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Mysticmead · 03-14-2013, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFGiantsFan925

Heres a BIAB question that I cant really seem to find an answer for.

Can/do you use Mash Ph Stabilizer 5.2 in your brews? Pros/ Cons??

I tried it in my last beer and its only a week into primary, so I dont really know if it has affected it at all. I tried it using local tap water (filtered), campden, and the 5.2 stabilizer. Is this okay to use with BIAB??

any water treatments you would do for All Grain brewing you can do for BIAB.. because BIAB is All Grain Brewing. It's just a different method of extracting the sugars from the grain. That said, 5.2 stabilizer is for the most part worthless. Do a search on the forums about it.

Majic · 03-15-2013, 03:07 PM

I have been learning about BIAB since I found the Aussie site last December and learned a great deal there, but this thread is awesome and I appreciate all the good info given here. The simplicity of AG using BIAB is what attracted to me the system. I am all about getting great results using the simplest of processes and it seems that using no chill would be the next step in the process. It looks like I will be investigating no chill now.

mtnagel · 03-15-2013, 04:56 PM

Just checking in to say I'm attempting my first BIAB next weekend. It will be a Founders breakfast stout clone. I'm using a 10 gallon pot and BrewSmith says I should use 7.5 gallons of water for the mash. The recipe uses ~ 17 lbs of malt and grain. Maybe I shouldn't have attempted such a big beer for my first AG brew, but I'm worried that it won't all fit. Is there any easy way to know for sure before I start? My plan is to have some backup water heating so if I can't fit all the water in, I can do a sort-of sparge with the extra water to rinse the grains to end up with the full volume needed to boil. I know I've seen a few mentions of sparging with BIAB. What does everyone think about that?

Mysticmead · 03-15-2013, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtnagel

Just checking in to say I'm attempting my first BIAB next weekend. It will be a Founders breakfast stout clone. I'm using a 10 gallon pot and BrewSmith says I should use 7.5 gallons of water for the mash. The recipe uses ~ 17 lbs of malt and grain. Maybe I shouldn't have attempted such a big beer for my first AG brew, but I'm worried that it won't all fit. Is there any easy way to know for sure before I start? My plan is to have some backup water heating so if I can't fit all the water in, I can do a sort-of sparge with the extra water to rinse the grains to end up with the full volume needed to boil. I know I've seen a few mentions of sparging with BIAB. What does everyone think about that?

absorption+batch size+boil off+trub loss= water needed.

grain weight in lbs * .060= absorption

so, if this is a 5 gallon batch.

17 * .060 = 1.02

1.02+5+ boil off+trub loss = water needed.. you'll have to supply those numbers as what is the boil off and trub loss for my setup will probably be different from yours. 7.5 gallons would be a minimum amount. keep some water heated on hand in another kettle and if needed do a dunk sparge and combine the 2 amounts.

**NivekD** · 03-15-2013, 05:08 PM

I use a 10 gal pot and have to scale down my recipe for big beers because the pot is too small. I can do almost 6 gal. with a grain bill of about 12 pounds with about 2 inches to spare. Your sparging method may work though. Haven't done it myself, just full volumes.

mtnagel · 03-15-2013, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mysticmead

absorption+batch size+boil off+trub loss= water needed.

grain weight in lbs * .060= absorption

so, if this is a 5 gallon batch.

17 * .060 = 1.02

1.02+5+ boil off+trub loss = water needed.. you'll have to supply those numbers as what is the boil off and trub loss for my setup will probably be different from yours. 7.5 gallons would be a minimum amount. keep some water heated on hand in another kettle and if needed do a dunk sparge and combine the 2 amounts.

Thanks for that. I haven't seen that written out like that before. How do I figure trub loss? Isn't roughly 0.25 gal?

I'm thinking my boil off is about 1-1.5 gal/hour though I haven't tested it directly. But I've been doing mostly full boil extracts for the last few batches so I think that's close.

So maybe 7.75 gal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NivekD

I use a 10 gal pot and have to scale down my recipe for big beers because the pot is too small. I can do almost 6 gal. with a grain bill of about 12 pounds with about 2 inches to spare. Your sparging method may work though. Haven't done it myself, just full volumes.

Thanks for the info, so looks like I will have to do some sort of dunk sparge then.

Mysticmead · 03-15-2013, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtnagel

Thanks for that. I haven't seen that written out like that before. How do I figure trub loss? Isn't roughly 0.25 gal?

I'm thinking my boil off is about 1-1.5 gal/hour though I haven't tested it directly. But I've been doing mostly full boil extracts for the last few batches so I think that's close.

So maybe 7.75 gal.

trub loss is what you will lose to kettle trub, chiller loss and trub in the primary. for me I transfer everything from the kettle to primary and use an immersion chiller so I have no kettle or chiller loss. I normally have between .25 and .5 gallons in primary.

I started with a 10 gallon kettle. I was doing 5.5 gallon batch in a 10 gallon kettle using up to 14.5lbs of grain. it was tight and the lid barely fit on there. that was at full volume BIAB

mtnagel · 03-15-2013, 06:11 PM

Thanks. Guess I need to get a bigger pot now!

**wilserbrewer** · 03-15-2013, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtnagel

Thanks. Guess I need to get a bigger pot now!

Not really, any pot or bucket can be used for a dunk sparge, or if you have a large collander you can try sprinkling your sparge water over the bag as it is held above the kettle. I would guess a sprinkle sparge is ok for small volumes, and a dunk sparge works better and is more eficient with larger sparge volumes.

17 lbs, you're goin big Bro!!! cheers!

**Brewitt** · 03-15-2013, 11:27 PM

I've recently did 8 gallons of Russian Imperial Stout using 29lbs of grain in a 15.5 gallon Keggle. Trick was to use two bags next to each other in the keggle and dunk sparged each of them with 1.5 gallons of sparge water after mashing out. Worked great. Each bag had only 15 lb grain so I could still pull them by myself without a pulley. Hit my numbers at about 1.090 OG. The BIAB technique is very adaptable.