First BIAB All Grain 2.5G Batch

[XxBeer-ThirtyxX]

Okay, I am first to admit that I probably should have gotten a few more extract brews before I tried BIAB but I couldn't wait. I currently am making Extreme Brewing Blood Orange Hefeweizen. I only have a 5gallon pot. Being new to brewing I cut the current recipe in 1/2 and added 15% for predicted efficienly loss Currently I am mashing in at 155 with the folllowing grain bill:

1.84 lbs of Briess Wheat
2.92 lbs of Pale Malt

I only have have 3.5 gallons of water in there.

Couple of questions?

1. Do I have enough water?
2. How long do I mash for? 60 or 90 minutes?
3. Any additional thoughts or feedback would also be appreciated.

This forum has been great so far

 

[wilserbrewer]

looks good...keep watch on your mash temp w/ such a small batch...more mass will hold heat better, so you may need to add a litle heat during the mash

 

[poislb]

Okay, I am first to admit that I probably should have gotten a few more extract brews before I tried BIAB but I couldn't wait. I currently am making Extreme Brewing Blood Orange Hefeweizen. I only have a 5gallon pot. Being new to brewing I cut the current recipe in 1/2 and added 15% for predicted efficienly loss Currently I am mashing in at 155 with the folllowing grain bill:

1.84 lbs of Briess Wheat
2.92 lbs of Pale Malt

I only have have 3.5 gallons of water in there.

Couple of questions?

1. Do I have enough water?
2. How long do I mash for? 60 or 90 minutes?
3. Any additional thoughts or feedback would also be appreciated.

This forum has been great so far

You should be good with a 60 min mash

 

[XxBeer-ThirtyxX]

Thanks for the advice. I added heat a couple of times and monitored my temps pretty closely. I am taking it up to 170 now for mash out.

 

[RM-MN]

With brew in a bag you have such a large filter surface that you don't need to worry about it plugging with finely crushed or ground grain. If your grain was crushed or ground quite fine your conversion will take less than the 60 minutes but the 60 will be insurance. Also, if your grain is finely crushed as it should be for brew in a bag, your efficiency will be higher than a traditional mash tun, especially if you really squeeze the sweet wort out of the grain bag at the end. Get ready for some strong beer.

 

[XxBeer-ThirtyxX]

I used premilled wheat grains and. I milled the pale malt at the store. I did not double mill my grains. After grain absorption I was down to 3 gallons and I boiled down to 2.50g. I took a hydrometer reading and it came back at 1.045 SG it's suppose to be 1.046. I am pretty happy about that. Also, I didn't sparge the grains but did dunk them a few times and squeezed the grains. I aeroated the wort with the boiled blood oranges and pitched the yeast at 84F. I know it should be 80F but it was getting late and I was tired. I checked the bucket this morning and it's bubbling away. Temp on bucket said 72F so I moved down to basement to chill as my basement is 68F right now.

I just calculated my Brewhouse Efficiency at 62.95 which is close to what I was expecting.

 

[thughes]

Nice job, sounds as though you're going to end up with some tasty beer. Congratulations!

 

[tennesseean_87]

I just started doing 2.75 gal BIAB batches. I got 68% eff (1.048 beer) on my first and 76% (1.072 beer) on my second (BMW crush both times). I since got 75% on a 5 gallon batch. The difference--more sparge water. The first brew, I only prepared 3 gallons total for mash/sparge, and had to add some of the mash back to the sparge to cover the grains. The second, I made 4 gallons, and had plenty to sparge with. A finer crush might increase your efficiency, and maybe mashing around 1.25 qt/lb and sparging with the rest of 4 gallons would work. separating the mash and sparge steps also allows your to fit more grain in your pot. I got 2.75 into the fermentor and did a 5.0 gallon batch at 1.060 in a 5 gallon pot (boiled in two separate pots). You'll just need another pot to sparge in and/or heat up strike water in.

 

[XxBeer-ThirtyxX]

I just started doing 2.75 gal BIAB batches. I got 68% eff (1.048 beer) on my first and 76% (1.072 beer) on my second (BMW crush both times). I since got 75% on a 5 gallon batch. The difference--more sparge water. The first brew, I only prepared 3 gallons total for mash/sparge, and had to add some of the mash back to the sparge to cover the grains. The second, I made 4 gallons, and had plenty to sparge with. A finer crush might increase your efficiency, and maybe mashing around 1.25 qt/lb and sparging with the rest of 4 gallons would work. separating the mash and sparge steps also allows your to fit more grain in your pot. I got 2.75 into the fermentor and did a 5.0 gallon batch at 1.060 in a 5 gallon pot (boiled in two separate pots). You'll just need another pot to sparge in and/or heat up strike water in.

Thanks for the feedback. I have a 5g pot and a 2g pot and a bunch of 6qts. Was your 5g a full boil or did you top off? I should just buy a bigger 20g pot so I can go straight to 10gallon boils.