Can you check my APA all grian biab recipe?

First time attempting an all grain biab recipe. LHBS guy helped me with the calculations and ingredients, but I would like to double check his work.

You guys think this sounds right for an American pale ale?

He said this will make a 3 gal batch, and to start with 3.5 gal. But then he started talking about adding water after the boil which worried me.

Fyi, my kettle is 7.5 gal. Thanks!

Mash at 154 degrees for 1 hour:
6 lb 2 row v.s.
.4 lb light munich
.4 lb crystal 45

.3 oz nugget 14.8% @ 60 min
.25 oz Centennial @ 10 min
.5 oz zythos @ 0 min

1 pack safale us-05 Chico American ale yeast (he said to only use half of the pack)

It looks about right to me although I like my APAs on the upper range of IBUs and hop-nose-smell so i'd add bit more hops in the last 15 minutes but that's just me.

I'd go ahead and use the whole packet of 05, but again that's just me. I certainly don't think it would be overpitching, even with your relatively low gravity pale ale.

I plugged into beersmith for you;


hbt
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 3/8/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.50 gal Brewer:
Boil Size: 5.79 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Electric Urn (10 Gal/40 L) - BIAB
End of Boil Volume 4.51 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 3.13 gal Est Mash Efficiency 86.8 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 88.2 %
6.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.9 %
6.4 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.9 %
0.30 oz Nugget [14.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 21.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 17.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Zythos [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 6 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 39.6 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 5.9 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: BIAB, Medium Body Total Grain Weight: 6 lbs 12.8 oz
Sparge Water: 0.00 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.1 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 25.17 qt of water at 157.5 F 152.1 F 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge Step: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Brew in a bag method where the full boil volume is mashed within the boil vessel and then the grains are withdrawn at the end of the mash. No active sparging is required. This is a medium body beer profile.

Wow! Most helpful response ever! Thanks man!

I'm still confused about 2 things though. How many gal should I start with, and how much will I end with?

And dumb question, but when it says hops at 60 mins that means after 60 mins, right?

Also, it says I should mash out at 168 degrees for 7 to 10 mins, right?

you'll need to start with more than 3.5 gal of water if you want to finish with 3gal in the fermenter

the grain will absorb about 3/4 of a gallon alone (around .1gal/lb) and you'll still get a bit of boil off after an hour boil

i also agree to up the later hop additions and suggest you dry hop as well

i wouldn't worry about a mash out, just remove the grain bag after an hour and let it drip/squeeze out as much wort as you can.

hop additions are counted backwards

60min = 60min left in boil, so add your 1st addition as soon as the wort comes to a boil
0min would be adding that addition as soon as you turn the heat off

what he said.

I've never BIAB'd, but I assume you need 4.5 or so gallons of water to end up with 3 gallons of beer. The water MIXED with the grain in your giant bag needs to be 152 degrees. Because your grains start off much cooler than 152 degrees, you need to mix it with around 157 degree water to end up with 152 BIAB mash temperatures.

The "mash out" is really just turning your burning up and getting the overall temperature of your grain/water mix up to 168 degrees. You may not really have to do this, but it will probably help your efficiency to heat your water to 168 before remove your bag o grains. Just be sure to take 'em because over 170 degrees you can extract unwanted tannins from the grains.

once you remove the grains, keep heating up and when you boil, add your 60 minute hops. after 50 minutes, you'll have 10 minutes to go so add your 10 minute hops. And etc.

So make sure your grain/water mixture settles at around 152 degrees for 60 minutes. Remove grains. Boil. Add hops. Make some beer. Hopefully someone with more BIAB experience can help with your water volume issues- i only know what beersmith says as far as that goes. But seriously, add some more hops in the last 15 minutes if you have some more- it'll be delicious. Cascade is super cheap.

Just finished brew day. So I started with 4.5gal, and ended up with 2.5gal in the fermenting bucket.

My gravity after mash was 1.041

My gravity in the fermenter was 1.06

1) What kind of beer can I expect?
2) What was my brew house efficiency?
3) How long should I keep it in the primary before moving to the secondary?
4) How long should it stay in the secondary?

Thanks again guys!

Sorry, I know its a lot of dumb questions. But can anyone help me out?

1) You have a nice looking APA. Maybe a little hoppy but hey it is beer
2) your efficiency was 65% by my calc. Not too bad for a first time.
3-4) I am a fan of 3 weeks in primary and no secondary unless I am doing long aging.

3 weeks in primary bottle and then 3 weeks in bottle. Cool for a few days in the fridge and enjoy. Worst case you made beer, best case you made amazing tasting beer.

There are no dumb questions. Dumb answers? All the time.

1) If you're making a pale ale with the ingredients you listed, your going to get a pale ale. If the pale ale went into the primary fermenter with an O.G. of 1.060, then it's going to be at the exact top end of the BJCP range for a American Pale Ale. So you're going to get a strong pale ale. If you get a F.G. of 1.012 just prior to bottling/kegging, you'll have a 6.3% ABV.
2) Your grain bill based on your final wort volume should have given you a 1.100 with 100% efficiency. So with a measured O.G. of 1.060 going into the primary, you got a 60% brewhouse efficiency. So work on your process further to get it up. Consider that the yeast make the beer and the brewer only makes the grain based sugar water (the wort). Your process dictates how efficiently you can make your wort so you can achieve your target gravity. Work on further improving your process (controlling your temperatures).
3) I typically primary my beers for one week, in your case (in using the Safale-05 yeast) I'd keep the fermentation temperature at a steady 67-68 degrees F.
4) My secondary will typically be another week in duration at 68 degrees F. But I don't usually sweat anything if either primary or secondary take another week if I get busy.

2.5 to 3 gallons is not a very standard volume to make a beer, I usually do 5 gallon batches. I use a 6 gallon glass carboy for my primary and a 5 gallon glass carboy for the secondary. I would suggest using a secondary that is nearly at the volume of the final batch size. I don't really want much airspace in the secondary as there is not much active fermentation in there to produce much CO2 above the beer. What are you going to use as a secondary for your batch?

Good luck and enjoy your final pale ale!

Wow the responses on this forum are always so interesting. Thanks guys!

My primary is a 7 gal bucket, secondary is a 6 gal plastic better bottle.

My fermenting temp is between 70 and 72 b/c I don't have a fridge for it.

I make 2.5 gallons all the time. I do this because if i dont like the recipie than I wont make a 10 gallon batch.

About your effecency; you have to consider the crush of your grain, and not worry about a stuck sparge or anything like that.

Also I would mash for 90 minutes and mash out for 10 minutes (I like to chase numbers), Sparging is another option. Dunk sparge or pouring warm water over the grain bag method is what some people do to inprove the efficiency. For an APA, I would not bother. I do squeeze the bag though. Many people here dont like to squeeze the bag (its an ongoing debate on this forum). It might be dirty words but it works for me.

Now entering in those numbers I come up with 77% efficency using BAIBacus.
For BIAB this calculator is very powerful. The only downside is that you have to translate pounds into grams, but they give you a calculator for that too. What I mean is that you can not enter in an english measurement into the data fields. It must be in metric.

This calulation might be off a bit since I dont know the dementions of your kettle, but I have to believe that its close to my numbers.

Have to say, its not bad for a first time BIAB

Dang you guy are gettin me pumped. I wanna drink it now.

Ya I squeezed the bag like a mother. I think id need finer grain to do any better.

How to calculate water required for biab
Boiloff + grain water absorption ( 0.06 gallons/pound of grain if you squeeze the bag)+ total volume you want in your fermenter

I forgot trub loss into account, I usually always make my batch .25-.5 gallons more then I want

6.5 lb x .06 equals .39
1.5 gallons boiloff, or whatever yours is
3.5 gallons is what you want, with room for trub loss

5.39 gallons to start, it may be different if your boiloff is lower, that you will need to find out

Orlando means no cooler rooms in the house and that means warmer fermentations and that means more fruity tasting beers. What I do to cool down a fermentation temp is to put my carboy in a larger plastic tub, add water to the tub and a t shirt around the fermenter. The wet t shirt provides an evaporative cooling to the carboy and thereby to the wort. Another trick is to fill some pop bottles (I used 2 liter bottles) with water and put in the freezer then take the frozen ice cube bottles and put them in the water around the carboy. Your wort temp will drop fast.

I'm concerned that the volume in the secondary is much larger than the wort you have to put in it. That means a lot of air exposure. So if you have 3 gallons of wort to secondary, I'd use 3 one gallon glass jugs all cleaned and sanitized to hold the beer. Much less air space in each jug means less oxidized beer.

Cheers

I've decided not to secondary. Thx for the chilling tip tho