First Ever All Grain

[nicklawmusic]

I'm about to attempt my first ever all grain beer, but I'm just trying to get my head around something before I do.

I am aiming to do a 10 litre batch using 1.8kg Maris Otter. I read somewhere that you need around 2.6 litres of water per kilogram of grain. This would mean am mashing using 4.81 litres of water (I think).

Once the mash has finished, where does the remaining volume of water come from? Do I just top up my wort with water? Surely that would effect the consistency of the wort.

Am I missing something as I assumed I'd be boiling around 12 litres of water.


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[brewbama]

I mash at 1.25 qts strike water per lb of grain. I add mash out water. Then I sparge. The total collected is my pre-boil volume. I hope this helps.

 

[WayFrae]

You should sparge to get to your pre-boil volume.

 

[TexasWine]

I'd recommend bumping up that mash volume to 12 litres or so then use a sparge step to hit your desired pre boil volume.

If your kettle won't hold 12 liters of water plus the grain, just use as much water as you can in the mash and sparge the remainder.

 

[nicklawmusic]

What's the best way of sparging with BIAB?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[nicklawmusic]

Okay, let me get this straight.

I would mash using 4.8 litres of water, after which I would sparge the grain with around 6 litres of water in order to get around 12 litres, which should boil down to around 10 litres?

Is that right?

My plan was to mash the grain in a bag in a cool box (which I have yet to convert into a mash tun), and then transfer the wort into a kettle (as I only have one kettle which doesn't have a lid!), and use various other pots for my sparge water.

Have I done the maths right?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[RM-MN]

How much room do you have in your cool box? I'd probably use as near the 10 liters as I had room for and then sparge to get to the final pre boil quantity.

 

[nicklawmusic]

It think it's around 24litres, so I have enough room in there. If I had 10 litres of water in my cool box, I'd need more grains to get the mash constancy? How does it work?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[RM-MN]

The mash consisntency has more to do with a conventional mash tun. With BIAB you are more free to use different quantities of water in your mahs, from about 1 qt per pound to using the full volume of water with no sparge.

Because of the limitation of my boil pot, ai start with a little less than the full volume of water and sparge to make up the difference. That small sparge rinses out a bit more sugar from the grains and gains me abiut 5% efficincy.

 

[nicklawmusic]

What's the difference between the two?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[northcal]

Don't worry have a homebrew. It'll turn out fine whatever you do.

 

[nicklawmusic]

What's the difference between the two?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[TexasWine]

Hey Nick. I think you might want to read the thread "BIAB brewing (with pics)". It should answer a lot of your questions.

Here's what I'd do if I were you. First, read that thread I mentioned. Then I'd probably use about 15 litres for strike water, mash in, then sparge to hit about 15.5 litres pre boil volume. Boil down to 11.5 litres, transfer 10.5 litres to the fermenter, and that should get you about 10 litres into the bottles or keg.

 

[nicklawmusic]

The mash consisntency has more to do with a conventional mash tun. With BIAB you are more free to use different quantities of water in your mahs, from about 1 qt per pound to using the full volume of water with no sparge.

Why is BIAB different in terms of water quantities rather than a conventional mash tun?



Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[nicklawmusic]

Hey Here's what I'd do if I were you. First, read that thread I mentioned. Then I'd probably use about 15 litres for strike water, mash in, then sparge to hit about 15.5 litres pre boil volume. Boil down to 11.5 litres, transfer 10.5 litres to the fermenter, and that should get you about 10 litres into the bottles or keg.

I'd still be using 15.5 litres despite only have 1.8kg grain for my mash, right?! My kettle holds 12 litres but my cool box holds 24. If I did it in the cool box (which I yet to be converted into a mash tun, hence the grain bag), how would I do a mash out or even the sparge?

Suggestions?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

 

[TexasWine]

I'd still be using 15.5 litres despite only have 1.8kg grain for my mash, right?! My kettle holds 12 litres but my cool box holds 24. If I did it in the cool box (which I yet to be converted into a mash tun, hence the grain bag), how would I do a mash out or even the sparge?

Suggestions?


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com

No mash out is required.

There's an infinite number of variations on sparging. You just need to find what works for you. All methods require that you remove the bag of grain from the mash. Sparging in BIAB serves the same purpose as other all grain methods; you're washing the grains to remove that last bit of fermentablas. Two methods commonly used are:

1. Dunk sparging in a separate bucket of water, sort of like you would steep a tea bag. Just take the bag out of the mash vessel, the tun in your case, and dip it into another bucket with some water in it. Move it up and down a few times and you're done.

2. Figure out some way to suspend the grain bag over your mash vessel and then pour sparge water over the grains. Some people use pulleys and ropes. I use the steamer basket my kettle came with and rest it over the kettle on a grate from my oven.

These are two generic descriptions, each with countless permutations. Like I said earlier, find the tweaks that make it work for you.

Now, concerning your kettle, you're gonna have a hard time with that small volume. The general rule of thumb I've heard is that your kettle should be about double the size of batch you want to make. I'm pretty new to BIAB, but I've found this to be accurate. If you're intent on using this 12 litre kettle for a 10 litre batch do some research on "maxi BIAB". Because 15.5 litres won't fit in your kettle you're going to have to add left over wort from your mash, which will either be sitting in your tun or dunk sparge bucket depending on the sparge method you used, as it gets boiled off in the kettle.

Hope all this is becoming clearer now. Personally, I researched BIAB for several months before I did my first batch. I read everything I could about all the different methods, figured out what I thought would work best for me, and gave it a go. Keep reading, keep asking, make a plan and execute it.

Good luck.

 

[nicklawmusic]

Thanks TexasWine, that was a really helpful response

A friend of mine has a 19 litre pot which I'm going to borrow.


Emmanuales | #WhatWouldJesusBrew?
nick-law.com