Brew in a Bag - Split Boil

Northern Brewer General
1

I’ve read a few posts lately about steeping grains and the volume of water used to steep…and the subsequent impact on Ph.

BIAB is not the same, obviously, but I am wondering if some of the same principles might be at work if I try to do a split boil BIAB.

I have done several AG batches, and plenty of extract, but never BIAB. Now that I have my stuff for BIAB at home and have my starter going, I am realizing that I don’t have a kettle big enough to hold the 5.5 gallons prescribed by the instructinos + the several lbs. of grain. I dont want to haul out the big burner and keggle to do BIAB.

Any reason I can’t just do 2.75 gallons and half the grain in each of two boil kettles? Then halve the boil additions of course?

Other than needing another mesh bag, I can’t see why this would be an issue…what am i missing!!!

2

You’re not missing anything, it’s as simple as splitting for the mash and combining for the boil.

3

Thanks Shade -

I should end up well below 5 gallons for the boil accouting for H20 soaked into the grains, right?

If not I’d have to split the actual boil as well, not just the mash.

4

You’ll lose about a gallon of wort for every eight lbs of grain. I would combine the kettles into the largest and see how much room you have, then pour hot water through the grain bags into the second kettle to collect a little more wort, and top off the first kettle.