BIAB question

[Iceman6409]

Hi all. I am an all grain brewer who wants to try half batches. I would like to experiment with BIAB for this. Here is what I would like to try. Let me know if you think this would work or not. I want to do the mashing in a 5 gallon pot on the stove. So I would bring the water to strike temp and then drop the grains in, with the bag already in the water of course, and bring to proper mash temperature to hold for an hour. I know I will lose x amount of water to absorption. So then here is my question. Instead of lifting the bag out and squeezing lightly and then moving the bag to another pot I was thinking of bringing the necessary amount of sparge water to temperate in the second pot and then just pour that into the first pot and then kind of "tea bag" the grains for a bit and then continue on from there as usual. Thoughts?

 

[mb82]

So how I read this you are going to leave the mash water in the pot then put the sparge water in also? I am not sure if that would give the desired effect of a sparge. Really then it would be a no sparge method which is what traditional BIAB is.

 

[Iceman6409]

Ok. I only use the term sparge because that's all I know how to do. So in essence you are saying the way I want to do it is already an accepted method?

 

[inhousebrew]

If you are using a five gallon pot you would be able to do at least five pounds of grain plus water for a full volume mash. It would be tight but doable according to http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Not sure you're approach would do much. Some people do something similar where you lift the bag, suspend it in a strainer or something above the pot and then pour the sparge water over to rinse. Or you could do the dunk sparge in the other pot. Or you could try your method and see how it works but the way you describe it why not just add all the water at first and then tea bag it at the end.

 

[Chris7687]

Iceman - I do BIAB with a 5, 11, and 22 gallon kettle. When I brew with 5 gallon kettle on the stove top I measure out the water I need, for examples sake total strike water is 4.4 gallons. I then put 3.4 gallons in the 5 gallon kettle and 1 gallon in a second pot. Do the normal strike temp with the BIAB pot, mash in, and let sit for 60 minutes. With 10 minutes left in the mash I heat up the second pot to a mash out temp, say 168. When mash is done lift the bag out and let sit in a collander over the main pot, then pour the 1 gallon of mash out water (168*) slowly and all over the bag. I usually dispense the water a cup at a time with a pyrex measure cup, but that is just me. After water has all flowed through, you are done with the mash out. Kick up to boil!

 

[Iceman6409]

Ok I like the colander method. Sounds easy enough. Thanks guys

 

[RichE]

I also do 2.5 gallon batches in a 5 gallon pot. I started out doing the full volume mash, but more recently have been holding back 1 gallon water. I don't do this for the purpose of a true sparge, but rather the 5 gallon pot with the full volume of water gets a bit un-wieldy. I move the mash pot to a pre-heated oven to help retain the mash temp, and the weight of the pot was a bit much for easy transfer and for the rack in my oven. Holding back some of the water makes the mash pot lighter. The PH of the mash is also affected by the water to grist ratio of the mash, but I'm not really sure how that comes in to play, but traditional all grain mashing is a thicker mash. Also, I heat the 1 gallon water to around 190 degrees and add that to the pot when mashing is done to reduce the time required to nbring it up to mash-out temp. I just got a new 2 gallon pot, so I may start doing a dunk sparge at 170 degrees in my 2nd pot and then combine the two worts as I bring it up to boil.

 

[jCOSbrew]

I do no sparge biab and top off the kettle with cold water if necessary. I don't think the sparge method is critical as long as your brew process and efficiency numbers are consistent.

 

[Gibson40]

This is a pretty good video explanation..