English Mild BIAB 2.5 Gallon NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AWKBrewing13]

Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since I have brewed beer. I have been condensing down my equipment and looking to shorten my brew day. I discovered BIAB and I like the idea of using one vessel. I had heard that it has a smoother malty and there is less tannin leaching. I love all of that. So I want to brew an English mild recipe and Im not sure where to start. I have an idea of what I want the grain bill and hop schedule to look like. I saw this recipe on a random website.

Maris Otter
Crystal 40
Crystal 80 (or 120)
Chocolate malt
Northern Brewer 60 min.

probably a wyeast smash pack. im looking for medium body, not too sweet (thinking about mashing around 155), ABV around 3.5%, 2.5 gallon recipe, no sparge. Super simple. heat water, mash, pick up and drain, heat to boil, add hops, then cool down and pitch. That's it.

Can someone please help me with this? Am I on the right track? and how much grain should I use? how much water do I start out with? I am really lost and would LOVE to get back into brewing. thank guys! (and gals)

 

[Chetbrews]

Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since I have brewed beer. I have been condensing down my equipment and looking to shorten my brew day. I discovered BIAB and I like the idea of using one vessel. I had heard that it has a smoother malty and there is less tannin leaching. I love all of that. So I want to brew an English mild recipe and Im not sure where to start. I have an idea of what I want the grain bill and hop schedule to look like. I saw this recipe on a random website.

Maris Otter
Crystal 40
Crystal 80 (or 120)
Chocolate malt
Northern Brewer 60 min.

probably a wyeast smash pack. im looking for medium body, not too sweet (thinking about mashing around 155), ABV around 3.5%, 2.5 gallon recipe, no sparge. Super simple. heat water, mash, pick up and drain, heat to boil, add hops, then cool down and pitch. That's it.

Can someone please help me with this? Am I on the right track? and how much grain should I use? how much water do I start out with? I am really lost and would LOVE to get back into brewing. thank guys! (and gals)

Do you use any brewing software? When I started doing BIAB I used the brewer's friend website and used the free software to work on a recipe, took notes and then went back in to figure out what I ended up with in terms of gravity to see if I was in the ballpark.

 

[Transamguy77]

I second some brewing software until you get back at it and then it will be much easier to put something together Without it.

 

[Stormcrow]

I second the software advice. I use a free app called wort homebrew calculator. Love it. Recipe sounds pretty tasty. You could probably do away with one of the Crystals. I try to keep my speciality malts down to less than 15% of the total grain bill. (Usually ten percent or less.) An app could help you figure out the exact weights. You also probably want to boil some plain water for a set amount of time to see what your boil off rate per hour is. This will help determine how much water to start with when you brew.

 

[jrgtr42]

I third the software. It'll definitely help.
I use Brewer's Friend - there's a free version you can use, or spend the money for more features.
As far as your recipe goes, I don't know that you'd need the two crystal malts - one of them should do, depending on what you're looking for out of it,.

 

[TurnipGreen]

Like everyone above said fins a brewing software you like.
I’d also say be mindful of how much crystal you use. You might be able to skip the dark crystal if you try midnight wheat as opposed to a chocolate malt. I like a little brown malt in a mild. It helps round out the malty chocolateness.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

Here is what I have so far. I wasn't sure how much water to start off with to make sure I have 2.5 gallons going into my fermenter. I also wasnt sure if I needed to add extra grain to the bill for effiency loss. I have no intention of using a sparge.

Kevin Delange talked about his SS minnow ale being on Northern Breweres pro series clone recipe kit. He described it as toasted, biscuit and nutty, with just enough hop bitterness to cut through the malt body. He also mentioned it was just over 3%. The color he describes as mahoghany. I love the sound of this beer. I live in MI and have had a few english milds on tap, but the only one I can think of that can be bought regularly in a bottle or can is Ghetto Blaster. After having these (and a few on tap at Grizzley Peak) I was hooked. I want to brew something that i love or that I cant get regularly. Good milds are hard for me to find so this seems like the most logical choice to make as my first BIAB beer.

 

[kevin58]

Just for grins I just saw this blog post over the weekend. It provides a snapshot of what Mild was originally and what it became later.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2020/05/lets-brew-1838-and-1943-barclay-perkins.html

 

[Chetbrews]

Here is what I have so far. I wasn't sure how much water to start off with to make sure I have 2.5 gallons going into my fermenter. I also wasnt sure if I needed to add extra grain to the bill for effiency loss. I have no intention of using a sparge.

Kevin Delange talked about his SS minnow ale being on Northern Breweres pro series clone recipe kit. He described it as toasted, biscuit and nutty, with just enough hop bitterness to cut through the malt body. He also mentioned it was just over 3%. The color he describes as mahoghany. I love the sound of this beer. I live in MI and have had a few english milds on tap, but the only one I can think of that can be bought regularly in a bottle or can is Ghetto Blaster. After having these (and a few on tap at Grizzley Peak) I was hooked. I want to brew something that i love or that I cant get regularly. Good milds are hard for me to find so this seems like the most logical choice to make as my first BIAB beer.
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I looked this over and in full disclosure, I don't have experience brewing Dark Milds so I referenced the recipe section on homebrewtalk for this style. Your grain bill percentages look about the same in regards to some of the most popular recipes for this style so that looks good. The only thing that kind of threw me for a loop was the starting gravity for the beer in your recipe above.

My experience with making small batches is that after a 30 minute mash with a 5 lb grain bill, I am hitting around 1.037-1.039 for my pre-boil gravity and that is starting with 14 liters (roughly 3.7 gallons) of water for a no sparge mash. After the mash ends I have about 12 liters of wort which then I squeeze the hell out of the bag to get me an extra liter or so back in the kettle (13 liters) to get me to this pre-boil gravity.

After a 30 minute boil, I am left with around 11 liters (2.9 gallons) in the kettle and then transfer about 10.5 liters (2.7 gallons) to the fermenter with a starting or original gravity of around 1.045-1.047.

Looking at your amount of grain and you wanting to end with 3 gallons and do a 60 minute boil, my gut is telling me that you might overshoot your original gravity for this style. But I also noticed that with this software, that the gravity didn't change at all when adjusting your boil volume or duration. It only changed when changing the batch size or the efficiency.

With all that was just said, know that everyone's brew day will turn out different from others. I say just go for it and see what happens. Take good notes and see how it turns out, I'm guessing it will be fine.

Keep us posted and let us know how it goes!