First timer BIAB question:

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drakerebel

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i've looked through many threads but haven't found this answer yet (so please don't jump down my throat)...i'm sure someone will point me to a calculator or software of some sort, but here she goes...

i'm going to brew my first biab this weekend with a 7.5ga turkey frier kettle and the recipe has 12lbs of grain. Is there a rough estimate of how much water a guy can reliably put in the kettle for strike? i know the 1.25q to 1lb of grain but how much volume does the grain typically take up?

i'm assuming i'll have to sparge the bag in a gallon or two of water afterwards but i really don't want to strike too much water to find out i've ran out of room.

anyone got a decent "off the cuff" rule of thumb? and again, just a guestamate since i don't know my boil off and whatnot yet since this will be my first time with this kettle/burner (previously only extract/stovetop brewing).

and then, as a bonus, does anyone have any past experience on how much grain a 7.5ga pot can typically handle w/o sparge water needed??

thanks gang, appreciate the feedback!
 
I can mash 9lbs of grain with 1.25qt/lb in a 3.5 gallon kettle and dunk sparge in my 5 gallon brew kettle... I think you'll be fine with 12 lbs and probably much more. As for full volume/no sparge... I don't know.
 
I dont have my brew notes on me since im at work but i usually mash with my grajns and as much water as i can fit. Works out to around 6 gallons in my kettle with 12 lbs of grain. But i also have it right to the top and then sparge up to boil volume through the grains if i need more volume.
 
Well, maybe it makes more sense to go with a sparge after all? Does efficiency improve with sparge over full volume? I'll squeeze the snot out of the bag regardless but which is preferred? I guess i like the idea of adding through the bag instead of dunking in a set amount but I suppose if a guy started with a gallon of strike water already heated that it wouldn't take too long to heat additional if needing more? Or does there need to be at least a certain amount for dunk sparging?

Probably over thinking, this is what idle time does to me prior to brew day...lol.
 
I do BIAB with no sparge, no mashout and get arround 80% brewhouse efficiency.
IMHO the volume for the mash is not critical (as long as you are in the 1.2-2qt/lb range) so pick a number that will fit in your kettle w/ the grains (4-5 gallons).

After the mash:
* squeeze the bag.
* Measure the volume in the kettle
* Measure the gravity (to calc efficiency)
* Then top off to the desired pre-boil volume (i.e. 6 gallons for approx 5 gallons post boil)

After the first couple batches you will have a good idea on what the grain absorption and efficiency numbers are for your process. I don't think you will be able to do a full volume BIAB with your 7.5 gallon kettle. I always mash w/ 6 gallons in my 10 gallon kettle and this process works great for me.
 
Any kind of sparging requires specific volumes but if you err on the over side you can always boil off the excess or if you're batch sparging you can just sparge until you hit your desired boil volume.

I recommend marking your mash paddle/spoon to show volumes in your kettle. This way you can just batch sparge until you've hit your boil volume.

Efficiency should be greater with sparging but from what I've read that's not always the case.
 
I'd definitely recommend some kind of sparge. I do no sparge BIAB, but I use a 10g pot, always start with 7.5g of strike water, and I can get about 18lbs of grain in it without getting perilously close to the top of my kettle. I don't know if you can figure out a ratio from that info, but I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to BIAB that amount with what you have, you'll just have to sparge it. I don't have any experience with that process so I can't help with pointers there, but when I imagine the process, if you have a 2nd kettle that is big enough, dunk-sparging sounds easier and faster. If you can have your sparge water heated up and ready when your mash is over, it would be a piece of cake to pull the bag from the mash and drop it into the sparge water. Then you can turn the main-kettly burner on high to start your boil while you dunk/stir your sparge pot. When ready, pull the bag out and then dump all water into the main kettle.

Pouring hot water through a heavy grain bag sounds like a recipe for a big mess based on my experience, but if you have the right setup for it, I'm sure it works fine too.
 
Then if I were to dunk sparge, just treat it like a mash out...170deg for 10-15 min?
 
That's what I do... Remember to fire up the main kettle to do a mash out on the "first runnings" as well.
 
I put old oven rack over pot, place bag in homer bucket and sparge through the bag. You can squeeze bag and let drain while burner is bringing the wort up to boil. After some different experiences this was the easiest for me. Hope it helps.


Bucket has a bunch of 3/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom too.
 
If you're still concerned about being able to mash a certain amount of grain, here's a handy link I like to use. About 3/4 the way down the page there's a "Can I Mash It?" calculator. Just enter your lbs in grain and your qt/lb ratio and it will tell you approx. how much volume your mash will take. This should give you a good idea of how much you can mash in a given brewpot.

Edit - forgot the link, oops: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
 
I have a question. Many BIAB brewer's use those paint strainers.... are those plastic paint strainers food grade and do they give any off flavors sitting in mash temp fluid?
 
No off flavors at all from the paint bags in my experience.

They are made from nylon rather than HDPE, and I don't think they use any dye or anything on the bags. I don't think the bag is in contact with the liquid long enough to leach out much either, but I don't really know. I think most issues with non food-grade plastic comes when they are used to store things for extended periods of time, like a fermenter. This is all mostly educated guessing, but I can defintely say there is no negative impact to the flavor.
 
I put old oven rack over pot, place bag in homer bucket and sparge through the bag. You can squeeze bag and let drain while burner is bringing the wort up to boil. After some different experiences this was the easiest for me. Hope it helps.


Bucket has a bunch of 3/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom too.

that sounds slick. do you feel you get enough sugars extracted that way compared to letting the bag soak in a second kettle/water?
 
I have not dunk sparged but this way i get 75-85% efficiency depending on the grain bill size


This method was found by reading the entire biab sticky and cherrypicking everyone else's ideas from there.
 
drakerebel said:
i've looked through many threads but haven't found this answer yet (so please don't jump down my throat)...i'm sure someone will point me to a calculator or software of some sort, but here she goes...

i'm going to brew my first biab this weekend with a 7.5ga turkey frier kettle and the recipe has 12lbs of grain. Is there a rough estimate of how much water a guy can reliably put in the kettle for strike? i know the 1.25q to 1lb of grain but how much volume does the grain typically take up?

i'm assuming i'll have to sparge the bag in a gallon or two of water afterwards but i really don't want to strike too much water to find out i've ran out of room.

anyone got a decent "off the cuff" rule of thumb? and again, just a guestamate since i don't know my boil off and whatnot yet since this will be my first time with this kettle/burner (previously only extract/stovetop brewing).

and then, as a bonus, does anyone have any past experience on how much grain a 7.5ga pot can typically handle w/o sparge water needed??

thanks gang, appreciate the feedback!

I use this link, http://www.simplebiabcalculator.com/ - it is a great link.

Roughly from the information you are presenting, I'd say it will be close. I took some guesses and it seems like you will need 7 gallons, which puts you pretty close to the edge. I'd give it a go and then think about a bigger pot.

My lowes was selling a 62 qt bayou pot and burner for $90.

Let us know how it turns out.


-John
 
How do you determine how much boil off you will have? Assuming you are looking for 5 gallons of beer, how much extra water do you add to account for boil off? I have a large kettle, but don't know how to figure that. Can a guy just do a trial run with water? I'm no scientist, but it would seem wort might boil off at a different rate.
 
My lhbs had me topping off my extract fermenter to 5 gallons. Can you do this with Biab as well? Better to add during boil if you catch it soon enough?
 
Testing your boil off with water will get you close enough, then you can tweak it from there. Typically you'd like to have a full volume boil but you're not going to boil off that much more if your water boil test was accurate. It will take a few batches to get your volumes dialed in but in the mean time you can either top off or settle for slightly less/higher OG going into the fermenter.
 
I just brewed with 14.5# last night and started with 7 gallons of water. After mashout i had to sparge with 2 gallons of water to bring me up to 7.25-7.5 preboil volume. I use a stick with gallon marks on it and with hot break using fermcap got to about an inch or 2 from top of 10 gal kettle
 
brewinginnc said:
I just brewed with 14.5# last night and started with 7 gallons of water. After mashout i had to sparge with 2 gallons of water to bring me up to 7.25-7.5 preboil volume. I use a stick with gallon marks on it and with hot break using fermcap got to about an inch or 2 from top of 10 gal kettle

I mash with enough water so I have my final volume after draining the bag. Take a gravity reading before the boil, should be close to OG. Add boil off water (3L per hour for my setup), adjust if my gravity is way off.
 
So, with brew day being tomorrow...what i'm concluding is that i'll be mashing with 5.5 gallons. After the hour rest, stir like crazy and pull the grain bag and dunk sparge in 2 gallons (stir like crazy and squeeze). Net from the two pots being 6.5 gallons with the grain taking up 1 gallon. Starting boil being 6.5 with a gallon lost during, leaving with the 5.5 gallon primary volume.

for a first swag at a BIAB, is that pretty close to a decent plan? i have the 7.5 gallon pot and could theoretically mash 6.5 gallons like Pkrd said, but am wondering if a single gallon of water in a smaller vessel would be enough liquid to stir and get some good sugars left from the grains...only reason why i say 2 gallon dunk sparge.

thanks again for the previous info peoples.
 
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