BIAB capacity help

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tonyc318

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So I've got a 10 gallon batch of an amber all coming up. I do BIAB in my 15.5 gal keggle. The grain bill for this batch is 19 lbs. can I fit all that grain and the water I need for a no sparge BIAB in that keggle? If not, that ok. I'm willing to sparge for my preboil volume of 12 gal. If I can't fit all of the water and grain in there, what amount of water should I do, then how much water should I use to rinse the grains with? Thanks.
 
If you were doing a standard mash at 1.5qts/#ofGrain you'd strike in at just over 7gallons so I would think you'd need at least that much to start with. Not sure what your grain absorption will be though. After your mash take your first runnings measure the volume of wort you have subtract that from your preBoil volume and that will tell you how much sparge water you'll need to get.
 
check out this mash calculator link
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

When I plug your numbers in it said you need 15.44 gallons of mash space.
12 gallons preboil + 1.9 gallons grain absorbtion = 13.9 gallons or 55.6 quarts/19 lbs =2.93 qts/lb mash thickness

I figured 0.10 gallons per pound for grain absorbtion, I'm sure if you squeezed the hell out of that bag you could probably get that down to 0.05 gallons per pound, giving you another 0.8 gallons of space, for 14.64 gallons needed mash space. Either way it's very tight, can a cut keg hold a full 15.5 gallons?
 
Buna_Bere said:
check out this mash calculator link
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

When I plug your numbers in it said you need 15.44 gallons of mash space.
12 gallons preboil + 1.9 gallons grain absorbtion = 13.9 gallons or 55.6 quarts/19 lbs =2.93 qts/lb mash thickness

I figured 0.10 gallons per pound for grain absorbtion, I'm sure if you squeezed the hell out of that bag you could probably get that down to 0.05 gallons per pound, giving you another 0.8 gallons of space, for 14.64 gallons needed mash space. Either way it's very tight, can a cut keg hold a full 15.5 gallons?

That's looking tight. Think I will choose a thinker mash and then pour 168 degree water over the grain bag.
 
I have a 15 gallon boilermaker that I BIAB in. For a 10 gallon batch I strike with as much water as the grain bill will allow, then sparge with the rest. (Lift the bag, drain the runnings, heat the sparge water, drop the bag back in) For a 5 gallon batch I just mash the entire amount.
 
According to the rackers calculator, I should be able to fit 19# of grain and 12 gallons of strike water in my keggle. Then I will shoot to heat up 3-4 gallons, and sparge the grains til I get my preboil target.
 
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