Liquoring back - mini BIAB setup

[illingwd]

Hi all. I am fairly new to home brew so please excuse any stupid newbie questions!

I'm looking into doing BIAB using a mini setup and want to do 5gal batches on my kitchen stove. I'm interested in mashing thick and using a smaller boil volume before liquoring back to hit my target OG.

I'm looking at buying a 32L kettle and am trying to figure out:

• Best mash thickness. From what I've seen about 2.5L of strike water per kg of grain would be ok, so for an average recipe around 13 - 14L of strike water?
• Whether to sparge and if so how much? Clearly I could just boil the wort left after mashing but would be concerned I'd lose a lot with only 13L on a rolling boil for an hour.
• How much to top off at the end to hit my batch size of 20L. I know I can use a calculator to do this but would be good to know if there is a rough rule of thumb.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide!

 

[J A]

Your 32L boil pot is big enough to give you 20-22 liters finished wort. Your strike water volume sounds right. You'll need to sparge for certain. There are several ways to do it. You could do "full volume" mash by filling up your pot during the mash and get up to 24 liters of wort, depending on your grain bill. You'd still need to sparge and squeeze to get enough pre-boil volume. I'd start with around 28 to 30 liters. You won't need to top up much if any at all if you use a 60 minute boil.
Yes, that's a pretty full pot and you really, really have to watch it for the first 15 to 20 minutes for boil over, but I've made many 5 gallon batches in a pot that size. I still use that pot for mashing, though I have it set up with a false bottom so I can sparge through.

 

[illingwd]

Your 32L boil pot is big enough to give you 20-22 liters finished wort. Your strike water volume sounds right. You'll need to sparge for certain. There are several ways to do it. You could do "full volume" mash by filling up your pot during the mash and get up to 24 liters of wort, depending on your grain bill. You'd still need to sparge and squeeze to get enough pre-boil volume. I'd start with around 28 to 30 liters. You won't need to top up much if any at all if you use a 60 minute boil.
Yes, that's a pretty full pot and you really, really have to watch it for the first 15 to 20 minutes for boil over, but I've made many 5 gallon batches in a pot that size. I still use that pot for mashing, though I have it set up with a false bottom so I can sparge through.

Thanks, I'll give it a try once I get the pot. Maybe to be on the safe side I could boil a bit less and top off at the end to hit the OG. I might try 26L first and see how lively the boil gets!

 

[soccerdad]

A number of folks do a 'dunk sparge' with BIAB. Hold back about a gallon from your full water volume .. If you have a 5 gallon starter kettle it works well. When the mash is done, lift the bag from your 32 litre kettle and set it into the extra gallon to rinse the grains. Drain that (squeeze if you like) and add it back to the main wort.

This whole process can be pretty messy and sticky, so plan it out we'l to avoid spillage. Also, that extra gallon need not be heated .. So if you are a squeezer, the dunk will cool the hot grain and make squeezing a bit less painful.