BIAB? can i use this all grain recipe?

[beanbagz1]

10 1/3# 2-row
10 oz. Crystal 40
3/4 oz Chinook (60 min.)
3/4 oz EKG (15)
3/4 oz Cascade (15)
1/2 oz Crystal (1)
1/2 oz Cascade (1)
1/2 oz EKG (1)
1/2 oz Cascade (dry)

Wyeast 1056

this recipe is intended for an all grain brewing setup.. i do not have a mash tun but i do have an insanely large grain bag and an 8 gallon pot that i could possibly do a BIAB setup. would i have to adjust any of the ingredients to do this? is the efficiency of a BIAB beer near that of doing a normal mash? how long would i mash? at what temp? this will be my first jump into an entirely grain recipe.. i considered doing a dme/lme+grain recipe but wanted to see what you guys thought before i jumped to the same old thing again. any input would be greatly appreciated!

oh yea, this is supposed to be a "bridgeport ipa" clone. so it should end up somewhere around 5.5%abv and 50 ibus. does this look good?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Yes that looks like a very typical recipe and will BIAB without issue.

Short version would be to heat up 6+ gallons to 160 degrees and mash for 60 - 90 minutes, resulting temp would be in the low 150's, wrap kettle w/ blankets or a sleeping bag to insulate, or gently add heat during the mash, then remove bag of grain and boil w/ hops.

Your kettle is a touch small for a 5 gallon BIAB, but fear not. You can either dunk sparge, or top up w/ hot water during the mash to maximize your kettle. If you have the 8 gallon nearly full you should yield enough wort. Or you can sprinkle fresh water through the grain bag to collect the final runnnings needed. Even a cold water sparge will help if that's all you are prepared to do.

W/ a thorough crush, efficiency of BIAB will not be considerably less than other methods, say a couple points???

I say go for it, it's not that hard, don't fear BIAB.

 

[octo]

assuming you're putting in the full amount of water initally and not sparging, then probably not. Ive tried to use 9 pounds of grain and 7 gallons of water in an 8 gallon pot and it was too much. But you could sparge with the remaining water or whatever amount of water you choose in a separate pot and recombine them. and yeah biab efficiency is just fine, if you're worried, just mash longer.

 

[beanbagz1]

Yes that looks like a very typical recipe and will BIAB without issue.

Short version would be to heat up 6+ gallons to 160 degrees and mash for 60 - 90 minutes, resulting temp would be in the low 150's, wrap kettle w/ blankets or a sleeping bag to insulate, or gently add heat during the mash, then remove bag of grain and boil w/ hops.

Your kettle is a touch small for a 5 gallon BIAB, but fear not. You can either dunk sparge, or top up w/ hot water during the mash to maximize your kettle. If you have the 8 gallon nearly full you should yield enough wort. Or you can sprinkle fresh water through the grain bag to collect the final runnnings needed. Even a cold water sparge will help if that's all you are prepared to do.

W/ a thorough crush, efficiency of BIAB will not be considerably less than other methods, say a couple points???

I say go for it, it's not that hard, don't fear BIAB.

how much of a difference would i see between the 60 and 90 minute mashes?

 

[beanbagz1]

assuming you're putting in the full amount of water initally and not sparging, then probably not. Ive tried to use 9 pounds of grain and 7 gallons of water in an 8 gallon pot and it was too much. But you could sparge with the remaining water or whatever amount of water you choose in a separate pot and recombine them. and yeah biab efficiency is just fine, if you're worried, just mash longer.

i would probably sparge in a different pot.. i have a 5 gallon pot i could use for that.. so maybe 5 gallons in the initial mash? and 1.5 in the sparge? or something like that?

 

[whitehause]

For a true 1 pot BIAB your 8 gal pot will be a little small. I do BIAB with a 9 and a 5 gal pot. I use a 1.75 per pound grain to water for my mash in keep the remainder in the second pot. After the 60 min mash, I have my second pot of water heated to about 170 then dunk the bag in that and stir to wash the remaining sugars off. I know some people that will mash, pull the bag and sit it in a colander on top of the pot, then slowly run the remaining heated water over the grains.
Make sure to stir well at dough in, and stir well again when your ready to pull it out.

As a general rule you want to mash at about 150 to 152 for 60 mins. Your water will need to be about 165 when you add you grains. Don't turn the burner back on with the bag in or you'll melt the bag! Wrap a towel around your pot(when the burner is off and cool!!!) to help hold the heat in. You should have a colander large enough sit across your pot so you can drain the grain bag.

I use "Nelson's beer quick calculator", it's a free program that allows you to input your recipe and it will give you water amounts and temps that you'll need to do your batch. You can change the parameters to meet your needs.

 

[whitehause]

lol....4 responses before I got done typing

 

[wilserbrewer]

how much of a difference would i see between the 60 and 90 minute mashes?

Likely not that much??? but of course YMMV Sorry, no crystal ball here. Is the grain well crushed? Are there any whole grain pieces left in the grist???

 

[octo]

well, between doing a 60 minute mash I average about 70% eff., and a 120 minute mash I average around 90% eff., obviously you may not get the same results as me, also it depends on the type of crush you got, a double crush will yield a higher efficiency.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I did AG biab this weekend in a 7.5 gallon brew pot and 11# of grain. I doughed in at 1.25Qt/Lb, mashed for 1 hour, collected the runnings into my fermenter, placed the grain bag in a pasta collander over a bowl, heated my sparge water to make the proper per boil volume (5.75 Gallons), squeezed the P*&^ out of the grain bag, popped the grains into the sparge water for 20 minutes, re-squeezed the bag, then proceeded to the boil as usual.

 

[octo]

I did AG biab this weekend in a 7.5 gallon brew pot and 11# of grain. I doughed in at 1.25Qt/Lb, mashed for 1 hour, collected the runnings into my fermenter, placed the grain bag in a pasta collander over a bowl, heated my sparge water to make the proper per boil volume (5.75 Gallons), squeezed the P*&^ out of the grain bag, popped the grains into the sparge water for 20 minutes, re-squeezed the bag, then proceeded to the boil as usual.

well, that isnt really brew in a bag. the intention afaik to brew in a bag is to no sparge and just mash in with all your water and grain in the kettle at once. simplicity is the key with biab. otherwise it just becomes more complicated and is just like normal all grain brewing.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

well, that isnt really brew in a bag. the intention afaik to brew in a bag is to no sparge and just mash in with all your water and grain in the kettle at once. simplicity is the key with biab. otherwise it just becomes more complicated and is just like normal all grain brewing.

Call it whatever you wish. My BK isn't big enough to prepare a full boil with a single infusion of water and a full grain bill. If I'm going to add "top off" water it might as well have run through the grains first.

 

[whitehause]

That's my situation too. I use a 9 and a 5 gal. I like the idea of rinsing the grains once.
For that matter, it should really be called "Mash in a Bag"......Does anybody actually brew in the bag?

 

[beanbagz1]

ok, so what i will do probably isnt called BIAB.. but it is the only way i can make an all grain batch happen. beer experiment vol. 4

 

[smyrnaquince]

Brew in a Bag, not Boil in a Bag.

Yes, the point is to minimize the equipment needed to do an all-grain brew.

Ralph (one of the BIAB guys in Australia) has a variant called Maxi-BIAB, which is basically what you are describing. It allows you to get most of the simplicity of BIAB, but use a pot that is smaller than what would be required to hold the full mash volume.

I recommend the BIABrewer.info site for the most expertise in BIAB. Friendly people, good info.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Brew in a Bag, not Boil in a Bag.

Yes, the point is to minimize the equipment needed to do an all-grain brew.

Ralph (one of the BIAB guys in Australia) has a variant called Maxi-BIAB, which is basically what you are describing. It allows you to get most of the simplicity of BIAB, but use a pot that is smaller than what would be required to hold the full mash volume.

I recommend the BIABrewer.info site for the most expertise in BIAB. Friendly people, good info.

If we weren't such good friends I'd think you're trying to push me off the forums
You can also do MLT in a bag. Get a 10 or 15 gallon cooler with a drain plug in a trench, line it with voile fabric, mash and sparge as usual and if the drain slows, just lift the fabric near the drain plug and/or squeeze the bag. There's a lot of variations, just need to find what works. I have a 15 gallon boilermaker on order so I hear a really large grain bag in my near future.

 

[smyrnaquince]

If we weren't such good friends I'd think you're trying to push me off the forums

Wow! I didn't think I said anything to offend. Sorry!