1st BIAB help needed!

[yewtah-brewha]

getting the water ready for my first overnight mash. tell me if I got any of this wrong. heating up 7.85 gallons of water to 162 degrees with my heat stick, will add 9lbs of grain to hopefully hit a temp of 152 give or take a few degrees.

seal and let sit for 10 hours. check temp,drain and boil as normal.


Am I missing anything here?

 

[C-Rider]

Never did an overnight mash. But I guess it sounds ok?

 

[Smokeater233]

Are you doing a 5 gallon or 10 gallon brew? Your calculations are correct, but you are using so much water (at least for a 5 gallon - almost 3.5 quarts per pound) that you will end up with too much for the sparge. Make sure you have a way of keeping your temps where you want them too (maybe cover the kettle with a blanket) so that you don't lose much in temp overnight...

 

[user 103238]

The OP is doing BIAB, which is commonly no sparge.

I've never done an overnight mash, but when I was doing BIAB, I was starting with 8-8.5 pounds of water at the start of the mash. What benefits does an overnight mash accomplish over a 1-hour mash?

Are you doing a 5 gallon or 10 gallon brew? Your calculations are correct, but you are using so much water (at least for a 5 gallon - almost 3.5 quarts per pound) that you will end up with too much for the sparge. Make sure you have a way of keeping your temps where you want them too (maybe cover the kettle with a blanket) so that you don't lose much in temp overnight...

 

[Smokeater233]

Sorry - I used to batch sparge BIAB to increase efficiency. But no sparge this process' calculations now make sense. You'd end up with around 6.5 gallons with grain absorption, and would reduce enough during the boil to get to around 5 gallons.

The big benefit of an overnight mash is typically greater efficiency and less time spent on brew day...

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Yes and yes! Mainly to cut brew day down. I am trying to get a system to where I dont have to spend all of one day doing just a brew.

my original temp was 158 that was at 9:30 last night it is now 7:30 am and the temp is at 138

it was a 5 gallon recipe and I have an igloo 10 gallon mash tun.

everyone says to raise the temp to 170 to release more sugars, so I have my heat stick in there now doing the dirty deed!

Since time is my major concern I am going to give it 20 or so minutes and what ever the temp is is what I will sparge with. im hopeing for 160 ish.

 

[TopherM]

The big benefit of an overnight mash is typically greater efficiency and less time spent on brew day...

And greater chance of infection!

Yewtah, is there a good reason why you are doing a 10 hour mash? Studies show that the vast majority of conversion happens in the first 15 minutes. A one hour mash is more than enough. Unless you have a good reason, just stick with a one-hour mash!

 

[yewtah-brewha]

And greater chance of infection!

Yewtah, is there a good reason why you are doing a 10 hour mash? Studies show that the vast majority of conversion happens in the first 15 minutes. A one hour mash is more than enough. Unless you have a good reason, just stick with a one-hour mash!

Thanks for the inquiry! Yes I am simply just trying to cut down on brew day, but it looks like I might not be saving all that much time. If this one is fubared in anyway I will atribute it to to long of a mash. many do the over night mash and have sucsess + greater efficiancy, My goal is to just break the whole entire process into smaller jobs throughout a 2 day period. this one is almost cooled to 70 degrees. i should be pitching the yeast after this post, as far as the other poster saying greater chance of infection I say HOW? It is getting boiled the same as any other wort. Infection is from contamination... right... If anything there will be a sugar convertion problem, but I dont see how! once the conversion takes place it cant jump back into the grain, so tell me what can go wrong I have open ears! thanks

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Cant say im all that impressed with the efficiancy, of this one. it was a first and i had my initial temp 2-4 degrees higher than I would have liked, but it was 64% from what I hear on here that is pretty low.

Gravity at 100% Efficiency:
1.059 - max
Gravity at 75% Efficiency:
1.044
* Efficiency:
64.86%
Points / Pound / Gallon (ppg):
24.0

 

[yewtah-brewha]

and thats accordind to this calc, I may have missed something, but i dont know for sure, about 6 gallons went into the fermentor,

 

[yewtah-brewha]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

 

[Chris7687]

TopherM - There wouldn't be a risk of infection as you are boiling the liquid, which would kill off any nasties...

As for the effic. It's probablly from your temp not staying at the target mash temp range long enough. I would ditch the overnight mash idea and stick to the 1-2 hr mashes. I have consitently been hitting 85% effic on my non-circulating eBIAB system. Just check the temp and stir every 20 minutes. Mashes range from 75-90 minutes depending on the grain bill with a 168* mashout. Hoist the bag out, let hang until boil (10 minutes), and a small squeeze of the bag. Before my eBIAB I was ranging 70-75% effic. on my propane system. Just have to make sure that target temp is maintained. I have also found a finer crush of your grain bill helps out a lot more in BIAB opposed to traditional brewing. Just my two cents on it all. Hope it helps.

Also, my brew days only take me about 3.5 hours from start to cleaned up and put away. The benefit of just one kettle to clean!

 

[Smokeater233]

Not quite true on the infection. While the possibility isn't high of an infection, you can certainly get one in a prolonged mash. And while you are right that the boil will kill any present infections, the reality is that you can still keep some off flavors from an infection that establishes itself overnight.

Yewtah - this is why I was doing sparges on my BIAB. I too was getting poor efficiency until I added in a sparge. But Chris is right that your fluctuating mash temps will likely have had something to do with this as well.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Update: transferred to clearing vessel today, all looks good. tasted like beer so 3 more days till bottling.

 

[eluterio]

Yes and yes! Mainly to cut brew day down. I am trying to get a system to where I dont have to spend all of one day doing just a brew.

my original temp was 158 that was at 9:30 last night it is now 7:30 am and the temp is at 138

it was a 5 gallon recipe and I have an igloo 10 gallon mash tun.

everyone says to raise the temp to 170 to release more sugars, so I have my heat stick in there now doing the dirty deed!

Since time is my major concern I am going to give it 20 or so minutes and what ever the temp is is what I will sparge with. im hoping for 160 ish.

Did you rinse the grains by rising the mash water with the heat stick?? If so, did any of the grains burn? This could potentially change the characteristic of your final beer. But still interesting to see the results. What was your OG? When you started this thread 4 days ago, you already transferred your into second fermenter?