BIAB question

[barbararodriguez]

Hello all! Getting back into brewing after a very long (6 year!!) hiatus and was considering doing a few BIAB batches. I have an 8 gallon kettle and from the little bit of research I’ve done on the subject I have a light concern. Most of the beers I’m looking at making initially have about an eight to ten pound grain bill. By the time the grain is soaked and it’s time to lift it out, how heavy we talking here? Is it going to be realistic for me to lift this thing up and out AND let it drain off back into the pot? If not, what is the solution? Thanks in advance!

 

[Kevin58]

8 to 10 pounds should not be too hard to lift if you are reasonably fit. You could always rig up a pulley system to do the lifting. Get a ratcheting pulley and you can just let it hang on its own without you having to hold it. Let the bag drain over the kettle while you are ramping up the temp to boiling and get yourself a pair of high temp gloves... the kind you can buy for grilling... and squeeze all the liquid from the bag into the kettle. Ignore any rumors or bad advise you have heard about the dangers of squeezing the bag. It's fine. Alternately you can lift the bag and then place it into a plastic bucket and let it drain there but I find that to be a bit messy. Best to do all the draining/squeezing right over the boil kettle.

Lastly I would recommend a bigger kettle. You are going to be limited to the amount of grain you can mash in an 8 gallon kettle and you certainly won't be able to do a traditional full-volume BIAB mash (although sparging is an option). A 10 gallon kettle would be better but even that will give you difficulty making high OG brews.

 

[GigaFemto]

The BeerSmith default for BIAB grain absorption (under Options->Advanced) is 0.586 fl oz/oz. That means for 10 lbs of grain you have 160 oz of grain and 160x0.586 = 93.8 fl oz of water absorbed into the grain. That is equal to 93.8/128 = 0.73 gallons, and at roughly 8 lbs per gallon it is a weight of 5.9 lbs on top of the 10 lbs of dry grain, for a total of just under 16 lbs. In fact the bag will initially be heavier and the weight will drop to 16 lbs as the wort is drained out. So maybe the bag full of wort and grains would be something like 20 lbs and then drain down to 16. Not too much to handle if you use good body mechanics or some kind of assist.

--GF

 

[barbararodriguez]

The BeerSmith default for BIAB grain absorption (under Options->Advanced) is 0.586 fl oz/oz. That means for 10 lbs of grain you have 160 oz of grain and 160x0.586 = 93.8 fl oz of water absorbed into the grain. That is equal to 93.8/128 = 0.73 gallons, and at roughly 8 lbs per gallon it is a weight of 5.9 lbs on top of the 10 lbs of dry grain, for a total of just under 16 lbs. In fact the bag will initially be heavier slope game and the weight will drop to 16 lbs as the wort is drained out. So maybe the bag full of wort and grains would be something like 20 lbs and then drain down to 16. Not too much to handle if you use good body mechanics or some kind of assist.

--GF

Great information for me. Many thank all!