First BIAB

[Radobrewer]

I'm trying to make a 5 gallon batch of IPA with an 8 gallon pot. BeerSmith calls for 8.5 gallons of H2O. How do I add water to make up the difference? My grain bill consists of 11 lbs. of Two Row and 1 lb. of Crystal 40 with 5 oz of hops throughout the boil.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[sfgoat]

If you are going for a 5G batch for a 60 min boil you shouldn't need more than six gallons of h2o. Under most conditions you will only lose up to a quart to boil off every 15 min. Sometimes beer smith gets a little messed up when you add in your own equipment compared to the default listed equipment.

 

[Foosier]

While your boil off amount is correct, you are way off on the mash volume. No way an 8 gal pot fits that volume.

generally, for my 5 gal batches I use 7.75 gal of water and after I mash in I come to around 9 - 9.5 gal of mash volume depending on the grain volume. So honestly an 8 gal pot will not work for a full volume BIAB. However, that does not mean you can't BIAB.

What you will want to do is mash it with much less water. I would aim for a thick mash like used in a "standard" mash tun set up. 1.5 qt of water per pound. is the normal ration I believe. This should leave you with plenty of space in your pot. When you are done mashing, you can either dunk sparge the bag in the remaining water. (some people feel even cold water works for this) or you can top off the wort with the remaining water as you bring the wort up to boil.

Both methods limit the impact on your hops utilization in the boil. If I was limited I would probably go dunk sparge. Just my $0.02.

 

[sfgoat]

While your boil off amount is correct, you are way off on the mash volume. No way an 8 gal pot fits that volume.

generally, for my 5 gal batches I use 7.75 gal of water and after I mash in I come to around 9 - 9.5 gal of mash volume depending on the grain volume. So honestly an 8 gal pot will not work for a full volume BIAB. However, that does not mean you can't BIAB.

What you will want to do is mash it with much less water. I would aim for a thick mash like used in a "standard" mash tun set up. 1.5 qt of water per pound. is the normal ration I believe. This should leave you with plenty of space in your pot. When you are done mashing, you can either dunk sparge the bag in the remaining water. (some people feel even cold water works for this) or you can top off the wort with the remaining water as you bring the wort up to boil.

Both methods limit the impact on your hops utilization in the boil. If I was limited I would probably go dunk sparge. Just my $0.02.

That's a good point. I thought he was just referring to what his boil volume should be. But what I usually do is use about 1.25 qt h2o per lb of grain for the mash. Remove this liquid to a bucket and then sparge with the remaining water. I then remove grain and add back the first runnings. I usually come out just right and I only use a 7G pot.

 

[haberdasher]

I don't mean to hijack, but this is the perfect thread to ask the question I was just about to ask - now without it's own thread.

I am going to do what will be my first AG and my first BIAB in the next week or two.
I have a 9 gallon pot, and was going to the Ruination IPA clone (1.070) so it's got a 15lb grain bill.

Am I dreaming that I'll be able to mash this in this kettle?
Also, I've looked around but where is the best place to buy a bag?

Thanks all.

 

[sfgoat]

I don't mean to hijack, but this is the perfect thread to ask the question I was just about to ask - now without it's own thread.

I am going to do what will be my first AG and my first BIAB in the next week or two.
I have a 9 gallon pot, and was going to the Ruination IPA clone (1.070) so it's got a 15lb grain bill.

Am I dreaming that I'll be able to mash this in this kettle?
Also, I've looked around but where is the best place to buy a bag?

Thanks all.

Not dreaming at all. Just mash in with 5G water and after your mash time is up lift the bag and squeeze it out. Then dump your mash liquid into. A bucket, return grain to pot and add sparge water to grain (I usually sparge with the remainder of water needed to reach boil volume.) then pull grain after about a 10-15 min sparge and squeeze bag. Then add the mash liquid to the sparge liquid, add water if necessary and start boil.

Best place to find a bag that big is you LHBS. Or you could order online. Just google extra large grain bag. They are usually measured to be 2'x3'.

 

[Carlscan26]

According to BIAB calc you'll have a grist ratio of 2.08 qt/lb with the kettle fully filled which gives you space for 7.8 gals...after grain absorption you'll have less; Average grain absorption is 0.15 gallons per pound. It can vary between 0.1 to 0.2. So that's 2.25 gals lost leaving you with 5.55 gals pre boil - what pre boil volume are you shooting for? You would need to top off.

Just saw sfgoat beat me to a reply. I like his solution if my opinion matters lol

 

[Chupidacabra]

For the bag check wilserbrewer here on the forums. For about 20 dollars he makes custom fitted heavy duty bags.

 

[haberdasher]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Seriously helpful.

And Carlscan - where did you get that BIABcalc app? I can't seem to find it... I've found calculators that are similar but not in a dl'ed app.

 

[wilserbrewer]

All good suggestions above.

I find that if you are only a few quarts to a gallon short of pre-boil volume, rather than moving the wort out of your kettle, or sparging in a bucket, it is easiest to pour the sparge water over and through the bag, either suspended above the kettle, or set in a colander above the kettle.

BIAB, best to keep it simple and KISS...cheers!

 

[sfgoat]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Seriously helpful.

And Carlscan - where did you get that BIABcalc app? I can't seem to find it... I've found calculators that are similar but not in a dl'ed app.

Its in the App Store on my iphone. Probably one for android as well.

 

[beernut70]

I use the spreadsheet below and it has been very accurate since I dialed it in. My absorption is set down to .05 but I squeeze the bag. Get a pair of PVC gloves from Harbor Freight or Home Depot and you can use a bit less water. I have a keggle now but was using a 9 gallon pot and would settle for a 4.5 gallon batch once in a while instead of going through the trouble of sparging.

BIAB Google docs spreadsheet

 

[Fat_Maul]

According to BIAB calc you'll have a grist ratio of 2.08 qt/lb with the kettle fully filled which gives you space for 7.8 gals...after grain absorption you'll have less; Average grain absorption is 0.15 gallons per pound. It can vary between 0.1 to 0.2. So that's 2.25 gals lost leaving you with 5.55 gals pre boil - what pre boil volume are you shooting for? You would need to top off.

Just saw sfgoat beat me to a reply. I like his solution if my opinion matters lol

If his kettle is 8 gallons wouldn't that be 32 quarts max vol?

 

[haberdasher]

That 36 qt was in reference to me (the thread hi-jacker) - I have a 9-gallon pot.

 

[Fat_Maul]

That 36 qt was in reference to me (the thread hi-jacker) - I have a 9-gallon pot.

ah, my bad.

 

[solbes]

I see you are brewing Dead Ringer Ale (aka 2 Hearted). I've brewed it twice in a BIAB with a 7.5 gallon pot. I heat 5 gallons of strike water and drop the grain in. Stir that baby up a couple of times during the 60 minutes. I always do a mashout to 170F as I feel its easier to rinse the sugars. It doesn't add any time since I need to heat to a boil anyway.

I do my sparging by raising the grain bag that is held by a turkey frier basket (inside the kettle during mash) and suspended above the kettle by a rope/pulley in my garage. I just slowly drip sparge 1.5-2 gallons of 170F water through the bag. Squeeze the bag hard with a saucepan lid at the end. 77% efficiency on both batches. This seems to be similar to Wislerbrewer's method, and I agree KISS.

I can hit 85% on a lighter grain bill, my lowest was 72% on a 13.5 lb grain bill. Cheers!

 

[Carlscan26]

Its in the App Store on my iphone. Probably one for android as well.

Yep what he said

 

[Carlscan26]

So the App I referenced is pretty cool except that it doesn't do all of the secondary calcs that I did to tell you if it would truly fit or not. And I've always thought it would be cool to have the app go the other direction too - ie give a max grain based on kettle size and desired pre boil volume.

So I threw this together in excel. Unfortunately making an app is going on the list of fun projects to do when I have time ...

But for now you can see that you will beed to sparge with one gallon... or that you're 4lbs too high for your 9 gal kettle to do no sparge assuming you wanted 6.5 gals pre-boil.

 

[haberdasher]

That, sir, is awesome and extremely helpful.