Step mashing biab

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Supertrapped

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So, I've been averaging 75% efficiency and am very happy with that. I mainly stick to single infusion.

Over the weekend I decided to brew a hefeweizen and do a step mash. 64%. Ugh. And I'm honestly thinking it's because of the grind this time, but I don't know.

My question is, how do you step mash with BIAB? Lift bag up a little and heat water to next step? Start with low volume of water and pour in super hot water to reach temp for next step? Don't even bother? Lol
 
I do BIAB but mash at a thickness of 2 quarts per pound of grain. I step mash all the time. When I'm heating between rests, I'll just alternate stirring the grain to keep it from weighing down the bag, and lifting the bag a little and trying to homogenize the temperature of the liquid everywhere. Obviously you need to watch out for scorching the bag, but you also need to be careful when you lift the bag, because the surrounding liquid will heat up rather quickly, leaving the clumped grain in the bag at a lower temperature. You need to be constantly working to equalize the temperature everywhere when you're heating.

I don't even bother double crushing my grain, and regularly get 82% efficiency on every batch I brew. This has convinced me that pH is the main culprit in the low efficiency that BIABers often report. Mashing thicker like I've described does help with that, but I adjust the mash pH for just about every beer I brew to sit around 5.3.

For most of my German beers, I follow this schedule:

131 F for 10 minutes
145 F for 30 minutes
158 F for 45 minutes
 
My question is, how do you step mash with BIAB? Lift bag up a little and heat water to next step? Start with low volume of water and pour in super hot water to reach temp for next step? Don't even bother? Lol


I do what dfhar does: - stir the bottom well, in a motion that causes the lower grain/wort to move to the surface, and dissipate the heat.
And I occasionally lift the bag a little to let the liquid at the top run out and mix with the liquid at the bottom.


I used to use a pie plate I got from a garage sale for 50 cents.
I would take it out with a long spoon when I'm at mash temperature.
The problem is I don't know for sure what it's made of an I don't want to risk metals getting into the beer.
 
My BIAB BK is a 9 gal tallboy. I do all my brewing on the stove top. I still have my old 5 gal BK so I do infusion step mashes. I do the initial mash in the tallboy at traditional ratios (1.25 qt/lb +/-) and use my second pot to heat infusion, mashout and sparge water. Beersmith has a good, and reasonably accurate, infusion calculator. I've done 3-step mashes this way with good results. If I undershoot a step temp, I can turn on the stove to bump the temp a bit. I've done 40+ brews (not all step mashes) with no issues.
 
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