My first BIAB tomorrow - any advice?

[john_drummer]

OK, tomorrow (New Year's Day) will be my first BIAB and I have a couple of questions:

1) how much water for the mash? I have a 32l pot and I'm aiming to do the 19l Old Peculier recipe from Graham Wheeler's book
2) can I / should I top up after the boil with cold treated water?
3) sparging? should I /shouldn't I, and if so, what's the best way?

thanks in advance

[rossi74]

Hi John

I use biab but have a 50l keg. Beer smith says i would need 33.7l to make a 19l brew, so i personally would use about 25l in pot to mash, then when you pull the bag and give a little squeeze use the rest of the treated water to do a sparge into a spare fermenter then add that to the boil as and when you have the room.

i'm no expert, but hope this gives you something to think about.

cheers kyle

[john_drummer]

cheers kyle, much appreciated

[RdeV]

Hey there John,
if you're not looking to scale the 19L recipe up then I'd skip the sparge and top up, it shouldn't be necessary.
FWIW, I use a 36L pot to do single stock BIAB 23L batches with no sparging or dilution, but it can also do 2 * 23L as double batches with MaxiBIAB, i.e. with a sparge step and then diluted in the fermenter. You should be able to do something close to that, but seeing as its your first, just keep it simple and stick with a stock BIAB, you won't regret it. Things can go wrong with unanticipated bollox, so minimise the potential for SNAFU and start simple is my advice. Kyle's advice is nonetheless sound, however I'd just mash in to fill the pot, add the remaining litre or two of water to the boil towards the end (minimal interruption if it is boiling as well), but only when you're confident that it won't dilute the wort too much. So take a sample, cool it in iced water and measure its SG, if all went well it should be just above the target OG, if not, then your expected efficiency hasn't quite been reached, therefore don't add the additional water. Setting efficiency at 70% should be safe for your maiden BIAB and keeping it simple means there's every chance of turning out an excellent beer, so good luck!
Ps. Tip for hassle- free single infusion mashing: When you've heated the water to the strike temperature, reserve say 4L in a jug. Add the grain (I just drop the bag full of grain in) and stir well, measure the temperature- if it is too high- add some cool water, too low- add some boiling, spot on- use the reserved water or any combination. Then you should have the pot full to the brim with the mash and at exactly the right temperature.

[jonnyt]

Having now done 3 BIAB's my advice is:

1) Anticipate efficiency around 65 to 70% so adjust grains accordingly
2) If the recipe is using leaf hops then a filter is essential. I found out the hard way on number 3 with 100g of cascade!
3) I've under done the water every time with a 90 minute boil. I now reckon I need 36 to 37 litres of water for a 23L brew
4) My temperature drops around 2.8 degrees over a 90 minute mash, perhaps aim for a 67C start not 66C. However I have a 60L Mango Chutney jar which leaves a lot of air space

[john_drummer]

thanks RdeV & jonnyt, much appreciated

[Valley Commando]

You can use a hop bag to contain the leaf hops, its one way to get around the lack of a strainer. Just squeeze it with you brewers spoon to make sure the wort gets right in among the hops and all that hop goodness comes out.

[Brewtaster]

+ 1 on the hop bag. I also steal a few of the kids marbles to keep the hop bag submerged. Use a couple of pot lids to sqeeze the bag - even with marigolds on 67C is too hot! have a sparging bucket ready and heat some water in a separate large pan to about 65 - 70c for use as sparge water - a kettle's worth won't be enough! Oh and make sure your yeast is in date and if around expiry date - make a starter day before! Good luck with your brew!


iain

[john_drummer]

cheers folks, the pan has a hop strainer and we're about 40mins into the mash... photos later when I've got them all

[Valley Commando]

Best of luck! Whats the recipe?

[john_drummer]

for 19 litres, thanks to Graham Wheeler:

4510g pale malt, 245g crystal malt, 175g chocolate malt
at start of boil 24g challenger and 12g fuggles
10mins from end of boil, 12g goldings. dry hop after fermentation with a few cones of styrian goldings.

a well known dark ale from Masham

[Valley Commando]

Mmm, sounds good!

[john_drummer]

ok, time for an update. I started with 22l, probably not enough, and after 90minutes mash, sparge with 3 kettles full (5 litres) and then boil for 90 minutes, I got 15 litres out of the pot with an OG at 20deg of about 1070 - so I figured I could top up with cold (treated) water until I had the desired gravity of 1058.
I now have 18litres of hopped wort in my FV with an OG at 18deg of 1052. oops, perhaps I added a little too much cold. hopefully it won't affect the flavour as much as the alcohol content


the mash


rolling boil


running off the wort

[john_drummer]

it's now sitting in the bath surrounded by cold water. not quite a wort chiller but it should hopefully cool it quicker than leaving it to its own devices

[Valley Commando]

Looks great! Stick a nice clean lid on the FV and come back in the morning: should be at a good pitching temperature at breakfast time!