First Non-Extract brew

[Mike1234]

Looking for some general guidance.

Planning on doing BIAB with an Irish Red all-grain kit from MoreBeer.
I am planning on doing a sparge by dunking the grain bag in another pot of 170° water. (or should I dump it over the suspended bag)
What temp should I mash?
How long should I mash?
Should I raise temp at end to 170 for mashout if I'm doing sparge?

Planning on splitting the batch at the end of chilling.
1 fermenter(2 gal) will be an irish red.
1 fermenter(3gal) will be a sour. Roeselare wyeast.
Should i still pitch the full wyeast packs, for smaller batches?
If the temps change based on irish red vs sour, I care more about the sour.

Thanks
Mike

 

[solbes]

Mash at 153, and use an online calculator to tell you how hot to heat your strikewater. Mash for 60 minutes and start mashout to 170. I have my BIAB brew kettle over a propane burner. You have to heat the wort to boiling anyway so it does not add any time. I see a 5-8% bump in efficiency when doing a mashout.

Once the mashout hits 170, remove the bag and dunk in 170F second vessel if its large enough. 5- 10 minutes is plenty, you want to "rinse off" the sugars in the sparge. Combine sparge with wort and boil away.

I would pitch most of the primary yeast into the irish red, but also add a little to the sour (maybe 20-30%). Full pitch of roselare into the sour. Or just pitch each full pouch appropriately if that is your desire.

 

[jro238]

I only ever did one BIAB before building a mash tun so take this advice for what it's worth...

I had pretty good luck just dumping the sparge water over the bag which was held over the boil kettle. I don't think that you need to mash out if doing a sparge.

I would definitely pitch the entire wyeast packs. This will probably get you pretty close to the correct # of cells (depending on your gravity of course).