I know this isn't a PBW thread, but a 8lbs container is only 37.99 from NB. Considering brewing is 90% cleaning/sanitation, I think that is a pretty good investment.
Back to BIAB
mrgstiffler said:You can get about 15lbs of Oxiclean Free from Amazon for that price. Plus free shipping
I'm interested in trying this on a stout in about a month. But I'm a bit confused, coming from PM brewing.
So obviously this is an AG method, but what's the deal with sparge water? In PM brewing, I'd sparge and get to my pre-boil volume. In this, it appears that you're mashing in the entire batch volume (plus some, to account for grain absorption). Since there's no sparge, what's the volume/rate for mashing?
I used to use this calculator for full-volume mashing which works OK. I have since reverted back to 1.25-1.50 quarts / pound of grain for calculating mash volume and getting the rest of the volume from a 'ghetto sparge' setup.
While not a true 'no sparge' BIAB brew, it goes get me 8+ points of efficiency.
Please share some details on the "ghetto sparge"
Lets assume a 5 gallon, 10# grain recipe:
Using 1.25 quarts per pound = 3.125 gallons to mash
Using 1.50 quarts per pound = 3.75 gallons to mash
I go middle of the road and mash with 3.5 gallons.
During the mash, I heat another ~3.5 gallons of water on the kitchen stove to 170° for the sparge.
3.5 gallons (mash volume) + 3.5 (sparge volume) = 7 gallons total. Subtract a gallon for boil off, another gallon for grain absorption, and you get your final volume of 5 gallons. You'll have to adjust for your specific setup but that is the general calculation I go by.
I have seafood basket that came with my pot so I put my BIAB in there. Once I'm happy with the mash, I begin a 10 minute mashout @ 170°F. After 10 minutes, I pull the whole seafood basket out and use two pieces of wood to balance the seafood basket over the kettle so it drains down and back into the kettle. I go to the kitchen and grab the water on the stove and slowly pour it into the seafood basket to sparge. The hot sparge water washes through the grain, through the basket, and down back into the kettle -- residual sugars and all. Same principle as a traditional sparge but instead of having pumps and sprayer heads and all that, you just pour the water over the grain by hand. I don't drip it or take my time or anything, just pour it on and let it drain.
Remember how I said ghetto
I started as a no-sparger but like I said, I wasn't happy with my no-sparge BIAB efficiency. It was hitting in the 60% range without the sparge. Adding the sparge (along with some other refinements) brought be up to 75% range. Milling my own grain along with the sparge took me to 85%. While I imagine I could cut the sparge out and still be in the 75%+ range, I'm already used to my 'ghetto sparge' so I still do it for the extra points.
jholen said:I just have to say.. BIAB'ing with my new Spike Brewing 20 gal pot and Wilser's bag was a true treat yesterday. Much better improvement over my previous equipment.
rhamilton said:Lets assume a 5 gallon, 10# grain recipe:
Using 1.25 quarts per pound = 3.125 gallons to mash
Using 1.50 quarts per pound = 3.75 gallons to mash
I go middle of the road and mash with 3.5 gallons.
During the mash, I heat another ~3.5 gallons of water on the kitchen stove to 170° for the sparge.
3.5 gallons (mash volume) + 3.5 (sparge volume) = 7 gallons total. Subtract a gallon for boil off, another gallon for grain absorption, and you get your final volume of 5 gallons. You'll have to adjust for your specific setup but that is the general calculation I go by.
I have seafood basket that came with my pot so I put my BIAB in there. Once I'm happy with the mash, I begin a 10 minute mashout @ 170°F. After 10 minutes, I pull the whole seafood basket out and use two pieces of wood to balance the seafood basket over the kettle so it drains down and back into the kettle. I go to the kitchen and grab the water on the stove and slowly pour it into the seafood basket to sparge. The hot sparge water washes through the grain, through the basket, and down back into the kettle -- residual sugars and all. Same principle as a traditional sparge but instead of having pumps and sprayer heads and all that, you just pour the water over the grain by hand. I don't drip it or take my time or anything, just pour it on and let it drain.
Remember how I said ghetto
I started as a no-sparger but like I said, I wasn't happy with my no-sparge BIAB efficiency. It was hitting in the 60% range without the sparge. Adding the sparge (along with some other refinements) brought be up to 75% range. Milling my own grain along with the sparge took me to 85%. While I imagine I could cut the sparge out and still be in the 75%+ range, I'm already used to my 'ghetto sparge' so I still do it for the extra points.
inkdbrewer said:This topic has really opened my eyes to just how easy brewing all grain can be. Been brewing extract for the past 9 months and enjoyed it, but wanted more control and understanding of the processes and the privilege to say i truely brewed a beer from scratch. So i finally decided to take the plunge. I just recived my 10 gal kettle and bayou burner, and after a few more pieces to be purchased, i'll be biab-ing. So stoked! Oh, and great tutorial from the OP!
Fordzilla said:My main concern with this method is maintaining mash temps. I use a propane burner and aluminum kettle. Im afraid that even wrapped up in blankets it won't maintain it's temp well.
My main concern with this method is maintaining mash temps. I use a propane burner and aluminum kettle. Im afraid that even wrapped up in blankets it won't maintain it's temp well.
does it matter if the bag is coarse or fine mesh?
Looking to get into BIAB but not sure which bag to buy of midwest.
Ok. I've tried reading through this thread and made it about 20 pages or so without seeing questions I have answered.
I just started homebrewing this past spring and have been doing all extract brewing. I have a 7.5 gal kettle and a propane burner. My question is, would my kettle be large enough to handle most normal BIAB brews? I've been very content with extract brewing, but I want to brew a clone of Great Lakes Holy Moses and I've found one extract recipe for it, but I haven't heard how it turned out. I emailed the recipe to a brewer at Great Lakes and he said it looked good but he'd never tried it using extracts.
I did find an AG recipe and my question is, can I use the AG recipe using BIAB instead? Or is there some tweaking of the ingredients I need to make to convert from the AG to BIAB? And I'm also wondering if I could make this recipe using BIAB without having to buy a larger kettle?
The AG recipe calls for 10.25 lbs of grains (5.25 lbs American 2-row, 4.5 lbs Torrified Wheat, .5 lbs Oats Flaked).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
How do you take a pre-boil gravity reading? Won't 150 degree water cause the reading to be way off, and possibly crack my hydrometer from the rapid temperature change? Seems like it would take a long time for it to cool off enough for me to take a reading.
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