My BIAB Process Outlined (Missing Anything?)

[hafmpty]

I'm new to BIAB. I did one batch years ago, but haven't since. I'm putting together a 2.5gal direct-fired RIMS BIAB brewery. From the reading I've done there are LOTS of different ways to do BIAB. Here's my plan. Tell me if I'm missing something as I probably am.

1. Crush the grains with my Barley Crusher. Based on the Basic Brewing Radio BIAB podcast, I'm going to try a single-pass loose crush rather than pulverizing the grain...probably around .040-.045. I'm shooting for 70% efficiency for the first batch and will modify this number once I've brewed a few times.

2. Mash for 90min in a 6gal Bayou Kettle w/ a BIAB bag inside the included basket and recirculate during the mash for clarity and temperature stability.

NOTE: I'm going to try to do a dunk sparge. My goal is to mash with enough water to account for grain absorbtion plus two roughly equal amounts of water (i.e. 8lb grist would mean about 3.6gal of mash water & 2.6gal of sparge water with 1gal of the mash water being absorbed by the grain).

4. Once the mash is done, drain the clear wort out of the 6gal Bayou Kettle into a bucket/second pot/whatever and add sparge water into the 6gal Bayou Kettle.

5. Stir the mash & recirculate until the second runnings wort is clear again.

7. Drain the second runnings wort and combine with the first runnings.

8. Start the 90min boil and proceed as normal.

I know the mash/drain/sparge/drain adds a couple extra steps, but I am transitioning from a traditional 3V brewery with mash recirculation. This produced CRYSTAL CLEAR wort going into the boil kettle. It also meant I didn't have as much sludge at the bottom of my boil kettle or at the bottom of my fermenter.

Give me your thoughts & suggestions. Again...I'm new to this and don't know all the latest practices & procedures.

 

[Gavin C]

Mill finer. I do a single pass at the narrowest setting on my mill. Looks like coarse corn meal.

90 min mash is really not needed. 30-60 mins if doing a single rest is plenty IMO. I also do a 5 min mash-out at 168F prior to lautering as I find I get less grain absorption this way. The opposite view that one is of no benefit likely has a stronger case for it so a mash-out is not missing, just an optional extra.

I would mash with as much water as your pot allows and sparge with the balance needed to reach your preboil.

I don't recirculate so I can't comment on that aspect of things.

I do 5.5 gallon batches in an 11g pot full-volume no sparge. My process is a little different than yours but you seem to have a very good plan in place. Nothing leaps out aside from the complex sparge, dunk recirc etc. Not an area I know much about.

My methods are outlined in the thread and article below. You might see some things of use there.

 

[Iseneye]

You'll probably hear this a bit, don't worry about clarity of wort into kettle. I do full volume BIAB no sparge and all my beers are clear. There is some debate over long term stability of beer with cloudy wort. I am a slow drinker and takes about 3-4 months to finish a keg. No issues with stability from what I can detect.

90 minute mash and 90 minute boil seems overkill. That's an extra hour to the brew day that may not be necessary.

Having never done old school method myself it seems to me like you are bringing along the ideas rather than adapting to BIAB. You are going from a 3 vessel system to a 3 vessel BIAB system (from my understanding). I don't see the advantage in that.

 

[McKnuckle]

I'm sure you know this, but BIAB is a one vessel system at its core, designed to be simple and yet facilitate a true all-grain brewing process. You are basically using the bag as a manifold in a three vessel system (Bayou kettle, second pot/whatever, and something to hold sparge water). To me there is no point in calling this BIAB, but of course it's as valid a process as any other.

There's plenty to read online in recent times about the unnecessary obsession with crystal clear wort, even though it's natural for us to think it looks nice and therefore must be better.

A more "true" BIAB process would be to use your 6 gal Bayou kettle with a bag and its basket to mash in with full volume, then remove/drain the bag into the same kettle, and proceed with the boil.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Looks fine. My recommendations would be to crush as fine as you can and mash with as much as you can. Lastly just mash an hour. I usually only go 45 minutes and get the same eff as when I do 60+. These will simplify the brew day and improve your effeciency.

 

[hafmpty]

Cool. Thanks guys. I'm taking all this in. I've been posting to a BIAB Facebook group and they've been giving me similar advice. Here's what I've come up with to try for my first batch.

I’ll crush finer...around .035, mash with my desired pre-boil volume plus ~6% for grain absorption. I will still recirculate for temperature stability (with the added benefit of some clarity). Pull the bag, squeeze, and boil.

As for volumes, I'll use this formula: simple formula for BIAB. batch size + absorption + boil off + trub loss = water needed

I'm shooting for 2.75gal into the fermenter. With an 8lb 2oz grain bill at 70% efficiency:

Absorption will be roughly .5gal.
Boil off for 90min will be tested, but I'll estimate 1.5gal. (Might switch to 60min and 1gal for boil off)
Trub loss will be .25gal.
So that means I'll need 2.75+.5+1.5+.25 or about 5.75gal for 90min (5.25gal for 60min).

That much water plus the grain will not fit into my 6gal kettle so I'd need to take a little bit of this water and use it for sparging. However, if I can get my efficiency up to 75% or 80%, which was easy with my 3V system, that will mean less grain, taking up less space. At 75% I’d barely be able to fit it all in. With 80% I’d easily have room.

 

[doug293cz]

I recommend milling finer for bag lautering as others have suggested. I set my Barley Crusher gap at 0.016" (0.4 mm), and mash for 60 min. My mash efficiency is 75%+ (I won't give more precise numbers, as I have just found that I need to recalibrate my volume measurements.) A finer grind is what enables a shorter mash time. Some BIABers crush finer than me, and use even shorter mash times, with good efficiency. If you stick with your plan to mill at 0.040" - 0.045", then staying with the 90 min mash might prevent you from having lower starch conversion efficiency (incomplete conversion.) I suggest measuring your conversion and mash efficiencies, and your fermentation attenuation to see if the combination of crush size, mash time, and mash temp give you the results you are looking for. If not, you will have the data to help you adjust your process to get where you want to be.

I'll also weigh in on the side of those who say wort clarity does not affect final beer clarity or stability. However, if you really like the aesthetics of clear wort, go for it.

Edit: Just saw your second post. Squeezing the bag will significantly reduce your wort clarity, so if you really think you need clear wort, skip the squeeze. Squeezing will likely improve your lauter efficiency, as you probably won't want to wait for an extended drain time prior to sparging. To maximize efficiency squeeze both before and after you sparge (before is the most important squeeze, as that one is getting out higher gravity wort.)

Brew on

 

[ArcLight]

You are making this longer and more cumbersome than needed.

1. Super tight crush

2. After you add the grain. Stir it around well for up to 5 minutes to even out the temperature.

3. Mash 45-60 minutes. You may want to check your temperature after 15 minutes because it can drop or end
up with hot and cold regions so you may want to stir or add more heat.

4. No way in hell would I rack to a second pot. Lift the bag and let gravity drain it. Start the boil as the bag is dripping, when the dripping is done, squeeze a few times and dump the grain. Or perform a dunk sparge in a second vessel.

5. Unless a Pilsner, so need to boil for 90 minutes , 45-60 is enough

6. Crystal Clear wort means nothing. The extra particles will settle on their own in the fermentor.
Clear wort is unimportant, Clear beer is the objective. I do skim the hot break off when boiling is reached.

 

[hafmpty]

This is great guys. I've said it to others...I think my problem is trying to make some 3 vessel BIAB brewing mutant where I take things from one form and combine it with processes from the other and as you've said...I'm making it more complicated (and less fun) than it should be. I will obviously need to make it my own but all the advice is great. Thanks again.

 

[CascadeOK]

I'd agree with the finer crush. My first all grain at 60 min mash with a recirc pump was quite a bit lower than I hoped. Think I'll invest in a mill so I can control the crush to my liking. I looked at a number of different online calculators and software and I can say my favorite was Priceless's designed for us baggers. http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/

It worked well for me the first time and once you dial in the specifics of your own equipment it should get even better. Cheers!