Feedback on BIAB process

[mdawson9]

Just started BIAB and have done four batches. So far I love it. Best of all worlds! But always want to tweak and improve as long as it stays simple.
I have a 10 gallon kettle and did a robust porter that called for 15.5 pounds of grain. That amount of grain only allowed me about 7.5 gallons of water and the kettle was to the brim. All worked out and hit 1.063 OG and the recipe was 1.064. Just did a brown ale where the target was 1.048 and hit 1.044. So now I second guess my process. Basically since I'm working with a 10 gallon kettle constraint, I'm doing a significant top off of water after the boil. Usually 1.5 to 2 gallons to hit 5.5 gallons into the fermenter. Is this ok? I don't sparge which would reduce the need. I find that I lose a lot of water in the bag it seems.
Any tips from the pros who do BIAB with 10 gallon kettle on the best process to make the best beer?
Thanks!!!

 

[Cyclman]

You'll lose some hop efficiency with a lower boil volume, I would top off at the beginning of the boil, or sparge if you can (even if you have to sparge "cold").

 

[campbellmike]

Are you measuring OG after you top it off? I use approx 1.5 qt per lb of grain and sparge until I get full volume for boil. Yours seems pretty thin to me. Not sure what efficiency you were estimating, I use 75% and always get close or go over a little bit. As noted, you could top it off before boiling to maximize hop utilization.

 

[Oginme]

If you still have a lot of water in your grain bag, squeeze it out! This will improve your efficiency and reduce your need to add top off water to your boil kettle.

 

[TexasWine]

My opinion, you shouldn't be topping up post boil. With a 10 gallon kettle you shouldn't need to. Instead, given your volume constraint, you should be sparging to the proper pre boil volume. Squeeze or no squeeze is your option.

I think if you do this, combined with a very fine crush, you'll be very happy with the direction your efficiency goes and the ease of the process.

You might even consider doing a shortened mash as some of us have started doing. I did a 30 minute mash yesterday, achieved 88% efficiency, and expect to fully attenuate or go below the predicted FG.

Oh, and 7.5 gallons for 15.5 lbs of grain is just fine.

 

[DurtyChemist]

If you're adding water before the boil you might as well just pour that over the grains. It would rinse any more sugars out and you're not really adding much more work to the process. Try making those batches again and copy your process and see what numbers you get. I'm currently doing this to check MY efficiencies.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I have a 15 gallon kettle, which allows me to do a 10 gallon batch and *most* of the time i can dough in with the full water volume with no sparging. On the rare occasions when I am low on preboil voumume I just run the top off water through the grains into the kettle at the start of the boil. I figure all water should go through the grains.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

For my 15 gallon kettle eBIAB for instance I mash 23 pounds of grain with 12 gallons of strike water then after mashing I lift the grain bag out of the kettle and pour about 3 gallons of 170F sparge water through the grains, heating the wort up for the boil at the same time.

I also squeeze all of the wort out of the grain bag and wind up pouring about a quart or two of extra wort back into the kettle too. I keep another covered pot of water on a low boil in case I need to increase the wort level as needed to make sure I hit my final wort volume. My average original gravity comes in at about 1.056 giving me around 70% efficiency.