bradfordmonk
Well-Known Member
I have been trying BIAB, but after burning a blanket and burning to the voile bag to the side of the hot kettle and the mess of trying to hold a 20+# bag of wet grains and draining into pot is not fun...
I've decided to try the following setup: 52-Qt Igloo Cooler (http://tinyurl.com/b3f8zfy) with a kettle screen and valve. What I want to do also is keep the Voile bag to line the cooler with...hence being able to keep a finer crush and not have to worry about a stuck sparge.
I have a few questions though with using this method (I'm sure I'm not the only one to try this way)...
1. What should I put for MT loss? It's kind of a hybrid biab but I'm keeping the Voile, so do i calculate for a loss since I can pretty much drain like normal and still pull bag out and get some more of the wort at the bottom by just dumping it in. Or maybe I should just get the Mash level right with grain amounts, then do two even sparges of the same amounts and just collect until i have what I need for boil.
(I plan on doing a batch sparge method, but wondering if I should calculate less water volume lost to equipment using what I'm doing).
2. I use Deer Park bottle water. I'm trying to figure out EZ Water calculator to make some adjustments with some salts. Using Deer Park bottled spring water is definitely going to be soft. i attached a screen shot of ezwater calc (i looked at Brun Water, and that is confusing as can be at least for just starting) and what i'm entering in. A few questions with this...
1- I thought I read pH should be 5.2, this shows it should be between 5.4 and 5.6
2- How do I add the salts, for example for Gypsum I add 1g to mash water, then 1.8g to the sparge? So I guess easiest thing to do would be to heat up entire volume of water to strike for mash water, take out of kettle the 1.25qt/lb, then add grain into MLT, then add the salts to that? then heat up sparge water to 190 and add the additional grams of salts in that, then sparge away? Is that correct?
3- Should I worry that Sodium is low at 3? when suggested range is between 0-150?
4- I'm not making stouts (yet) but am making in the low - mid/high range of color, how do i go about adjusting for that with this calculator.
3. When I add the sparge water (i think i can split the sparge into two even amounts and do it that way), should I stir the grains up, then let it sit for like 10 mins, then vorlauf, then drain? then repeat for second sparge step?
Wow - alot going on, but I think that covers all my questions that maybe someone could help with.
I've decided to try the following setup: 52-Qt Igloo Cooler (http://tinyurl.com/b3f8zfy) with a kettle screen and valve. What I want to do also is keep the Voile bag to line the cooler with...hence being able to keep a finer crush and not have to worry about a stuck sparge.
I have a few questions though with using this method (I'm sure I'm not the only one to try this way)...
1. What should I put for MT loss? It's kind of a hybrid biab but I'm keeping the Voile, so do i calculate for a loss since I can pretty much drain like normal and still pull bag out and get some more of the wort at the bottom by just dumping it in. Or maybe I should just get the Mash level right with grain amounts, then do two even sparges of the same amounts and just collect until i have what I need for boil.
(I plan on doing a batch sparge method, but wondering if I should calculate less water volume lost to equipment using what I'm doing).
2. I use Deer Park bottle water. I'm trying to figure out EZ Water calculator to make some adjustments with some salts. Using Deer Park bottled spring water is definitely going to be soft. i attached a screen shot of ezwater calc (i looked at Brun Water, and that is confusing as can be at least for just starting) and what i'm entering in. A few questions with this...
1- I thought I read pH should be 5.2, this shows it should be between 5.4 and 5.6
2- How do I add the salts, for example for Gypsum I add 1g to mash water, then 1.8g to the sparge? So I guess easiest thing to do would be to heat up entire volume of water to strike for mash water, take out of kettle the 1.25qt/lb, then add grain into MLT, then add the salts to that? then heat up sparge water to 190 and add the additional grams of salts in that, then sparge away? Is that correct?
3- Should I worry that Sodium is low at 3? when suggested range is between 0-150?
4- I'm not making stouts (yet) but am making in the low - mid/high range of color, how do i go about adjusting for that with this calculator.
3. When I add the sparge water (i think i can split the sparge into two even amounts and do it that way), should I stir the grains up, then let it sit for like 10 mins, then vorlauf, then drain? then repeat for second sparge step?
Wow - alot going on, but I think that covers all my questions that maybe someone could help with.
