First BIAB Grain to Water Ratio

[Kfun123]

I am planning on doing my first BIAB (no sparge) next weekend. So I checked out the simplebiabcalculator and the grain to water ratio seems too high (2.92 qt/lb). From reading a few threads here I got the impression most no sparge BIAB where done at 2.5 qt/lb so did I make a mistake with the calculator or am I not understanding something?

Calculation
Ingredient Amounts
Grain - 10.75 lb
Hops - .75 oz

Boil Info
Duration - 60 min
Boil off - 1 gal/hr

Volumes
Finished Beer - 5 gal
Fermentation Trub - .5 gal

Misc
Kettle Diameter - 15.75 in
Mash Temp - 152 f
No Mashout
Grain Temp - 60f

Result
mash water - 7.87 gal
mashout water - 0 gal
strike temp - 158.28F
pre-boil - 6.53 gal
post-boil - 5.53 gal
transferred - 5.5 gal




Recipe
Deception Cream Stout
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1450-PC - Denny's Favorite 50
Yeast Starter: Yes - 1 Liter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 27
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 36
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30 Days @ 67 F
Tasting Notes: Silky chocolate and coffee backed by smooth caramel.

All-Grain (assuming 75% efficiency):

6.5 or 7 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.5 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Lactose (Boil 10 min)

0.75 oz German Magnum [13.40 %] (60 min) - 27.0 IBU

1.00 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5 min)

Mash 60 min @ 152

Ferment 1 month @ 67 degrees F

 

[tnsen]

Hey kfun...I did a biab last week..11lbs of grain to 7.5 gallons of water, i mashed for 1hr...boiled for 1hr....I dident sparge...and I do not figgure a trub loss at all, because i strain my wort with the lowes paint strainer...and yes I squeezed the bad (moderatley)..I ended up with 5.5 to 5.75 gallons...too much..In my opinion 2.5 would of been a good ratio...for my own circumstances...and yes I am rookie...hope this helps....Tom

 

[BlackGoat]

I actually mash thicker for BIAB, mine are usually somewhere in the 1.25-1.5q per lb

 

[1MadScientist]

I would do this along with the hard squeeze it mentions, so you get to the 5.5 gallon at flame out.

 

[wilserbrewer]

It is also pretty easy to gently pour a few quarts of sparge water through the bag if you decide to mash with less, check volume, then pour a bit of sparge water over the bag.

You just need to have an idea of the pre boil wort level desired in your kettle, then sparge to that volume, keeps it simple!

 

[Epimetheus]

delete double post

 

[Epimetheus]

The concept behind pure BIAB is to create a thin, un-concentrated wort. There will not be much residual sugar hiding in the grain bag. The reason for sparging is to rinse sugars from a concentrated wort, still adhering to the grain.

That long-winded explanation validates your original calculation, 2.92 qt/lb is not too much water. Your target OG is nearly 60 points, so you will need plenty of water to make a thin mash and not leave too much sugar behind. BTW, Palmer supports the efficiency of thin mashes in How To Brew.

If I was making a 60 point mash BIAB style, I would plan on at least some dunk sparging for better efficiency. Today I squooshed the bag very hard to get the last of the wort and ended up splitting it at a seam. I might have to contact wilserbrewer for some of his tighty-whities.

 

[Kfun123]

The concept behind pure BIAB is to create a thin, un-concentrated wort. There will not be much residual sugar hiding in the grain bag. The reason for sparging is to rinse sugars from a concentrated wort, still adhering to the grain.

That long-winded explanation validates your original calculation, 2.92 qt/lb is not too much water. Your target OG is nearly 60 points, so you will need plenty of water to make a thin mash and not leave too much sugar behind. BTW, Palmer supports the efficiency of thin mashes in How To Brew.

If I was making a 60 point mash BIAB style, I would plan on at least some dunk sparging for better efficiency. Today I squooshed the bag very hard to get the last of the wort and ended up splitting it at a seam. I might have to contact wilserbrewer for some of his tighty-whities.

So if I understand your recommendation of a dunk sparge. I should alter my process like this:

Instead of roughly 8 gallons (7.87) of water in my kettle to start I should start with 7 gallons in the kettle. Then after my 60 minute mash @ 152F I would pull the bag and squeeze / drip it. Then dunk the bag in 1 gallon of water @170F (additional gallon in bottling bucket) for 10 minutes. Again squeeze / drip the bag and then add the water back to my kettle. Then proceed on with my boil.

Is that roughly the process?

 

[RM-MN]

So if I understand your recommendation of a dunk sparge. I should alter my process like this:

Instead of roughly 8 gallons (7.87) of water in my kettle to start I should start with 7 gallons in the kettle. Then after my 60 minute mash @ 152F I would pull the bag and squeeze / drip it. Then dunk the bag in 1 gallon of water @170F (additional gallon in bottling bucket) for 10 minutes. Again squeeze / drip the bag and then add the water back to my kettle. Then proceed on with my boil.

Is that roughly the process?

It's not quite the process I use but it will work.

I start with a little less water than that but I already know I boil off less. When the mash is over, I drain and then squeeze the bag...hard! Then I use cold water to make up to the pre-boil amount. Since the grains are pretty warm, they heat the water and I get pretty good extraction of the sugars and then since the grains are cooler, I can really squeeze the rest of the wort out of the bag. You don't really need to use 170 degree water.

 

[brewinginnc]

I do the same as rm-mn and just got 80% efficiency on a 1.069 stout

 

[Foosier]

Dunk sparging is not really necessary. It certainly take some of the ease out of the process. I would use Wilser's process of just puring water over the bag with the pre-identified volume of sparge water. You could do this in a separate bucket to make it even easier.

I would probably aim to add some extra grain to hit a high OG though. This certainly makes it easier and less stressful. But I do not usually have an issue hitting the mid to high 1.05's with a full volume, no sparge process.

 

[Kfun123]

I brewed the Deception Stout yesterday using a simple full volume no sparge process. I ended up at 1.058 for 5.5 gallons and I think I actually could of used less water. After pulling the bag and squeezing the hell out of it I only lost about 1/2 gallon of water so I had to boil for an extra 15 minutes to get down to my desired volume. The next time i try this I am going to get my grain crushed finer but I think the process worked out really well and was surprisingly easy.
Thanks for all the advice.

Update, I got around to checking my efficiency.

Pre-boil I had 7 gallons of wort at 1.039 for an efficiency of 69.78%
Post-boil I had 5.5 gallons of wort at 1.058, I added 1 lb of Lactose instead of 1/2 lb so I got a boost in efficiency to 72.59%.

I think for second batch ever, (first BIAB) I did pretty well, lets just hope the beer tastes good.