First BIAB Attempt - Sanity Check

[geoffm33]

I am planning out my first BIAB for Father's Day with my brother and dad. I have 4 extract brews under my belt so this is my first taste of all grain.

I have a 7.5 gallon brew kettle (from a 30qt Turkey Fryer kit). I am going to brew the BierMuncher Centennial Blonde but sized down to work with my kettle.

Here is what I figure in my newbie mind:

*** 4 gallon batch ***

5 gallons of water (1 gallon boil off)
1.25 gallons grain absorption (6.25lbs of grain * .20)

6.25 gallons strike water
2.45 gallons of space taken up by the mash (from http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml)

Too big for kettle


** 3 gallon batch ***

4 gallons of water (1 gallon boil off)
1 gallons grain absorption (4.78lbs of grain * .20)

5 gallons strike water
1.88 gallons of space taken up by the mash (from http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml)

This wil give me a little less than 1/2 gallon of headspace in the kettle. Should be sufficient?

---

Am I looking at this the right way? Can I cheat by adding adding more water after the mash and before the boil to use a bigger grain bill? How about brewing a 5 gallon batch and topping of in the fermenter before pitching. That is what I do now for my extract brews, will this be the same impact?

Thanks in advance!

 

[freisste]

I've done all grain partial boil on my stovetop with a 4 gallon batch (based on the amount of grain my pot could handle). I topped up after boiling just like I would with extract.

I'd make a 5 gallon batch and top up after (or even a little during) the boil.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I'd make a 5 gallon batch and top up after (or even a little during) the boil.

I agree with this. You can always add more water later.

Also, 1.25 grain absorption is too much. With BIAB, it'll be more like .5g once you squeeze it all out. That right there should give you a bit more mash volume.

 

[iowabrew]

I do 3 gallon batches BIAB almost everytime in my 30qt turkey pot(on my stove). My process is pretty simple yielding 75% eff consistently.

-Dough in with 4 gallons of water @ X temp.

-After 45-60min rest, squeeze the bag like it owes me money, usually end up with just under 3.5 gallons.

-Take boiling water and dump over my bag, that is sitting on a colander over the pot, to reach my pre-boil gravity of 4 gallons.

-Boil as normal.

Very nice and easy. The colander really is a life saver IMO for BIAB.

 

[Ridire]

I have done 5 gallon BIAB in a 7.5 gallon turkey frier. I use an extra Ale Pail and do a bit of a sparge. After the mash, I take the bag and set it in the Ale Pail and pour 170-180 degree water over it and then dump that water into my boil kettle. I do that until the pre-boil volume is 6 gallons and then boil down to 5 gallons.

I think the last batch I did, I started with 5 gallons of water for the mash, and had another 3 gallons +/- ready to go when the mash was done. I kept "sparging" until I was at 6 gallons (my mash paddle had a rubber band on it where I knew 6 gallons would be in my boil kettle).

EDIT: and the beer turned out excellent. I'm going to try and repeat the recipe/process this weekend.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm doing PB/PM BIAB,& I wind up with 3.5 gallons boil volume in my 5 gallon kettle. Top off in fermenter works fine for me. so your AG should be able to work out a 5G batch. 10lbs of grain mashed in 3 gallons of water & sparged with even 1 gallon should yield 3.5 gallons boil volume.

 

[GenIke]

I would dunk or "pour" sparge if it was me to get a full volume boil.

 

[tre9er]

You won't absorb .2g/lb of water with BIAB if you're doing any sort of draining/squeezing of the bag. I got about .11g/lb when I used to do BIAB. That should help you do a larger batch.

 

[tre9er]

I have done 5 gallon BIAB in a 7.5 gallon turkey frier. I use an extra Ale Pail and do a bit of a sparge. After the mash, I take the bag and set it in the Ale Pail and pour 170-180 degree water over it and then dump that water into my boil kettle. I do that until the pre-boil volume is 6 gallons and then boil down to 5 gallons.

I think the last batch I did, I started with 5 gallons of water for the mash, and had another 3 gallons +/- ready to go when the mash was done. I kept "sparging" until I was at 6 gallons (my mash paddle had a rubber band on it where I knew 6 gallons would be in my boil kettle).

EDIT: and the beer turned out excellent. I'm going to try and repeat the recipe/process this weekend.

I have done this, too. Really, you don't have to do a full volume mash. Do a typical 1.25qt/lb mash and then put the bag into any other vessel, your fermenter (bucket), a smaller pot, whatever, then pour your sparge water over it/into it, stir, squeeze, recombine wort into large BK, boil.

 

[nutty_gnome]

Yes, I can confirm that for calculations you should estimate a loss of 0.1 gallons per pound. In practice, it is slightly less than that, but it is better to have slightly more water than less when working the calcs.

Be sure to have a pound or 2 of DME on hand in case it all goes to hell. Good luck and happy fathers day!

 

[dstranger99]

I'm looking forward to my next 5 gal BIAB. I finally got a wort chiller, it's hard to cool down 5gal with water bottles, looking forward to using my chiller this go round !.........

 

[Snisup]

I have done this, too. Really, you don't have to do a full volume mash. Do a typical 1.25qt/lb mash and then put the bag into any other vessel, your fermenter (bucket), a smaller pot, whatever, then pour your sparge water over it/into it, stir, squeeze, recombine wort into large BK, boil.

This is my method as well. With a 7.5g pot and a 5 gallon pot I can mash about 13 lbs of grain and do a dunk sparge. Very easy and consistent 75% efficiency.

 

[geoffm33]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! I think I wil shoot for a 5gal version.

For 7.875 lbs of grain the http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml says it will take up 3 gallons of volume. I'm not sure how to adjust the mash thickness value. So is 3 gallon a good estimate?

If so, I'd use 3.5 gallons of strike water, giving me a comfortable 1 gal of headspace for my 1st BIAB.

Then sparge to get up to 6 gal. Boil off 1 gal, add water to fermentor if I mis-calc'd my boil off rate.

Sound right?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[tre9er]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! I think I wil shoot for a 5gal version.

For 7.875 lbs of grain the http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml says it will take up 3 gallons of volume. I'm not sure how to adjust the mash thickness value. So is 3 gallon a good estimate?

If so, I'd use 3.5 gallons of strike water, giving me a comfortable 1 gal of headspace for my 1st BIAB.

Then sparge to get up to 6 gal. Boil off 1 gal, add water to fermentor if I mis-calc'd my boil off rate.

Sound right?

Thanks for all the help!

1.25qts*7.875lbs.=2.46 (call it 2.5) gallons of water. The grain takes up another 0.5g for a total of 3.09ish gallons of space. You can use more if you like.

You'll absorb approximately .87g of water, yielding 1.63g from the mash. You'd sparge with enough to get to 6g, so 4.37g (call it 4.5ish). Now you boil 6 down to 5 and voila.

 

[freisste]

Just a thought: you might want to use just a little less water for your boil. It will be more vigorous which will give you a better hot break. While it would be ideal to not have to add any water, if it was me and I didn't know my system I would prefer to be a quart short after boil and top up than be a quart over and try to boil down and over boil the hops.

Again, I'm sure it would be fine either way.

 

[geoffm33]

1.25qts*7.875lbs.=2.46 (call it 2.5) gallons of water. The grain takes up another 0.5g for a total of 3.09ish gallons of space. You can use more if you like.

You'll absorb approximately .87g of water, yielding 1.63g from the mash. You'd sparge with enough to get to 6g, so 4.37g (call it 4.5ish). Now you boil 6 down to 5 and voila.

Perfect, thanks

Just a thought: you might want to use just a little less water for your boil. It will be more vigorous which will give you a better hot break. While it would be ideal to not have to add any water, if it was me and I didn't know my system I would prefer to be a quart short after boil and top up than be a quart over and try to boil down and over boil the hops.

Again, I'm sure it would be fine either way.

That makes sense, thank you.

 

[geoffm33]

In order to pull off my BIAB as worked out through this thread (mash in my 7.5 gallon, sparge in separate vessel, combine back into the 7.5) I will need another 5 gallon+ pot.

Would it be better to heat up the mash volume, transfer it to a 5 gallon igloo and BIAB mash in the igloo?

Then heat up the sparge volume in the 7.5 gallon pot, sparge, then drain the mash into the 7.5 gallon pot?

If I'm going to use multiple vessels, and have to purchase the second vessel, should I just future proof the purchase by getting the igloo? Then when/if I move to traditional AG, I'll have the mash tun?

Thoughts?

 

[dstranger99]

^

For now, mash in the 7.5, and get a 5 gal pot from a dollar store, about $5.00.....

I'm also willing to bet you will only lose a degree or 2 (if any) during your mash in that 7.5........

 

[unionrdr]

I heat sparge water in a seperate kettle while the mash is going. The BK/MT is bigger than the sparge water kettle in my instance.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Go to Home Depot, pick up 2 white food-grade 5g buckets and drill a bunch of 3/16-1/4" holes in the bottom of one of them. Nest the drilled bucket inside the other bucket. Mash as normal with as much water as you can fit in your kettle, then pull the bag o' grains, set it inside the bucket with bag draped over the side, pour cold water over the top of grain, which will drain thru the holes into the catch bucket below. Dump sparged wort into kettle. Total cost would be about $8. Or, if you have an extra Ale Pail, use that as your catch bucket and just pick up one 5g bucket for drilling holes. Sparging with this method, coupled with a decent crush, will net you 80-85% efficiency.

 

[dstranger99]

Go to Home Depot, pick up 2 white food-grade 5g buckets and drill a bunch of 3/16-1/4" holes in the bottom of one of them. Nest the drilled bucket inside the other bucket. Mash as normal with as much water as you can fit in your kettle, then pull the bag o' grains, set it inside the bucket with bag draped over the side, pour cold water over the top of grain, which will drain thru the holes into the catch bucket below. Dump sparged wort into kettle. Total cost would be about $8. Or, if you have an extra Ale Pail, use that as your catch bucket and just pick up one 5g bucket for drilling holes. Sparging with this method, coupled with a decent crush, will net you 80-85% efficiency.

Wow, that sounds like a cheap, yet great idea !!!........

But why cold water over the grains? Shouldn't it be hot ??

 

[LLBeanJ]

To give credit where due, it's not my idea. It came from another HBT'er (unfortunately, I can't remember who or find the post where I first saw it).

Doesn't have to be hot water. I've tried it both ways and didn't see a difference in efficiency, so now I use filtered water straight out of my fridge's water dispenser. The benefit of cold water, however, is that it cools the grains making them easier to handle/squeeze.

 

[dstranger99]

^

True! That bag is damn hot, I usually poke my wooden spoon around the bag to get more wort....

 

[geoffm33]

Go to Home Depot, pick up 2 white food-grade 5g buckets and drill a bunch of 3/16-1/4" holes in the bottom of one of them. Nest the drilled bucket inside the other bucket. Mash as normal with as much water as you can fit in your kettle, then pull the bag o' grains, set it inside the bucket with bag draped over the side, pour cold water over the top of grain, which will drain thru the holes into the catch bucket below. Dump sparged wort into kettle. Total cost would be about $8. Or, if you have an extra Ale Pail, use that as your catch bucket and just pick up one 5g bucket for drilling holes. Sparging with this method, coupled with a decent crush, will net you 80-85% efficiency.

I like this idea, it simplifies the process and the sparge water calculations.

Is there anything wrong with mashing with as much water as possible vs an standard mash thickness? This is my first non-extract batch so the more I know the better!

 

[unionrdr]

I use either a cake cooling rack or a lid to push down on the grain bag in the collander.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Is there anything wrong with mashing with as much water as possible vs an standard mash thickness? This is my first non-extract batch so the more I know the better!

No, nothing wrong with that. Even if I have the room for full volume mash, I always do at least a gallon sparge to keep my efficiency where it should be. You'll lose about 5 points or so if no sparge is used. Lately, I've been doing 2g sparges. Did a 1.050 wit on Sunday and came in at 89% with a 2g sparge.

 

[geoffm33]

No, nothing wrong with that. Even if I have the room for full volume mash, I always do at least a gallon sparge to keep my efficiency where it should be. You'll lose about 5 points or so if no sparge is used. Lately, I've been doing 2g sparges. Did a 1.050 wit on Sunday and came in at 89% with a 2g sparge.

Excellent, thanks for the info!

 

[geoffm33]

I just downloaded BeerSmith2 trial. Any pointers for setting up an equipment and mash profile for this type of BIAB (Maxi-BIAB?).

 

[LLBeanJ]

BS doesn't have an option for BIAB w/ sparge, so I check the "BIAB Full Volume Mash" (or whatever it's called) checkbox in the Mash tab and mentally subtract my sparge volume from the total water needed as shown on the Brew Steps sheet. As an example, my last brew called for 7.45g of strike water. I knew I was going to do a 2g sparge, so I mashed with ~5.5g.

I believe there is a stock BIAB equipment profile for a 5g and/or 6g pot. I copied and pasted one of those, renamed it to 8g, as that is my kettle size and then edited the settings as needed.

I can post the xml files later this evening if you are interested. Might give you a better starting point.

 

[geoffm33]

BS doesn't have an option for BIAB w/ sparge, so I check the "BIAB Full Volume Mash" (or whatever it's called) checkbox in the Mash tab and mentally subtract my sparge volume from the total water needed as shown on the Brew Steps sheet. As an example, my last brew called for 7.45g of strike water. I knew I was going to do a 2g sparge, so I mashed with ~5.5g.

I believe there is a stock BIAB equipment profile for a 5g and/or 6g pot. I copied and pasted one of those, renamed it to 8g, as that is my kettle size and then edited the settings as needed.

I can post the xml files later this evening if you are interested. Might give you a better starting point.

That would be great if you could.

Can I duplicate the "Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out" and adjust to include a batch sparge?