Volume of water per pound of grain?

[petrolSpice]

Some sources suggest to mash the grain in the full pre-boil volume of water. Is there anything wrong with this method? Depending on the recipe, I'd be looking at mashing 10-15lb of grain in 7.5-8gal of water.

Other sources suggest that you need somewhere in the area of 1-2qt of water per pound of grain.

 

[djt17]

I have done both; including a traditional mash tun. When I do BIAB I prefer to mash in the full volume of water. That's the beauty of BIAB; it's simplicity.

 

[weirdboy]

For BIAB I always strike/mash the full volume, because where are you going to heat up your sparge water in a single vessel? I suppose you could always sparge with whatever the ground water temp is, but I prefer to just mash the full volume and recirculate.


If I am doing a 2 or 3 vessel mash with my cooler, I will typically use around 1.5-2qts depending on the recipe.

 

[petrolSpice]

For BIAB I always strike/mash the full volume, because where are you going to heat up your sparge water in a single vessel? I suppose you could always sparge with whatever the ground water temp is, but I prefer to just mash the full volume and recirculate.

Does the sparge water need to be at a certain temp?

I presume if I want to sparge, I just mash in the full pre-boil water volume minus the sparge water volume so I end up with the full volume after sparging?

For sparging can I just move the grain to another pot, pour water over the grain, collect the water in the pot, and add this water to the wort?

 

[weirdboy]

Does the sparge water need to be at a certain temp?

Traditionally you sparge with water around 165-170F. However, some people here on HBT have sparged with ground water. I just don't bother with that whole process if I'm doing BIAB because it's time consuming and way more complicated than mashing the full volume to start with.

I presume if I want to sparge, I just mash in the full pre-boil water volume minus the sparge water volume so I end up with the full volume after sparging?

Yeah, pretty much.

For sparging can I just move the grain to another pot, pour water over the grain, collect the water in the pot, and add this water to the wort?

There are some people who do this method. I think DethBrewer has a tutorial about stovetop BIAB that uses this method, but I don't know where it is anymore since BIAB split off from the regular AG forum. His method makes sense for stovetopp, because you typically have limited volume in your pots and limited ability to heat a large volume all in one pot. So, splitting up the mash and sparge like that works out. If you are using a larger pot on an outdoor burner, I cannot really think of a good reason to go through all that hassle. It sort of defeats the purpose of using a BIAB system.

 

[AnOldUR]

Is there anything wrong with this method?

pH

 

[Bobby_M]

You CAN do a full volume mash and not sparge but AnOldUR is right that it can cause pH issues given some water chemistry and grain combinations. You'll get much more forgiving buffering if you get the ratio down around 2 qts/lb. Will you have an issue at full volume? No easy way to know without a water ion report or a pH meter for real time measurement.