SchweikhardBrewing
Member
I've been homebrewing for a year now. I've done several extract kits and now I'm getting into BIAB. I did my first BIAB about a month ago and when it came to water volumes I was very confused even after a lot of research.
I want to keep brewing on the stove top so I don't have to buy more equipment. I have a 5 gallon pot so I know if I'm going to do full volume boils, that limits my batch size to about 3 gallons. (I boil off about a gallon of water in a 60 min boil and I'm not comfortable having more that 4 gallons of wort boiling in my gal pot) And I'm fine with this, I actually prefer just 3 gallons at a time instead of 5.
So with all this in mind, for my first BIAB, I basically took a 3 gallon BIAB recipe and guessed on the water amount until I ended up with 4 gallons of pre-boil. I wanted to do a dunk sparge so I mashed in my 7.75 lb of grain in about 2.5 gal of 160 degree water in my pot and let it sit at 152 degrees in a sleeping bag for an hour. Then for the dunk sparge I poured 170 degree water on the grains in a plastic bucket until I had a total of 4 gal of wort between the two vessels and let that sit for 10 min. I think I got lucky and ended up with exactly 4 gallons of pre-boil wort and boiled off exactly 1 gallon to end up with 3. I bottle it today and I seems like it's going to turn out nicely.
I'm working on planning my next BIAB and it's a 3 gallon recipe with a 10.5 lb grain bill. (Imperial Porter) I now have a 60 quart cooler so I can fit all the grain and water I need in one vessel.
What I would like to do instead of a dunk sparge is just dump in more water to the mash tun to bring it to 170 for the last 10 min. The problem is I have no idea how much water to use for the mash and the sparge water. I really would like to be much more precise in this process and use online calculators. I hear for BIAB, a good general rule for amount of water is 1.5 quarts per lb of grain but that's when you do a no sparge, right? What about if I'm doing a sparge? Do I make sure the total water after the sparge is 1.5 quarts per lb of grain? Will that leave me at 4 gallons of pre-boil wort?
Please help me understand the best way to go about being more precise in calculating my brew day. Cheers!
I want to keep brewing on the stove top so I don't have to buy more equipment. I have a 5 gallon pot so I know if I'm going to do full volume boils, that limits my batch size to about 3 gallons. (I boil off about a gallon of water in a 60 min boil and I'm not comfortable having more that 4 gallons of wort boiling in my gal pot) And I'm fine with this, I actually prefer just 3 gallons at a time instead of 5.
So with all this in mind, for my first BIAB, I basically took a 3 gallon BIAB recipe and guessed on the water amount until I ended up with 4 gallons of pre-boil. I wanted to do a dunk sparge so I mashed in my 7.75 lb of grain in about 2.5 gal of 160 degree water in my pot and let it sit at 152 degrees in a sleeping bag for an hour. Then for the dunk sparge I poured 170 degree water on the grains in a plastic bucket until I had a total of 4 gal of wort between the two vessels and let that sit for 10 min. I think I got lucky and ended up with exactly 4 gallons of pre-boil wort and boiled off exactly 1 gallon to end up with 3. I bottle it today and I seems like it's going to turn out nicely.
I'm working on planning my next BIAB and it's a 3 gallon recipe with a 10.5 lb grain bill. (Imperial Porter) I now have a 60 quart cooler so I can fit all the grain and water I need in one vessel.
What I would like to do instead of a dunk sparge is just dump in more water to the mash tun to bring it to 170 for the last 10 min. The problem is I have no idea how much water to use for the mash and the sparge water. I really would like to be much more precise in this process and use online calculators. I hear for BIAB, a good general rule for amount of water is 1.5 quarts per lb of grain but that's when you do a no sparge, right? What about if I'm doing a sparge? Do I make sure the total water after the sparge is 1.5 quarts per lb of grain? Will that leave me at 4 gallons of pre-boil wort?
Please help me understand the best way to go about being more precise in calculating my brew day. Cheers!