Big Beer BIAB Help Please

[Turk10mm]

I'm about to do a big beer, using DeathBrewer's method. My grain bill is 17.25lbs and i'm double checking my water loss tonight, but I believe its 2.5 gallons in 60 minutes from a full batch boil

I ran the numbers in promash

If I use the 1.25qt water per 1lb grain I end up needing 5.39 gallons of strike water. I have two pots, a 9 gallon and a 5.5 gallon. The 5.5 gallon isn't big enough to handle the mash.

If I lower the ratio to 1qt/lb I'm not really sure if its even big enough to handle the 4.31 gallon mash. how do you figure out how much total space is taken up by the mash including your strike water and grain bill? I can't seem to duplicate DeathBrewer's method for getting this size.

if i use 1.25qt/lb then with a 2.07 gallon absorption rate I get 3.32 gallons of wort. My sparge then has to be 4.38 gallons to get me to 7.70 gallons for my water evaporation to get me to 5.25 gallons chilled. All according to promash

The 5.5 gallon pot just doesn't seem to be enough for me to mash the grain with enough water and I'll need to use the 9 gallon for the sparge . What would you suggest I do? Either I need to strike with less water or sparge with less water. I'm guessing sparging is the one that I should cut down?

Also, can i use two grain bags? i'm worried that 1 grain bag would weigh 30lbs wet when trying to drain and pull out of the pots.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Golddiggie]

According to the Green Bay Rackers site, going with 1.5qt/# will take up 7.85 gallons of space. That means you could mash with the larger pot, then either drain the water from it, or shift the grain bag to the second pot to sparge in.

Personally, I'd get a much larger pot, like a 60-80 quart, and use that with the no sparge method.

I would also go with using less gas/heat under the pot to go to a normal loss rate for the boil. Boiling as hard as you probably are (to get such a high loss in an hour) can't be good. Every other home brewer I know, gets their wort to just boil (just over 212F at sea level) and works to maintain it there. That way you will see about 3 quarts loss per hour of boil. You can also adjust the way the pot's lid sits to make sure you don't lose more than that during the boil time.

With 1.5 qt/# of grain for the mash, you'll need just shy of 26 quarts of water for the mash. You'll then need under 1.5 gallons (1.32 according to Beer Smith) for the sparge stage. If you have a third pot, that is 8 quarts, simply heat the water in that, put the grain into the 5.5 gallon pot (hopefully it will fit) and pour the water onto it... Even at 1.25 qt/#, you'll only need about 2.5 gallons of water to sparge (mashing with 21.5 quarts)... That will fit into the 9 gallon pot far easier. It will also give you more water to sparge with, probably making that easier too... Although the single pot mash/sparge method (made easier with the BIAB method) would probably still be a better choice... That would need just over 9 gallons of space, total (1.8qt/#), so if you have even a 10 gallon pot, you could do it. Bet you wish you had gone with the 40 quart pot instead of the 36 quart now.

Personally, with a grain bill of that size, I would go with a larger pot, so that you can leave the grain bag in it for the entire mash/sparge process.

I might be going a 10 gallon batch towards the end of February (brew day event)... If so, we'll do the BIAB method, with about 20 pounds of grain. I'll be getting either a 60 or 80 quart pot, with steaming basket insert to hold the grain bag, for that. With a second propane burner, we should be able to simply heat the sparge water while the mash is happening, and then add that water to the mash/boil pot.

Planning for future batch sizes, and monster grain bills, makes the 60-80 quart pot a good idea, for me at least... Especially, since I know I'll eventually get to that point (probably sooner rather than later)...

 

[Atvar]

http://www.haandbryg.dk/mashcalc.html

Using the mash tun volume calculator, 17.25lb grain at 1qt/lb and 0 deadspace would require a 5.7 gallon tun minimum.

I just did my first BIG beer and will relate my experiences. It was a 19lb grain bill using my keggle BIAB setup. I full volume mashed with 7.5 gallons water. I tried to pull out the full bag at the end and could barely lift it out of the water... it probably weighed ~40lb. Luckily I had planned for this, and used a sieve to move maybe 1/3rd of the grain into a paint strainer bag sitting in a plastic bucket. Squeezed the crap out of that and added the liquid back to kettle. Took out the much lighter grain bag, let it sit in a 5 gallon plastic bucket for a bit then squeezed the crap out of it to recover the liquid. I ended up losing ~1 gallon to absorption.

 

[Turk10mm]

thanks Golddiggie! the more and more I think about this, the more I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get a 10 gallon cooler and make a mash tun and just go single infusion sparging.

My water was boiling, not simmering, but it wasn't boiling over or anything. I lost 2.11 gallons of water tonight in a 60 minute boil that I ran through the pot as a test.

 

[Turk10mm]

Atvar, that's what I'm afraid of. Pulling the bag out without dumping some of the contents first seems difficult at best. Glad your way works, but man I bet it was a PITA.

 

[Atvar]

It was, but it's my first barleywine and I wanted to see what it would take. I don't plan on doing more than 1-2 big beers a year, so it worked well enough. It gave me a better understanding why a lot of all grain brewers still use some extract when doing big beers.

 

[Golddiggie]

thanks Golddiggie! the more and more I think about this, the more I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get a 10 gallon cooler and make a mash tun and just go single infusion sparging.

My water was boiling, not simmering, but it wasn't boiling over or anything. I lost 2.11 gallons of water tonight in a 60 minute boil that I ran through the pot as a test.

I plan on getting some reflective insulation to wrap my 32 quart pot in, to help it retain the heat... I might get the 10 gallon mash tun cooler at some point, but I kind of doubt it. I like the BIAB method, so the cooler really isn't necessary. Of course, in 6 months I might change my methods significantly... I could see adding a ball valve to the pot, as well as a false bottom (to set the grain bag onto).

You only need to hit 212F to be 'boiling'... A hard boil will give you more boil loss than a soft boil (212F)... I don't know if there is anything negative to either, other than needing more water in the mash/sparge in order to offset the much higher loss rate... Since I've not seen anything (in books or online) that says you need to go for a hard boil, and most brew pot thermometers only go up to 220F, I would say that a soft boil is going to be your better bet. Maybe a little bit above 212F, like in the 214-215F range.

What temperature did you boil at to get such extreme loss in just 60 minutes?

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

I did an 18lb doppelbock as a BIAB. It worked, but barely. It was a big pain. I could hardly fit any mash water in my 5g kettle. It took three kettles to capture wort rofl. It was sticky and messy but it worked and the beer is awesome. Still aging in a keg but samples rock. I liked AG so I stepped up to a 10g rubbermaid MLT and will soon be upgrading kettles AGAIN from 5g to 7.5g and now to 10g (wish I could have gotten a 10g from the beginning!) Good luck