Brew In a Bag questions for 5gal pot

[iijakii]

Hello, first off -- been lurking for a couple weeks now, so much info :rockin:

I've done a couple partials but was curious about trying AG and seeing if it's worth all the hype I read . Main issue, being in an apartment so I'm stuck with my 5gal pot on electric stove. Was thinking about trying some 2.5gal brew in a bag batches but was curious on how much grain you could really fit in a 5gal pot along with enough water to mash. Is it possible to do some of the heftier stouts that require a huge grain bill?

Whats a good rule of thumb for how much water to mash x lb of grain?

 

[JJL]

1qt - 1.5qt of water per lb to mash is a typical rule of thumb

 

[iijakii]

Thanks, I shouldn't really have a problem then doing nearly any 2-3gal BIAB batch in my 20qt. Cool.

 

[torbanac]

With a 20qt pot, the largest BIAB batch you can make is about 2.5 gallons. I have a 20 qt pot, I start with about 3.5 gallons of water and by the time you add about 5.5 lbs of grain it's up to the top of the pot. Makes it easy to hold the mash temp though.

 

[iijakii]

With a 20qt pot, the largest BIAB batch you can make is about 2.5 gallons. I have a 20 qt pot, I start with about 3.5 gallons of water and by the time you add about 5.5 lbs of grain it's up to the top of the pot. Makes it easy to hold the mash temp though.

How so?

I'm looking at a calculator and using 8lb of grain + the 10qt (1.25 ratio) of water leads to under 13qt of volume. Seems like I shouldn't have any trouble doing 3gal batches. Unless I'm overlooking something..

 

[torbanac]

I do a true BIAB , mash with the all the water needed to get to the pre-boil volume taking into account grain absorption. There is no sparge just mash and mash-out. Based on your water calculations(2.5 gallons before absorption) you have to be adding a sparge in there to get a correct pre-boil volume.

 

[iijakii]

Care to share an example recipe, torbanac?

 

[torbanac]

Last one was a Magic Hat # 9 Clone from a BYO podcast.
I start with 3.7 gallons of water, mash at about 152 degrees
The bag goes in the pot on top of a vegetable steamer with shortened legs
Add the grain
5 lbs of marris otter
2.5 oz of crystal 80
Wrap pot with towels
Mash for 70 minutes ( I usually stir at 20 min intervals and check on temp)
Heat the pot up to 170 degrees for a 10 minute mash out.
Drain the bag, i use a collander on a wire rack over the pot. (squeezing is OK)
Start the boil for 60 min.
Bittering Hops were Columbus- don't have the recipe here but it was about an ounce
Aromas hops were cascade at 30 minutes and again at 5. ( somewhere around an ounce total I think.
( I just used Beersmith to fudge the hops amount to get the right IBU range of 18-20 as most recipes are set up for 5 gallon batches.)
Primary for 2 weeks and then secondary with 2 oz apricot extract for 2 weeks.

You could also just skip the extract and have simple amber ale

 

[iijakii]

Why do you use more water in the mash than your standard ~1.25/lb grain? Is it to make up for not sparging? If you don't use that much (to allow for more grain) does your efficiency get totally jacked?

Edit: Can you not dilute it later on?

 

[torbanac]

Yes ,to make up for not sparging. The goal is calculate your total volume taking into account grain absorption and boil off and start with that.I don't know what would happen if you used less as I have not done that. If you are looking for more finished volume there are people that add a sparge,either dunking the bag or sprinkling it like a fly sparge. Just diluting later would lower your efficiency. I wasn't trying to make more beer,just a way to do it simpler.

 

[iijakii]

Ok, so I just need to learn how to mess around in beersmith and come up with something. The goal is to make an AG bock this weekend.

I was reading that a fullboil is nice. Think it's much better to do a fullboil 2.5-3gal batch than trying to do a larger batch w/ dilute? Damn stovetop and 5gal pot

 

[iijakii]

More reading..

Ok, settled on a 2.5gal AG BIAB batch, thanks for the help so far torb. Now to find a bock recipe, and then to decide on a stout .

 

[torbanac]

Good luck with you Bock because it's a high gravity beer you may need to add a sparge or go smaller to hit your target volume. Here are a couple of good links with pictures for the process.
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4650&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0/fa

Aside from this forum another place for recipes is BrewMonkey.com , they have recipes downloadable as BSM format for Beersmith

 

[bigjoe]

Looks like your all set on your recipe, but you can use top off water with BIAB. I used a 7.5 gallon kettle to do 5 gallon batches. I'd add as much water as I could for the mash. I'd have water up to about an inch from the top of the kettle.

Once I removed the grain and started to boil I'd add a little water until it was gone.

Check out this site for BIAB.
http://www.biabrewer.info/

 

[iijakii]

Did a lot of reading today on how AG and BIAB works, I think I should be ok.

Hopefully tomorrow I can figure out how to tailor a recipe into a 2 or 2.5gal BIAB style in Beersmith. Beersmith seems pretty complicated

 

[studmonk3y]

Here's a good picture tutorial talking about exactly what you want to do.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/simple-bib-small-batch-method-146872/