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BIAB water capacity

Beerlord

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I'm a long time brewer who stopped for a decade and am now back.  But, I've never done a BIAB until yesterday.  Seems to have gone well.
However, I'm new to Beersmith and have some newb questions about BIAB and Brewsmith.
My confusion is with the amount of water that BeerSmith says I need.  Based up my recipe, when I input 12.5 lbs of grain, it shows I need a bit more than 37 qts at 158. 
I have a 9 gallon brew kettle and I had no trouble hitting my efficiency with 6.75 gallons (27 qts) of water.  Even with the loss of water to the grain and boil off, (1 hour) I assumed I would need no more than 7 gallons of water.
Is that about right or did I possibly miss something in the input with BeerSmith? No matter what I change, it continually shows the amount of water needed as 9.32 gallons.

Thanks for helping this newb out.  I really like BeerSmith and the info I get from it.
 
Hey Beerlord, glad to hear your BIAB went well!

What profile are you using?  BIAB Medium Body?
 
Beerlord
9.32 does sound high; but 6.75 sounds pretty low.
The initial volume will depend a lot on all of the "losses" in the system profile.
If we start with the final boil volume the losses are boil off and grain absorption.
Boiling off will depend on the diameter of your pot and how vigorously you boil, typically 1-1.5 gallons.
The grain absorption is about .12 per lb of grain.
So assuming you want 5.5 gallons at the end of the boil, 1 gallon boil off and .12gal/lb * 12.5lb for grain absorption.
Total initial = 8.0 gallons  (5.5 +1.0 +1.5)
You need to verify all of your systems settings.  There are losses for fermentor, water left in boiler, boil off, and grain absorption.  Make sure you are using a BIAB profile.  The BIAB grain absorption is typically less than the typical Mash Tun absorption.

Good Luck David
 
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