Next, bring your strike water to the proper temperature for mashing. You will want to mash somewhere between 148F to 158F. However, keep in mind that you need to hold steady at that temperature for 60 to 90 minutes. You will see a drop in temperature when you add your grains, and you can also lose temperature over the course of the mash. How much varies depending upon your equipment, as well as the climate.
This is something you will have to pay attention to on your first few batches. You will want to see exactly how much temperature loss you have during mashing, so you will know how to compensate for it in future batches by heating your strike water to a higher temperature than you want to mash at. This may be a little frustrating at the beginning, but there are ways to make it easier while you are figuring out how your set up works.
You can keep hot and cold water nearby to add to the mash to adjust the temperature on the fly. You can also use your burner to heat up the mash if you lose too much temperature. Once you have the strike water at the right temperature, place your grain bag into the pot and pull the bag over the sides of the pot, so that the bag is open. You can use clips to help hold the bag in place. Add your grains slowly, and be sure that you constantly stir so that the grains become saturated and do not clump. Stirring also ensures you extract as much sugar from the grains as possible.
You also need to take a temperature reading to ensure you have hit your desired mash temperature. If you are within a degree, you should be fine. If not, then try one of the methods described earlier so that you hit the right temperature for mashing. At this point, you are mashed in, put the lid on the pot and wait. You can wrap the pot with a towel or blanket to help it maintain temperature. If your pot is pretty full with little headspace, it will likely hold temperature for the entire mash.
One advantage to the BIAB method of home brewing is that is doesn't require any sparging. You can add this step if you like, and some brewers choose to do some sort of sparge to increase efficiency. Many BIAB brewers find that they do not see a big enough increase in efficiency to justify the added step of a sparg..maybe a few points. However, this is something you can experiment with to see how it works for you.
If you choose to sparge, then about 30 minutes before the end of the mash start to heat up your sparge water. Of course, this requires another pot, which isn't true BIAB home brewing, but you can add this step if you like. One reason you may decide to try a sparge is if you have limited space in your brew kettle (and/or you are brewing indoors). This will allow you to do a bigger batch than your kettle size will allow. You simply sparge with the additional batch volume you can't fit in your kettle and then combine the sparge and boil in the fermenter to complete the batch volume. Be careful with this, as this could also hurt your efficiency. You can check with the online calculators to ensure you do not kill your efficiency doing this.
What many BIAB brewers do isn't a true sparge in the sense of batch or fly sparging methods. Rather, they do a modified sparge by allowing the grain bag to drain by hanging the bag over the pot after mashing. You can try this by hand, and some brewers rig up a pulley system to hold the bag in place while it drains. This is actually a pretty smart idea as the grain bag can weigh 10 pounds or more, which can be a lot of weight to hold onto for 10 minutes or more.
If you are indoors, you likely won't have too heavy a grain bag, but you can always suspend it over the pot by anchoring the top of the bag in a cabinet, or tie to the door handle of the microwave if you have one above the stove. No matter what, go ahead and give your bag a squeeze to get out all those sugars. The point of the drain and squeeze is to get out all of those valuable sugars and get them into your wort. This is yet another way to maximize efficiency.
Many BIAB brewers will do what is known as a dunk sparging. Heat up a couple gallons of water in a separate pot, then after draining the grain bag place it in the sparge water for 10 minutes or so, then remove the bag once again. This water is then added to the kettle. Once you have completed mashing and any sparging, you are ready to boil. Keep in mind, you can go directly from mash to boil if you like, and this is the true way to BIAB home brewing.
At this point, you boil as normal, and add your hops at the appropriate time. Then, cool, pitch and ferment. This process makes all grain home brewing easier, faster and less equipment to clean afterwards. It is still all grain home brewing, it's just a simplified version and a great way to introduce all grain home brewing to more people than would otherwise have tried it for whatever limitations they had. It is great that you can try all grain home brewing without having to go "all out" and purchase any additional equipment, other than a grain bag.
This is something you will have to pay attention to on your first few batches. You will want to see exactly how much temperature loss you have during mashing, so you will know how to compensate for it in future batches by heating your strike water to a higher temperature than you want to mash at. This may be a little frustrating at the beginning, but there are ways to make it easier while you are figuring out how your set up works.
You can keep hot and cold water nearby to add to the mash to adjust the temperature on the fly. You can also use your burner to heat up the mash if you lose too much temperature. Once you have the strike water at the right temperature, place your grain bag into the pot and pull the bag over the sides of the pot, so that the bag is open. You can use clips to help hold the bag in place. Add your grains slowly, and be sure that you constantly stir so that the grains become saturated and do not clump. Stirring also ensures you extract as much sugar from the grains as possible.
You also need to take a temperature reading to ensure you have hit your desired mash temperature. If you are within a degree, you should be fine. If not, then try one of the methods described earlier so that you hit the right temperature for mashing. At this point, you are mashed in, put the lid on the pot and wait. You can wrap the pot with a towel or blanket to help it maintain temperature. If your pot is pretty full with little headspace, it will likely hold temperature for the entire mash.
One advantage to the BIAB method of home brewing is that is doesn't require any sparging. You can add this step if you like, and some brewers choose to do some sort of sparge to increase efficiency. Many BIAB brewers find that they do not see a big enough increase in efficiency to justify the added step of a sparg..maybe a few points. However, this is something you can experiment with to see how it works for you.
If you choose to sparge, then about 30 minutes before the end of the mash start to heat up your sparge water. Of course, this requires another pot, which isn't true BIAB home brewing, but you can add this step if you like. One reason you may decide to try a sparge is if you have limited space in your brew kettle (and/or you are brewing indoors). This will allow you to do a bigger batch than your kettle size will allow. You simply sparge with the additional batch volume you can't fit in your kettle and then combine the sparge and boil in the fermenter to complete the batch volume. Be careful with this, as this could also hurt your efficiency. You can check with the online calculators to ensure you do not kill your efficiency doing this.
What many BIAB brewers do isn't a true sparge in the sense of batch or fly sparging methods. Rather, they do a modified sparge by allowing the grain bag to drain by hanging the bag over the pot after mashing. You can try this by hand, and some brewers rig up a pulley system to hold the bag in place while it drains. This is actually a pretty smart idea as the grain bag can weigh 10 pounds or more, which can be a lot of weight to hold onto for 10 minutes or more.
If you are indoors, you likely won't have too heavy a grain bag, but you can always suspend it over the pot by anchoring the top of the bag in a cabinet, or tie to the door handle of the microwave if you have one above the stove. No matter what, go ahead and give your bag a squeeze to get out all those sugars. The point of the drain and squeeze is to get out all of those valuable sugars and get them into your wort. This is yet another way to maximize efficiency.
Many BIAB brewers will do what is known as a dunk sparging. Heat up a couple gallons of water in a separate pot, then after draining the grain bag place it in the sparge water for 10 minutes or so, then remove the bag once again. This water is then added to the kettle. Once you have completed mashing and any sparging, you are ready to boil. Keep in mind, you can go directly from mash to boil if you like, and this is the true way to BIAB home brewing.
At this point, you boil as normal, and add your hops at the appropriate time. Then, cool, pitch and ferment. This process makes all grain home brewing easier, faster and less equipment to clean afterwards. It is still all grain home brewing, it's just a simplified version and a great way to introduce all grain home brewing to more people than would otherwise have tried it for whatever limitations they had. It is great that you can try all grain home brewing without having to go "all out" and purchase any additional equipment, other than a grain bag.