I attack this in a different way...I do a reiterated mash. Halve the grain bill between 2 brewing bags. Put all the dark grain in the second bag's mash...be careful to understand that you'll suffer liquid loss to grain twice using this method...but you can mash in the first mash - let it finish, pull the bag out and add the second bag along with some additional water. Sparge the first mash in a separate bucket. If you're careful, you will hit the perfect mash liquid volume when you pull the second mash bag out - adding the sparge liquid to the kettle as a cold water sparge on the second mash...This is the only time I mash out or sparge and i've done BIAB for 6 years. The only beer I make that needs this technique is a Dragon's Milk clone...it's nigh impossible to make it in a 10 gallon kettle since the grain bill is 22 or 23 lbs of grain. Great stuff!
Good rule of thumb is you want 2 gallons more water then what you want to brew. You want 5 gallons of beer you use 7 gallons of water you want 2 gallons of beer you use 4 gallons of water
thats not a very good rule of thumb. You can figure out how much water you will need for how much grain you have quite easily. The difference between a 6lbs of grain and say,,, 12lbs of grain is over a 1/2 gallon difference. there is no reason at all to be this far off
Definitely helps me to know this!
I attack this in a different way...I do a reiterated mash. Halve the grain bill between 2 brewing bags. Put all the dark grain in the second bag's mash...be careful to understand that you'll suffer liquid loss to grain twice using this method...but you can mash in the first mash - let it finish, pull the bag out and add the second bag along with some additional water. Sparge the first mash in a separate bucket. If you're careful, you will hit the perfect mash liquid volume when you pull the second mash bag out - adding the sparge liquid to the kettle as a cold water sparge on the second mash...This is the only time I mash out or sparge and i've done BIAB for 6 years. The only beer I make that needs this technique is a Dragon's Milk clone...it's nigh impossible to make it in a 10 gallon kettle since the grain bill is 22 or 23 lbs of grain. Great stuff!
Good rule of thumb is you want 2 gallons more water then what you want to brew. You want 5 gallons of beer you use 7 gallons of water you want 2 gallons of beer you use 4 gallons of water
For me it's a gallon and a half. But that is true for full volume. Depends how much grain you are using too.
thats not a very good rule of thumb. You can figure out how much water you will need for how much grain you have quite easily. The difference between a 6lbs of grain and say,,, 12lbs of grain is over a 1/2 gallon difference. there is no reason at all to be this far off