QuercusMax
Well-Known Member
I've done 14 BIAB all-grain or partial mash batches since late January, and I finally have a technique that gets me the results I want and allows me to hit my gravities and mash temperatures pretty accurately without a lot of fiddling, so I thought I'd share.
I use 2 pots and one 5-gallon bucket, along with a cheapy Lowe's 5-gallon paint strainer. If it's a 5-gallon batch I use my 7.5-gallon ported Polarware kettle and either my 4- or 5.5-gallon pot depending on my grain bill. For 2.5-3 gallon I use my 5.5 gallon pot and my 4-gallon pot. I do it on my stovetop since I have a fairly powerful burner.
First I measure and heat my strike water. If I'm using my 7.5-gal kettle I'll heat in that, as it has water level markings, but this is not really necessary (just more convenient). I mash in the smaller vessel, so I transfer the strike water if I heated in the other vessel.
Next, I'll add the grain, and stir like mad. If I'm over my target temperature, keep stirring like mad until it cools down to where I need it. If I'm under, I'll apply heat to the kettle. Once it's at temperature, I set my oven to Warm and move my mash kettle into the oven. You'll note that I don't mash in the bag, since I really don't like stirring the mash inside the bag.
While it's mashing, I heat my sparge water in my larger kettle. When my mash time is up, I put my paint strainer in my 5-gallon bucket, where it fits like a glove (they are designed for those buckets, after all). Then I transfer the mash into the bucket, normally by scooping out a gallon or two with a 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup, then dumping the rest (I recommend dumping it slowly, otherwise the bag may fall in).
I transfer some sparge water into the mash kettle (to rinse out the bits that I missed when dumping), then pour it into the bag. You can use a bottling bucket if you like (the spigot is convenient if you don't like to dump the bucket, or if you live in the 1990s and are worried about hot-side aeration), but I find it's much more prone to having the bag fall in, as the strainer isn't deep enough to touch the bottom.
I stir and let sit for a minute. Then lift the bag to drain, and when I'm satisfied, put the bag in the smaller kettle. I transfer the remaining sparge water to the smaller kettle, and then pour the contents of the bucket (the first runnings) into the large boil kettle. I drain the bag, and set in a colander inside the bucket.
I then check the gravity of my first and second runnings via refractometer and take a guess as to the combined gravity. I add as much of the second runnings as I need in order to hit my desired preboil gravity.
This may seem a bit overcomplicated with all the pouring back and forth, but I believe it is pretty much equivalent to a classical 3-vessel setup, and technique-wise should be a pretty easy transition to doing batch sparges in a cooler-mash-tun. If you don't mind stirring your mash in the bag, you could just do your entire mash in the bag and do the initial sparge in the mash kettle.
To my mind, the most critical part of my process is to add the first runnings into the mash kettle first, and add as much of the second runnings as you need to get to your desired preboil gravity. When I did my second dunk-sparge in my boil kettle, I couldn't really control my preboil volume + gravity properly, and ended up doing some 120 minute boils just to boil off enough to get my gravities up. With my current technique, if I miss my target volume, I can either scale down the hops or add a bit of extract.
I do plan on building a "real" mash-tun at some point, as I have two 48-quart rectangular coolers in my garage. I'll probably do that once both my paint strainers break, but it seems like a lot of work (mostly to track down the parts), and cheap + lazy is hard to argue with.
I'd love to hear your reactions, and if you think I'm doing anything wrong or inefficiently. I'm loving this so far, and I really feel like I know what I'm doing and have control over the process.
I use 2 pots and one 5-gallon bucket, along with a cheapy Lowe's 5-gallon paint strainer. If it's a 5-gallon batch I use my 7.5-gallon ported Polarware kettle and either my 4- or 5.5-gallon pot depending on my grain bill. For 2.5-3 gallon I use my 5.5 gallon pot and my 4-gallon pot. I do it on my stovetop since I have a fairly powerful burner.
First I measure and heat my strike water. If I'm using my 7.5-gal kettle I'll heat in that, as it has water level markings, but this is not really necessary (just more convenient). I mash in the smaller vessel, so I transfer the strike water if I heated in the other vessel.
Next, I'll add the grain, and stir like mad. If I'm over my target temperature, keep stirring like mad until it cools down to where I need it. If I'm under, I'll apply heat to the kettle. Once it's at temperature, I set my oven to Warm and move my mash kettle into the oven. You'll note that I don't mash in the bag, since I really don't like stirring the mash inside the bag.
While it's mashing, I heat my sparge water in my larger kettle. When my mash time is up, I put my paint strainer in my 5-gallon bucket, where it fits like a glove (they are designed for those buckets, after all). Then I transfer the mash into the bucket, normally by scooping out a gallon or two with a 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup, then dumping the rest (I recommend dumping it slowly, otherwise the bag may fall in).
I transfer some sparge water into the mash kettle (to rinse out the bits that I missed when dumping), then pour it into the bag. You can use a bottling bucket if you like (the spigot is convenient if you don't like to dump the bucket, or if you live in the 1990s and are worried about hot-side aeration), but I find it's much more prone to having the bag fall in, as the strainer isn't deep enough to touch the bottom.
I stir and let sit for a minute. Then lift the bag to drain, and when I'm satisfied, put the bag in the smaller kettle. I transfer the remaining sparge water to the smaller kettle, and then pour the contents of the bucket (the first runnings) into the large boil kettle. I drain the bag, and set in a colander inside the bucket.
I then check the gravity of my first and second runnings via refractometer and take a guess as to the combined gravity. I add as much of the second runnings as I need in order to hit my desired preboil gravity.
This may seem a bit overcomplicated with all the pouring back and forth, but I believe it is pretty much equivalent to a classical 3-vessel setup, and technique-wise should be a pretty easy transition to doing batch sparges in a cooler-mash-tun. If you don't mind stirring your mash in the bag, you could just do your entire mash in the bag and do the initial sparge in the mash kettle.
To my mind, the most critical part of my process is to add the first runnings into the mash kettle first, and add as much of the second runnings as you need to get to your desired preboil gravity. When I did my second dunk-sparge in my boil kettle, I couldn't really control my preboil volume + gravity properly, and ended up doing some 120 minute boils just to boil off enough to get my gravities up. With my current technique, if I miss my target volume, I can either scale down the hops or add a bit of extract.
I do plan on building a "real" mash-tun at some point, as I have two 48-quart rectangular coolers in my garage. I'll probably do that once both my paint strainers break, but it seems like a lot of work (mostly to track down the parts), and cheap + lazy is hard to argue with.
I'd love to hear your reactions, and if you think I'm doing anything wrong or inefficiently. I'm loving this so far, and I really feel like I know what I'm doing and have control over the process.
