BIAB Question

[GregKelley]

I do 5 gallon BIAB with my 10 gallon pot. The last batch I did had my mash darn near at the rim of my pot. I'm doing another that has a little more grain so I know I'm going to overflow. I figure I have two options:

1. Do a 4 or 4.5 gallon batch vs 5.

2. Use less water for a thicker mash and then add water to the wort after I pull my bag to reach my pre-boil volume for a 5 gallon batch.

Has anyone done #2 above?

 

[Bill_in_VA]

Lots of people do that. It'll be fine as long as you don't go super thick, you don't have to do a full volume mash with BIAB. As a benefit you can dunk the grain bag in the water you add to sparge it out and help efficiency.

 

[johnsant]

Mash with the water that keeps the volume from overflowing your kettle then sparge with 168-170 deg. water with amount needed to bring volume up for pre-boil. should be good to go. a lot of home brewers do this due to size of kettle. I've done it, works well.

 

[soccerdad]

If it was me, I would do the full volume mash and make a gallon less (4G v. 5G). But you can also short yourself by a gallon and when the mash is done, rinse the grains with a gallon to get back to desired boil volume. Some folks do this rinse (or dunk sparge) with cool water .. so if you are a bag squeezer there is the added benefit of a cooler bag to squeeze

 

[GregKelley]

So I gave this a try with my English barleywine. Didn't quite work. Beersmith called for just under 8 gallons. I ran with 7 gallons in the mash. Somehow I ended up with bubbles forming under the mash bed which rose everything up and overflowed a bit. It was very odd, never had it happen before. I think the thicker mash contributed to it.

 

[WarrynPeace]

I agree with most of the posts above. I pull my grains after my mash time 60-90 minutes depending, then sparge with 1-1.5 gallons 170 degree water.

 

[Bellybuster]

No need to heat sparge water at all unless you have a separate water heating source available. Heating sparge water with BIAB serves no purpose other than keeping wort closer to boiling temp

 

[redwing_al]

Mash with less water, pull the bag and sparge until you get the volume you want to start your boil with.

 

[madscientist451]

Use a spaghetti pot to heat some sparge water or get a 12 qt pot at Walmart for about $20. Heat 2 gallons or so of sparge water and just pull the bag and sparge in a plastic food grade bucket. Then pour the sparge water into your main boil and repeat until you get the target volume.