New to BIAB Method

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HB_ATL73

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I've been brewing for many years now using single batch sparging in a cooler mash tun with great results and wanted to give the BIAB method a try so I could do a multi step mash with greater ease and to hit rest temps with better accuracy. Man, I wish I had tried the BIAB earlier. I hit every step temp on the dot and hit all preboil/post boil volumes and gravity right on the dot all while saving time.:rock: I may occasionally go back to using the mash tun but I see myself sticking with this method.. Wish I did it earlier!
 
Similar condition myself, except I was fly sparring in a cooler mash tun. I upped to 10 gal batches in a 30 gallon pot (to allow some high gravity beers).

My first BIAB was Sunday and missed my OG by about 8 points.

Did you adjust the crush at all to be finer?
 
...do a multi step mash with greater ease... hit every step temp on the dot and hit all preboil/post boil volumes and gravity right on the dot...

Sweet!

How are you doing your steps? Not what are your rest temps, but how are you accomplishing them -- what's your rig, your process, etc?
 
Similar condition myself, except I was fly sparring in a cooler mash tun. I upped to 10 gal batches in a 30 gallon pot (to allow some high gravity beers).

My first BIAB was Sunday and missed my OG by about 8 points.

Did you adjust the crush at all to be finer?

The mill setting is at 0.040 and gives a pretty fine crush which has worked well for me. For you, all other variables were achieved like mash temp, post boil volume, etc? Obviously if your post boil volume was off (too high) you can miss target gravity
 
Sweet!

How are you doing your steps? Not what are your rest temps, but how are you accomplishing them -- what's your rig, your process, etc?

So this may not be the best way to do it but (but the laziest way) I doughed in with the full preboil volume to start at 9 gallons in 15 gallon kettle. Each step rest was about 20 min then heated using propane burner while stirring continually to avoid scorching to reach the next target temp. This is the first time doing a BIAB as well as with such a thin mash throughout each step. Do you think it would be advisable to mash with traditional liquor to grist ratio in mind? Say, start with 3-4 gallons to dough in with just as you would with mash tun? We'll see how the beer turns out it was an ESB and has been fermenting nicely for the past 3 days.
 
...Each step rest was about 20 min then heated using propane burner while stirring continually... Do you think it would be advisable to mash with traditional liquor to grist ratio...

I think what you did is fine, and don't see any reason to change it.
 
. Do you think it would be advisable to mash with traditional liquor to grist ratio in mind? Say, start with 3-4 gallons to dough in with just as you would with mash tun? We'll see how the beer turns out it was an ESB and has been fermenting nicely for the past 3 days.

I switched to BIAB about 5 years ago, do full volume (8.5-9 gallons usually for me) mashes, do step mashes for many of my German lagers, and have made a bunch of award winning beers with BIAB, so I say stick with full volume mash. With only 3-4 gallons in 15 gallon kettle, you definitely run more of risk of scorching the grain or burning the bag when doing the mash steps. BIAB is about making life simpler. If you want to sparge, hold back only a gallon or two from the mash and use that to rinse the grain bag.

Also, you can go even finer with your crush, 0.040 is kind of a wide gap for BIAB, that's regular all grain gap width. You don't need to worry about a stuck sparge, so can go even smaller. I do 0.032 and get 85-88% mash efficiency and have seen people go even lower with their gap. Do you double crush? Lot of people do that with BIAB also, say crush at your 0.040 gap then lower it and mill again.
 
So this may not be the best way to do it but (but the laziest way) I doughed in with the full preboil volume to start at 9 gallons in 15 gallon kettle. Each step rest was about 20 min then heated using propane burner while stirring continually to avoid scorching to reach the next target temp. This is the first time doing a BIAB as well as with such a thin mash throughout each step. Do you think it would be advisable to mash with traditional liquor to grist ratio in mind? Say, start with 3-4 gallons to dough in with just as you would with mash tun? We'll see how the beer turns out it was an ESB and has been fermenting nicely for the past 3 days.

You may want to do another batch that is identical except for skipping the step mash and going to single infusion, then decide if the step mash is worth all the stirring.
 
You may want to do another batch that is identical except for skipping the step mash and going to single infusion, then decide if the step mash is worth all the stirring.
RM-MN I will certainly do this and test it out. I had just read an article about "step mash your way to a dry finish" and I thought I'd give it a try. We'll see if it was worth the time spent stirring.
I've done multiple step mashes before with protein rest for hefeweizens but never before with 4 separate rests for this one.. any experience of step mashing making much of a difference in the quality of your beers?
 
ith only 3-4 gallons in 15 gallon kettle, you definitely run more of risk of scorching the grain or burning the bag when doing the mash steps. BIAB is about making life simpler.

Simpler sounds better for me- I don't see any need to add in an unnecessary sparge.

Also, you can go even finer with your crush, 0.040 is kind of a wide gap for BIAB, that's regular all grain gap width.

I had been only doing single crush. Being new to BIAB I hadn't thought of this- I will give this a try in going finer with the crush- thanks for the advice.
 
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