Converting All Grain instructions into BIAB ...

I've been extract brewing, sometimes with specialty grains. I have my BIAB stuff and was thinking about moving up -- just these instructions, I'm just not sure what this procedure would be as a BIAB recipe, can somebody kind of translate this for a noob?

Mash & Sparge

Add all grains to strike water and mix to achieve a uniform temperature of 151–153°F. Rest the mash at this temperature for 60–90 minutes.

While the mash rests, collect and heat sparge water.

When the mash rest is complete, heat it to 170°F for mashout.

Sparge and collect the wort in the boil kettle.

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The recipe is from here, but I'm not really sure it changes anything.

http://growlermag.com/homebrew-recipe-extraordinary-ordinary-bitter/2/ ... as a side their beer recipe section is kind of nice just to read.

Basically, you'll be doing your mashing in the bag. I just mash in my kettle and lift the bag out squeeze it, then dunk sparge and squeeze again. But sparging isn't essential, many skip that. Heat your wort in the kettle use sparge water to keep the volume proper and begin the boil.

If you're kettle is big enough I'd recommend a full volume mash. Use a trial version of beer Smith or other brewing software to calculate the target strike temp of water to get a mash temp of 152. Don't bother with a mash out. Just lift the bag and squeeze a bit and go on your way.

Fwiw try to check your source water profile. If it's high on bicarbonates like mine is your beer might suffer without pH adjustment...

Just something to consider when transitioning from extract where that doesn't matter so much.

Thanks guys ... I'll be checking my boil off rate later this week and will give the full volume a shot. It was the sparging portion of this that was confusing me. I assume if I fail to hit my OG I can simply mash for longer? ...

Mash & Sparge

Add all grains to strike water and mix to achieve a uniform temperature of 151–153°F. Rest the mash at this temperature for 60–90 minutes.

While the mash rests, collect and heat sparge water.

When the mash rest is complete, heat it to 170°F for mashout.

Sparge and collect the wort in the boil kettle.

Click to expand...

Can I simplify these steps a bit for you?

1. Heat water to the proper strike temp so that you reach the proper mash temp when the grains are stirred in. Stir in the grains really well so you don't end up with "dough balls" of dry grain.
2. While the mash rests for 30 to 60 minutes (depends on the quality of the crush) you can too. There is little to be gained from using hot water for sparging except a little less time to come to boil.
3. Skip mashout. You don't need it and neither does your wort. Pull the bag and let it drain, then sparge with enough water to reach your pre-boil amount needed.
4 Bring the wort to a boil and proceed as normal.

Northbank said:

I assume if I fail to hit my OG I can simply mash for longer? ...

Click to expand...

If you can get away with no sparge then just plan for 70% brewhouse efficiency. You'll probably end up with a higher gravity in that case. But if not then you can either mash more grains or boil longer before adding hops.

Mashing longer has diminishing returns after probably 20 min. depending on how fine your crush is. A good 90 min mash will help if your crush is course and doesn't hurt if you're not in a hurry. 60 min. Mashing is also common.

All right ... I'm ready Thanks all.

You might find this useful. The brewers there will, if they can, help you convert individual recipes http://biabrewer.info/.