5 Gal BIAB in Two 2.5 Gal Batches Help!?! Run Guidance

[TEWNCfarms]

so I finally decided this what I’m going to try to do for my all grain brew...

Yes I know, I need to buy a big kettle, etc... but I don’t have the money right now after buying everything else to start brewing.

So I guess I just need some help on my recipe and run, please!

How many pounds of grain usually make a 5 gallon batch? In the recipes in “American Sour Beers” it just gives percentages, so what exactly is a good ratio? I know I can find some recipes that give the pounds but wondering if there’s another way to figure it out.

So I was going to heat 1-1.5 qts of water for each pound of grain (from what I’ve read, which is better 1 or 1.5?) and split the water and grain evenly into two, making 5 gallons total when I’m done. I put the grains in the bag, stir, heat the water to 150-170F (which is better? I’ve read both) and hold that for an hour to mash out the grains.

Also the water I’m using is cleaned (RO, CF, UV) water. I just bought some calcium chloride and gypsum since I need to salt my water, what’s the average amount of each needed? And pH I need, or should I worry about pH?

But so... Then from what I’ve read is I’m sparging with 25% water is this right? So for each 2.5 gallon batch I’d sparge (dunk the bag of grains in cold/room temp water, again from what I’ve read and that it doesn’t make a difference?) in 1/2 Gallons of water and let the grains sit and soak for 15 minutes and squeeze out the water/sparge/wort. Pouring this into each kettle ending with 3 Gallons of wort.

Please correct me if anything is not right or I’m headed down the wrong path.

After sparging I bring that to a boil and add my hops and boil for 60 minutes. Again in ASB the recipes say if any hops to do “19 IBUs” or 6 or whatever. How do I determine how many IBUs I’m getting from however many hops? I can follow certain recipes others have written—thank each one of you for your great contribution!—but I want to be able to convert a recipe that only provides percentages and IBUs.

Okay and so after I boil then I just follow as I would with an Extract batch, cool, and since separated kettles, combine to fermenter, pitch yeast, ferment at appropriate temperature.

As Always maintaining sanitation.

If any of you could please critique my run and let me know what I’m doing wrong.?

 

[TEWNCfarms]

@RM-MN what do you think?

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Found this page https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=23449.0
And MDixon provided a pretty simple grain percentage figure to get your pounds needed. Thank you MDixon!

 

[doug293cz]

What type of beer are you planning to brew? Do you have a recipe you plan to use? What OG are you targeting? These are some of the basic pieces of information needed to give you anything specific.

Brew on

 

[RM-MN]

So I was going to heat 1-1.5 qts of water for each pound of grain (from what I’ve read, which is better 1 or 1.5?) and split the water and grain evenly into two, making 5 gallons total when I’m done. I put the grains in the bag, stir, heat the water to 150-170F (which is better? I’ve read both) and hold that for an hour to mash out the grains.

For conversion from starch to sugars that are fermentable you need the mash temperature to fall within the range of about 148 to 150 and to have that happen you need to do some calculation that will depend on the weight of the grain and its temperature plus the amount of water you will use which will also depend on the weight of the grain. The grains will need to be milled and how well milled they are will partially tell how long they need mashed. A typical mash period is 60 minutes but that can vary.

But so... Then from what I’ve read is I’m sparging with 25% water is this right? So for each 2.5 gallon batch I’d sparge (dunk the bag of grains in cold/room temp water, again from what I’ve read and that it doesn’t make a difference?) in 1/2 Gallons of water and let the grains sit and soak for 15 minutes and squeeze out the water/sparge/wort. Pouring this into each kettle ending with 3 Gallons of wort.

Since you are batch sparging you will measure the amount of wort needed yet when you pull and drain the bag of grains. Since the grains will be saturated they won't absorb any more water so you just add the amount of water equal to the amount of wort you still need. Be sure to collect enough wort to account for what you boil off plus what you will likely lose to trub when you go to bottle, probably about 1/2 gallon. Only you will know how much you will boil off. You won't need to wait 15 minutes for the sparge, you are only rinsing off the sugars already in the bag of grains.

Since you will be having 2 kettles of wort you will have more boil off than you think. When the wort gets to the boiling point you will get a lot of foam which will want to boil over. I use a whisk to stir this down to avoid the spill. If you add all the wort from sparging to the kettle before the boil you will likely boil over so I reserve a bit of it until after the boil starts, then when the foam subsides add it in. This will stop the boil for a bit and when it restarts is when you add your hops for bittering.

 

[RM-MN]

Now that we have you thoroughly confused with your plans to make 5 gallons, why not simplify things and do half that in the bigger kettle. Just use half the ingredients. This will make your day so much easier and done right will get you a case of beer. In fact, I think it will be best if you do a few of these half size batches to get the process right before you complicate it by doing 2 half batches in one day. You may find that the process is fun enough that you will continue the half size batches and just do more of them which has the benefit of giving you the opportunity to make more varieties of beer.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

What type of beer are you planning to brew? Do you have a recipe you plan to use? What OG are you targeting? These are some of the basic pieces of information needed to give you anything specific.

Brew on

Well I’m just trying to generalize on procedure. I’m mainly going to be doing more malty brews and usually like 10-12#. But I will be doing other beers too, like English and ipas.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

For conversion from starch to sugars that are fermentable you need the mash temperature to fall within the range of about 148 to 150 and to have that happen you need to do some calculation that will depend on the weight of the grain and its temperature plus the amount of water you will use which will also depend on the weight of the grain. The grains will need to be milled and how well milled they are will partially tell how long they need mashed. A typical mash period is 60 minutes but that can vary.



Since you are batch sparging you will measure the amount of wort needed yet when you pull and drain the bag of grains. Since the grains will be saturated they won't absorb any more water so you just add the amount of water equal to the amount of wort you still need. Be sure to collect enough wort to account for what you boil off plus what you will likely lose to trub when you go to bottle, probably about 1/2 gallon. Only you will know how much you will boil off. You won't need to wait 15 minutes for the sparge, you are only rinsing off the sugars already in the bag of grains.

Since you will be having 2 kettles of wort you will have more boil off than you think. When the wort gets to the boiling point you will get a lot of foam which will want to boil over. I use a whisk to stir this down to avoid the spill. If you add all the wort from sparging to the kettle before the boil you will likely boil over so I reserve a bit of it until after the boil starts, then when the foam subsides add it in. This will stop the boil for a bit and when it restarts is when you add your hops for bittering.

Gotcha cool thanks so much for explaining that.

 

[madscientist451]

If you are just starting out, go on You Tube and watch some videos.
Also read the book "How to Brew" by John Palmer, there's a free version available on line.
Keeping things simple helps reduce mistakes.
If your kettle is small, brew smaller batches. Bottling day won't seem like such a chore, you'll brew more often and have more variety of beers.
Use the calculator "can I mash it" found on the Green Bay Rackers website to figure how much grain/water your kettle will hold.
Have some DME on hand in case your gravity is low.
Once you get the basics figured out you can move on to larger batches.
Making wort is actually the easy part of brewing.
You can buy all kinds of complicated, expensive brewing rigs, but all you really need is a kettle and a BIAB bag.
Managing your fermentation temperature and taking care of your yeast can be a more complex problem, especially if you are in a warm climate.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

If you are just starting out, go on You Tube and watch some videos.
Also read the book "How to Brew" by John Palmer, there's a free version available on line.
Keeping things simple helps reduce mistakes.
If your kettle is small, brew smaller batches. Bottling day won't seem like such a chore, you'll brew more often and have more variety of beers.
Use the calculator "can I mash it" found on the Green Bay Rackers website to figure how much grain/water your kettle will hold.
Have some DME on hand in case your gravity is low.
Once you get the basics figured out you can move on to larger batches.
Making wort is actually the easy part of brewing.
You can buy all kinds of complicated, expensive brewing rigs, but all you really need is a kettle and a BIAB bag.
Managing your fermentation temperature and taking care of your yeast can be a more complex problem, especially if you are in a warm climate.

Thanks so much! Yeah @RM-MN and you have mentioned this and others, but I guess the thing is is I don’t want to use All my time at night brewing doing a Bunch of small batches, and I have 3 more 6 gallon fermonsters on the way...

Thanks for mentioning the DME... do I just add that to some wort and boil to make my gravity right If it’s not?

And yeah I’m in a warm coastal climate so summers are going to be tough. All ales here for the next year at least.

 

[wilserbrewer]

What size are your kettles?

 

[TEWNCfarms]

What size are your kettles?

5 SS & 7.5 AL

 

[madscientist451]

7.5 Gallon pot will be fine for BIAB 5 gallons.
No need to split up the batch.
Shoot for a 6.5 gallon boil volume.
If your evaporation rate is more than a gallon an hour, you may need to add some more water during the boil.
When the hot break occurs you'll have to watch the pot and move the foam around a little to prevent a boil over. But that's no big deal.
After a few brews you'll figure out how the volumes work and you can fine tune what you are doing.
If you want to do a dunk sparge use the 5 gallon pot for that.
If you have your sparge water at mash temp or a little higher, you can get your boil going faster.

 

[chickypad]

Agreed, with those kettles you can do a 5 gal BIAB batch if you sparge. I guess the only question is can you boil that much? What is your heat source?

For figuring BIAB volumes I highly recommend priceless brewing calculator:
https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced

Quickly plugging in your scenario with 12 lb of grain and assuming 1 gal boil off, .08 gal per lb grain absorption, and 0.5 gal trub loss (i.e. aiming for 5.5 gal post boil) it looks like this:
- 5.4 gal mash water (will take up 6.5 gal space with grains)
- that will yield about 4.5 gals first runnings
- do a 2 gal dunk sparge in your 5 gal pot
- add those runnings for a 6.5 gal boil volume

If you really squeeze you can probably reduce the grain absorption a bit but that is a decent starting point. You can measure your actual boil off on the first run and adjust for next time.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

7.5 Gallon pot will be fine for BIAB 5 gallons.
No need to split up the batch.
Shoot for a 6.5 gallon boil volume.
If your evaporation rate is more than a gallon an hour, you may need to add some more water during the boil.
When the hot break occurs you'll have to watch the pot and move the foam around a little to prevent a boil over. But that's no big deal.
After a few brews you'll figure out how the volumes work and you can fine tune what you are doing.
If you want to do a dunk sparge use the 5 gallon pot for that.
If you have your sparge water at mash temp or a little higher, you can get your boil going faster.

Awesome thanks so much! I didn’t think I could do the whole 5 gallon batch in the 7.5, others said I couldn’t. I’m definitely going to give it a shot.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Agreed, with those kettles you can do a 5 gal BIAB batch if you sparge. I guess the only question is can you boil that much? What is your heat source?

For figuring BIAB volumes I highly recommend priceless brewing calculator:
https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced

Quickly plugging in your scenario with 12 lb of grain and assuming 1 gal boil off, .08 gal per lb grain absorption, and 0.5 gal trub loss (i.e. aiming for 5.5 gal post boil) it looks like this:
- 5.4 gal mash water (will take up 6.5 gal space with grains)
- that will yield about 4.5 gals first runnings
- do a 2 gal dunk sparge in your 5 gal pot
- add those runnings for a 6.5 gal boil volume

If you really squeeze you can probably reduce the grain absorption a bit but that is a decent starting point. You can measure your actual boil off on the first run and adjust for next time.

Thanks so much! That’s exactly what I was looking for. I’m going to give it a go. I have a turkey fryer with the stand alone burner, I’ll use that because my stove top took like an hour to bring 3 gallons to a boil last week. Thanks for the link too!

 

[wilserbrewer]

Even though you “can”, I’m not so sure you should on your first date...

Get a 2-3 gallon batch under your belt.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Even though you “can”, I’m not so sure you should on your first date...

Get a 2-3 gallon batch under your belt.

Or two 2.5 Gal batches on my first try...

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Agreed, with those kettles you can do a 5 gal BIAB batch if you sparge. I guess the only question is can you boil that much? What is your heat source?

For figuring BIAB volumes I highly recommend priceless brewing calculator:
https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced

Quickly plugging in your scenario with 12 lb of grain and assuming 1 gal boil off, .08 gal per lb grain absorption, and 0.5 gal trub loss (i.e. aiming for 5.5 gal post boil) it looks like this:
- 5.4 gal mash water (will take up 6.5 gal space with grains)
- that will yield about 4.5 gals first runnings
- do a 2 gal dunk sparge in your 5 gal pot
- add those runnings for a 6.5 gal boil volume

If you really squeeze you can probably reduce the grain absorption a bit but that is a decent starting point. You can measure your actual boil off on the first run and adjust for next time.

For real thanks so much! You’ve been the biggest help for me wrapping my little brain around figuring out all grain. The link to priceless brewing calculator is a life changer, I think it’s the most complete Actual calculator that’s important. All the other ones like brewers friend is good but it’s not really helping me figure what I need, rather what I’d end up with. Thanks so much!