Converting 1 Gallon mash/sparge into 1 gallon BIAB recipe

[thegreatbrewnorth]

Hey everyone, have 2 successful brews under my belt. First one was a 1 gallon Brooklyn Brewshop kit, that turned out great. I did that one as per the instructions, which is essentially a traditional separate mash and sparge process.


I have since invested in a 2.5 BIAB setup. Before I start brewing my own recipes, I still have an additional BBS 1 gallon kit sitting around waiting to be brewed ( I bought it along with my initial BBS kit as they were on sale). It's an everyday IPA.

I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to convert the recipe to a 1gal BIAB.

For the BBS instructions, it says to heat 2.5 quarts to 160f, mash for 60mins, then sparge with an additional 4 quarts of water at 170f. Pre-boil volume says to be 5 quarts.

I'm wondering what volume of water and temp I need pre-mash if I wanted to brew this kit BIAB, as there would be no separate sparge process.

Thanks in advance.


(PS. Going to be investing in BeerSmith soon !)

 

[McKnuckle]

If we take the volumes in the kit at face value, meaning we won't adjust them to fit your system, then it's simple:

Mash with 6.5 quarts. It's the mash and sparge volumes added, simple as that.

The assumption is that you'll lose 1.5 quarts to grain absorption and end up with 5 quarts to boil. How much grain is there in the recipe (lbs)? Going by a typical BIAB absorption rate of 0.06 gallons/lb, if you had 6.25 lbs, the numbers would work out perfectly.

For strike temperature, just use an online calculator - input the weight and ambient temp of the grain, and the 6.5 quarts of water.

 

[thegreatbrewnorth]

If we take the volumes in the kit at face value, meaning we won't adjust them to fit your system, then it's simple:

Mash with 6.5 quarts. It's the mash and sparge volumes added, simple as that.

The assumption is that you'll lose 1.5 quarts to grain absorption and end up with 5 quarts to boil. How much grain is there in the recipe (lbs)? Going by a typical BIAB absorption rate of 0.06 gallons/lb, if you had 6.25 lbs, the numbers would work out perfectly.

For strike temperature, just use an online calculator - input the weight and ambient temp of the grain, and the 6.5 quarts of water.

I was initially thinking of this, but I guess I started over-thinking/over complicating the process more than I needed to. I'm not going to bother adjusting to my system simply because I don't know my system all that well yet as I've only gotten one brew under my belt and since then have purchased new equipment (bag, kettle, etc.).

Thanks for the reply!