Imperial Stouts and BIAB

[TheBrewBrotha]

I am curious to know if anyone has ever done an Imp Stout using the BIAB method. I have a three kettle/burner set up but looking for a More of was brew day with about 22lbs of grain. I know with this style patience is a virtue during brew day from mashing, sparging and boiling. Wonder if there are pros and cons to wanting to go this route on this style. Cheers

 

[ggriffi]

I have done the OB Ten Fidy clone recipe from here several times. At 23 lbs. my 15G kettle is close to maxed out. Only real issue for me is it takes a bit longer to squeeze the bag.

 

[RM-MN]

I am curious to know if anyone has ever done an Imp Stout using the BIAB method. I have a three kettle/burner set up but looking for a More of was brew day with about 22lbs of grain. I know with this style patience is a virtue during brew day from mashing, sparging and boiling. Wonder if there are pros and cons to wanting to go this route on this style. Cheers

Imperial stouts are easy to manage with BIAB. Do a small batch to start with to see what your efficiency turns out like, then buy or borrow a Corona and set it fine and try again. My efficiency is so high that I have to reduce the amount of base malt, making it much easier to manage a high gravity beer since I don;t have to hoist that much base malt that is saturated with water. The fine mesh bag makes a huge filter area so finely milled grains don't give you any trouble when draining the mash or sparge.

 

[frozyn]

I made my first imperial stout on Sunday and everything went well. Was expecting 65% efficiency, based on most advising that efficiency drops with big beers, but I ended up at my usual 75% with an 85-ish minute mash. I say ish, because as @ggriffi experienced, squeezing the bag took a long while -- originally planned for 75 minutes and then strike the heat to get to boil as I squeeze, but since so much water came out with the grain, I didn't hit the heat for a good 10-15 minutes (didn't look at the exact time) as I squeezed.

 

[MaxStout]

I did this one BIAB a couple years back and it turned out great. Using a hoist was helpful with the 22lb of wet grain. IIRC, my efficiency was somewhere in the low 60s, about what I expected from the huge grain bill. RIS in BIAB is very do-able, you just need to make sure you have the kettle volume for it (or make a smaller batch).

After removing the grain bag I set it in another kettle and made a nice 2.5 gal partigyle batch of porter from those second runnings.

 

[Chvymn99]

Pretty much do that with my brews. I believe in higher alcohol content beers. I drink to enjoy them, not for quantity. I either do a mash in my cooler then go into my 10 gallon pot or do it in my 20 gallon pot. Depends on the time of the year as for maintaining my mash temperature... just need to make sure you have a sturdy device to hang that much wet grains by... Good Luck...

 

[Brew_G]

I brewed up a RIS back in January. Even with my measly 36qt kettle I was able to brew 4.75 gal of 1.114 goodness. Now...I had 3lb of DME in my recipe to make up the remainder of the OG, but I had nearly 18 lb of grain in that sucker and I hit my expected 65% efficiency (normal is about 78%).

She ended at 1.020, which was lower than I wanted, but at 13% with good mouthfeel from the oak and vanilla beans I'm really not complaining!

So...yes, you absolutely can brew a big imperial stout with BIAB. And if you've got a bigger kettle you can probably do a better job than I did!

 

[TheBrewBrotha]

Great and encouraging feedback so far! I will be aiming for 5.5 gal with this batch in a 15gal kettle. I have 15gal - three kettle setup but wanted to simplify. Will have to consider and study the mentioned partigyle method to hope for two beers. I was also debating a fly or batch sparge vs the known squeeze method

 

[RM-MN]

Great and encouraging feedback so far! I will be aiming for 5.5 gal with this batch in a 15gal kettle. I have 15gal - three kettle setup but wanted to simplify. Will have to consider and study the mentioned partigyle method to hope for two beers. I was also debating a fly or batch sparge vs the known squeeze method

Combine the squeeze with the batch sparge. You want as much of the high gravity wort out before you sparge to get the most sugars from the sparge.

 

[Tarpon87]

I have also done a TenFidy clone in my 16gal kettle. Efficiency dropped about 13% but still managed a 1.102 OG.

 

[Erika Zimprich]

I did it last week, and I perfected my method. So I have 30 liters kettle, starting with 25 liters of water and 8 kilograms of the grain, my kettle was too small. So I started with 20 liters of water, and than after the mash i added missing water. I poured water heated ad 67 degrees celsius through my brew bag. Result was great! No missing water, exact o.g., and this week we'll see how it went.

 

[eulipion2]

I've done Dark Night of the Soul a few times, most recently with a pulley -- recommended! Just squeeze (press, actually), no sparge, got a full 5 gallons, about 60-62% efficiency. Beautiful beer!

Edit: original recipe is for 10 gallons. I halved it - it would take forever for me to make it through 10 gallons of a beer like that!