EoinMag

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My point was that if star san is killing all germs (effectively) at 3-3.5 then there was no chance that a sour mash was that low as it contains germs.

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seabass07

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derpsperk

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Thanks for the replies. I've been considering trying a sour mash for a while, but was a bit nervous doing it in my BIAB set-up... Sounds like it shouldn't be an issue, huzzah!

pauswa

Recipes 

For my BIAB I only do 2½-gallon batches and I do it on my stovetop. I mash in a 4-gallon pot. With Maris Otter malt I get about 75% efficiency. I do the mashout as described. Also, if you end up short on the liquid because the grains absorbed too much or you didn't measure right, just add some water before the boil. The grains are very forgiving. The lowest efficiency I ever got was 70%, so you can't go wrong. The thing I noticed doing this method is that the wort is all first runnings, so it's very dark and thick and smells delicious and sweet! In the room where the fermenter is kept, the entire room has a delicious malt smell. I do not ever get this strong and wonderful a smell from extract. This is because the wort is so wonderfully FRESH.

oldtrucker

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How many pounds of grain will a gallon hold?
Old Trucker

Rivenin

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huh?

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Mysticmead

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Wingfan13

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Quick question and I am sure it is a stupid one. I am new to BIAB and I am trying to do half batches. 2.5 gallons. I have only been following recipes in the 10 or so 5 gallon batches I have brewed so I am unclear on how to caculate how much water I need to start the mash and moving into the boil.

I have read 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. Then I need to add boil off and grain absorption. Is this correct ? What is the easiest way to calculate grain absorption ?

Boil off seems to be something I need to test on my own by boiling for an hour and seeing how much is left. To test this, can I just thrown 3 gallons of water into my pot, boil for 60min and measure ? using that as an estimate ?

Thanks for the help. I am still learning.

Wingfan13

Recipes 

Here is how I am looking at it and please let me know if I am off.

I have a recipe that uses 13.4 pounds of grain. If I cut that in half it is 6.7 pounds of grain.

6.7 pounds of grain
x 1.25 = 8.375 quarts which is 2.09 gallons

2.09 gallons
+ 1 gallon for boil off (looked this up as an good starting point)
+ .1 gallon per pound of grain (also looked this up as a starting point) = .67 gallons

I would need 3.76 gallons to start ? Does this look right ?

Thanks for the help !

bovinejony

Recipes 

The .1 gallon/lb grain is going to be lost from your strike volume, so if you strike with 2.09 gallons you will lose 0.67 gallons of volume (=1.42 gallons).

Now if you want to do a sparge here, you can use whatever volume you want that will raise the 1.42 gallons to the total volume you want pre-boil.

So say you boil off 1 gallon/hour in your kettle, then you can sparge with 2.08 gallons to get 3.50 gallons pre-boil total volume, and then start your 60min boil to get it down to 2.5 gallons post-boil.

Or you can be lazy like me and just make a calibrated stick with notches for gallon measurements specific to your kettle. Then just estimate the amount of water and boil it all down till you get to your desired pre-boil volume. Some say extended boils cause carmelization, yada yada, but it's worth it to me.