Critique my BIAB tecnique

[skyzo]

Hi, I've been brewing for years with extracts, and have finally bought all the equipment to go all grain. For simplicity purposes, and living in an apartment, I have choose to try BIAB. Since I am brewing my first batch tomorrow (my favorite pale) I would really like some last minute feedback to see if I am doing it right. Note: I always do 2.5 gal batches

step 1: crush base/speciality grains
step 2: heat up water in 5 gal pot to strike temp
step 3: put grains in paint strainer bag and insert into pot and put reflectix insulation around to help keep heat in
step 4: let mash for 60 minutes
step 5: prepare a 2nd pot for sparging and heat water to ~168
step 6: when 60 minutes is up, move grains from 5gal pot to sparge pot and start heating up 5 gal pot to boil
step 7: remove grains from sparge pot, add sparge to main pot
step 8: boil away and continue schedule

I think that is the basics of it at least, I have done a lot of reading on the subject, and this seems to be the general consensus.

One question though, I am a little confused on what volumes of water I should use for each.
Here is what I was thinking,
the recipe I am brewing tomorrow uses 5.1lbs grain
If I wanted a mash thickness of 1.6qts/lb, that would be 8.16 quarts, or 2.04 gallons. Assuming an absorbtion rate of 0.13 gal/lb and a boil off of around 10% and a little bit of equipment loss, I would sparge with about 1.9 gallons. This is all assuming I need 3.95 gallons to get a finished product of 2.5 (3.95 according to brew365's calculator)

Does that seem right? Sorry for the huge-ass question, but I really dont want to mess this first AG up.
Thanks!

 

[Mysticmead]

sounds close.. with BIAB since you can squeeze the bag the absorption can be dropped to .06.. or .08 to give a little cushion. Once you get a couple brews under your belt you'll know what to expect for your setup. I would say for your first attempt, use .10 to determine absorption.

to determine the amount of water needed I use this formula.
final batch size + boil off + absorption +trub loss = water needed

oh yeah.. you'll find out after your first BIAB that all grain isn't the big scary monster that you think it is..it's really kind of easy and you'll wonder why you never made the jump sooner.

 

[flipfloptan]

You may be setting yourself up for dough balls and low efficiency by putting grains in bag then water. Put bag in pot with water. Make sure you have something, ie: metal steamer tray, between bag and pot. Once water hits strike add grain slowly and stir. You will not get clumps and higher efficiency. Good luck and good brewing

 

[Parkinson1963]

Try this method much easier

Brew in a Bag, also known as BIAB

As simple as I can make it


Equipment List

1 Pot , with lid, at least 40 litres in volume (I use a keggle)
2 Bag, swiss voile (mine is 0.5m wide by .75m high)
3 Mash Paddle
4 Heat source
5 Thermometer
6 Insulation (old comforter, blankets, sleeping bag, etc)

The Bag
A lot of talk is generated on this simple thing.
What you are making is a pillow case out of mesh.
In fact a new washed pillow case (poly cotton/polyester) will work quite well, just not as efficient.

Best material so far, Swiss voile (fabric land carries it).
The material comes in 1.5 meter widths so 1/2 m will make a bag.
Use of sewing machine and ten minutes will make a bag, ask your mommy, girl friend, sister, etc
If no sewing machine a needle and thread will do (about ½ to 1 hour)
A draw string closure will be nice, but not necessary.
Also I believe a 1m by 1m square of the material will make a bag, with no sewing. Just push the material into the pot with 4 spring clamps holding up the edges (I have not tried this yet).

The Grains
A fine crush is best for BIAB, I use a 0.5mm (0.02&#8221 gap on my barley crusher mill.
Some flour is fine and expected.


Procedure

for a five gallon batch

1. Add 28 litres (7.5 gallons) of water to the pot.
2. Begin heating
3. When to about 10c less than the mash temp add the bag and the grains
4. Stir the grain with your mash paddle well, no lumps.
5. Keep heating and stirring until your mash temp is reached (65 to 68c)
6. Turn off heat
7. Put lid on pot and insulate
8. Leave alone for 60 to 90 minutes
9. Remove insulation
10. Apply heat and stir until mash out temp reached (~76c)
11. Shut off heat
12. Lift up bag, drain, squeeze, drain, squeeze,drain, repeat as necessary I try to get every drop.
13. Apply heat bring to boil, add hops, cool, pitch yeast, etc

With the above equipment and method I get ~75% efficiency, same as my three vessel system.

There are lots of room for modifications to above method, knock your self out.

However in my opinion keeping it simple is what BIAB is about

 

[Mysticmead]

you procedure works but it's not an option for most apartment dwellers.

 

[BigRob]

I do the same procedure as the OP, reusing my extract kettle as the mash tun Has a really nice tight fitting lid, wrap the tun in a sleeping bag, I lose about 2 degrees in a 90 min mash. If I feel strong that day, or the mash temp is exceedinly important, i'll use the oven pre-heated to 200F, and lose no temp.

1)Mash in 5 gal stockpot with 4gal
2)Mash out with ~3 gal 210F water in boil kettle in most cases (grain bill dependant)
3)Hang bag across 2 dining room chairs with 2x2 maple
4)Squeeze its a bit, dump it all into the boiler

 

[C-Rider]

Hi, I've been brewing for years with extracts, and have finally bought all the equipment to go all grain. For simplicity purposes, and living in an apartment, I have choose to try BIAB. Since I am brewing my first batch tomorrow (my favorite pale) I would really like some last minute feedback to see if I am doing it right. Note: I always do 2.5 gal batches

step 1: crush base/speciality grains
step 2: heat up water in 5 gal pot to strike temp
step 3: put grains in paint strainer bag and insert into pot and put reflectix insulation around to help keep heat in
step 4: let mash for 60 minutes
step 5: prepare a 2nd pot for sparging and heat water to ~168
step 6: when 60 minutes is up, move grains from 5gal pot to sparge pot and start heating up 5 gal pot to boil
step 7: remove grains from sparge pot, add sparge to main pot
step 8: boil away and continue schedule

I think that is the basics of it at least, I have done a lot of reading on the subject, and this seems to be the general consensus.

One question though, I am a little confused on what volumes of water I should use for each.
Here is what I was thinking,
the recipe I am brewing tomorrow uses 5.1lbs grain
If I wanted a mash thickness of 1.6qts/lb, that would be 8.16 quarts, or 2.04 gallons. Assuming an absorbtion rate of 0.13 gal/lb and a boil off of around 10% and a little bit of equipment loss, I would sparge with about 1.9 gallons. This is all assuming I need 3.95 gallons to get a finished product of 2.5 (3.95 according to brew365's calculator)

Does that seem right? Sorry for the huge-ass question, but I really dont want to mess this first AG up.
Thanks!

I kind of like the idea of BIAB w/o the sparge as shown in this link:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/biab-brewing-pics-233289/

 

[cyclonite]

Skyzo, I use that exact technique and it works wonderfully. Easy to mash, easy to clean, and efficiency through the roof. For water amounts, I generally use 8 gallons total - 5 in the main pot (my main is 8 gallon to the brim) and 3 gallons in the sparge pot. This gives me about 5-5.25 gallons going into the fermenter after evaporation, absorption, and kettle trub loss. Your equipment water loss will be a bit different, but that may be a good place to start. Once you've gone trough a couple batches, you'll have the numbers for your setup down.

 

[skyzo]

Thanks for the advice guys! My wort chiller didnt come in the mail yesterday like it was supposed to, so I will be brewing on monday now.

Cyclonite, thats great to hear. Just curious, what efficiencys are you getting with your setup?

I was just going to do the one kettle version of BIAB, but had the other stainless kettle as well, so I figured why not :rockin: