BIAB Help

[naes100]

Hi Folks, i've been brewing all grain for the past 3+ years and have the process down. I currently use a 19gal pot and a 10 gal mash tun and generally do 10 gal batches of ales ~5-6%

I want to brew a 10 gal batch of a bigger IPA but the total grains are 28lbs and the max Ive done is 21lbs. No way in hell I'm getting 28lbs in my 10 gal mash tun. Fortunately, my 19 gal pot came with a custom BIAB but I haven't a clue how to use it.

Could someone provide the major step differences for BIAB? Do I simply boil my mash water and add the grains to the pot? I currently do batch sparging - how do I do this with BIAB? Anything I need to change in my Beersmith Receipe?

Thanks in advance folks!

Sean

[Jimmy]

Generally, the following is how BIAB is done:

Add all water to pot>raise strike water to mash in temp (keep in mind it will need to be a lower temp because there's more water than a typical mash)>turn off heat & add BIAB and grain>mash as usual>remove bag & grain>boil as usual.

You can also go about it the way you mention above with batch sparging. The main thing to keep in mind is that you do not want to apply direct heat while the bag is touching the bottom of the pot, as it could melt.

In beersmith, there's also a BIAB mash profile - it reduces the absorption rate of the malt, because there tends to be less absorption when doing BIAB. Generally you can also reduce your overall loss, because everything happens in the 1 vessel, so you're not losing volume due to transfers.

[Woody]

I've made some pretty big beers with my BIAB set up and 19g pot. I recently did 10g of a 1.088 RIS I've got over 32 lbs of grain in there many times. And It's heavy to lift but never hurts to ask someone in the house to help. If you wanted to sparge on top of that you could heat up some water to 170F and pour it over bag to let it drip. I use an oven rack over my pot and let the bag drip while I'm firing up the burner or element. Keep in mind there are many ways to hit a higher gravity. Longer boils, sparging, extended mashes or overnight mashes and even multiple mashes I've even seen on here. I add all my dark grain at the end of the mash an if the pots full I"ll empty the bag and add the drank grain and put in pot for a few minutes. Some don't like lifting heavy bags so why not mash half your grain remove an bring up to strike adding grain again. It takes more time but it's an option for when needed. I think there is a recent post on the site about this. Sky's the limit.

[GAM]

I have a ladder and pulley set up. Pull let the bag drip and sparge in a bucket.

I also have 2 bags and with a large bill I use both and pull/sparge separately.

S