First attempt at BIAB, lots of questions!

[john21wall]

Hi guys, going to have a crack at my first BIAB soon, hoping to end up with a Cascade heavy APA.
Got a 19l stock pot and a small esky as equipment, ive tried to scale a recipe i found with beersmith and the ingredients are as follows...

2.63kg Pale Malt 2 Row
0.17kg Crystal Malt 60L
14g Perle @ 60mins
3g Magnum @ 60mins
21g Cascade @ 15mins
21g Cascade @ flameout
21g Cascade dry hopped after 5 days

My main question is to do with the mash. I have set the beersmith mash profile as single infusion, full body with no mash out and it says to add 7.3l of water @ 76 degrees and then sparge with a further 11.8l @76 degrees to give a mash temp of 69 degrees. Efficiency is set at 70%, do these temperatures sound right?

Beersmith also says to mash for only 45mins, is that long enough? I have read lots of things that suggest 60-90 mins?

Thankyou!

[cerbera84]

it says to add 7.3l of water @ 76 degrees and then sparge with a further 11.8l @76 degrees to give a mash temp of 69 degrees. Efficiency is set at 70%, do these temperatures sound right?

I'd suggest selecting the medium body setting on beersmith, 69 degrees for the mash seems a little high, normally aim around 66. Your sparge temp of 76 seems fine.

[Fil]

Hi John n welcome.. with a cold box tun, preheat it with a kettle or two of off the boil water while you sort out your grains and mix them up and then you should be able to strike your mash with liquor @ 71c and be close to a mash temp of 66.7c have a jug of cold water and an off the boil kettle full close at hand for quick temperature adjustments, and take note of any corrections you make so you can adjust the strike temp for your next brew
no two brewkits are the same..

an iodine test will tell you if your mash is complete after 45 mins, take a teaspoon sample of the mash on a white china plate or wall tile, and drop a drop of iodine on it, if the iodine stays reddy brown your mash is complete, but if it turns BLACK its come into contact with starch and your mash enzymes still have some work to do. google a few utubes for a visual guide..
a 90 min mash or longer (some will mash overnight) is just a much safer bet that its complete.

it might be worth checking the accuracy of your brewday thermometer in advance, pages 16,17,18 in this pdf go into the simple process of a 2 point calibration test in great detail. https://thermapen.co.uk/ThermapenGuidebook-2015.pdf

[Fil]

Hi John n welcome.. with a cold box tun, (esky is Australian for cold box ??) preheat it with a kettle or two of off the boil water while you sort out your grains and mix them up and then you should be able to strike your mash with liquor @ 71c and be close to a mash temp of 66.7c have a jug of cold water and an off the boil kettle full close at hand for quick temperature adjustments, and take note of any corrections you make so you can adjust the strike temp for your next brew
no two brewkits are the same..

an iodine test will tell you if your mash is complete after 45 mins, take a teaspoon sample of the mash on a white china plate or wall tile, and drop a drop of iodine on it, if the iodine stays reddy brown your mash is complete, but if it turns BLACK its come into contact with starch and your mash enzymes still have some work to do. google a few utubes for a visual guide..
a 90 min mash or longer (some will mash overnight) is just a much safer bet that its complete.

it might be worth checking the accuracy of your brewday thermometer in advance, pages 16,17,18 in this pdf go into the simple process of a 2 point calibration test in great detail. https://thermapen.co.uk/ThermapenGuidebook-2015.pdf