Some burning BIAB questions

[EZmacncheese]

Hey guys, looking to possibly make the leap into AG brewing through BIAB but I have some questions hopefully someone can answer.

1) Isn't BIAB brewing all about no-sparge? It seems like there's a lot of people who sparge with BIAB. Why? Why not just go regular AG then?

2) I am lost in the sauce on volumes of water and grain. Seems pretty dependent on efficiency of my setup and how am I going to know what that is until I brew a batch? Should I not even worry about targeting an OG for the first few batches and just try to get a consistent efficiency down?

4) I have ridiculously alkaline water. Like 8.8 pH water. Am I going to have trouble making good BIAB beer?

5) If I miss my OG by going over can I just add water or will this ruin the beer?

6) If I want to make a 5g batch can I just mash in 3g then add 2g to the boil? (pretend there is no volume loss)

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

1) For me, yea, its about not sparging. But lots of people do. Some get higher effiency from it, I get 75+ even on 1.100 beers without sparging.

2) may take you a bit to get it dialed, but essentially the calc is: final beer vol (say 5 gal) + trub loss in fermenter (say .5 gal)+ grain absorption in mash (anywhere from .08-.1 multiplied by grain weight; ex 10lbs*.1 = 1 gallon) + evaporation in boil (say 1 gal) In this example you'd preferably have a starting water volume of 5+.5+1+1= 7.5 gallons

3) perhaps. And it wouldn't be just for BIAB, but any All grain setup. Alkaline water is pretty detrimental. Might consider reverse osmosis from the store

4) Yes if you go over your intended OG you can dilute down. There are calculators to tell you needed dilution volumes.

 

[ODI3]

1) Isn't BIAB brewing all about no-sparge? It seems like there's a lot of people who sparge with BIAB. Why? Why not just go regular AG then?

EDIT: Yea, generally speaking. But some people use the sparge to mash out in the hopes of higher efficency, or if their kettle isnt large enough to handle the mash + all the sparge water(maxi-biab)

2) I am lost in the sauce on volumes of water and grain. Seems pretty dependent on efficiency of my setup and how am I going to know what that is until I brew a batch? Should I not even worry about targeting an OG for the first few batches and just try to get a consistent efficiency down?
EDIT: for easy figuring, I usually just start with 8 gal of water for a full 5 gal batch. and start with 72% efficency. After your mash, take a gravity reading to determine your Mash Efficiency. During your first 20 min of boiling, you can determine your boil off rate, which will allow you to predict your final volume, then adjust your heat source to compensate and get your correct final volume. If predict you are going to be short, decrease heat, or add water. The boil strength doesnt matter as long as you can see the liquid turn over. Cheap $25 refractometer from ebay is your best friend for measuring gravity here.

4) I have ridiculously alkaline water. Like 8.8 pH water. Am I going to have trouble making good BIAB beer?
EDIT: Until you get your process and equip figured out, i wouldnt worry about the PH. Later uUcan add phosphoric acid, acid malt, lactic acid or salts to reduce PH. There are brewing salt worksheets that can help with this but, this question opens a huge conversation alone

5) If I miss my OG by going over can I just add water or will this ruin the beer?
EDIT: If you add water after the boil, make sure it is sterile. My experience is that adding water after the boil tends to make the beer tastes watery. I prefer to add during, or before the boil so it mixes better.

 

[Cider123]

If you want a thorough tutorial on proper technique for BIAB, spend a little time reading over at BIABrewer.info
Those guys focus on this technique and many members were involved when it first started being used regularly. Their statements are based on scientific method.

This is a point for great disagreement, but their testing has shown that you get better efficiency if you mash with the full amount of water required and no sparge, compared to using less and reserving some water for a sparge. I cannot explain it fully, but the folks at that site can and have. I bought a large kettle and no longer waste my time sparging (and less clean up.) I do squeeze my bag.

Most importantly, they offer the free use of a spreadsheet called the BIABacus. This is a wonderful tool once you learn how to use it. They have many tutorials at the site. Trust me, once you learn how to fill it in, you'll know how much water to use (along with everything else) and you'll be hitting your OG's right on. I love the BIABacus and the process in general. It makes it so easy to do.
My copy of Beersmith now sits in a drawer somewhere collecting dust.

 

[EZmacncheese]

Thanks for the replies.

During your first 20 min of boiling, you can determine your boil off rate, which will allow you to predict your final volume, then adjust your heat source to compensate and get your correct final volume. If predict you are going to be short, decrease heat, or add water. The boil strength doesnt matter as long as you can see the liquid turn over. Cheap $25 refractometer from ebay is your best friend for measuring gravity here.

How do you determine the boil off rate? Put a measuring stick in the wort?

 

[Foosier]

These are the links I use. Note the second one is a boil off calculator.

http://www.simplebiabcalculator.com/ http://sigginet.info/brewing/tools/boil-off-calculator/ http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/gravity.html

All of them are winners and do the heavy math for you.

 

[haeffnkr]

Hey guys, looking to possibly make the leap into AG brewing through BIAB but I have some questions hopefully someone can answer.

1) Isn't BIAB brewing all about no-sparge? It seems like there's a lot of people who sparge with BIAB. Why? Why not just go regular AG then?
Edit -
I dont sparge

2) I am lost in the sauce on volumes of water and grain. Seems pretty dependent on efficiency of my setup and how am I going to know what that is until I brew a batch? Should I not even worry about targeting an OG for the first few batches and just try to get a consistent efficiency down?
Edit -
Use Tastybrew calculator as suggested.
Use 75% for brew effeciency and 78% yeast attenuation.
Start with a gallon over your starting brew volume.
I start with 9 gallons, after I mash and pull the bag I have 8 left, then I boil 1.25 to end with 6.75

4) I have ridiculously alkaline water. Like 8.8 pH water. Am I going to have trouble making good BIAB beer?
Edit
I wish someone would have told me this about a 1.5 years ago when I started so I will tell you now... starting with distilled or ro/di water will make you beers BETTER ... PERIOD.
Tap water varies by day/hour, so even if you get it analyzed, it is only a point in time.
You have no idea what makes up the water you are going to brew with, unless you use ro/di water, then you start with a repeatable blank slate.

Using a fermentation refrigerator and a temp controller, correct/large amount of liquid yeast, pure oxygen and ro/di water will make a good beer.
Dont skimp on any of these points.

5) If I miss my OG by going over can I just add water or will this ruin the beer?
Edit -
Once you do this a few times, you wont miss your OG
You can use tastybrew to calculate what your effeciency was and use that the next time you brew.

6) If I want to make a 5g batch can I just mash in 3g then add 2g to the boil? (pretend there is no volume loss)
Edit -
I never did this.....
Not sure why you would unless you dont have a big enough pot.... easy fix for that issue

thanks Kevin

 

[laserghost]

Cider123 is on point, and I second biabrewer.info and the biabacus.

Whoever says BIAB is no sparge is wrong. The beauty of BIAB is that you have one vessel, but there is a sparge that is occurring ... while you are mashing. It's a passive sparge, meaning you don't need to physically do an extra step sparging. It's built into the process.

I typically do 5.5 gal into the fermentor. I have a 12.5 gal kettle. With my IIPA recipe, my mash volume is at kettle capacity. You start with your entire volume of water (mash + sparge + evaporation, in other words your boil volume + grain absorption + evaporation). This makes for a thinner mash than when you fly or batch sparge. The added fluidity from the extra water is rinsing the grains during the mash ... it's a passive sparge.

Here's a recent example. I recently did a NO SPARGE BIAB brew where I used a traditional water:grist at 1.35 qt/lb. I mashed in the bag, pulled it, and let it drain to collect the runnings. I ran no extra water through the grains. The grains were not sparged. I got 64% efficiency into the kettle (what I intended) and my OG was 1.072. This was a modification of the BIAB technique.

On another brew, OG: 1.080 I used the TRADITIONAL BIAB technique at ~2.6 qt/lb, all of my water in the kettle with the mash, no water additions to the kettle after pulling the bag, or to the fermentor. I got 78% efficiency into the kettle.

Mash efficiency into the kettle is a function of mash thickness (among other things). The thinner the mash, the better the efficiency, which is why you have to sparge a thick mash if you want to get 80%+ into the kettle.

ALSO Siggi's equipment tool is a great starting point for determining your evaporation rate and so forth, but the BIABacus also has this all built in. All you have to do is enter your kettle dimensions and it figures out everything for you.

 

[BigFloyd]

Don't worry. It may take a batch or two, but with BIAB, once you get used to it and your equipment you can simplify the whole thing quite a bit. I was guessing a 68% efficiency my first BIAB batch and actually got 76%. That was a strong (but tasty) Vienna/Amarillo SMASH beer.

After running a couple of brews on my recirculating E-BIAB system, I figured out that I can start normal grain bill (1.050-1.065) batches by simply filling my keggle to the 9 gallon mark and proceed from there.

One thing that can help is to get two white 5 gallon food grade buckets. They have some in the paint dept at Lowes for $4. Drill several big holes (mine are 7/8") in the bottom and lower sides of one bucket. Put that bucket inside the other one. When you pull the bag out of the kettle, put it in the buckets and press down with either a fry pan lid or another bucket. You'll be surprised at how much goodness you can squeeze out of that bag this way.

 

[BigFloyd]

Oops. Double post.