A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[Renegade]

You can do 10kg grain in a 40L urn ? :huh:

 

[Phoney]

I dont know!

Whats the maximum amount that I could mash in a 40L urn? Or could I split it and do it in 2 batches?

 

[Katherine]

Thanks Katie.

So, with a recipe with a grain bill of ~10kg, how much water will I need to add? the PDF says 38L, which obviously isnt gonna work with my 40L urn. Will the figure beersmith gives me be accurate for BIAB??

are you going a double batch????? for your first brew? Bribie will be able to help you out on those measurements. Im not great with numbers and I have all my measurements at home. I brew in a 60 litre pot and have to use top up water for doubles.

 

[Phoney]

No, im doing the golden ale as my first batch. I was looking at doing Tony's LCBA for my second....but maybe im being too ambitious..

 

[buttersd70]

ummm....check the size of the batch in the database.....esp Tonys, his batch sizes are around the 50L mark...you'll need to scale it down.

edit...smurtos GA uses just over 4kg for a 20L batch, Tonys is 52L batch size....scaled back it would be roughly about the same grain weight as the GA.

 

[Renegade]

Yea dude, your grain bill for a standard batch is more like 4-5kg.

How much cheaper did your next beer just get !?

 

[Phoney]

Whew! That makes a hell of a lot more sense now.. Cheers guys

 

[Katherine]

mmmm I was thinking you were being a little ambitious for your first. your gravity would be extreme LOL!

 

[Renegade]

mmmm I was thinking you were being a little ambitious for your first. your gravity would be extreme LOL!

It does beg the question though. What's the max. weight of grain you could BIAB in let's say a 40 litre urn for the sake of discussion. There's got to be a point when exctraction efficiency is going to be shocking, and a waste of extra grain for very little extra OG yeild.

 

[Cocko]

It does beg the question though. What's the max. weight of grain you could BIAB in let's say a 40 litre urn for the sake of discussion. There's got to be a point when exctraction efficiency is going to be shocking, and a waste of extra grain for very little extra OG yeild.

My way of thinking it would go like this:

You could mash 10kg of grain but you can only boil about 38L in a 40L urn, I assume, to avoid boil overs... So, 38L -15% evaporation leaving about 33L post boil and 10kg into a 33L batch is a killer SG!

10kg @ 2.5L per kilo = 25L plus grain displacement... you could do it! remove bag grain absorbtion at 1L a kg leaves you 15 litres and then top up....

2c.

 

[reviled]

It does beg the question though. What's the max. weight of grain you could BIAB in let's say a 40 litre urn for the sake of discussion. There's got to be a point when exctraction efficiency is going to be shocking, and a waste of extra grain for very little extra OG yeild.

Ive done 7.2kg of grain in my 30 litre batch and got just over 19litres into the fermenter!

 

[Katherine]

Ive done 7.2kg of grain in my 30 litre batch and got just over 19litres into the fermenter!

Rev were you happy with that? did you need to top up? I know you sparge.

What do you normally get into the fermenter on a single batch?

 

[reviled]

Rev were you happy with that? did you need to top up? I know you sparge.

What do you normally get into the fermenter on a single batch?

I was really happy with it, my eff only dropped 3 points over a 5kg grist!!

I guess the sparge is the 'top up' in a way, allthough if I just topped up with water my eff wouldnt have been as good. I normally do a 6L sparge and have the kettle pretty full for the boil, around 28L id say, then after a 90min boil ill get 22-20L in the fermenter with a couple of litres of wort/trub left in the kettle...

 

[smollocks]

for the mash paddle go to bunnings and in the paint section get a paint stirrer there about $8.00, easier to agiate the grain then the stirrer, tho the stirrer is great for whirlpooling.

I've seen these and they are just mild steel with a thin coat of paint. In my opinion they're not likely to be food grade, and quite likely to flake into your beer if it gets a bit of rough treatment. I couldn't find something in stainless and with the right length so I just stuck with the standard 60cm white plastic spoon. It works fine.

 

[Katherine]

I've seen these and they are just mild steel with a thin coat of paint. In my opinion they're not likely to be food grade, and quite likely to flake into your beer if it gets a bit of rough treatment. I couldn't find something in stainless and with the right length so I just stuck with the standard 60cm white plastic spoon. It works fine.

ACTUALLY if you look at the ORIGINAL BIAB GUIDE, the paint stirrer I am talking about is recommended, you are thinking of something else as there is no coat of paint on it. Ill try to find a picture. I highly recommend the use of these espeacially when you are doing doubles and you get clumps.

 

[Cocko]

In my opinion they're not likely to be food grade, and quite likely to flake into your beer if it gets a bit of rough treatment.

It is only used pre boil so the food grade thing isn't a huge issue IMO... but yeah flaking paint would be...

 

[Katherine]

It is only used pre boil so the food grade thing isn't a huge issue IMO... but yeah flaking paint would be...

Great point there cocko.....

these have no paint on them... even a painter wouldnt want flaky red paint in his lovely white gloss. Maybe smollocks is seeing one that has being used by a painter and not a masher?

 

[smollocks]

ACTUALLY if you look at the ORIGINAL BIAB GUIDE, the paint stirrer I am talking about is recommended, you are thinking of something else as there is no coat of paint on it. Ill try to find a picture. I highly recommend the use of these espeacially when you are doing doubles and you get clumps.

I can't remember what's in the original guide, but this is the one I'm talking about. Not trying to criticise anyone here, this is just my opinion People could be using them without a noticeable problem, but I didn't like the look of them in Bunnings.

 

[Renegade]

I've seen these and they are just mild steel with a thin coat of paint. In my opinion they're not likely to be food grade, and quite likely to flake into your beer if it gets a bit of rough treatment. I couldn't find something in stainless and with the right length so I just stuck with the standard 60cm white plastic spoon. It works fine.

Yea, but a little bit here and there won't do any harm. It's not as if it's all going to flake off in a single brew.

Off Topic (well sort of). Spotlight on Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe Power Centre have plenty of poly Swiss Voile, PLU code 1200199, I just grabbed a couple of metres.

 

[Renegade]

On Saturday I did a double batch in a 60 litre pot I put 42 litres of water in originally, just under 10 kilos of grain went in

The question wasn't about double batches. But cheers anyway.