BIAB Question

Hey ya'll,

Just picked up a 7.5 gal turkey fryer I would like to use to get started w/ BIAB...

What I was wondering is what is the biggest batch I could do in a 7.5 pot. Could I squeeze 5 gal batches out of it?

Disclaimer: I did my first 2 BIAB AG batches this weekend. With 2.5 gallon Batches. See Below For my math on why 2.5 gallon batches.

I calculated a .12 gallon/pd grain absorption 10 pd grain recipe=1.2 gallons
My boil of rate for a good boil is 1 gallon/ hr add another gallon gallon
(My pot has a lot of service area)

Final numbers 1.2+1+5=7.2 gallons. Since all the water goes into a BIAB method. It was too close for me to try.

I did two 2.5 gallon batches of an APA and switched the hops. I will still have 2 cases of beer but two different APA to learn hop taste. A Chinook APA and an Amirillo APA.

Good Luck

Can't quite understand your entire post...

I see the 1.2 gallons for absorption, 1 gal/hr, but "add another gallon gallon" does not compute.

Does this mean the biggest batch I can do with a 7.5 gal pot is 2.5 gal?

It depends on the gravity. For my last BIAB 5 gallon batch, I started with about 8.5 gallons of water using about 14 lbs of grain.

You'll probably boil off a gallon in the hour and the grains (say 10 lbs) will soak up a gallon or so. That doesn't leave much space for boiling over. But I'm no expert.

Mark 6.5 gallon level on the side of your pot with a center punch.
Fill to that level with strike water at adjusted temp. Add grains and mash for 60 min. Pull bag and rinse with 180* water until you get to the 6.5 gal mark. proceed as normal.
Have a beer and pat yourself on the back. You just did AG.

Bull

Oh yea, I'd like to do the Aussie style BIAB, so no sparge of any sort... Sorry for not clarifying.

bullinachinashop said:

Mark 6.5 gallon level on the side of your pot with a center punch.
Fill to that level with strike water at adjusted temp. Add grains and mash for 60 min. Pull bag and rinse with 180* water until you get to the 6.5 gal mark. proceed as normal.
Have a beer and pat yourself on the back. You just did AG.

Bull

Click to expand...

You forgot the have a beer section of your instructions, but otherwise these are solid instructions

Quote:
Originally Posted by bullinachinashop
Mark 6.5 gallon level on the side of your pot with a center punch.
Fill to that level with strike water at adjusted temp. Add grains and mash for 60 min. Pull bag and rinse with 180* water until you get to the 6.5 gal mark. proceed as normal.
Have a beer and pat yourself on the back. You just did AG.

Bull

You forgot the have a beer section of your instructions, but otherwise these are solid instructions

I never forget that!!!!:

Sorry for the confusion and redudancy of last post.

Total Boil Water Volume

5 gallons boil volume +1.2 gallons for grain absorption if 10lbs used + 1 gallon for boil off = 7.2 gallons total.

I did two separate batches due to closeness of a 7.5 gal kettle and wanting to experiment with different hops.

Bullinachinashop makes alot of sense with his method. Didn't think of that in the middle of battle.

In my process I did a "sparge". Some bloggers and some podcasters do a sparge on BIAB. Below is my process. I didn't take any readings for efficiency. I wanted to work on process and I didn't know how to calculate efficiency last weekend. I do now.

Process:

I mashed at 155-158 for 60 minutes.
Lifted grains to drain, then placed in an extra cooler.
When water reach 170-175 I tea bagged grains from cooler for 10 minutes in kettle and added any extra drained water from cooler.
After 10 min. Placed grain bag on a grilling rack above kettle to get any drippings.
Once wurt reached boil removed grain bag and proceeded as normal.

Hope this makes better sense. Next time I will take the time to do readings and figure out efficiency. I just want beer.

bullinachinashop said:

Quote:
Originally Posted by bullinachinashop
Mark 6.5 gallon level on the side of your pot with a center punch.
Fill to that level with strike water at adjusted temp. Add grains and mash for 60 min. Pull bag and rinse with 180* water until you get to the 6.5 gal mark. proceed as normal.
Have a beer and pat yourself on the back. You just did AG.

Bull

You forgot the have a beer section of your instructions, but otherwise these are solid instructions

I never forget that!!!!:

Click to expand...

I stand corrected lol
Having a beer and heading back to reading comp 101

I just add a couple pounds of grains in my recipe and go for it. Keeps my OG high enough normally. I also rinse my grains as they hang over the pot dripping to get out the last sugars. Sometimes I rinse more if there are a lot of grains and boil a little extra.

Thanks guys, but I'm looking for a batch size for doing no sparge.

I don't really count pouring water over the grains as they hang over the pot a sparge. Its pretty easy to do between grain removal and boil.

Do you just rinse with tap-temp water?

yep, I just pour it from a pitcher. I tried to get some feedback on using 170 degree water, but didn't really get any and my beers are coming out very tasty so I don't care.

well i suppose it shouldn't matter what temperature you rinse the grains with since all your doing is extracting any leftover sugars... your not actually trying to convert anymore

am i right?

you can do a "mash out" with BIAB. Keep grains in, turn heat on, once temp reaches 170-175 do a quick stir, or move bag up and down. Place bag over brew kettle on a grill to finish draining.

OK, so with doing no sparge, other than maybe rinsing my grains with some tap-temp water, what is the largest batch I could achieve? 5 gal? 4 gal? 2.5 gal?

I need to put in my grains, boil water, and then water for absorption & evaporation into the pot. After mashing and removing the bag I can top the pot off with tap-temp water I rinse with?

I would do two 2.5 gallon batches. Break it up to a morning brew, have lunch, then do an afternoon brew. It doesn't add that much time or work, plus the extra learning is very valuable. Plus, I see you are in SC. It gives you more time to enjoy the great fall weather. Kiss the humidity good bye finally!!!

It was amazing how much I learned and improved over the morning brew. You are getting two brew sessions in instead of 1 5 gallon batch. The more learning the better.

When I do a 5 gallon batch I will be confident and ready, and be able to drink two different APA's from the 2.5 gallon batches.

Good Luck.

Sounds like I will start with a 2.5-3 gal batch then... All I need to do now is find a carboy on CL/flea market to ferment in...

BTW, any good recipes for 2.5 gal you wanna share?

Go by the bakery dept of your local Publix. Ask for an empty 3.5 gallon icing or grain bucket. Clean well. You have a free fermenter. Drill a hole in lid size of air lock and you are ready to go.

1/2 Bee Cave haus ipa recipe. Clean easy recipe.

Good Luck

I do no-sparge BIAB with a 5 gallon pot and make 2.5 gallon batches( about 6 lbs of grain with 3.7 gallons of water fills the pot). With a 7.5 gallon pot you could probably do a 4 gallon no sparge batch. Figure approx 8 lbs of grain with 4.6-4.75 gallons of water. I use beersmith to scale the volumes.

I do no sparge BIAB, w/full volume mash. I have a 7 gal kettle & do 4 gal batches with no problem.

I do 5.5 gallon batches in a 8.5 gallon pot no problem.
5.5 gallon with 24 pounds of grains however do violate the laws of space and matter so I don't recommend it

flipfloptan said:

Go by the bakery dept of your local Publix. Ask for an empty 3.5 gallon icing or grain bucket. Clean well. You have a free fermenter. Drill a hole in lid size of air lock and you are ready to go.

1/2 Bee Cave haus ipa recipe. Clean easy recipe.

Good Luck

Click to expand...

OK, so i plugged that recipe into beersmith and scaled it down to 4.5 gals...

6.5 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
1.5 lb Vienna Malt
0.5 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt
6.5 gal Water

does this look like it may work out ok for my setup???

Assuming it all fits. yes. Good thing about a real full pot is that it holds the mash temp better so that's good. Figure .125/ gallon absorption rate for each pound of grain and a gallon for the boil off and you should hit your target volume. As someone said earlier, mark your pot with a punch and adjust the boil to hit that target.

Any clue the density of grain? Or is there some way to calculate what volume the grain will actually take up?

jgoette said:

Any clue the density of grain? Or is there some way to calculate what volume the grain will actually take up?

Click to expand...

http://www.krotchrott.com/calc.html Use the "Can I Mash It" calculator to determine how much volume the grain & water will be.

So if I use 8.5 lbs of grain, with 1.3 qt/lb, my mash will only take up 3.44 gal? Is that just the grain? Seems like a low number.

jgoette said:

So if I use 8.5 lbs of grain, with 1.3 qt/lb, my mash will only take up 3.44 gal? Is that just the grain? Seems like a low number.

Click to expand...

If you are doing full volume BIAB, your mash thickness wil be closer to 3 qt/lb. Depending on your batch size. I typically do 4 gal batches with about 7 lbs of grain. My mash thickness is usually 3.1qt/lb.

That calculator uses the standard volume of water for an all grain mash that is assuming a sparge later to make up the volume. I don't think there's a calculator for BIAB. You have to work it backwards. Start out with your finished batch volume and then add water for the boil off and then add water for the grain absorption to get the total water needed. That 1.25qt/1lb needs to change to about 2.3qt/1 lb for BIAB . Using that calculator it would be around 5.57 gallons in the pot. I would like to know it there is a set figure for BIAB with that calculator myself. Anyone?

djt17 said:

If you are doing full volume BIAB, your mash thickness wil be closer to 3 qt/lb. Depending on your batch size. I typically do 4 gal batches with about 7 lbs of grain. My mash thickness is usually 3.1qt/lb.

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OK, so I used 3.1 qt/gal and 8.5 lb grain and it spit out 7.27 gal of space... Sound about right?

jgoette said:

OK, so I used 3.1 qt/gal and 8.5 lb grain and it spit out 7.27 gal of space... Sound about right?

Click to expand...

What is your batch size, what is your boil off rate, & what is your loss to grain absorbtion? With my system, I start with 5.5 gal water for 4 gal batches. If you are doing full volume BIAB, all this water needs to be figured in your mash thickness.

I mean, I'm not real sure what my batch size is yet... that's what I'm trying to decide upon... I want to brew the most beer at once as possible...

I thought boil off rate was 1gal/hr and that grain absorption was like .12 gal/lb of grain

You just need to take the plunge on your first batch. The computer programs are just geusstimates. Plus they are not programed for BIAB volume. A beersmith article says to use single infusion mash on their program for the best geuss on water volume.

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/

If you are way off during the process you will be able to fix with a longer boil or adding a little water.

You can figure out your boil rate by putting in 5 gallons and boiling for a 1/2 hour measure and multiply it by 2. Then just use the water for your brew day.

For example, if you take the Haus Ale recipe and reduce it by 60% to be able to do a 3 gallon boil. (A little more than a case of beer) you could do the following:

6.3 lbs of grain x.125 for absorption= 3/4 of a gallon
Assume your boil of rate is a gallon/hour
Batch size is 3 gallons.

You would end up with .75+1+3=4.75 gallons of water. That would fit nicely in your kettle.

I followed this line of math and thinking on my first BIAB and had about a quart to much water. I let it go because it would probably be absorbed in the fermenter.

Remember you will have beer at the end and know what your true numbers are next time.

Good point...

I will finish putting together the equipment I need and will give this a whirl...

personally I think you could do a 5 gallon but it would be tight at boiltime

Yea, I've read some other stuff saying that too...

it seems I would have to keep a spray bottle in one hand, and my other hand on the gas...

I try to mimic a normal mash schedule as much as possible with BIAB.

I do my conversion at about 1.5qt/lb so I'm heating about 3.75 gallons of water up to 165 or so so that with around a 10 lb grain bill you should hit 156-158.

you can do a "mash out" with BIAB. Keep grains in, turn heat on, once temp reaches 170-175 do a quick stir, or move bag up and down. Place bag over brew kettle on a grill to finish draining.

Click to expand...

Yep, I do that too. Then raise the bag and drain for a few minutes while I'm heating up 3.5 gallons of sparge water to 170 in a seperate pot. Then I dunk the grain bag in the sparge water and stir for about 10 minutes, then drain again. When you hang your bag to drain, and then combine the sparge water and the "first runnings" you should be pretty darn close to 6 gallons or just a little over, which is good for a 60 minute boil in a 7.5 gallon BK.

^^^ Oh yea, and be careful with your grain bill, last time I did this I got 89% efficiancy!!! :rockin: