wort (shake the carboy for as long as you can stand doing it, or 5 minutes) and then finally pitch the yeast and give a quick shake as well. I've read and watched many mixed methods of doing this. This one has worked well for me. Place in your fermentation chamber.
The trub settled down to below the bottom line by the next day.
Notes:
I was a bit short at the end on the amount collected and I overshot my gravity. I ended up adding around 2 quarts of boiled water that I had chilled to room temp. I will adjust my numbers for next time to try to avoid this. In the mash photo you can see there is around 1 gallon of space to play around with. Once I get the numbers right, i'll post the equipment profile for BeerSmith. The entire process took around 3 hours.
