Help for beginner

[Dee74]

I have been thinking of trying BIAB and think I have an understanding of how it should work. I am looking for a good video or site that would provide step by step directions on how to BIAB. I have searched YouTube but everyone seems to do this differently and I do not know enough to determine what is good and what is not. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[myndflyte]

This is probably a good place to start: https://www.brewinabag.com/pages/instructions

But really it just comes down to getting the proper materials you need and figuring out what works best for you and your setup.

 

[Kharnynb]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525556

that's my way at least

 

[soccerdad]

I like how Kharmynb documented his process. Gavin had also done a great job .. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=507054

My method is probably simpler than theirs (no mash out, no iodine) but mine is not we'll documented like theirs.

 

[wilserbrewer]

How large is your kettle, and how large a batch are you looking to brew?

This will tell us if you have enough room for full volume mashing, or if you may need to sparge.

 

[Dee74]

How large is your kettle, and how large a batch are you looking to brew?

This will tell us if you have enough room for full volume mashing, or if you may need to sparge.

I plan on purchasing a 10 gallon kettle to make 5 gallon batches.

 

[jalc6927]

That should be big enough for 10 lbs of grain, anymore and you’ll need a larger kettle

 

[mongoose33]

That should be big enough for 10 lbs of grain, anymore and you’ll need a larger kettle

I have a 10-gallon Spike kettle I bought specifically so I could do BIAB (sold my 8-gallon Megapot).

I do grain bills of 13+ pounds and have no problems. I could add another pound or two if I wanted.

A 10-gallon kettle will be fine.

 

[mongoose33]

Dee, let me note what I do w/ BIAB:

I have a 10-gallon kettle. I usually fill it with 7.25 gallons of water, adjusted as necessary w/ salts, gypsum, lactic acid, whatever.

I bring that up to strike temperature--which in my case, with my system, is about 159 degrees. Once reaching that temp, I turn off the burner and line the kettle with my BIAB (I use Michael Wilser's bag, it's great!)

I then stir in my crushed grain which is crushed finer than if I were using a mash tun and sparging, I make sure it's mixed in well (no splashing!), cover the kettle and then cover the entire thing with a sort of quilt-type thing to keep the heat in.

I stir at 15- and 30-minutes to ensure a good conversion. This helps--do it.

Then the only remaining thing is hoisting the bag to drain out the wort. Having something above to which you can hook a pulley is important for this.

I also squeeze the bag as it's suspended over the kettle to get out as much as I reasonably can. I use a pair of rubberized gloves to do this (well-washed before first use!) because, well, that stuff is still about 150 degrees.

I tend to end up with about 6.7 gallons of wort after starting with 7.25 gallons. That boils down just fine to about 5.5 or 5.6 gallons or so, a perfect volume for a 5-gallon batch.

Good luck, and enjoy the process! There's magic in the mash!

 

[lump42]

Not a lot of photos, but this page from the AHA does go over the math for calculating strike water volumes.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/homebrewassoc/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/How-To-Brew-in-a-Bag.pdf

 

[frozyn]

That should be big enough for 10 lbs of grain, anymore and you’ll need a larger kettle

I have a 10-gallon Spike kettle I bought specifically so I could do BIAB (sold my 8-gallon Megapot).

I do grain bills of 13+ pounds and have no problems. I could add another pound or two if I wanted.

A 10-gallon kettle will be fine.

Just want to parrot @mongoose33 that a 10 gallon kettle should be able to hold more than 10 pounds. I did a 2.5 gallon batch using 10 pounds of grain in a 5 gallon pot (that's really more like 4.75).