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High Gravity BIAB - Info needed

Post #1 made 11 years ago
by BeerFingers
Hi all,

So I have a 20L Braumeister which I love. But I find it tops out at 6Kg of grist which makes IIPAs and Barley Wines impossible unless I do a double batch and boil it for 6 hours, which then makes for an exceptionally long brew day.

So, I bought a bag and have a 30L Electric boiler as well as a 50L keggle and a 4-ring burner. The bag fits into both of these.

So before I start planning a 1100+ Imperial anything:
What would be the maximum amount of grist recommended for BIAB?
What kind of efficiency into kettle can I expect from say 6kg and 12kg grist's?

I suppose I'm trying to work out if it's better to do a single mash in the bag, or if im better off doing 2 thick mash's (1 BIAB and 1 in the BM) and then combine the runnings from both for the boil.

Drawing on your experience, What would you guys suggest?

Cheers,

BF
Last edited by BeerFingers on 30 Apr 2014, 11:09, edited 1 time in total.

Post #2 made 11 years ago
by Yeasty
Beerfingers

Have you tried having a play with the Biabacus. ? The latest version can be found Here

This will work out your ratios etc. Bear in mind that the biabacus auto efficiency isn't as accurate at high gravities and some manual input may be needed.

In answer to your last question I would tend to go with a biab in the 50L but watch your back as the bag is going to be heavy with a big beer.

:thumbs:

Yeasty
Last edited by Yeasty on 30 Apr 2014, 14:28, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #3 made 11 years ago
by BeerFingers
Yeasty wrote:Beerfingers

Have you tried having a play with the Biabacus. ? The latest version can be found Here

This will work out your ratios etc. Bear in mind that the biabacus auto efficiency isn't as accurate at high gravities and some manual input may be needed.
Had a look at it today. It looks pretty good TBH. I'll have to measure my hardware to give it a good run though.
At the moment I have the BM and Beersmith dialled in pretty much spot on. It'll be good to compare the 2.
Apart from the recirculation, the BM and BIAB aren't exactly worlds apart.
Yeasty wrote: In answer to your last question I would tend to go with a biab in the 50L but watch your back as the bag is going to be heavy with a big beer.

:thumbs:

Yeasty
Might be worth me just doing a standard BIAB batch first though, just to check heat applications and have some kind of expectation of the process and method. Been a while since I busted out the keggle and gas bottle ;)

Cheers,

BF
Last edited by BeerFingers on 30 Apr 2014, 14:48, edited 1 time in total.

Post #4 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
Welcome to the forum BF :salute:,

You may remember in the recent podcast that we talked about how kettle efficiency varies depending on the gravity of the brew. A high gravity brew gives far less efficiency than a low gravity brew because it is getting washed in less water. The BIABacus is the only software that considers and handles this. In other words, setting up a single profile in another program will not work for low and high gravity brews.

The most annoying thing about the BIABacus is that we can't come up with a way of exporting and importing recipes that works on all platforms but despite that and a few other limitations, it is faster and far more powerful than anything else and pretty fast to learn. (In fact, I think it is harder to learn for users of other programs because it is so quick - lol).

We had a few threads on high gravity brews a month or so ago so I think that doing an advanced search of my posts that contain the phrase "high gravity" should give you something to read. If you find anything good, please put a link to it in this thread to make it easy to find.

I'm running short on time but if you do learn the BIABacus, it would give you estimates for the kettle efficiency. As yeasty mentioned, the more extreme you go, the less data we have. The main thing on all-grain high gravity brews is that you will have to do a very long boil time, often three hours, to concentrate the wort. (Also, as with any BIAB, mnash for 90 minutes or even more for very high gravity).

:peace:
PP
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Post #5 made 11 years ago
by dexter.rose
BeerFingers,

If you like your original system, you may consider adding light dry malt extract to your kettle.

In the past, I've made a beer as high in gravity as I could possibly fit into my mash. Completed my mash. Then added DME until I reached my target gravity.

Dexter
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