Considering BIAB, a few questions?

[HLA91]

Hey everyone

I am considering BIAB, now I have a few questions etc... so if you could bear with me I would be grateful.

1) I will be putting my beer into cornies so I am looking for around 18L of Finished Volume (Whats the correct term here its eluding me), I have read around that I should add 5L to this to get my starting vol, so 23L, correct?

2) How do I adjust recipes based on 23L Finishing Vol to compensate for the smaller volume? I have BeerSmith2, but I have clue what to do with it, so if someone could give me a quick rundown I would be grateful

3) In quite a few walkthroughs people say if you have too high a OG and too low a vol just add hot water, and the reverse is keep boiling, how do you know your volume once its in the pan, would a youngs brewing spoon with marked increments work?

4) Do I need a 33L or 50L boiler?

Thats it for now, I did have a few more questions but I lost the piece of paper I had written them on.

Many thanks

HLA91

[EoinMag]

Hey everyone

I am considering BIAB, now I have a few questions etc... so if you could bear with me I would be grateful.

1) I will be putting my beer into cornies so I am looking for around 18L of Finished Volume (Whats the correct term here its eluding me), I have read around that I should add 5L to this to get my starting vol, so 23L, correct?

2) How do I adjust recipes based on 23L Finishing Vol to compensate for the smaller volume? I have BeerSmith2 so if someone could give me a quick rundown I would be grateful

3) In quite a few walkthroughs people say if you have too high a OG and too low a vol just add hot water, and the reverse is keep boiling, how do you know your volume once its in the pan, would a youngs brewing spoon with marked increments work?

4) Do I need a 33L or 50L boiler?

Thats it for now, I did have a few more questions but I lost the piece of paper I had written them on.

Many thanks

HLA91

The method you're looking at is called Maxi-BIAB.
The rest will take some reading and I don't have time right now to dissect your post, but if you check that subject your answers will be there.

I expect Bribie will be along soon as he's a bit of an expert and can probably answer your questions from his head.

[HLA91]

I thought Maxi was for brewing more than your pot could hold? Thinking about it, I think reducing down to 19L could be more hassle than its worth, Ill stick to the usual 23L I can bottle the excess to use as conditioning samples.

[EoinMag]

Ah apologies, you are going down to 19l, see I should have read that better.

[HLA91]

Ahh ok, I think i'll stick with 23L just to not confuse matters.

[AnthonyUK]

In Beersmith there are profiles for most BIAB sizes built in or just create your own. I use a 40l Buffako boiler and there is a profile to suit.
To resize, select your recipe, edit, resize recipe and choose your equipment profile.

[bob3000]

Do a 23l brew length for going into 18l cornies. This is so you can leave some hot/cold break in the kettle and yeast/trub in the fermenter when you rack off. If you only brew 19l you will be left short.

[killer]

Hey everyone

I am considering BIAB, now I have a few questions etc... so if you could bear with me I would be grateful.

1) I will be putting my beer into cornies so I am looking for around 18L of Finished Volume (Whats the correct term here its eluding me), I have read around that I should add 5L to this to get my starting vol, so 23L, correct?

2) How do I adjust recipes based on 23L Finishing Vol to compensate for the smaller volume? I have BeerSmith2, but I have clue what to do with it, so if someone could give me a quick rundown I would be grateful

3) In quite a few walkthroughs people say if you have too high a OG and too low a vol just add hot water, and the reverse is keep boiling, how do you know your volume once its in the pan, would a youngs brewing spoon with marked increments work?

4) Do I need a 33L or 50L boiler?

Thats it for now, I did have a few more questions but I lost the piece of paper I had written them on.

Many thanks

HLA91

Hi HLA91,

The answers to the volume questions will tend to vary based on your particular system setup.
I find that if I brew 24L (after the boil - in the boiler) I lose at least 1L in the boiler (hops and crud), So I get about 22.5 L into my fermenting bin. After fermentation (with small losses due to dry hopping and yeast sediment), I get about 21 - 21.5 L into bottles/ minikegs.

I agree you should stick to 23L brews - It's better to slightly over volume, that way you can get 1 corny and maybe a few bottles - the contrast between minikeg/ bottles can be surprising sometimes.

A bit of stainless steel or indeed a calibrated marked spoon is a good way to measure volume.

I would buy as big a boiler as possible. I have a 29L boiler, and I still need to maxi-BIAB a little to get 23 brewlengths. If I could go back in time I would buy a 40 or 50L boiler. Probably a 50L stainless steel jobby which I would modify myself.

[simco999]

I reckon you'll get away with a 33litre boiler - if the price isn't too steep go for the 50 litre. (you'll want to do bigger batches )

I agree with the other guys - aim for 21 litres "final volume".

At that rate scale down the grain by 10%?

Is it worth it? Maybe scale the hops down.

Fact of the matter is you need to get used to your own setup and that will take about 5 brews.

Good luck and enjoy it!!

Edit - ok I didn't read everything - - if you are doing 23 litre batches you deffo need a 50 litre boiler - my starting vol is 32litres - then I sparge with 2 litres. 34 l all in. Lose 5 l to the grain and 5 to the boil- ish. This just wont fit in a 33 litre boiler.

[AnthonyUK]

if you are doing 23 litre batches you deffo need a 50 litre boiler - my starting vol is 32litres - then I sparge with 2 litres. 34 l all in. Lose 5 l to the grain and 5 to the boil- ish. This just wont fit in a 33 litre boiler.

You could go for a 40l Buffalo boiler
I manage 23l batches easily and the Buffalo is pretty popular among BIABers.
It is often on offer at Nisbets for around £105 delivered and is stainless too.

[spanspoon]

Check out http://www.biabrewer.info/

Use the calculator that they provide, obviously it's only as good as the data you put in but each time I've used it, it's been pretty much spot in.

I use a 30l burco which is too small. The only way to do a full brew is to go with maxi biab which I don't particularly like as I don't really have the proper equipment to sparge.

The last brew I did, my efficiency came out at around 66% and I ended up with about 18l of final product and I used 5.5kg of grain. Percentage of alcohol was around 4.6% but don't get too hung up on figures. On this brew I didn't mash out (raise mash temp to 78c for around 20 mins, which supposedly helps release more sugars from the grain). Mash out seems to work for me as I usually get 80% efficiency. In answer to question 1 if you get a big enough pot 40l plus you won't need to add any water to your wort.

In answer to question 2 definitely take a look thought the biab brewer spreadsheet. It looks daunting at first but break things down into small pieces and its self explanatory. If you find a recipe and want it adjusting there's people on biab brewer who will work out adjusted amounts for you.

Once you get a pot, to work out the quantity of water, you could mark increments on a spoon. I personally use a metal ruler. I added water using a measuring jug a litre at a time (most jugs measurements are out so weigh out 1 litre of water which is 1kg). Tot up 1 litre at a time and mark this off on your measurer. Or if you have a straight walled pot then the water level should raise consistently. My 30l burco comes in at 11mm per 1 litre of water.

My next purchase is likely to be a 40l buffalo boiler, simply because I could take any recipe and not have to worry about making any adjustments.

[HLA91]

Cheers for the info everyone, Rob @ Maltmiller is currently preparing a 50L pot for me, as for a bag, would this one work? I did look at EoinMag's CustomBIAB but no slots available. The only piece of gear I don't have or know to get is a thermometer. I have had a look for ones with a cable and probe that I can just leave in the pot but no such luck, I spoke to thermometer specialists and they suggested this, I would just have to keep prodding it in every 10min during the mash EDIT: Have found this one which was recommended on this forum any objections to using that and checking every 10min?, unless anyone has any others they can recommend?

My first recipe I think i'll try this

Rookie BIABitter
Grain:
3.25kg Maris Otter
0.36kg Flaked Maize
0.24kg Crystal Malt (135.0 EBC)
0.03 kg Black Malt (1300.0 EBC)
Hops etc:
28.00 g Challenger [7.00 %] @ 90.0 min
5.00 g Irish Moss @ 10.0 min (rehydrated in wort 15 mins before addition)
10.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] @ 10.0 min
Yeast:
1pkt Nottingham or similar
Dry Hops:
20.00 g East Kent Goldings [5.00 %] Dry Hop 14.0 Days

Everything sound ok so far?

[simco999]

Bag looks fine - I use a square piece of voile I got for about 4 quid of ebay. You need bungees though.

My thermometer has a lead which means you can leave the probe in the mash without keep having to take the lid off. Its great.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Probe ... 232c78fc6c

Don't get one of these they're shit.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIGITAL-KITCH ... 5af1c660be

I also put some foil on top of the mash to try to keep the heat in.

Can't comment on the recipe - not my beer style.

[HLA91]

Someone said with that thermometer you recommended, to check it after you use it as they used it in the mash and afterwards it kept reading 40degrees at room temp but that's probably a bad batch so ill pick that one up and that bag once payday arrives on Friday. Oh yes and a copy of GW's book I've been told is a must.

[paulg]

completly agee with the suggestion of BIABrewer link .use the calculator there.
I switched to BIAB after several 3 vessel brews and have found the calculator pretty much spot on with both 23 and 40 litre brews ,using the calculator to upscale the grain etc.
I have also found I regulary exceed the 75% efficiency that G Wheelers book bases his recipes on.
I have to add about 10 litres of water to my boiler after the mash for 40 litres batches but dont sparge ,I do do a mash out though

Paul