biab no2....water volume

[artyb]

:think:

i did no 1 biab and i came out with nearly 7 gallons of wort, [i have a nice beer but its diluted]

it was a bit hit and miss as i no chilled into a cube which held more than advertised... :?

i started with 33L, and added 6 litres from flushing the bag

so next brew.... im thinking of having

1 cube full of water ...[which is what i want to end with]

1 gallon to allow for the boil
1 gallon to allow for grain absorption

would this work out about right... :think:

sorry about the mix of gallons and litres... :blush:

im only thinking this through like ya do.. :scratch:

 

[Rwilts]

I have been asking all over about this question in prep for my first biab. On another forum someone did me a excel doc to work out basic volumes given any specific boiler. I need about 35L to start but no sparge water added. This should give me around 23L into fv. Obviously your milage will vary :

 

[Swift Pint]

How much grain are you using?
I cant remember the correct absorption rates, I want to say 1litre per Kg but that might be a bit high :wha:
Also, what was your boil off from your previous batch? That would be the best gauge to use for your calculation going forwards as it will vary from boiler to boiler.

I did a BIAB recently, first brew in a while, and ended up 2 litres too much, so next time I brew I'm just going to use 2 litres less to begin with!

 

[artyb]

thanx for the replies... :thumb:

heres a rundown of how biab 1, went,


i sort of got on with it and winged it abit ....

the beer came out really nice but not as it should have...

on biab 2 i intend taking more measurements and photos... :party:


Water
33litres.. 3 x camden tabs
Grain
4kg maris
½ kg pale wheat
½ crystal
Mash
heat up to 160
mash at 152 for 105 mins
Stirred once at 45mins

Mash out
167deg for 15 mins
remove bag,
Sparge in bucket….6L of hot water,

Boil
Time 75 minutes
Hops
40g fuggles @ start
50g bobek @ last 10 mins..

final volume 7 gallons ..inc trub/dregs.

 

[pittsy]

That is easy to sort , your final volume is approx 27.5 liters , your recipe wants 23 litres post boil so reduce your sparge water by 4.5 litres ..... to 2.5 liters .

 

[the-erl]

I've yet to do a BIAB brew but am planning one for next month and have been trying to find out as much as possible. A great website is http://www.biabrewer.info loads of knowledge and experience there.

Let us know how you get on.

Erl :drink:

 

[just_steve]

That is easy to sort , your final volume is approx 27.5 liters , your recipe wants 23 litres post boil so reduce your sparge water by 4.5 litres ..... to 2.5 liters .

I've been following threads like this for a little while now, as I intend to put my shiny new 33L stockpot to good use in BIAB brewing.

If we found ourselves needing to reduce volumes from one brew to the next, do we really want to take the reduction from the sparge? Which would affect the efficiency more? Taking water away from the sparge, or taking water away from the initial mash? This is assuming we keep everything else constant (namely the amount and type of malt). On top of that, my intention is to split the brew across two days by doing an overnight mash, how would this change the answers to my previous questions?

 

[artyb]

That is easy to sort , your final volume is approx 27.5 liters , your recipe wants 23 litres post boil so reduce your sparge water by 4.5 litres ..... to 2.5 liters .

I've been following threads like this for a little while now, as I intend to put my shiny new 33L stockpot to good use in BIAB brewing.

If we found ourselves needing to reduce volumes from one brew to the next, do we really want to take the reduction from the sparge? Which would affect the efficiency more? Taking water away from the sparge, or taking water away from the initial mash? This is assuming we keep everything else constant (namely the amount and type of malt). On top of that, my intention is to split the brew across two days by doing an overnight mash, how would this change the answers to my previous questions?

tbh .. there need not be a sparge,
a mash out will release sugars stuck to the grain,

on the other hand... :hmm:

im thinking of sparging the grain in the bag,
by placing it in an fv,
then sparging with the wort from the boiler....
it will be hot enough the mash out,

although i believe most of the flushing of the bag is unnecessary :whistle:

 

[artyb]

That is easy to sort , your final volume is approx 27.5 liters , your recipe wants 23 litres post boil so reduce your sparge water by 4.5 litres ..... to 2.5 liters .

yep i reckon your right :thumb:

its just a bit of maths, working on my results from brew no1 ....

 

[pittsy]

in an ideal world you want around 2.5 litre per kg of grain in the mash so 5 kg would be around 12.5 liters of water , then add the rest in the sparge .

 

[Swift Pint]

tbh .. there need not be a sparge,
a mash out will release sugars stuck to the grain,

on the other hand...

im thinking of sparging the grain in the bag,
by placing it in an fv,
then sparging with the wort from the boiler....
it will be hot enough the mash out,

although i believe most of the flushing of the bag is unnecessary

Listen to the BIAB podcast at Beersmith, he interviews the guy (Greg?) who runs the BIABinfo website. He dispels a lot of myths about BIAB that a traditional 3 tier all grainer might have. :thumb:

He says that it is more efficient to use the total water volume in the mash, with no sparge. He refers to this as a passive sparge. If you think about it, it would be better if the additional "sparge water" was in the mash the whole time as it will have a greater opportunity to dissolve sugar vs pouring the sparge water over the grain bag after the mash.

If you've got space in your pot I would go with the total volume of water and not sparge. It makes the process quicker, easier & more repeatable, with a higher efficiency.

in an ideal world you want around 2.5 litre per kg of grain in the mash so 5 kg would be around 12.5 liters of water , then add the rest in the sparge .

One of the myths Greg addresses in the podcast is re water:grain ratios. He basically says, based on evidence of lots of BIAB brewers, it doesn't matter. A high water to grain ratio is not having any adverse impact on the mash.

 

[just_steve]

Responses noted. Thanks guys!

He says that it is more efficient to use the total water volume in the mash, with no sparge. He refers to this as a passive sparge. If you think about it, it would be better if the additional "sparge water" was in the mash the whole time as it will have a greater opportunity to dissolve sugar vs pouring the sparge water over the grain bag after the mash.

If you've got space in your pot I would go with the total volume of water and not sparge. It makes the process quicker, easier & more repeatable, with a higher efficiency.

I can believe that. I often wondered that if you started with a small amount of water (to account for a sparge later) you wouldn't extract as much sugar as you could otherwise. After the mash has converted the starch to sugars, think of the grain as just a store of sugar. In a small volume of water the sugar concentration in the wort will climb quickly until the concentration of sugar in the wort and grains becomes equal (I guess :hmm: ). But the amount left in the grains would still be high. If you have more water from the beginning, the sugar concentration in the wort wouldn't go up as fast because you need a lot more sugar for a lot more water. So when the sugar does all come out, you'll have spent more grain? And as you say SP, the extra water ('sparge water') has been in the whole time getting the benefit of the full mash time to extract as much sugar as possible.

[quote:3bwxh2o7]in an ideal world you want around 2.5 litre per kg of grain in the mash so 5 kg would be around 12.5 liters of water , then add the rest in the sparge .

One of the myths Greg addresses in the podcast is re water:grain ratios. He basically says, based on evidence of lots of BIAB brewers, it doesn't matter. A high water to grain ratio is not having any adverse impact on the mash.[/quote:3bwxh2o7]

I can believe that too. High amounts of water should facilitate more sugar diffusing into the wort rather than staying in the grain. I guess you just don't want too much water or you'll end up with a 2% beer and next to no flavour!

 

[fbsf]

True, although I would have thought a little sparge is useful to rinse the sugars off that are sticking to the outside of the grains, if nothing else.

Saying that I'm going to give this a go with my next BIAB as it's a high ABV brew so I want to extract as much from the grains as possible.

 

[bunkerbrewer]

True, although I would have thought a little sparge is useful to rinse the sugars off that are sticking to the outside of the grains, if nothing else.

I just keep stirring throughout the mashout - it takes about 15-20 mins in my boiler but it's quite a satisfying process :)

 

[artyb]

True, although I would have thought a little sparge is useful to rinse the sugars off that are sticking to the outside of the grains, if nothing else.

I just keep stirring throughout the mashout - it takes about 15-20 mins in my boiler but it's quite a satisfying process :)

yup that should work... :thumb: