BIAB Virgin please be gentile

[cooldood]

Ok so I have new 10 gallon kettle and want to do a BIAB
Years ago I AG then last few years kits. Now going to try BIAB.
So some quick questions

10 gallon pot how big a batch 5 gallons ???

What is the highest OG I can shoot for with a 5 gallon batch?

Any suggestions for my first recipe?

How quickly is saccrification complete and why such a long mash?

I am sure all of this has been asked thousand times so I apologize for nobbiness of my nooberocity

 

[mb82]

A 10 gal pot will be enough for all but the biggest grain bills. I brew 5.5gal batches of 1.040-1.060 beers with an 8 gal pot. I can do bigger but I usually try not to.

You first recipe should be whatever you want to do.

I usually do a 60 minute mash, but that is because I do other things for those 60 minutes. Normally when whatever else I am doing is done I pull the grains out.

 

[kh54s10]

Ok so I have new 10 gallon kettle and want to do a BIAB
Years ago I AG then last few years kits. Now going to try BIAB.
So some quick questions

10 gallon pot how big a batch 5 gallons ???

What is the highest OG I can shoot for with a 5 gallon batch?

Any suggestions for my first recipe?

How quickly is saccrification complete and why such a long mash?

I am sure all of this has been asked thousand times so I apologize for nobbiness of my nooberocity

You can probably go a little bigger than 5 gallons but I would start there. My fermenters are 6 gallon and 7 gallon buckets. I boil for 5 gallons in my 10 gallon pot and still have to watch for boil overs.

There are ways to increase the gravity but the grain bill that will fit in the pot with the water is a limiting factor. I don't know the max.

I would do a simple APA for the first brew.

What do you mean "such a long mash"? Generally it is 60 minutes which is normal for all grain. 90 minutes for pilsner malts.

People are experimenting with short mashes, something I have not tried.

 

[Chris_Primavera]

Ok so I have new 10 gallon kettle and want to do a BIAB
Years ago I AG then last few years kits. Now going to try BIAB.
So some quick questions

10 gallon pot how big a batch 5 gallons ???

Five gallons is probably the maximum. Depends on your grain bill.

I also use a 10 gallon kettle and hold 1 gallon back from the mash and add it back before the boil. This gets me slightly more than five gallons into my fermentor.

What is the highest OG I can shoot for with a 5 gallon batch?

.

I regularly hit 1.065, but really have to watch for boil over during the first 30 minutes.

Any suggestions for my first recipe?

KISS - 1 or two grains, early and late hops no crazy addition schedules - don't make your first attempt a juggling act.

How quickly is saccrification complete and why such a long mash?

Depends on your mash temperature and grain bill. You might get conversion in 30 minutes. Maximum efficiency takes longer. I typically mash 90 minutes at 149°F because it works for the style of beer and yeast strain I am using.

 

[cooldood]

60 min mash I know is normal. I guess it is a general question. If you get full conversion in say 20 minutes why mash for 60?
Or does it take that long to get full conversion

 

[BeatnikTom]

What, Jewish people don't know how to brew?

 

[cooldood]

Jewish I was thinking Catholic LOL

thanks for the help guys now where are the recipes

 

[Gavin C]

Ok so I have new 10 gallon kettle and want to do a BIAB
Years ago I AG then last few years kits. Now going to try BIAB.
So some quick questions

10 gallon pot how big a batch 5 gallons ???

What is the highest OG I can shoot for with a 5 gallon batch?

Any suggestions for my first recipe?

How quickly is saccrification complete and why such a long mash?

I am sure all of this has been asked thousand times so I apologize for nobbiness of my nooberocity

I do 5.5 gallon batches in my 11 gallon pot (Nominal 10 gallon but fits 11)

I reckon I could do up to 1.080 in it.

Mash times from 30-60 mins as a single infusion is fine.

A simple recipe will make things easier but any of the solid HBT recipes with a simple mash and simple hop schedule will make life easy.

Crush fine and squeeze the bag and you will meet or exceed your recipe's OG.

Edwort's Haus Ale is very simple cheap and a great choice for a first AG brew.

I'll be making another batch of it in a few weeks.

My process is outlined in a pictorial thread and article below in my signature. It might answer some questions in more detail and cover some less talked about aspects of BIAB.

Best of luck with your brew. BIAB is a great fun method with results that I am delighted to enjoy and share.

 

[cooldood]

Thanks a ton

 

[Gavin C]

No worries. Happy to be of some small help. Any questions or suggestions don't hesitate to ask/comment.

BTW. Edwort's Haus Ale is really a delicious beer.

 

[joshesmusica]

also, if you're serious about going further, just go invest in beersmith. learn your system and get all the numbers right in that thing and it will do all of the math for you.

there are people who experiment with mash times and other variables in brewing, but until you get your processes down and make consistently good beer, i would stick to the fairly normal processes.

 

[Rhaop]

Start with something in an amber to darker color range, learn what your water profile is before trying very pale beers especially when full volume mashing, start checking out threads regarding "mash ph", I learned the hard way

 

[shetc]

now where are the recipes

Recipes with integrity at biabrewer.info

 

[cooldood]

I do have Beersmith.
I feel like it is shooting in the dark as far as equipment setup until I get my first batch.
Does it really work (good) to download an AG recipe and convert ot BIAB?

Seems like BIAB is the ugly step child in BS.

 

[joshesmusica]

No way, it's super easy if you're going with biab. Just select which type of biab mash you want. If you're using something different than the biab equipment profiles that come standard, then just type in your equipment size. Most of the volumes, loss to trub, boil off rates, cooling loss, etc. can be left alone at their standard setting. That will get you close enough for now until you get those nailed down.
I say it a lot, but I still get amazed how accurate that thing is. Like down to the decimal point. It says I should mash in at say 69.7 in order to hit a mash temp of 64.4, and it's right every time.

 

[Gavin C]

BIAB is all grain so there is no conversion needed but with any recipe you need to adjust for your batch size and projected efficiency.

What you need to do is learn your setup's data. Mine are in brackets for 5.5 gallon batches below.

I find Beersmith to be incredibly accurate for BIAB if you feed it the correct info. I set up an equipment profile "1Gavins BIAB Pot" The number puts it top of the list always. Same thing for mash profiles and ferment profiles.Some examples of numbers you need are

Volume losses
Boil-off (0.96 gallon/hour)
Grain absorption ( 0.045lb/gallon [I squeeze])
Trub loss (0.25 gallons)
Shrinkage (4% equates to about 0.28 gallon)

Planning recipes.
Your brewhouse efficiency (80%). Measure the volume in the Fv and the OG correctly to get this number

The more accurate you are with your measurements the more rapidly you will target the correct numbers overt he course of the first few brews. Don't guess, measure correctly and you can correct at the next brew and will get great consistency.

Volume in the kettle and volume in the fermentor can be measured with ease with some planning. Gravity measures at the correct temperatures coupled with accurate volumes will tell you your mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency. These can highlight any areas where improved process is needed, especially in the mash.

Not everyone wants or feels the need to measure so precisely. Each to their own. Beersmith is a tool like any other. To get the most out of it however, you have to get good at collecting the pertinent data. But once you have these numbers they remain largely unchanged and make planning brews much easier.

It does take a bit of learning, as with any piece of software.

You can get it as a free trial and play around with it for a bit. If you don't like it get something else. Lots of folks don't have the same love for Beersmith I do.

 

[cooldood]

Sounds like all I got to do you just do it. or should I say just brew it . LOL

 

[doug293cz]

Ok so I have new 10 gallon kettle and want to do a BIAB
Years ago I AG then last few years kits. Now going to try BIAB.
So some quick questions

10 gallon pot how big a batch 5 gallons ???

What is the highest OG I can shoot for with a 5 gallon batch?

Any suggestions for my first recipe?

How quickly is saccrification complete and why such a long mash?

I am sure all of this has been asked thousand times so I apologize for nobbiness of my nooberocity

About the largest full volume mash you could do would use 15 lbs of grain and 8.08 gal of strike water. This would have a mash volume of about 9.5 gal. These values come from this calculator: http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/. The 15 lbs of grain would have a sugar potential of:

15 lbs * 37 pts/lb = 555 potential points​

If we could extract all that potential sugar into 8 gal of wort we would have a specific gravity of:

1 + 555 / (8 *1000) = 1.069​

This converts to 16.9°Plato, which means our 8 gal of wort would be 16.9 weight% sugar. So the total weight of the sugar would be:

0.169 * 1.069 * 8.329 lb/gal * 8 gal = 12.05 lbs​

Since we mashed with 8.08 gal of water, the total weight of the wort in the mash (at 100% conversion efficiency) would be

8.08 gal * 8.329 lb/gal + 12.05 lbs = 79.35 lbs​

And, the wort would be

12.05 lbs sugar / 79.35 lbs wort = 0.152 => 15.2% sugar​

So our wort in the mash best case would be 15.2°Plato or 1.062 SG. If we have a pre-boil volume of 7.18 gal (from Priceless calcuator) @ 212°F, we would have 7.18 * 0.96 = 6.89 gal at room temp. So our gravity points in the boil kettle would be

6.89 * 1000 * (1.062 -1) = 427 points​

And our mash efficiency would be

427 points / 555 points = 0.77 => 77%​

The 6.89 gal of pre-boil wort would boil down to about 5.69 gal, and have an OG of

427 points / 5.69 = 75.1 pts/gal => 1.075 SG​

With about 0.19 gal trub loss, you would net 5.5 gal in the fermenter.

So, the highest OG you could target for a no sparge 5.5 gal (to fermenter) batch would be about 1.075. You might be able to get slightly higher efficiency and OG by squeezing your bag more aggressively to reduce the retained wort (and sugar). You could do higher gravity brews using more than 15 lbs of grain by using less strike water, and sparging to get your pre-boil volume.

Time to complete saccharification depends on a number of variables. The primary variables are: crush size, temperature, mash thickness, and pH. To get good conversion rates you want your (room temp) mash pH to be in the range 5.3 to 5.7. To complete a mash in 30 minutes at about 154°F, you need to have a crush like coarse flour or corn meal, and a mash thickness of around 2 qts/lb or higher. A mash with a crush from a 0.040" gap mill, and 1.25 qt/lb mash thickness might take and hour or longer. A mash at 148°F vs. 154°F might take 25% - 50% longer to complete. You need to monitor you mash either with SG measurements or an iodine test to determine when your mash is complete under your process conditions.

Hope this isn't a case of TMI too soon, and is helpful to you.

I support others who recommend a recipe with a simple grain bill and hop schedule for you first time thru the process. There will be plenty to keep you busy just from the process side.

Brew on

 

[cooldood]

seriously thanks a bunch

 

[Gavin C]

@Doug293cz is the man. He likes his numbers.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Dang it doug beat me to it, got nothing left to add. Close the thread people, our work is done.

 

[cooldood]

LOL dont close it yet I have not written it down.