BIAB first timer questions?

[dabull25]

Im about to attempt a BIAB(brew in a bag) of a the centennial blonde recipe as my first all grain beer(5 gallon batch). I have some questions about the technique to doing this. I have a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer pot Ive been using to brew. The recipe calls for 8.75 lbs of grains. How much water do I need to use to steep them in? I doubt Id be able to put in all 6 gallons or so with all the grains in the pot. Would it be alright if I just added water after the steep to the pot for the pre-boil water volume? Also, should I sparge the grains after steeping them?

 

[GenIke]

http://www.simplebiabcalculator.com

 

[StompingClover]

don't have a good calculation for you, but I always sparge the grain to get to your pre-boil volume.

 

[dabull25]

how much water do I need to steep the 8.75 lb of grain?

 

[StompingClover]

if I were doing it, I would use 4 gal and then sparge to get to your final pre-boil volume. I only biab 3 gal batches. I mash with 2.5-3 gal of water and then sparge to get my pre-boil volume of just under 4 gals. Someone might have a better answer, but that's what I would do.

 

[KyGooglenerd]

I just did the centennial blond in my 7.5 gal kettle. I mashed in with 5gal of 164F water to get 153F mash. I then mashed out to 165 for 10 more minutes then sparged with 165F to my boil volume. I can't wait to get my 15 gal keggle converted....

 

[wilserbrewer]

don't have a good calculation for you, but I always sparge the grain to get to your pre-boil volume.

I agree with the above, sometimes it is far simpler to just generate the amount of wort needed rather than predict a water volume. Basicly you can simply mash in with five gallons, then sparge the balance to get your 6 - 6.5 preboil volume. Or what also works is to mash in with say five gallons, after the mash, top up the pot with water and stir very well to max it out, remove bag and measure runnings, whatever you are lacking at this point is your sparge volume.

 

[brewinginnc]

I mash with 7 gallons everytime and sparge up to my needed volume. 10 gallon pot though