New to BIAB

[marko65]

Have done a few kits and have now managed to get hold of some equipment for BIAB - I have a 19 litre pot and a 13 litre (3.5 gallon) Brewtech fermenter.
Looking for some guidance on how much I will likely end up with after the boil? Will I need to sparge to give me enough after the boil to fill the fermenter?

Cheers

 

[Wouter]

Hi Marko.

You can sparge if you like, this gives you a higher sugar extraction. But personally I wouldn't botter. BIAB usually yields approximately a decrease of 10% in this aspect.
The exact amount of water retention by the malt isn't important. You should try to squeeze out as much water as possible. After that you add water until you reach you're desired boil volume. In traditional ways you could get about 15 litres of beer as absolute max in that 19 L pot. Of course you can always play a bit if you want more. You can try high density brewing. Afterwards you dilute till the desired gravity.

 

[Covrich]

with a 19L pot you should be able to BIAB to around 10L just about which for a 13.5 fermenter would be a good fit.

This is assuming you are going for a normal full volume mash with the grain in the 19l pot and then strain and on to the boil. (that is kind of the beauty of BIAB is that it is such a simple way of doing it) .. you can like Wouter says add a sparge step in if you wish to do so.

With a good crush and practice you can get 70+% efficiency on BIAB

 

[Wouter]

With a good crush and practice you can get 70+% efficiency on BIAB

Yeah definately, you can crush a bit finer with BIAB. I have had up to 75% with BIAB.
Its a fun method to use when you're doing small batches. For batches bigger than 10L its difficult. For batches bigger then 20L its a complete hell.

Its so incredibly heavy. And when you have a lot of grains the bag doesn't cool down so squeezing the bag burns your hands. I find that sparging these bigger batches is next to impossible and just plain annoying.

 

[IainM]

Yup, 10 litre batches seems right to me. As Covrich and Wouter say sparging is optional, and you can use something like the BIABacus spreadsheet to work out volumes for no-sparge brews, but I'd recommend it, especially if you plan on any higher abv brews. It might be worth investing in some silicon gloves (these work well for me) to help squeezing the bag.

EDIT: Also, welcome to the dark side :cheers7:

 

[Covrich]

Yeah definately, you can crush a bit finer with BIAB. I have had up to 75% with BIAB.
Its a fun method to use when you're doing small batches. For batches bigger than 10L its difficult. For batches bigger then 20L its a complete hell.

Its so incredibly heavy. And when you have a lot of grains the bag doesn't cool down so squeezing the bag burns your hands. I find that sparging these bigger batches is next to impossible and just plain annoying.

I have a 50L pot and just do 23L BIAB in that.. yes it can be a bit heavy but I generally dont have a problem and get pretty much 70-75% everytime.

With one pot and a burner its so easy.. I have done sparges but its just extra hassle in this situation. for the same of an extra 5% efficiency

 

[IainM]

Its so incredibly heavy.

This is true, and reminds me of another BIAB tip: you can save a small fortune on gym membership fees by brewing lots of full-length Barleywines and Russian Imperial Stouts.

 

[Duxuk]

The way to save your arms when BIABing is to have a hook on the ceiling to hang your bag from. I lash a string around a rafter in my garage. I hang the bag full of grain from this and after a few minutes dripping it's cool enough to squeeze.
I would not bother sparging on my first brew. If you got hold of a 23l FV for future brews you could, as pointed out above, make a high gravity wort in your 19l pan and dilute in the FV. Sparging is more important if you do this since you don't want to waste liquor with a really high gravity. It's better to rinse it through so that the liquid you leave behind contains less sugar.

 

[AdeDunn]

I BIAB, 23 litre batches in a 30 litre boiler. If the bag is a little too heavy, I get my wife to help out. She either helps to lift the bag, or I lift the bag whilst she puts the cooling rack on top of the boiler once I've lifted it high enough. I never squeeze the bag as you end up with super cloudy wort when you do, which would defeat the object of using my recirculation system to "vorlauf" before draining the boiler to sparge, and I always "sparge". I also build a recirculation system into my boiler though, so it's not quite as simple any more, but on the plus side last brew day I got 90.6% Efficiency into fermenter according to my software...

Without recirculation, the 2 best bits of advice I could have done with on my first BIAB brew were:-

1) Get your mash pH right, you get better efficiency that way.
2) Stir well when doughing in, making sure to lift the grain off the bottom of the bag into the liquid fully. Do the same every 20 minutes through the mash.

These 2 things massively improved my efficiency starting out. Better efficiency means you can get the same OG with less grain, which is really helpful when you BIAB. Oh, and don't stress that your wort WILL be cloudy going into the boil, especially if you do squeeze the bag.

Before recirculation, I used to be able to get 80% and up efficiency with BIAB, but would end up with very cloudy wort.

 

[marko65]

Thanks for your help everyone - how do I get a finer crush?

 

[Wouter]

Thanks for your help everyone - how do I get a finer crush?

Change the settings om your malt Miller. The closer the rolls are the finer the crush.

 

[marko65]

I don't have a malt miller - I haven't purchased any grain yet - any suggestions who would crush it finer for me?

 

[dan125]

The Malt Miller will crush fine for you if you request it:-

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/about-us/

 

[Brianbrewed]

I don't have a malt miller - I haven't purchased any grain yet - any suggestions who would crush it finer for me?

Geterbrewed and TheHomebrewcompany will also grind finer for BIAB.
Just leave a message in the comment box when you make an order.