Yet Another BIAB First Timer!

[CascadesBrewer]

I did my first BIAB batch today! BeerSmith tells me I got around around 85% efficiency (I overshot my expected OG by .005). It took me 4 hr 20 min from filling pots with water and crushing grain to wort in the fermenter (with a 15 min delay because I ran out for hops during the mash and got back right at 60 min). I am new to using BeerSmith Mobile (and I forgot to take to measure my wort volume after I pulled out the chiller), so I would not put too much into the 85% efficiency number, but 1.058 on a 5 gal batch with 10.5 lbs of grain seems pretty good.

I will play around with my BIAB process, but what I did seemed to work well. I did 4 gal of water for the mash and 4 gal for the sparge (though I ended up with .5 gal more in the boil that I wanted.) I mash in an insulated box that holds my temps by 3-4F over an hour.

After the mash, I put the pot back on the burner, lifted the bag off the bottom, and fired up my burner. When it got to around 180F I did a quick dunk of the grain and pulled it up and let it drain for 5 min or so.

I then moved it to a bucket where I added ~4 gal of heated sparge water. I stirred it, let it sit for a few minutes then lifted the bag and let it drain. By the time that was done, the wort in the kettle was up to around 200F.

I liked cutting out pretty much the entire sparge time from the process (and it is hard to see where this would be less efficient than a two step batch sparge), I like that I can start heating as soon as mash is done, and I like that I can crush fine and not worry about stuck sparges. I want to play around with a full volume mash and I am not sure if I need to mess with heating up my sparge water.

Thanks for all the good info from this forum!

 

[LittleRiver]

Well done!

Try a no sparge batch with your full volume of water. With a fine crush (~.025") you should be able to get about the same efficiency (low 80's) with a much simpler process.

Put your insulated box upside down over the kettle during the mash. That way you won't be moving a kettle of hot liquid.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Put your insulated box upside down over the kettle during the mash. That way you won't be moving a kettle of hot liquid.

“My boy is wicked smaht” good idea, less you have to move the better in my book!

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Put your insulated box upside down over the kettle during the mash. That way you won't be moving a kettle of hot liquid.

That thought crossed my mind. Somewhere around 5 gal of water and 12 lb of grain is the most I try to lift, which is what pushed me towards using a sparge. I was worried a little about low efficiency but that was not a problem.

 

[LittleRiver]

...I was worried a little about low efficiency but that was not a problem.

Most of the things you see written about low efficiency re BIAB are related to crush size. If you use a coarse crush (as is standard in other systems to prevent stuck sparges) then you may well have efficiency issues. But with BIAB you can crush very fine, which has a big impact on efficiency.

I crush at .025, don't sparge, don't squeeze the bag (I let gravity fully drain it into the kettle during the boil), and get about 83% efficiency. Brew days are hassle free and enjoyable.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I am hooked. I did my second BIAB batch. The plan yesterday was to brew a 2.5 gal batch on my stovetop in my 5 gal pot to fill the 2.6 gal keg I just got. I also planned to try a full volume, no sparge process.

Brewing a strong beer is on my Brew Year's Resolution list and I have been digging Russian Imperial Stouts. I put together a recipe (a.k.a. scaled a clone recipe of Great Lakes Blackout Stout) and BeerSmith 3 Mobile seemed to say it could fit in my 5 gal pot. Once I milled the 10+ lbs of grain and started to measure out my strike water I realized this was not going into my 5 gal pot. I probably could have made it work with a sparge, but I decided just to move it to my 10 gal pot outside...it is a nice day out anyway.

My OG came in at 1.104, and BeerSmith 3 Mobile tells me that is a 71.6% efficiency. That seems okay for a high gravity, no-sparge batch.

Pics of my brew day below. The jars are yeast slurry from a porter that I harvested yesterday. I pitched one pint of slurry to kick off the fermentation.

 

[RM-MN]

Good job on your RIS. I hope you left the lids a bit loose on your yeast slurry or you will find it pressurized in a couple days. Mine took weeks to stop outgassing.