BIAB general question

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RobMelton83

RobMelton83

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Thinking about doing my first all grain recipe BIAB style. My question is, can I use this technique to brew any all grain recipe or is there limitations? Second, do you need to alter a recipe to make it BIAB ready?
 
You can brew anything that will fit into your pot. No, you do not need to adjust the recipe because of the BIAB method itself. When you get your system dialed in you will understand your efficiency and then you can adjust accordingly (usually adding a bit more malt). But since you haven't done it yet, just leave the recipe as is and see how it turns out. Good luck!
 
Like dbsmith mentions, it needs to fit in your pot. But you also need to consider your sparging method. Think through how you plan to sparge your grain and how you plan to handle a bag of wet grain.

I've found using my set up (in my kitchen), I'm limited to around 6 lbs of dry grain, meaning I can brew ~3 gallon batches of regular beer or 4-5 gallons of session-strength beer.

If you check out Seven's BIAB sticky , you'll find a great pictorial of a set up that will allow you to brew larger batches.
 
If your kettle is big enough, you should be able to brew any AG recipe without any modifications. I brew with a 7.5 gal. kettle so I have modified my brew process a bit, but with my modifications, I haven't had a grain bill too large yet. I just brewed a SN Celebration clone yesterday with a 14# grain bill and I hit my target OG spot on.
 
The only thing to do differently is make sure the crush is fine enough (there is little chance of stuck with BIAB).
 
I brew biab and can fit 8 lbs of grain in my mashing pot. I use 2 at a time (so 2 pots with 8lbs of grain each) but my boil kettle is 15 gal so I add dme to make up the difference in any recipe.
 
BullGator said:
I brew biab and can fit 8 lbs of grain in my mashing pot. I use 2 at a time (so 2 pots with 8lbs of grain each) but my boil kettle is 15 gal so I add dme to make up the difference in any recipe.
Click to expand...
Why don't you just biab in the 15 gallon pot?

I brew in a 10 gallon pot and have never gotten close to filling it with too much grain for a 5 gallon recipe. Without sparging, I usually get about 70% efficiency, and that is good enough for me.

I did brew a 10 gallon batch in my 10 gallon pot. 25lbs of grain and almost 8 gallons of water to mash in. Efficiency was right around 60% but I was expecting that. I did dunk sparge the grains in another pot with about 3 gallons of water in it. Boiled with it right at the brim and only got one small boil over. Had to add about 1 gallon top off to the fermentors in the end.
 
D_Nyholm said:
Why don't you just biab in the 15 gallon pot?

I brew in a 10 gallon pot and have never gotten close to filling it with too much grain for a 5 gallon recipe. Without sparging, I usually get about 70% efficiency, and that is good enough for me.

I did brew a 10 gallon batch in my 10 gallon pot. 25lbs of grain and almost 8 gallons of water to mash in. Efficiency was right around 60% but I was expecting that. I did dunk sparge the grains in another pot with about 3 gallons of water in it. Boiled with it right at the brim and only got one small boil over. Had to add about 1 gallon top off to the fermentors in the end.
Click to expand...

I use my oven to control my mash temp better. And 2 pots fit better in my oven. Plus I started brewing 2 separate 5 gal pots before I went to a keggle. So I brewed 2 different beers a lot of time.
 

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