Brewer’s Friend Mash Calculator question?

William257

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Hello I have my Brewer’s Friend set up for BIAB. Well my question is when using the Mash Calculator how does one use this for a BIAB set up to calculate there strike Temp for mashing. Here a picture of what I am talking about https://i.imgur.com/kwNvY7X.png. Yes I am just wanting to know what water to grain ratio to enter into the Brewer’s Friend Mash calculator?
 
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Just add your values into required field looks like you've done that so you should be apples! You wondering do what water/grain ratio to use?
 
Just add your values into required field looks like you've done that so you should be apples! You wondering do what water/grain ratio to use?


Yes it’s the water/grain ratio what should i use?
 
Hmmm tricky well I'm probably not best one to ask but I'll have a stab for ya and for what its worth I don't think grain to water ratio really matters. You Biab so it's total water minus sparge ÷ total grain weight = grist/water ratio. Mines set at 6lt/1kg grain.
E.g. average grist is 4kg mash 25lt I sparge with 5lt that's 25÷4= 6.25lt/1kg grain give or take . Yes very thin does it matter I honestly don't think so. Hope I've been helpfully and sorry for late response.
 
Generally speaking water to grain ratios will be between 1.25:1 and 1.5 to 1 (quarts per lb) for a mash with a sparge. If you're doing full volume BIAB, it goes up considerably. You can calculate your total water volume by determining your desired pre-boil volume (batch size plus boil-off) and adding between .25 and .4 quarts per pound for grain absorption (depending on whether you squeeze the bag). Then determine how you'll break it up into strike and sparge.
Example;
-5 gallon batch, 10 lbs grist, 1.5 gallons boil off
-6.5 gallons pre-boil plus 4 quarts absorption (.4 qts/lb grain absorption, no squeeze)
-7.5 gal = 30 qts/10lbs = 3.0 qts/lb for total liquor volume
For full volume mash, you'd need 8.3 gallons of space in your mashing/boiling vessel ( here's a handy "can I mash it? calculator: https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml ). If you don't have that much space, you can do a dunk sparge so you could start at 1.5 qts/lb for strike and use the rest for your sparge. Like this:
-10 lbs @ 1.5 qts/lb = 15 qts (requires 4.55 gallons of space...5 gallon ice chest, bucket or pot)
-15 qts left for dunk sparging
You'll have to do a little trial and error to see where your numbers end up with your particular system and process. Take good notes and you'll be able to tweak your starting volumes and consistently hit your numbers.
Hope that helps. ;)
 
Another way i do it is use the quick water calculator in recipie tools that will give you your break down and total needed brew liquor then discount sparge volume (pretty much a rinse of the grains in Biab) and that's your mash in / Strike volume.
 
If you're doing BIAB use the strike water volume option instead of the Mash Water/Grain Ratio option. Then you just put in the volume that will be in the kettle when you add the bag (either full volume or full volume minus sparge water).
 

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