First BIAB tomorrow. Did I mess up already?

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I'm extremely excited to get started with All-Grain/BIAB brewing this weekend.
I hope to make Yooper's 60 min DFH IPA (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/dogfish-head-60-minute-clone-ag-extract-25709/), which has a 13.5 lb grain bill.

I have a 5 gallon kettle, and after reading DeathBrewer's thread on stovetop All-Grain (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/) I picked up a 7.5 gallon kettle, thinking I would be all set to do what I need to do.

But now that I see how big 13 pounds of grain is, it seems that even my 7.5 kettle won't be big enough to handle that much grain/water during the mash. If that's the case, can I split the bill between my two kettles and forgo the sparge?
Any help would be appreciated

 

[TheJasonT]

Using the Green Bay Rackers calculator "Can I Mash It?", you can safely go up to about 1.75 quarts per pound. That's 22.75 quarts of strike water.

Now with grain absorption and other factors, you'll likely not meet your pre-boil volume, so you will need to remove and squeeze the bag, and also do a mini-sparge with a couple of gallons of 170F water.

Good luck! All grain is where it's at!!

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Now that's a handy calculator! Thanks for that!

So let me see if I've got this...
I'll heat my strike water to about 168F, add my grain which will bring it down to about 155F (loving this calculator btw). I'll let it mash for about 60-90 minutes stirring a few times throughout. In the mean time I'll heat my sparge water in my 5 gallon kettle, sparge, remove grains, and add sparge water back to my 7.5 gallon kettle and continue as normal. Does that sound about right?

 

[HowardMBeers]

You could also just mash, pull out the bag and let it drain then add DME until you hit your target pre-boil gravity. That's what I do for all high gravity beers.

 

[dstranger99]

If you had two 7.5 Turkey fryers, and split the 13.5 grain bill that way would work great. Either way just one 7.5 turkey fryer full of grain is heavy as hell!! And even worse to hold up and drain, unless you have a pulley or something rigged up.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Thanks for the tip HowardMBeers. I'll likely need some DME to make up the difference.

If I sparge I won't need to let it drip as long right? I can see how it would be beneficial anyway but is letting it drip as necessary if I'm sparging?

 

[HowardMBeers]

Seriously, the dripping really isn't that much of an issue. I did a BIAB last weenkend with 12lbs of grain. Maybe like 2-3min of lifting and applying light squeezing pressure to the bag before most of the wort runs out and it gets a lot easier to hold up. Then maybe 5 min more of letting it trickle before there isn't much more left.

I would skip the sparge and just add DME and/or water to hit your targets after removing your bag.

 

[chicken]

Now that's a handy calculator! Thanks for that!

So let me see if I've got this...
I'll heat my strike water to about 168F, add my grain which will bring it down to about 155F (loving this calculator btw). I'll let it mash for about 60-90 minutes stirring a few times throughout. In the mean time I'll heat my sparge water in my 5 gallon kettle, sparge, remove grains, and add sparge water back to my 7.5 gallon kettle and continue as normal. Does that sound about right?

That's pretty much what I do, and it works just fine. I've never mashed more than 11 pounds, though.

 

[rdbrett]

You could also just mash, pull out the bag and let it drain then add DME until you hit your target pre-boil gravity. That's what I do for all high gravity beers.

How do you know what your pre-boil gravity is? That sounds like a sweet idea, but I don't know how to calculate that. I assume that would basically assure you are going to be right on your FG assuming you have your boil off under control. right?

 

[HowardMBeers]

I use a refractometer or I guess you could take a hydrometer sample and correct for temp.