Im watching brewing tv brew in a bag and they are doing a full volume mash on a stove top. I like this idea but I always thought that we mashed at a certain thickness partially due to mash pH and that if the mash was too thin the pH would be off. Am I wrong about this? They are mashing 7 or 8 lbs of grain in 5 gal of water.
Haven’t see that, but are they planning on adding water after the boil to bring it up to 5 gallons ? I’d think with 5 gallons in the biab pot, they’d get under 4 after absorption. then after the boil, they’d have under 3. doesn’t sound like “full” volume with those numbers.
cheers.
[quote=“StormyBrew”]Haven’t see that, but are they planning on adding water after the boil to bring it up to 5 gallons ? I’d think with 5 gallons in the biab pot, they’d get under 4 after absorption. then after the boil, they’d have under 3. doesn’t sound like “full” volume with those numbers.
cheers.[/quote]
Sorry, forgot to mention that. No added water. They were doing a 3 gallon batch. You are correct, 1 gal absorption and 1 ga boil off.
Not really answering your question, but I’m a BIAB’er. Been doing it for about a year now. I mash with somewhere between 1.25qrt-1.5qrt per lb of grain. I stick my mash pot in a warm over for the hour to keep it at temp. I turn it on warm while getting the mash straight, then turn it off right before I put the pot in. Works great. I may lose or gain a degree or 2 at the most over an hour. Just before the hour long mash is done, I collect 1/2 as much water as I used for the mash in a second pot up to about 170F. When the mash is done, I let the sack drain for a few minutes and then dunk the sack in the second pot (sparge). I give it a stir and let that sit for about 10min. After 10min I let the sack drain again for a few minutes. Then I combine the 2 pots of wort into one and boil.
I just got a turkey frier with a 30qrt pot. So now, the only thing I do in my kitchen is the mash in the stove. I get the sparge water going outside on the burner and do my boil out there as well. This system works pretty good for me. My efficiency is usually between 72-76%. I’ve been as low as 68% and as high as 83%. I can brew moderately strong beers, but it does limit how strong. If I want a really strong Tripel or Barleywine for example, I just do a 3 gallon batch or do a partial mash and add DME to the boil.
Haven’t seen this yet but they are apparently doing BIAB as well as no-sparge. I don’t think BIAB is always done as no-sparge. I’ve been doing no-sparge and it works fine. I mash with my total amount of water, approaching 4qt/lb. It works just fine, you add your salts just like you would in a thicker mash. I’m even getting close to 75% efficiency so theres not much of a hit there. The only issue is the volume, I do small batches so I have a cooler big enough for those.
That is the same way I BIAB. I learned it from here → http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/1 … r-brewing/
[quote=“tom sawyer”] It works just fine, you add your salts just like you would in a thicker mash.[/quote]+1 pH can be adjusted for any volume.
