My first attempt at a high gravity beer.
12lbs 2-row
8oz Munich
8oz. Rye
1lb flakes wheat
1lb crystal 75
2oz carafa II
1oz magnum 60 mins
1oz Columbus aroma
2oz Columbus dry hop
my goal is an original gravity of 1.071. Any good biab techniques I should follow in order to get 70% efficiency with this much grain? I have a 10 gallon kettle and a 15 gallon converted keg... Should I do a mini sparge with this mash to get more sugars extracted?
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Post #2 made 13 years ago
Hi ya Dan,
One of the beauties of pure BIAB is that it is single-vessel brewing. You can do a sparge and this will increase your efficiencies but you have to decide if it is worth the time and trouble. Let's say you choose to do pure BIAB, here are the numbers I think you'll get close to. I've had to guess a few things like your evaporation rate but I think you'll come close to the following...
With the recipe above, let's say you want 5 gallons into the fermentor and allow for say 0.8 gallons of kettle losses, you'll still get about 74-75% efficiency into the kettle (about 64% efficiency into the fermentor.) I think for a big grain bill, that is perfectly acceptable.
You'll need 8.3 gallons of strike water according to my calcs.
Cheers,
PP
One of the beauties of pure BIAB is that it is single-vessel brewing. You can do a sparge and this will increase your efficiencies but you have to decide if it is worth the time and trouble. Let's say you choose to do pure BIAB, here are the numbers I think you'll get close to. I've had to guess a few things like your evaporation rate but I think you'll come close to the following...
With the recipe above, let's say you want 5 gallons into the fermentor and allow for say 0.8 gallons of kettle losses, you'll still get about 74-75% efficiency into the kettle (about 64% efficiency into the fermentor.) I think for a big grain bill, that is perfectly acceptable.
You'll need 8.3 gallons of strike water according to my calcs.
Cheers,
PP
If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!
-
- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
-
Post #3 made 13 years ago
I came up with 10.85 gallons in BS2. Must have plugged in the wrong equipment info. PP: are you using the BIABabicus?
Post #4 made 13 years ago
Hi there Ziggy. I did use the BIABacus but I think I threw in the numbers a bit quickly yesterday. For example, I only had a 60 minute boil. Increasing this to 90 mins (assuming about 1.8 gal/hr evaporation) increases the efficiencies to 78% and 67% respectively which means the grain bill will drop to about 14.4 pounds for 5 gal into fermentor. With the 90 minute boil, I am getting a starting volume of about 9.5 gal.
I've been doing numbers and tax all weekend so my brain might be fried and I could well have made a mistake
. If you like, PM me your .bsm file and I'll see if I can find any problems. From memory, BS treats your starting liquor as though it was at boiling point. Even allowing for this though, there is still about a gallon difference between us so I suppose we should track it down.
Alternatively, create an equipment profile in bs that had the following...
5 gal 'BS "batch size".
1.77 gal/hr evap rate.
1.32 gal kettle and chiller losses
66.9% "Brewhouse Efficiency"
Put in the original grain weights and then use the scale button to scale it to 1.071 gravity.
Hopefully BS your grain bill will end up being about 14.44 pounds and your strike water in BS = 9.85 gal (9.47 * 1.04 expansion).
Cheers
PP
I've been doing numbers and tax all weekend so my brain might be fried and I could well have made a mistake
. If you like, PM me your .bsm file and I'll see if I can find any problems. From memory, BS treats your starting liquor as though it was at boiling point. Even allowing for this though, there is still about a gallon difference between us so I suppose we should track it down.Alternatively, create an equipment profile in bs that had the following...
5 gal 'BS "batch size".
1.77 gal/hr evap rate.
1.32 gal kettle and chiller losses
66.9% "Brewhouse Efficiency"
Put in the original grain weights and then use the scale button to scale it to 1.071 gravity.
Hopefully BS your grain bill will end up being about 14.44 pounds and your strike water in BS = 9.85 gal (9.47 * 1.04 expansion).
Cheers
PP
If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!
-
- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
-
Post #5 made 13 years ago
Thanks for your help! I brewed this yesterday and ended up with 74% efficiency and a total volume of 6+ gallons of wort. I hit the OG of 1.068.just need to figure out my system and the boil off rate.
All I can say is I wish I brewed in a bag sooner. I'm simply amazed by the simplicity of this technique..
Cheers!
All I can say is I wish I brewed in a bag sooner. I'm simply amazed by the simplicity of this technique..
Cheers!
Post #6 made 13 years ago
I'm assuming that, like me db, you were previously a traditional (three-vessel) brewer?db817 wrote:I'm simply amazed by the simplicity of this technique.
If so, that is great! I went through a period where I thought, "BIAB is too simple!," but now, through experience and taste tests, I see it is a very sensible and logical method of brewing.
In fact, now my thinking is, "Other methods are relatively complicated and maybe even impure."
PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 11 Mar 2012, 02:07, edited 3 times in total.
If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!
-
- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
-
Post #7 made 13 years ago
Yup I was one who thought the perfect brewing system to brew award winning home brew was on a three vessel herms or rims along with fly sparging and a whole Saturday was needed to be dedicated to set up, brewing and cleanup. For me brewing became more of a hassle and exhausting chore that I got to the point I almost gave up homebrewing. That was before I had an eye opening experience brewing a 3 gallon biab. And had brewed 3 subsequent biab brews and reconfigured my brewery to a single e-biab system. Now I can't imagine setting up three vessels to brew again.
I know I sound like an infomercial!
Cheers!
I know I sound like an infomercial!
Cheers!
Post #8 made 13 years ago
No. the word EPIPHANY comes to minddb817 wrote:Yup I was one who thought the perfect brewing system to brew award winning home brew was on a three vessel herms or rims along with fly sparging and a whole Saturday was needed to be dedicated to set up, brewing and cleanup. For me brewing became more of a hassle and exhausting chore that I got to the point I almost gave up homebrewing. That was before I had an eye opening experience brewing a 3 gallon biab. And had brewed 3 subsequent biab brews and reconfigured my brewery to a single e-biab system. Now I can't imagine setting up three vessels to brew again.
I know I sound like an infomercial!
Cheers!
Last edited by Ziggybrew on 11 Mar 2012, 05:25, edited 3 times in total.
Post #9 made 13 years ago
Take a peek at this
http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1066
Once you know your evaporation rate (which you should already), and as long as you don't mind metric, you can use this calcualtor to work out grainbills and strike volumes etc for pretty much any gravity and volume. It doesn't need efficiency to work!
Also supports additional dunk sparge if you want. So you do you main mash/boil in your 15 gallon pot, and a dunk sparge in your 10 gallon pot.
These days when I'm doing a triple batch, I do the mash in my 98L pot with about 70L of water, and I boil 25L of water in my older 50L pot.
After mashout, I drain the bag, and drop it into the 50L pot... then agitate the mash for 10 minutes, raise, drain, and transfer the sparge water back to my 98L pot for the boil.
gets me 85-93% into boil and 80-85% into fermenter.
http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1066
Once you know your evaporation rate (which you should already), and as long as you don't mind metric, you can use this calcualtor to work out grainbills and strike volumes etc for pretty much any gravity and volume. It doesn't need efficiency to work!
Also supports additional dunk sparge if you want. So you do you main mash/boil in your 15 gallon pot, and a dunk sparge in your 10 gallon pot.
These days when I'm doing a triple batch, I do the mash in my 98L pot with about 70L of water, and I boil 25L of water in my older 50L pot.
After mashout, I drain the bag, and drop it into the 50L pot... then agitate the mash for 10 minutes, raise, drain, and transfer the sparge water back to my 98L pot for the boil.
gets me 85-93% into boil and 80-85% into fermenter.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III
5/7/12
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III
5/7/12
Post #10 made 12 years ago
Hi stux
What sort of burner do you use with that size pot and brew?
Brendan
What sort of burner do you use with that size pot and brew?
Brendan
