Ginger Snap All-Grain Kit - BIAB?

I have brewed quite a few NB kits with great success. I normally buy the extract kits but for some reason bought the Ginger Snap Saison All Grain kit (B10344).

What is my best approach to brew this? I do not have an all grain set-up with a mash tun and sparge arm. Can I brew this in another way?

Paul

You answered it yourself… BIAB should work.

How big is your kettle? That may affect how you go about this. Not a lot of us on this forum do a fly sparge with a sparge arm (some do, but we have a lot of cheap and easy batch sparge in a cooler guys, and a lot of BIAB guys).

Once you see how easy biab is and your great results I would be surprised if you went back to extract

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Thanks for the responses. I have an 8 gallon kettle with a spigot, tap and thermometer built in. I also have a six gallon kettle, several pails etc.

If I go BIAB, what are the steps to take? The recipe states:
Mash Schedule: Single infusion
Sacch’ Rest: 153F for 60 minutes
Mashout: 170F for 10 minutes

Do I put all the grains in a bag with 5 gallons of water, bring to 153F and keep it at that temp while stirring a few times and then after 60 mins, increase the temp to 170F for 10 mins. Then remove the grains and let them drain using a sieve/strainer and collect all the liquor for the main boil?

Any tips?

Thanks,

Paul

Thats exactly what you do :grinning:

You don’t need a mash out per say. Heat your 5 gallons of water to 165deg line your pot with a brew bag of your choice. 5gallon paints strainer bags from Home Depot work great. Stir in the grain well cover and let sit for 1 hr the tempo will drop about 10 deg so your mashing at 155. After 1 hr pull the grain bag an set it on top of the pot in a strainer. Pour over enough 170 deg water to make up what the grain absorbed and get your pre boil volume which should be around 6 gallons. Then just proceed with you boil. Check your gravity or not up to you how involved you get the beer will come out great either way. Good luck. Let us know.

I found a wire rack for cooling cookies also works well. Now my wife won’t make cookies so thats why I enjoy flars pictures!! Sneezles61

Good suggestions. So if I am understanding this correctly the suggestion is instead of raising the temperature of the mash after the Sacch’ rest to 170F, I should sparge with 170F water through the grains and let them drain? I like that.

The other question is do I add the grain to the 5 gallons of cold water and bring them up to 155F or do I bring the water up to temp and then add the grain? I suspect that is a point of great controversy and that there is no ‘right’ way :smile:

Thanks for the help

Paul

Yes there is a right way. Heat the water first and then add the grain.

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What @brewcat stated is what I do as well.

Just don’t forget to heat the water several degrees above your target mash temperature, because when you add the grains in the bag the water temperature will drop several degrees.

Got it. Thanks. I believe from what I have read that 5-7 degrees higher than the Sacch’ rest temp is the right sort of number for a 5 gallon mash. Does that sound right?

Paul

As @Ru-Bru has said about heating the water higher than your strike temperature. This calculator may help with about how high to go.
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml