Big grain bill BIAB sparge calc help

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acarey

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Hi All,

May have bitten off a bit more than I can chew here with my second BIAB.

Picked up a recipe from Marks Home Brew in newcastle. Its his own creation Imperial IPA, I tasted some of it in store (pre carbonation) and it was awesome!

Anyways, I have BIRKO 40L urn. This recipe has 9.9 kg of grain with an expected OG of 1.087. Mark said I'd need to sparge and I'd need to do the calculations.

I punched it all into Brewmate and selected 'All Grain' instead of BIAB in the settings to give me the strike and sparge volumes and temps. Then I thought i'd get someone who actually knows what they are doing to look at the numbers and tell me if the numbers are right or if Ive missed something.

Strike volume: 29.7L
Sparge Water: 12.09L

60min mash
90 min boil

Question 1: Do you recon 9.9kg of grain will fit in the BIRKO with 29.7 litres of water?
Question 2: Are the two volumes above looking rightish?
Question 3: Should I have just done the Dr Smurto like everyone here told me to do?
Question 4: ..... any advice welcome....

ps. my first brew, which i posted the brewing of on here turned out bloody amazingly. I've almost finished it without really letting it age because I like beer and don't like waiting.

pps. Happy to post the actual grains if thats necessary (which it probably is) let me know

Thanks in advance
 
Further to this, would I be better off doing two full volume half batches with half the grain in each and combining them in the no chill cube?

ie 23 litres = 2 11.5 litre BIAB efforts
 
I think the concept is doable but I think it's going to be hard, maybe a bit ambitious for 2nd BIAB... but if it were me I'd:

1. Cut grain bill by 10%
2. Mill to an absolute flour
3. Have a large 2nd vessel to sparge in (20 litres at least, can just be a cheap bucket from bunnings) filled with water at mash out temp, and perform dunk sparge (dunk spent grain in 2nd vessel, open up bag, stir like buggery, tie up bag, squeeze/drain every last drop out)
4. Add excess sparge water to main boil in urn through out boil to replace evap losses.

The increases in efficiency you will get with this (maybe 10%) will offset the reduced amount of grain, and high 8kgs-9kg might just be doable where as 10 might not be.

My 2c, I dont use an urn, but I do use 2 pot biab, and the concept for an oversize grainbill is similar.
 
I know you'd ideally like to have the full volume 23lt bad boy but I'd just scale it down to fit your equipment.
Skip the sparge, mash in with full volume for 90mins, do a mash out & still get your desired big beer 1.087 but simply end up with less volume.
Just what I'd do.
 
Do you have a bag rest and a spare fermenter?
If so, you can drain the bag while still in the urn into the fermenter, sparge through with x liters of water until the fermenter is full, lift the bag, squeeze (or not) then lift the fermenter above the urn and run the wort back to the urn for the boil. I used to do this with high gravity beers with up to 9.5kg grain bills when I was BIABing with great success. It's a little more stuffing around, but efficiency is good, and its relatively easy to do.
 
Thanks all for your input. Given my setup and lack of equipment, I think the old double mash method will be the go for me as suggested by Liam_snorkel.

I'll give it a crack this weekend and report back, weather permitting (I've been banished from the house after I made it rain inside with condensation on the roof from the boil)
 
I did the double mash method on an epic friday night of brewing. Didnt get to bed until 2am and was ruined the next day (are you supposed to drink the whole time?). Efficiency wise I didn't go that well. I'm actually reluctant to calculate the actual percentage because its gonna be awful. Expected OG 1.86, actual 1.77. But it tastes good in my inexperienced opinion. Super hoppy but that is expected and I like that kind of thing.

Its fermenting away with the most beautiful fruity/sweet smell. Dropped to 1.068 in a day and tastes even better. I have high hopes and wish I had hit all the targets. I could try again but it was a bit too hectic for a second go at BIAB considering I can only really brew friday or saturday nights after 6pm due to family and work constraints.

I'll post back when its in the keg and ready to drink.
 
So I've cracked the keg and am drinking the beer. Now, I know I'm relatively new to this but OMFG I love it. Totally worth the hectic brew night. I cant say how happy I am with how this beer turned out. Towards the end of the fermentation I was worried as the beer tasted very 'alcoholy', but man it has mellowed and the hops shine through! I effing love it.

Shout out to Marks Home brew in Newcastle on a great recipe. Anyone thats keen, its called the 7 C's. He has two versions, the one I did with 10kg of grain and the other has 7kg grain and some extract.

Do it! (no affiliation)

Also a big shout out to Liam_Snorkel. Out of all the kind advice I received from this board I went with yours and it worked well.
 
Hey man, you did all the hard work! All I did was point you in the direction of an informative thread. Glad it went well and and brew on brother!
 
Yeah i've tried it at Mark's shop a couple of times, great brew! The 7C's hop mix in it is awesome, really nice way of getting all those US hops in together without worrying about balance yourself! The bohemian floor malted grain added some awesome depth to the beer too.
 
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