Help with BIAB technique

Edited my post my oven starts at 155F not 55. No I would not recommend using the oven to heat the mash. Preheat oven to its lowest setting while heating your mash water on the stovetop. When oven reaches lowest temp even 200F turn it off. When mash reaches mash temp dough in lid on slide into oven. Opening the door will probably lower the temp well below mash temp. An insulated oven heated to say 100F would hold a mashtun temp way better than a kitchen counter.

My oven still sucks donkey private parts... Lowest it goes is 200F... If I go to use it above 250F, it ends up being 50F high all the time. Sucks DONKEY!!...

gunner65 said:

If your pot will fit you could always slide it into your oven preheated to say 100F that should keep your temperature VERY steady. That is if your pot will fit.

Click to expand...

I tested my oven with 2 gallons of water in a 5 gal SS kettle - heated the water to 154 on the stove during which time I heated the oven using the Warm/Hold setting. water temp after 1 hour in the oven was 154! will be using partial mash BIAB tomorrow using the Warm/Hold oven setting

Golddiggie said:

I don't know of any oven that you can set to 100F... The lowest I've seen is 200F (which mine has as it's lowest setting)... To try and heat it up to ~150F will be a little tricky. Plus, getting it to hold that temp could provide other challenges.

Click to expand...

Heat oven to 200, turn it off and stick mash kettle in. It will hold temp very nicely.

jaginger said:

Heat oven to 200, turn it off and stick mash kettle in. It will hold temp very nicely.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did a couple times, it does work great.

I used to do standard mashes for years, using the oven to keep it warm duirng the mash time. I even would check it and stir it every 30 minutes just to make sure it was staying in the proper temp range. Plus stirring it helps with the effirciency.

Now my problem is with BIAB. I am having the same bad efficiency issue as the OP, only even worse. I do need to be able to measure how much wort I have in my 16 gal. keggle. I crush my own grains, and I crushed them really fine on the last three. Part of my problem is not boiling off enough, and I know that now. But even given that, my numbers really suck a$$. So here it goes........

8# 2 row malt
1.5# Munich malt
0.5# Carahell
0.25# Aromatic malt
7.85 gal mash water at 126* for protein rest at 122* for 30 minutes.
Didn't pull bag up high enough and melted two small holes in it &%#@$^&!!!! and didn't realize it until I pulled the bag out after the mash.
Raised temp to 151* for 90 minutes.
Pulled up bag and heated to mashout at 168*.
Just over 5 gallons into fermenter, 1.045 = 62%
__________________________________________________________________________

5.6# Munich malt
4# 2 rwo malt
22 qts water @ 158* - 60 minute mash at 151*
10.45 qts water @ 189* - mashout at 168*
no sparge
water volumes got screwed up and ended up with too much wort and didn't realize it.
Didn't boil enough off.
6 gallons into fermenter, 1.031 = 53%
_________________________________________________________________________

5.6# 2 row malt
4# wheat malt
0.70# Munich malt
0.28# crystal 40*L
4 gallons water @ 130* - protein rest 122* (forgot to monitor temp and it dropped way low)
2 gallons water @191* - sac. rest 153* (wrapped keggle in sleeping bag - worked great)
1.6 gallons water @195* - mashout 168*
Forgot to add the hops, and ended up boiling off more wort volume.
Had 4 gallons into fermenter, 1.042 = 45%
__________________________________________________________________________

11# 2 row malt
2# flaked corn
2# rice syrup solids (last 30 minutes of boil)
I brewed this a while ago and hit my numbers perfectly, 1.081 = 70%.
27.5 qts mash water.
60 minute mash at 151*.
Keggle wrapped in sleeping bag, only lost a few degrees (brewing in garage - 35*)
Pulled up bag and heated mash to 168*.
8 qts sparge water at 170*, dunked the bag several times and let it drain well.
This time I had about 5.5 gal into the fermenter, 1.070 = 65%. I was calculating this one wrong, but still missing by 11 points ?????

I am getting better, but I definitely have some volume issues that I need to be more exact on, and I MUST be able to measure how much is in the keggle during the boil. Nothing planned for a while, I have 5 brews going right now, not to mention four wines too. Your input is always welcome.

you really need to know the actual volumes. for example.. the last recipe you got 1.070 which accordion to beer smith for 5.5 gallons that is 68% efficiency. but if you bump up to 5.6 gallons it suddenly becomes 69%

for the crush. are you crushing the grains REAL fine? remember, with BIAB you can crush finer than when using a traditional setup (no stuck sparges). You also mentioned that you lost a few degrees due it being 35 in the garage. Mashing at 151 and losing a "few" degrees is a big thing to look at. what was the temp at the end of the mash? 145? 146? higher? lower? it makes a difference. You might have been to low to get good conversion. You could also try mashing for 90 minutes. if the temps drop a couple of degrees..add a little heat. stirring the entire time you are heating to avoid hot spots and to not melt your bag.

Are you squeezing the bag?

I regularly get 88-92% efficiency without any off flavor and my beer is crystal clear.

I grind my malt to the finest my barley crusher will go.
I use 12 gallons of water for the mash.
I dunk sparge 3 times.
Squeeze bag, dunk,Squeeze bag, dunk,Squeeze bag, dunk,Squeeze bag.
I add water up to 14.5 gallons boil and end with 12 gallons of good clean wort.

Cheers

Bombo80 said:

I am getting better, but I definitely have some volume issues that I need to be more exact on, and I MUST be able to measure how much is in the keggle during the boil. Nothing planned for a while, I have 5 brews going right now, not to mention four wines too. Your input is always welcome.

Click to expand...

I have marks on my stir paddle that tell me how much liquid is in the keggle.