First BIAB Brown Ale

[jturman35]

Hey guys! I am looking to brew my first BIAB this Weekend and just trying to get some input on my process. I have an 8 gallon kettle with bag. I have done two extracts and this will be my 3rd brew. I like to go all in!

Here is the Nut Brown Recipe I found on this site! This is an AG recipe so I'm not sure about the strike water. I have an 8 gallon pot so I will have to do a dunk sparge I assume and collect that water.

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Does this look about right? This 7.97 Gal I am certain will boil over in my 8 gallon pot. Should I figure having a 1.5 gallon sparge pot that I can transfer the bag into and collect the last portion? I am not quite sure how to do this? Really wish I'd bought a bigger pot! I went all out on the 8gal pot and spend $187 so it's well built.

 

[McKnuckle]

Are you familiar with scaling a recipe? That's the easiest way to deal with this - just scale back to 3 or 4 gallons.

Are you very confident in your boil off rate? I have a 14" 8 gallon pot and I boil off 0.9 gal/hr. Also, the grain absorption is likely too low - count on 0.1 gal/lb if you gravity drain, or 0.08 if you squeeze.

Otherwise, yes, you'll need another pot to dunk sparge in, or you can hang the bag over the main kettle and do a pour over, which is arguably a bit less effective but still works.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

According to the pics posted. You're mashing your grains in 7.97 gallons. You're only boiling 6.5gallons.

 

[jturman35]

Are you familiar with scaling a recipe? That's the easiest way to deal with this - just scale back to 3 or 4 gallons.

Are you very confident in your boil off rate? I have a 14" 8 gallon pot and I boil off 0.9 gal/hr. Also, the grain absorption is likely too low - count on 0.1 gal/lb if you gravity drain, or 0.08 if you squeeze.

Otherwise, yes, you'll need another pot to dunk sparge in, or you can hang the bag over the main kettle and do a pour over, which is arguably a bit less effective but still works.

I don't want to scale id like to keg. My 8 gal pot is also 14" I plan to squeeze to get better efficiency.
Does it matter how much water and the temperature I dunk in?

The boil off rate and trub were default values. I really want at least 5 gals going into the keg. Looking back at my last extract brew notes, I just realized my boil was about .9 gal/hr.

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[McKnuckle]

It doesn't strictly matter what temp the dunk sparge water is, but I prefer it to be hot (which I can achieve easily enough). If that's not possible, no worries; there are folks here who freely endorse a room temperature sparge.

I would reserve a couple of gallons for the dunk, and make sure the bag can fit in the sparge vessel without its contents being constricted. You should be able to lay it in there, stretch it out, and stir the mash for a bit. Then pull and drain. Combine the runnings in your main kettle, and start boiling.

One more thing - drain the bag fairly completely (no squeezing yet) before doing the dunk sparge. Squeeze at the very end.

 

[farmersteve]

Another option is to mash with a smaller volume of water but when it comes time to boil just top up with enough water for a full boil. I've done that on large grain bills.

 

[jturman35]

The issue I face is I don't currently have a pot big enough for the dunk sparge. I think the pots I have are only 2-3 gallon pots and the grain bag won't fit. I have never done BIAB so I'm not sure how much volume 11.75lbs of grain will take up. I guess I could just poor water over the bag, but this is not efficient.

 

[McKnuckle]

Grain takes up 0.08 gal/lb when dry. After retaining 0.1 gal/lb during the mash, that's 0.18 gal/lb. So 11.75 lbs of wet grain would occupy approximately 2.115 gallons. Hopefully that math is fairly close. You need a bigger pot, man.

 

[jturman35]

Yea I have a 8 gallon just need 4-5 for my dunk sparge. Let me ask this, what is the max amount of water I can safely add to my 8gal pot for my mash?

 

[BudBernerBrewer]

Usually twice the size of pot/ batch. You can pour over sparge. Maybe cooler for dunk sparge?

 

[wilserbrewer]

You can do a dunk sparge in an hdpe bucket w cold water if that makes it easier.

You don't have the volume issue you imagine due to water absorbed by the dry grain.

Mash with 5 gallons in your pot, and dunk sparge in a bucket w 3 gallons.

Add as much of the sparge volume as you are comfortable with to your pot and bring to a boil.

Your total wort volume should be around 6.5 gallons.

A work around for batches that max out your kettle is to reserve some of the sparge wort and bring to a boil, then slowly add that to the kettle as you boil off over say the first 20 minutes.

Chance of boil over is reduced if you reserve a gallon, bring to a boil then top the kettle up with the remaining sparge wort.

You don't have the problem you perceive of your kettle being too small if you add a batch / dunk sparge to your process.

 

[jturman35]

Brew day complete. I suppose it was a success. Had to change my process after pulling my bag out and tearing it on my temp probe.

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I ended up mashing in my 8 gal pot with 5 gals of water at 154. I wrapped with blanket for one hour and only had to add heat at 45 min mark.

When the bag tore I used my sparge pot (2.5 gal) of water placed on top of the ladder and a hose. I stuck the hose in the hole in the bag and soaked the grain. Once the 2.5 gals drained I squeezed the bag like it owed me
money. I ended up with 6.5 gals preboil.

Somewhere I came up short .5 gallon. I had exactly 5 gallons racked into the fermenter. I was shooting for 5.5 to account for trub loss. I think because this was my first AG I did not realize I would end up with approx 1/4 - 1/2 gallon in trub after mashing. I think this is where I miscalculated.

Pulled a gravity before pitching yeast and ended up 1.060.View attachment IMG_6661.jpg

How do I calculate my efficiency?

 

[jturman35]

48 hours later and the airlock is already starting to show signs of slowing. Granted it was bubbling the next morning so far this has been a weak looking ferment judging by the air lock activity.

 

[Jako]

i just use my fermenting bucket to dunk in. i pour the water over the grain then dunk that around for a bit then pour what i need back into the pot.