BIAB - Imperial IPA tips

[mgr_stl]

About to brew my first imperial IPA using my BIAB setup. I've heard of efficiency falling off sharply for big beers with BIAB. Any tips on how to get good numbers with big beers?

I'll have some dry malt extract on hand in case I am not hitting my numbers around the end of the boil, and I don't really have space in my kettle to significantly increase the amount of grain (I'm doing a small, stovetop batch).

 

[55x11]

About to brew my first imperial IPA using my BIAB setup. I've heard of efficiency falling off sharply for big beers with BIAB. Any tips on how to get good numbers with big beers?

I'll have some dry malt extract on hand in case I am not hitting my numbers around the end of the boil, and I don't really have space in my kettle to significantly increase the amount of grain (I'm doing a small, stovetop batch).

the key is to get it to dry out and attenuate to low FG.
I would consider using sugar, maybe 10-15% of the bill, can be added pre- or post-boil, once you see your gravity. Limit amount of crystal malts. Get a healthy starter of highly attenuative, clean yeast.

You can always boil a bit longer too if you want to increase your ABV due to lower efficiency. But you want to avoid caramelization of the wort to keep the malt notes clean and let hops shine. I don't think efficiency "drops sharply", but there is a drop for large grain bills for sure, using just about any all grain technique.

 

[Jordo_nb]

I regularly brew 10 gallon 1.060 - 1.070 beers in my 15 gal kettle. Usually Beersmith will call for adding 15-16 gal of water, which obviously doesn't work. I just hold back some water from the mash and add prior to boiling. In beersmith, you can specify "kettle top up" volume. I usually put 3-4 gallon in that space. In the mash profile, you should be able to see the required mash tun volume factoring in grain volume, absorption and everything else.

It shouldn't hurt your beer to do a thicker BIAB mash- you're still thinner than a regular mash. As for that water, I typically pour it over the hanging grain bag as a type of sparge.

 

[mgr_stl]

I brewed on Saturday, and ended up with a starting gravity of 1.082 (Beersmith said it should be 1.088 ). Not bad. I didn't do anything special to boost the gravity. Next time, I'll probably just add 7-8% more grain and sparge with a higher percent of the total water if it can't all fit in the kettle.

 

[sikkingj]

I find my crush can put me up that 6-8 points. I crush to dust...

 

[petrolSpice]

A sparge may have helped a little, with a high OG mash a lot of sugar gets left behind in the grain. I did a IIPA that was 1.088 and got around 73% efficiency w/o sparging. I estimated 65% so I ended up watering it down a little before boiling.

 

[mgr_stl]

To clarify, I did sparge with 1/2 gallon.