What can I do in an 11L pot?

[Monkeybrew]

To get the spreadsheet, you need to join the http://www.BIABrewer.info forum. Make a hello post and then you can access the excel file here http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=189 .

I use the same voiles as a mash bag and a filter for pouring into the FV.

Dan

Just popped into my local remnant shop and picked up 3sq metres of white voile for £6.60.


I am sure that I can hash something together

[jonnyt]

I got at least double that for £3 from Dunelm

[Monkeybrew]

I got at least double that for £3 from Dunelm

Ah well, I'm fairly happy as it was cheaper than buying ready made ones from my LHBS

I will keep Dunelm in mind if I need anymore in the future

[jonnyt]

You can get it with nice pretty patterns as-well to customise your grain bag if that floats your boat!

[Monkeybrew]

Well I've just been out and bought some Challenger Hops and some Maris Otter malt, so I now have all the ingredients for my first mini BIAB brewing attempt!

I picked up a 3kg bag of pale malt because I figured that would give enough for a second mini batch

I have also roped in Mrs Monkeybrew to sew a tailor-made mash bag up for me!

[Monkeybrew]

I have played around with Brewmate a bit more and think that I have got the hang of it now.

It is suggesting 8.5L of strike water @ 69C for 1.4kg of Pale Malt, and then suggesting a 7.7L boil volume, does this sound about right?

BTW my 11L stockpot is 26cm in diameter.

I will be using Potatoes method of mashing in my electric oven for the full 90 mins.

I am getting a bit confused with the whole sparging thing, do I need to sparge, because surely in doing so, will give me too much wort volume for my boil?

Also, mashing out sounds favourable, do I temporarily remove my mash bag full of grain into say a clean FV, then put my pot back on the stove to bring the wort up to 78C, then put my mash bag back in, and then maintain the 78C for 15-30 mins?

Sorry for all of these newbie questions, I just don't want to get halfway through the brew and think, hold on what happens next?

MB

[john_drummer]

AFAIK you don't need to sparge if you're doing mash out; the method for mash out is as far as I can see, leave the bag in the pot & raise the temperature to 78deg and keep it there for I think half an hour, but I could be wrong on that. If the bag touches the bottom of the pot, you'll want something like a wire cake rack inside the pot to stop the bottom of the pot from burning the bag.

If you do choose to sparge instead of mash out, move the bag into a clean FV, doing so will remove a fair bit of volume, as the grains will absorb a fair bit of liquid; sparging gets some of that back.

I've done 3 BIAB brews now & I've done a half-hearted attempt at sparging in a separate bucket on all 3, it seems to work to a degree but I'm sure I could do better. After the boil my volume is about right after losses to evaporation, and the OG is more or less bang on the nose so it seems to be more or less right

[potatoes]

It is suggesting 8.5L of strike water @ 69C for 1.4kg of Pale Malt, and then suggesting a 7.7L boil volume, does this sound about right?

That sounds about right. You will lose a bit of water as the brains will absorb it. You can always add more water when your finished the boil but its hard to take water out of the wort if it is too diluted.

I am getting a bit confused with the whole sparging thing, do I need to sparge, because surely in doing so, will give me too much wort volume for my boil?

BIAB is all about avoiding this step. You just lift the grains out and start your boil. I kind of do a sparge by sitting the grains on top of pot, then pouring water over them. Other BIAB brews do it by taking the mash bag full of grain and dunking it a bucket full of hot water. See Maxi BIAB. I dont think you need to a sparge for your first attempt. Simply lift the grain out and let it drain for a while.

Also, mashing out sounds favourable, do I temporarily remove my mash bag full of grain into say a clean FV, then put my pot back on the stove to bring the wort up to 78C, then put my mash bag back in, and then maintain the 78C for 15-30 mins?

Johnny drummer gives you good advice about this. It shouldnt be too difficult to incoporate if you want to.

Dont worry about the newbie questions. We are all newbies on this forum! I am by no means an expert... Also, good luck. You are brewing tomorrow?

[Monkeybrew]

Cheers again guys

Yep, tomorrow is my first BIAB brewday!

I will probably create a new post with my exact recipe and method while the mash is going on.

I am already planning BIAB #2 (Ringwood 49er), as I will need to use up my 3kg bag of malt

MB

[Goulders]

Good luck with the brew day! I am certain you will have a good one

[Shrunken Reaper]

Hmmmm...

Right I’ve been reading through this because I’m in a similar position, I’ve sourced a 17.6 litre stock pot to start brewing in and I’m in two minds about whether to do the extract step, or move to BIAB/All Grain brewing

This might be complete nonsense, so please tell me if I’m on the wrong track here…

The idea of sparging grist is to extract all the ‘clingy’ sugars still in the grains after you drain off your first load of wort… in BIAB when you’re constricted for space, would it be possible to have a kind of ‘half-sparge’ by suspending your grain bag over a StarSan sprayed FV and pouring some ‘sparge’ water through that repeatedly, thereby getting all the sugar you can and increasing your brew length?

Then boil your lower volume of wort with your hops, (because the Boil step is designed to extract the characteristics of your hops?) and when you’re done with that, just add this to the additional sparge wort which would already be in the FV, thereby incorporating the additional sugars with the bittering/taste/aroma of the hops and ending up with more beer?

I imagine this would lower the OG little bit, but it makes sense to me (bearing in mind that I’m quite new to all this) I’m not sure, but I think you could increase the brew length by a half using this method? I have a niggling doubt at the back of my mind… I’m sure it can’t be this simple, but any thoughts?

[Jymbo]

If you decide not to sparge, you will decrease your efficiency by quite a bit, I'd imagine, so make sure to take this into account when you're formulating your recipe. I can't imagine you'd get much more than 60% efficiency without sparging.

[Monkeybrew]

I did my first BIAB on Tuesday, and did a 90min mash @ 66C, then carried out a mashout @ 78C for 30 mins.

I then just sat my grain bag in a collander over my FV, and let it drain for the 10-15mins that it took to boil my wort, and then just added the drained wort to the boil.

I ended up with a 69% efficiency

[Shrunken Reaper]

Nice work, did you happen to spot how much wort had drained out?

[jonnyt]

You did better than me, I seem to get 65 to 66% at the moment