Hefeweisen BIAB

[cgrivois]

I’m new to beer brewing, and would like to make a hefeweisen BIAB. I’ve done a couple of malt kits but not quite ready nor have the equipment to go all grain, so I think BIAB is next. I’m looking for some detailed instructions / recipe for a hefeweisen. I’ve looked through you tube and have the basic concept but would still feel more comfortable with a set of instructions. Anyone have instructions and recipe they would be willing to share?

 

[daksin]

I don't have a recipe, but I do a semi-BIAB process that I switched to after a couple of batches and now it's all I do at home. I don't think I'll ever move to a 3 vessel system. Here's my basic process: It's a little complicated writing it out, but try to imagine it all and it makes sense together. I get about 85% efficiency with this method.

Calculate: how much strike and sparge water do you need- I get about 1/2 gallon of trub loss and put everything into the fermentor. Equipment loss with BIAB is basically zero and grain absorption is minimal. I know I boil down 1 gallon per hour, so I shoot for 7 gallons into the kettle (6 gallons into the fermentor with trub, that leaves me 5.5 gallons of beer to make sure my kegs are totally full). Take your lbs of grist, multiply by your qts/lb (I use anywhere from 1-1.5) and that's your strike volume. Subtract from your boil volume to get your sparge volume (I mash with 4 gallons? then sparge with 3). Use an online calculator to calculate strike temp.

Heat strike water, add grains in bag to strike water, stir like crazy for a minute or two until the mash is the same temperature throughout the tun. You should be at your mash temp now (if you're way off you can add some boiling or cool water- you don't need much- and stir more).

Mash for 1hr-90 min depending on temperature (my mash tun is just the boil kettle, so I wrap it in towels for insulation) Mash temperatures 150F and below I give 90 min to ensure full conversion.

While mashing, heat your sparge water to between 170 and 180F (don't worry about tannins, remember that when you add 180F sparge water to your mash at 150ish, the temp will be somewhere between the two.

When the mash is over, lift the bag out, set it on some cookie cooling racks on the tun, and squeeze until almost all of the liquid flows out of the bag through the cooling racks into the mash tun.

Dump the contents of your bag into the sparge water and stir. Let that sit for 10 minutes.

Pour the sparged grains into the bag ABOVE the first runnings so the second runnings drain and the grains are caught in the bag. Squeeze again.

Boil as normal.

You can modify this to fit your setup, many BIAB do no-spage and no-chill, but I think this is a super-easy alternative to the fly-sparge three vessel system that gives me excellent beer and great efficiency.

 

[TopherM]

not quite ready nor have the equipment to go all grain, so I think BIAB is next

FYI, Brew in a Bag IS an all-grain brewing method, not some sort of intermediate step to all-grain brewing!

 

[cgrivois]

I understand, I don't have the equipment nor do I want to spend the coin on buying/building the equipment for a three pot method untill I decide homebrewing is for me. I'm deciding to try BIAB method of AG before moving on to a more complicated method.

 

[Cambone]

FYI, Brew in a Bag IS an all-grain brewing method, not some sort of intermediate step to all-grain brewing!

Ya it always bugs me when people say it isn't true all grain brewing.

 

[TopherM]

I'm deciding to try BIAB method of AG before moving on to a more complicated method.

Yeah, I still don't think the OP understands, based on the language they are using.

You don't "move on" from BIAB to the three-vessel method. They are essentially equal, just different ways of doing the exact same thing. I do BIAB, and personally think the three vessel guys should move on from all that extra work to the BIAB method....lol.

Anyway, just wanted to further clarify! BIAB is far superior to traditional brewing methods in alot of ways (other posters, don't get started on this, I know the advantages to traditional brewing and shortcomings of BIAB as well!!).

For most, BIAB is the easiest and most efficient all-grain brewing gets, not some sort of stepping stone to traditional brewing. Like me, you'll probably find that you are perfectly happy sticking with BIAB going forward!

Either way, don't get it twisted! I'll swear by BIAB all day long!

BTW, here's the traditional German Hefeweizen recipe for good karma!

5.0 gallon batch
5.0 lbs Pilsner Malt
5.0 lbs Wheat Malt
Around 6.8-7.2 gallons starting water volume, modify for your equipment's boil off rate
Mash @ 153F for 60 min
Mashout @ 170F for 10 minutes
DRAIN/SQUEEZE BAG!
Start 60 min Boil
1.0 oz. Hallertau @ 60
Cool to 70F
Pitch Wyeast 3068 Hefeweizen yeast
Ferment at about 63F ambient (target 68F internal temp) for 2 weeks
Keg or bottle, force carbing or priming for 2 more weeks
Enjoy young and fresh!

I added just a touch of black currant extract to my last batch, and grains of paradise (lemon peppery flavor) to the batch I brewed last weekend. Hefe's are a good platform for flavor additions if you want to go that route.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[cgrivois]

Thanks for the recipe and instructions. I'm confused by the 60 min boil, then adding hops at 60 min. Are you not boiling the hops. Also if I am still over my target volume let's say 5 gal at the end or at the time I'm supposed to add hops, can I boil a little longer or add water to get to target volume.

 

[tennesseean_87]

60 minutes hops are added with 60 minutes LEFT in the boil, so they are boiled for 60 minutes. A 0 min hop addition is added right when the flame goes off.

 

[TopherM]

^ What he said about the hops.

As far as the water volume, for BIAB you add the ENTIRE water volume pre-mash when you start, so you have to calculate the necessary water volume. Basically, for a 5.0 gallon batch, the math goes:

5.0 gallons
+
How ever much wort you are going to lose to grain absorbtion (depends on your bag squeezing process....I personally lose about 0.3-0.4 gallons per 10lbs of grain)
+
How ever much water you are going to lose to boiloff (this depends on the dimensions of your kettle.....I personally lose about 0.9 gallons during a 60 minute boil)
+
A small loss of volume during the cooling process from shrinkage (about 0.2-0.3 gallons)
+
How ever much volume you are going to lose to trub, which again depends on your process, and if you filter hops and other additions (I personally only lose about 0.3-0.5 gallons, but I filter my hops and other additions in a tea ball)

Anyway, as you can see, there are a few of these numbers that are dependent on your personal equipment and process, so you'll really need to figure it out for yourself, but it should be about 6.8-7.2 gallons of starting volume to end up with 5.0 gallons after all of the variables above, and you wouldn't add more at any point after that.

 

[cgrivois]

Thanks for the info sounds pretty straight forward. All I’ve got for brew pot right now is a turkey fryer pot so I don’t think that amount of water with the displacement of 10 lbs of grain will fit.

 

[stux]

Then add as much as you can, right up to the rim.

Not having the full volume will decrease your efficiency so use the extra water you didn't add to rinse/sparge your grain

 

[tennesseean_87]

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

That will help you calculate what will fit. Something that I've done because I only have one small brew kettle is to mash in a plastic bucket with a bag. Instead of doing the full volume, I just mash in about 1.25 qts/lb, using the above site to calculate my strike temp. Then I heat the rest of my water in my kettle and pull the bag out and dunk it in for a sparge step. Once you get the general concept of how AG works, you can be creative and figure out hybrid methods that suit your needs/equipment constraints.
You can also brew a high gravity wort and dilute it either before or after fermentation if that helps, but your efficiency and hop utilization might suffer.

 

[FattyLumpkins]

As far as the water volume, for BIAB you add the ENTIRE water volume pre-mash when you start, so you have to calculate the necessary water volume.

Not how I do it, but that is a more "traditional" approach to BIAB. I go 1.25 qt./lbs. infusion in the brew kettle, add another 4-6 qts. for saccharification rest, then dunk sparge 3 gallons in my 6.5 gal. bucket fermenter. I give the bucket a quick rinse before I put the boiled wort into it.
This method boosted my BHE from 65% to 78+%. I don't add much more work and zero extra pieces of equipment. Works great!
OP, a word of advise about BIAB: DO NOT attempt a multirest mash schedule with the grain bag in the pot! I damn near ruined a drunken by melting my must bag to the bottom of my pot! 20 minutes and a lot of steel wool later, I was able to salvage it. Turned out alright. Nothing as spectacular as I was hoping, though.
Happy brewing!