Ag Brewing Basics

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

woodwormm

Well-Known Member
Joined
4/6/10
Messages
1,065
Reaction score
60
so i consider myself a pretty good K&K brewer - get great feedback from a wide range of people..

i'm progressing into full extract but i'm sensing a pretty quick slide into AG, most likely BIAB.

I've got a few simple questions and i'll bother you with them but if there's a brewing for dummies book or a really good easy read book you can point me to, please do.

simple questions to follow.

1. what volume of wort could i reasonably expect to boil in an 80L pot?

2. if someone states 75% efficiency - if they start with 100L and get 75% does this mean they get 75Litres after boil?

3. how many kilos grain (rough guide) do you mash to get say 20L, 40L, 60L?

5. Do you aim to mash a bit less than your full boil volume so you can use some sparge to 'wash' out all remaining goodness from grain? otherwise you're just wasting goodness in the grain yeah? if you get all of your preboil volume out of the mash?

cheers
 
1. So it doesn't come pouring over the top in a sticky hot foamy mess? -1 from that.
2. It's 75% of the sugars extracted from what's in the grain. (I'd google efficiency aussiehomebrewer - there are different ways to measure efficiency)
3. For 20l final volume around 5-6kg, depends how much 'sugar' you want ;)
4. What happened to 4?!
5. Sparging is what you describe, rinsing the grain. You can batch sparge (make 2nd/3rd additions of water to mash after draining), or fly sparge (add water as you drain from mash). So long as you get enough sugars and liquid out, it doesn't matter how you got there. (without getting into specifics), ie; you don't have to sparge, but you won't get anymore liquid out than fits in your mash tun/BIAB rig.
 
Search biab on youtube. Got me started. Everything you need to wing your 1st batch. Then you can look at ways to improve from batch 2 onwards.
Cheers,
D80
 
An 80L pot can comfortably crank out two "full size" brews of around 23-25L each. However if you are going BIAB you would need to be a bodybuilder to hoist the bag - however you can use 2 bags side by side, as QldKev has done.
BIAB efficiency seems to work out about the same as other methods such as 3v and Braumeister, although I believe HERMS has a better eff as they can more accurately control sparging. Considering the cheapness of grain (malt in a normal brew costs less than a six pack) I wouldn't stress about efficiency unless you are commercial.
 
as stated there is so many variables in your questions.

1, As said double batch is fine I do 42lts into the fermenter with about 3lts loss

2, as said efficiency is the gravity you get, now there is mash efficiency thats measured from the kettle before you boil (this includes mash tun loss and all) then there is brewhouse efficiency (which is lower) as this will be measured in the fermenter with losses in your kettle and the boil off rate.

3, depends on efficiency and recipe so use brewing software to work it out.

4, depends on your system but most systems you sparge and even some BIAB guys do, how much is up to you I sparge about 19lts in a double batch fly sparging.
 
Back
Top