Brewing big beers via BIAB...

[jason91notch]

There is a common misconception I hear a lot about BIAB- that big beers are much harder to do. Whats the highest OG beer you've brewed using the BIAB method?

For those of you that have done a number of 1.075+ beers, what tips or advice can you give for brewing bigger beers via BIAB?

I brewed a 1.092 double IPA that turned out great, had 73% efficiency.

 

[triskelion]

you can always use multiple bags for easier lifting

 

[ICWiener]

When I used to BIAB I would go for the DME and table sugar when I had to brew something really big. You can only get so much grain in the bag!

 

[Nompton]

I just finished a 1.075 holiday red ale BIAB pretty easily. I had a grain bill in excess of ~16 lbs (added an extra lb of 2-row) and did a full-volume, no sparge, mash. I achieved around 78-79% efficiency. Not sure I'm one to give advice because this is only my second all-grain batch, but as long as your kettle/pot/keggle is large enough, I don't see a reason why you should avoid big beers--maybe there's something I don't know. That being said, I think I found the limit of my setup. ~16-17 lbs is probably the most I could do for a 5 gallon batch unless I chose to sparge.

I was going to use an inner, vented turkey fryer basket to help lift grains, but it displaced too much water so I just used binder clips to hold my bag in place during mash and mash-out. I had about a half inch of room during mash.

Adjusting temp for mash was a bit of an adventure. It's probably my inexperience, but a large grain bill had a bigger effect dropping my strike temp than I thought. Really wasn't a huge problem once I added enough water to hit 152F.

 

[jason91notch]

I have a 7 gal pot so I have mainly been doing 3 gal batches, which works out great for big beers. The 9.25 lbs of grain it took to do the 1.092 IIPA pushed it to within about 3/4" of the rim so I had to be careful when stirring the mash, but overall it went pretty well.

I did just do a Saison that I was aiming for 1.074. Mashed at 149 for 75 min, held the temp perfectly, stirred often, mashed out at 170 for 15 min, but for some reason came up short at 1.066. Not sure why. The grist was 25% wheat, and Ive heard of people getting lower efficiencies with wheat. Maybe thats why?

 

[NewWestBrewer]

I have a 5 gal pot and have had 10 lbs in there. Basically filled to top with a 1.6 qt/lb water to ratio, which I find works well for my setup.

 

[ICWiener]

I did just do a Saison that I was aiming for 1.074. Mashed at 149 for 75 min, held the temp perfectly, stirred often, mashed out at 170 for 15 min, but for some reason came up short at 1.066. Not sure why.

Don't sweat it. A good saison should finish at 1.004 or so anyway, so you'll have plenty of alcohol in there. I usually shoot for 1.055-1.060 with my saisons so that they don't get too boozy.

 

[Brewtah]

I have been wondering this, how much does a pound of wet/mashed grain weigh. Is it around 8 pounds.? I can do about 55-60 pounds with both arms.

 

[jason91notch]

Don't sweat it. A good saison should finish at 1.004 or so anyway, so you'll have plenty of alcohol in there. I usually shoot for 1.055-1.060 with my saisons so that they don't get too boozy.

My recipe was a Tank 7 clone, so its actually a farmhouse ale/Saison, and its supposed to be around 8-8.5% abv. Either way, the hydrometer sample tastes wonderful, and last time I checked it was at 1.012, and I roused up the yeast, so Im hoping it'll get <1.010. We shall see.

Back on topic, has anyone every brewed a 1.100+ beer doing BIAB? if so, how'd it go? I am thinking about attempting a 1.108 Barleywine...

 

[LabRatBrewer]

15 gallon pot and a pulley system. Going big OG not a problem.

Edit: the pulley setup I use is Alton Brown's Turkey Fryer derrick.

 

[Iansir]

Just bring a friend, I did a 10 gal 40 lbs grain doppelbock biab...group lift and hang from a ladder

 

[jason91notch]

Ive only done 3 gal batches so far, and lifting 9.25lbs of mashed grain long enough to slip my colander underneath it was very easy. The colander sits on top of the brew pot and then I just let them sit and drain. Once the bag has mostly drained I'll squeeze the heck out of it with a pair of large kitchen tongs, then toss the bag in a bucket. Pretty easy really.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

My 9.5 gallon pot maxes out around 22-25lbs of grain. I generally find my efficiency will drop to the mid 60s to low 70s if I go that big. However, the last time I did a beer that big I wasn't adjusting my mash pH etc...so the thicker mash may not be the only variable.

 

[brewinginnc]

Brewed a 1.100 wee heavy
1.098 ris and a 1.125 barleywine over the summer. In a ten gallon pot it was pushing limits of system. Go slow and rig up a pulley. I use the ratcheting pulley that wilser brewer sells and a second small pulley from walmart. Attach the regular pulley to ceiling, ratcheting pulley to bag and you have a two to one mechanical advantage for lifting grain out of pot(this means you cut the weight you are lifting in half) slowly lift and boom big ass beer with no mess.

 

[WetNomis]

First post so be gentle. I went BIAB recently after starting with Kits, then extract, onto specialty grains then finally AG with BIAB. I'd always brewed big beers before AG and wanted to continue. Big IPA's, and Belgian Quads are my faves. So since starting BIAB, I have done a 1.091 Belgian Quad, then a 1.100 Belgian Quad, many 1.085+ IPA's, and most recently a 1.105 RIS. The smallest brew I've done is a 1.059 Blind Pig clone. My first BIAB ever was a Zombie Dust clone at 1.065 (which I fluked a BOS with in a local comp). So yeah, it can be done! To make it a bit trickier I generally do 25 - 28L batches, so I can get a 19L keg plus bottles from the batch

I use a 70L pot (18 or so gallons?), so fitting the grain in isn't a problem. Trickiest bit is lifting out the wet bag without a pulley, but I just lift a bit at a time then slide a wire fridge shelf under the bag to let it drain a bit before starting the squeeze.

All good fun! Tomorrow is actually attempt 2 of Denny's Wry Smile, scaled to 28L, smallish one at 1.073 OG First one was so damn good, I MUST do another!

As for tips, I don't know if it helps, but I always do at least a 75 minute mash and am not concerned if it goes longer, then ramp up to 76 or so to make the bag drain easier. But I do the exact same process for the smaller beers as well. I actually have no changes to my process for any size beer, I just make sure I allow for a lower mash efficiency the bigger I go.

 

[jason91notch]

First post so be gentle. I went BIAB recently after starting with Kits, then extract, onto specialty grains then finally AG with BIAB. I'd always brewed big beers before AG and wanted to continue. Big IPA's, and Belgian Quads are my faves. So since starting BIAB, I have done a 1.091 Belgian Quad, then a 1.100 Belgian Quad, many 1.085+ IPA's, and most recently a 1.105 RIS. The smallest brew I've done is a 1.059 Blind Pig clone. My first BIAB ever was a Zombie Dust clone at 1.065 (which I fluked a BOS with in a local comp). So yeah, it can be done! To make it a bit trickier I generally do 25 - 28L batches, so I can get a 19L keg plus bottles from the batch I use a 70L pot (18 or so gallons?), so fitting the grain in isn't a problem. Trickiest bit is lifting out the wet bag without a pulley, but I just lift a bit at a time then slide a wire fridge shelf under the bag to let it drain a bit before starting the squeeze. All good fun! Tomorrow is actually attempt 2 of Denny's Wry Smile, scaled to 28L, smallish one at 1.073 OG First one was so damn good, I MUST do another! As for tips, I don't know if it helps, but I always do at least a 75 minute mash and am not concerned if it goes longer, then ramp up to 76 or so to make the bag drain easier. But I do the exact same process for the smaller beers as well. I actually have no changes to my process for any size beer, I just make sure I allow for a lower mash efficiency the bigger I go.

What is your usual efficiency with a 1.100+ beer?
Also, do you ever sparge, or do you account for boil off and everything in your strike water?

 

[jason91notch]

Also, welcome WetNomis! I'm pretty new as well.

 

[Porchfddler]

I did a 1.085 old Ale recently and did an overnight mash, ended up at 1.090! To fit all the grain in my 10.5 gallon pot I ended up just doing a 4 gallon batch instead of 5. I use a pulley system to raise the bag

 

[WetNomis]

What is your usual efficiency with a 1.100+ beer?
Also, do you ever sparge, or do you account for boil off and everything in your strike water?

I only got 68% mash efficiency on the 1.105 RIS, but luckily I set Beersmith for that number in advance, so it was all good - hit it nicely.

No sparging for me, full volume in advance. It's BIAB - KISS is the principle I work off, hence no pulley system etc...

EDIT: No 'normal' sparge I should say, the sparge is of course part of the standard BIAB full-volume process.

 

[C-Rider]

Doing a 2 gallon batch I had a 1.091 OG. Finished at 1.020, 75% eff. ABV 9.5 according to BeerSmith.

 

[RyeGuy]

I did a 1.163 Barleywine about a month ago. I evenly split the 31.5# grain and double mashed at 75 min per mash. With just the grain I got to 1.114. First mash I got my normal 90% conversion efficiency. Second mash I got 73%. Then I added some LME at the end of the boil and 5# sugar into the fermentor to get me the rest of the way. Its at 16.5% ABV right now and I'm trying to finish it out. It can be done. Most of the people that crap on it here have probably never tried it.

 

[Weezy]

I generally go to partial mash above 8%, and usually augment with sugar too.

I've wanted to try the double mash trick. Split your grain bill into two bags.
brew the first for 60 min, yank it, put second fresh bag of grain to into wort and top off water for losses, then mash for another 60. Easy if you can adjust mash temp on the fly (recirc, RIMS, etc)

 

[blizzard]

I did a 1.147 of beer in a 10 gallon brew pot. For me the key was to plan in extra boil time. Also, that much grain is heavy. And plan on having at least a little lower efficiency than your <1.075 beers.

 

[RyeGuy]

Easy if you can adjust mash temp on the fly (recirc, RIMS, etc)

Its easier than you think. If you're already calculating your mash temp for single mash its the same calculation. Just use temp of the new grain and your first mash temp as initial temp. I have no fancy setup and was close. Just fired up the gas for a couple minutes to get a couple more degrees.

 

[jason91notch]

I did a 1.163 Barleywine about a month ago. I evenly split the 31.5# grain and double mashed at 75 min per mash. With just the grain I got to 1.114. First mash I got my normal 90% conversion efficiency. Second mash I got 73%. Then I added some LME at the end of the boil and 5# sugar into the fermentor to get me the rest of the way. Its at 16.5% ABV right now and I'm trying to finish it out. It can be done. Most of the people that crap on it here have probably never tried it.

Nice!
So you mashed 16.75lbs for 75 minutes, pulled those grains out and then mashed 16.75lbs of grain in the same wort? Or did you mash in two different vessels and combine them?

 

[RyeGuy]

Yep mash your second half of grain right in the same wort. I mashed out to 170F the second mash but not the first. I also held back 2 gal of water to sparge each mash with 1 gal.

 

[shuckit]

1.100 beers with 30lb of grain in my 13.3 gal keggle. I sparge a bit too.

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

Done a 1.125 before in 5 gallon batch in a keggle.

Have the same 1.125 batch planned for Friday, except it will be 15 gallons. 60 lbs of grain augmented by 14lbs of extra light LME. Should put my 25 gallon kettle to the brim. I will be setting up a pulley for the first time though. No way i'm getting that out by myself I don't imagine haha.

 

[Nompton]

Done a 1.125 before in 5 gallon batch in a keggle.

Have the same 1.125 batch planned for Friday, except it will be 15 gallons. 60 lbs of grain augmented by 14lbs of extra light LME. Should put my 25 gallon kettle to the brim. I will be setting up a pulley for the first time though. No way i'm getting that out by myself I don't imagine haha.

Jeeze, that would be a serious workout.

 

[seatbelt123]

I just did a clone of enjoy by. 17 lbs for 6 gallons. It rang in at 70 pct efficiency, adjusting for 1lb of sugar). I did an overnight mash. The sample tasted great.

I use a ratcheting pulley.

 

[mizzourah2006]

When I used to BIAB I would go for the DME and table sugar when I had to brew something really big. You can only get so much grain in the bag!

This is what I've typically done to. I will go to 10 lbs of actual grain (12 at the most) and use DME to get to the OG I need. Typically not more than 2-3lbs of DME unless it is something really big.