Thought on my first BIAB All Grain

So I got an improved set-up for Christmas and finally got to attempt my first All Grain recipe with my BIAB system. A 36 qt bayou classic with the fryer basket and a grain bag and a Victoria mill along with a propane burner. I followed the thread for completing a BIAB brew with no sparge and ran into some issues I would like some help with or some thoughts on.

1) When following the BIAB tutorial, they mentioned a 10 gallon pot, I have a 9 gallon. The result was some spillage once I added the grain. Should I just use the strike water suggestions from the calculator (3-4 gallons) even though it is for traditional all grain, or increase the volume of water to fit my pot (~5-6 gallons)? I used 7, with spillage and was still able to sparge a gallon in order to get my boil volume back to 6.5 gallons after mash.

2) Brewing in North Dakota at -25 meant it was nearly impossible to keep the temps consistent in the pot during the mash cycle. I am thinking about using the oven if my pot will fit or maybe a cooler with my gain bag instead (I don't have a mash tun).

(***Note*** I still ended up with about 80% efficiency!)

3) I brewed, or thought I brewed, my ingredients for 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust. In my excitement, I had accidentally swapped the hops from my Citra Pale Ale with the grain for my Zombie Dust. Any thoughts on how this will turn out taste wise?

10.0 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
.5 lb American Vienna
.5 lb American Munich
.5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
Boil Hops = Citra 6.00 oz

1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (15 min) Hops 21.1 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 17.0 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (10 min) Hops 15.4 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (5 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (1 min) Hops 1.8 IBU

Dry Hops = Citra 3.00oz
3.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops –

Yeast
SafAle English Ale (S-04)

4) I plan to brew my Zombie Dust grain bill with the hops I had for the Citra. I figure what the heck, lets experiment. Thought on that?
GRAINS = 14.50 lbs
11.50 lb 2 Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.7 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.8 %
0.50 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
0.50 lb Caramel - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
0.50 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
Boil Hops
Magnum = 0.5oz
Citra = 1.0 oz
Cascade = 1.0 oz

.5 oz Magnum (14.5%) - 60 min
.25 oz Citra (11.1%) - 10.0 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 10.0 min
.25 oz Citra (11.1%) - 1.0 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 1.0 min
.50 oz Citra (11.1%) - 0.0 min (added to whirlpool)
.50 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 0.0 min (added to whirlpool)
Dry Hops
1.0 oz Citra (11.1%) - dry hop
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - dry hop
Yeast
SafAle English Ale (S-05)

No worries. You will get a nice citra dust ale. 25 below...good god at the very least mash inside the house. The oven or a few warm coats will keep the tun warm. Guessing you have a few coats right. Stay warm my friend.

Also, with BIAB and a large grain bill and smaller kettle, you can either do a dunk or sprinkle sparge over the grain bag with your last gallon, or at least reserve a gallon of water to add to the pot after all the grain is in...it is a hella nightmare to realize you you are a quart short on the pot as you are trying to mix in 15 lbs of grain. Just top up the pot w/ the remaining needed water after doughing in.

tokerlund said:

1) When following the BIAB tutorial, they mentioned a 10 gallon pot, I have a 9 gallon. The result was some spillage once I added the grain. Should I just use the strike water suggestions from the calculator (3-4 gallons) even though it is for traditional all grain, or increase the volume of water to fit my pot (~5-6 gallons)? I used 7, with spillage and was still able to sparge a gallon in order to get my boil volume back to 6.5 gallons after mash.

Click to expand...

I'd scale the grain bill to your equipment. Beersmith does this pretty readily. That being said, yes, you can do either depending on your equipment and the boil volume you're trying to reach. Good move on the extra sparge water to make up for spillage loss, but it usually isn't necessary to sparge with BIAB. In fact, i'm impressed you hit your target OG the first time out.

2) Brewing in North Dakota at -25 meant it was nearly impossible to keep the temps consistent in the pot during the mash cycle. I am thinking about using the oven if my pot will fit or maybe a cooler with my gain bag instead (I don't have a mash tun).

Click to expand...

Insulating your brew pot would help with this. I forget exactly what some northern brewers use but i'm sure there's threads about it on HBT.

3) I brewed, or thought I brewed, my ingredients for 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust. In my excitement, I had accidentally swapped the hops from my Citra Pale Ale with the grain for my Zombie Dust. Any thoughts on how this will turn out taste wise?

10.0 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
.5 lb American Vienna
.5 lb American Munich
.5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
Boil Hops = Citra 6.00 oz

1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (15 min) Hops 21.1 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 17.0 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (10 min) Hops 15.4 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (5 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (1 min) Hops 1.8 IBU

Dry Hops = Citra 3.00oz
3.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops –

Yeast
SafAle English Ale (S-04)

4) I plan to brew my Zombie Dust grain bill with the hops I had for the Citra. I figure what the heck, lets experiment. Thought on that?
GRAINS = 14.50 lbs
11.50 lb 2 Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.7 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.8 %
0.50 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
0.50 lb Caramel - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
0.50 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
Boil Hops
Magnum = 0.5oz
Citra = 1.0 oz
Cascade = 1.0 oz

.5 oz Magnum (14.5%) - 60 min
.25 oz Citra (11.1%) - 10.0 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 10.0 min
.25 oz Citra (11.1%) - 1.0 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 1.0 min
.50 oz Citra (11.1%) - 0.0 min (added to whirlpool)
.50 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 0.0 min (added to whirlpool)
Dry Hops
1.0 oz Citra (11.1%) - dry hop
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - dry hop
Yeast
SafAle English Ale (S-05)

Click to expand...

Not that much of a difference IMHO. You'll probably have a more bitter and tropical fruity flavor profile Zombie Dust and a very delicious grapefruity pale ale.

You could use less water and sparge in another pot, I used to use my 7.5 gallon pot with 5 gallons of water when doughed in and my 5 gallon pot with 2 gallons of "sparge" water and combined them.

If you are brewing in that temp can you mash inside and bring it out for the boil? Use a sleeping bag or heavy bath towels to keep the pot covered to hold the temp, inside or out.

You will end up with beer, not what you were expecting but who knows it could be the best beer you made to date. Cheers

I was mashing outside because I wanted to do BIAB and I use a propane burner. Like I said it was my first attempt. Right now, I have my bag-o-grain in a cube igloo cooler for my 2nd batch. I rigged up some tubing I had laying around to work as a siphon when I am done. The bag should work as filter. That way I can mash inside and then "rack" the wort into my 39qt bayou and begin the boil in an hour or so .

If the pot will fit a preheated oven works great to hold mash temp.

Sadly, my pot won't fit in the oven. If I take out both racks and take the top off, it will, but then I have to find some way to make sure it doesn't rest on the coils. I was about to jump into that endeavor, when I realized I would be pulling 60 pounds of wort out of the oven and only have about 1/2 inch clearance total.

Instead I mashed in a cooler. I had a hard time keeping it at 150. I heated all of my strike water to 170, but it dropped to 140 when it hit grains. I had pre-heated the cooler too, but not enough.

next time, I plan to stabilize the water in the cooler at 170ish and then put my bag of grain on top and let it soak in. That should ensure I do better at keeping closer to 155.