BIAB 3gallon recipe help

[Homebrwer]

I've been an extract/partial brewer for while now. I've decided to downsize my brewing to 3gallon batches. I've made one partial 3gallon batch but have recently made the jump to BIAB as well. Unfortunately my last 3 batches of 3gallon BIAB have been less than good. There were many reasons but one of which, I'm convinced, is my recipes. I think going from 5gallons to 3gallons and BIAB have thrown things out of whack.

So....before I put this latest recipe to flame I would like to seek some critique and help from the community. What do you think about the recipe as it stands?

OG 1.062
FG 1.012
ABV 6.2%
IBU 29
SRM 25
Batch size = 3 gallons

Grain
5.5lbs Maris Otter
1lb Munich
0.75lb Pale Chocolate
0.5lb Biscuit

Hops
1oz Goldings (4.5%) 40min
0.5oz Goldings (4.5%). 15min
0.5oz Goldings (4.5%) 3min

Yeast
Nottingham Dry Yeast

Mash
152F for 60min

Thank you in advance for any assistance or comments.

 

[elkshadow]

What kind of beer do you want this to be? That seems like a lot of chocolate and biscuit to me. I brew 3 gallon batches also (but with a mash tun) and I've never used more than 3 or 4 oz. of either of those in a recipe. Not that it's wrong to do that, I just never have.

Also, your recipe OG looks like it is assuming about 65% efficiency. You should be closer to 75-80 with BIAB.

The way I scale my batches is by using Brewers Friend Recipe Calculator. I find a 5 gallon (or any size) recipe I like and use the scale function under the recipe tools tab.

You could just decide what you want to brew, look up an award winning recipe and plug it in and scale it.

Good luck.

 

[JakeSparrow]

What kind of beer do you want this to be? That seems like a lot of chocolate and biscuit to me. I brew 3 gallon batches also (but with a mash tun) and I've never used more than 3 or 4 oz. of either of those in a recipe. Not that it's wrong to do that, I just never have.

Also, your recipe OG looks like it is assuming about 65% efficiency. You should be closer to 75-80 with BIAB.

The way I scale my batches is by using Brewers Friend Recipe Calculator. I find a 5 gallon (or any size) recipe I like and use the scale function under the recipe tools tab.

You could just decide what you want to brew, look up an award winning recipe and plug it in and scale it.

Good luck.

Not to hijack the thread or anything but I'm sure it could help the OP too. So even for someone completely new to BIAB 3 gal batches, you can assume 75 to 80 percent efficiency? Every recipe I've been creating has me assuming 65 to be on the safe side (figured it couldn't be lower and higher would just make it have a higher ABV + body). But it's important specifically for the IBUs, I wouldn't want my IPA turning out more like a pale or worse in terms of bitterness.

I also agree the chocolate needs to be scaled down, that much could be in a normal 5 gal batch (and still would be alot!). I've heard on here and by brewers I know to keep the grain bill with 80-90% base malt, then fill it out from there with specialty grains and whatnot. I would say it looks like you're going for a porter with the color and grain bill. Here's what I would do, personally (take what I say with a grain of salt since I'm fairly new)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 4.40 gal
Post Boil Volume: 3.65 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.78 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 28.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 74.1 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 14.8 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.4 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.7 %
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 Hop 6 8.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 5 27.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 7 2.8 IBUs

That way it fits right in the Robust Porter category, and it would probably turn out very well IMO. Even if you do hit 65% efficiency, it would turn out okay. If you wanna add another 1/2 to 1 pound of MO to compensate for this possibility that would be fine.

I highly recommend purchasing Beersmith2 OR using brewersfriend.com for free, it'll help you tweak your recipes and if you want to brew to a specific style, it's great. Hope this helps!

 

[JakeSparrow]

Also, not sure if I'm right about this but I would think mashing at 153 or even 154 might help with this specific beer?

 

[elkshadow]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but I'm sure it could help the OP too. So even for someone completely new to BIAB 3 gal batches, you can assume 75 to 80 percent efficiency?

I don't really know since I've never done a BIAB batch but every thread I've read about it features one BIAB'er after another talking about how they almost always get around 80% efficiency.

Also, it seems to me that only the crush of the grain matters and not the experience of the brewer. All you're doing is soaking a bag full of grain then pulling it out and letting it drain. I don't see how having the experience of having done that however many times before would change someone's efficiency if the crush was the same.

I've heard a thousand times in BIAB threads: "I crush very fine and I get 80% or more."

Check out the BIAB sub forum on here. It nested under the All Grain forum.

Cheers!

 

[Homebrwer]

No worries on the hijack, as it all can help at this point.

I think I'm going to try almost what JakeSparrow suggested. I think this is what I'm settling on slowly.

5lbs Maris Otter
1lb Munich
0.5lb Biscuit
0.5lb Pale Chocolate

Better?

 

[Limestone_Cowboy]

I brew 3g batches with a bag, and it's really easy to just throw some grains together and end up with a very tasty beer.

I just use 5-6 lbs of grain. That's it. 5 lbs gets me a 1.050-ish beer. 6 lbs gives me a 1.060-ish beer.

WTF am I talking about? Basically, it boils down to not having any specialty grains (choc, crystal, etc.) add up to more than 1 lb. Pretty easy, eh?

It gets even more elegant considering I use 4 gallons of water. Exactly 4 gallons. Man, I love these even numbers!

 

[JakeSparrow]

Well 80 percent is a lot more then 65. I might adjust my recipes to me getting 70-75 so I have more room to go either way, wouldn't want to end up with an unbalanced beer.

Homebrewr I say go for it, brew it up take notes and pics and post them here. Basically you're gonna end up with at least a decent beer as long as nothing extreme happens, which I'm sure it won't. Good luck on your brew day!

Even numbers are awesome. 4 gallons exactly eh? I think I might stick to 7 lbs for my smash beers and my basic recipes I'm gonna brew.

 

[Limestone_Cowboy]

Jack I get around 75-77% pretty much every time. btw, the 4g is a slight misnomer. Sometimes I've topped off a smidge when using Pils after a nice long boil. My pot is a 5g and I've noticed the boil off rate to be a little less than standard assumptions.

I'd brew 7 lbs too, but I like to drink a lot of beer. Logistics, ya know.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I tried BIAB, and no matter what I did with the LHBS's crush the best I could muster was 65%EFF. I think, especially with a new BIAB brewer, it's safer to error on the side of low EFF than to automatically assume that their crush and technique will be optimal for the style they want. I vote keep the recipe at 65%, or else it could end up less than 5%ABV and overly bitter.

Homebrewer - this looks like a porter, correct?

I brew 3gal batches too, if it is a porter I'd build the grain bill like this with all English grain -

80% MO
10% Biscuit (Victory/Amber)
6% Medium Crystal (55L) - depending on how you want your flavor, Dark Crystal (80L) would be a great sub
4% Chocolate (450L)

Keep your hop schedule.

Brew on!
:rockin:

 

[Limestone_Cowboy]

I crush my own at the LHBS, and always send it through twice. Not sure if that makes a difference, but so far I'm content with what I get.

fwiw, my observations come from brewing numerous batches on my setup. The empirical bits came afterward..

 

[Homebrwer]

Well this brew will have to wait a bit as I'm heading out of town on business tomorrow and then vacation the week after. It will get made though.

It is suppose to be a porter a bit on the toasty malt side, hence the munich, pale chocolate, and biscuit. At this point I just want to brew and have it be a beer I can drink.

I'll keep you posted on the brew day and eventually tasting. Thanks for the input though.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I crush my own at the LHBS, and always send it through twice. Not sure if that makes a difference, but so far I'm content with what I get.

fwiw, my observations come from brewing numerous batches on my setup. The empirical bits came afterward..

I bet that double crush helped a ton, especially with the crush that some of the BIAB folks are using (referenced via pictures on the Ugly Junk post). I appreciate the observations, and I can definitely see how as the process is refined BIAB can become very efficient. I know I tried a few times with BIAB, but just didn't have the consistency I wanted, so I went to BIABIAC - (BIAB in a Cooler) and that helped immensely with my consistency and repeatability.

The other thing I learned when trying something new with AG; don't be surprised if you're way under or way OVER your targeted SG. Murphy happens, enjoy the ride.

 

[Limestone_Cowboy]

I use a cooler too actually. 2g in the mash, 2g in the kettle to dunk. I doubt efficiency changes much v. traditional (hah) biab in the kettle, but the temp control is everything to me. I think the important thing here is establishing some level of consistency so you can scale a particular recipe , or just throw whatever together and end up with some level of predictability. That's going to take a number of brews and decent notes, whatever the method. I can't imagine my experiences being much different than someone elses, but there will always be variables. And just like sex and pizza, even a beer that misses the mark is still a good beer.