Biab NooB Recipe Help

[Tharderocker]

I'm looking for help, I have read the original Biab forum and Seven " BIAB brewing" and am still having troubles understanding the recipe side. I started out with Brewers Best Kits and, recently did a "partial mash" that I found on here. I just bought a turkey fryer and wanted to go BIAB. I have a 7.5 gal Aluminium pot and an almost done Keggle. My First Question is can I take any all grain recipe and do a BIAB? and second I ask this because some of the pils recipes call for a Decoction, how can I do this in BIAB?

Edit: "partial mash" I mis-understood and ment extract recipe with specialty grains.

 

[whitehause]

With a Keggle, yes, you can do pretty much any AG recipe as BIAB. If your going to add heat when the bag is in the keggle, you wil need something in the bottom of the keg to keep the bag off the bottom so it doesn't melt. If you want to do a "step" mash, just calculate your strike temp for your starting mash temp. When you need to increase it, kick on the fire and stir like mad to keep the heat even. Kick it off a couple of deg. below your target temp and allow the temp to stabilize. Adjust with more heat, or a little cold water if needed. 7.5 gal should be big enough for the boil, you'll just have to watch a little closer for boil over. I'd try a couple that use a single temp mash to start. I've learned so much in just my first couple of BIAB's, that I'm glad I started with simple recipes.

 

[Tharderocker]

Thanks, so any all grain can be done with Biab, and I will be able to use that 7.5 with a smaller grain bill. Is this all correct?

 

[RM-MN]

Yes. Even a larger grain bill can be accommodated with a little planning and another kettle. You'll mash in as much water as will fit in your main kettle with all the grain added, then use water from the second kettle as a dunk or pour through sparge. Purists will tell you that this goes against the brew in a bag concept. Ignore them.

 

[Tharderocker]

Thanks, so that pour water would add up to the total boil amount and would replace some of the water lost to grains. I do have my 5 g ss original extract kettle. That would help for big grain bills.

 

[stux]

Thanks, so that pour water would add up to the total boil amount and would replace some of the water lost to grains. I do have my 5 g ss original extract kettle. That would help for big grain bills.

More importantly, it dilutes the more concentrated sugars trapped in the grains and washes them back out and into your kettle.


Pretty much any recipe can be done with BIAB. It gets more complicated if you're trying to do partigyle, decoctions or other tricks with first runnings, but they can all be done.

Most of the complications are just ways to get to different rest temperatures for multi-step mashings. Instead of doing infusions or decoctions to do this, just use a temperature ramp... ie direct fire your kettle while stirring the mash (preferably with a cake rack in the bottom) till you get to the rest temperature, then rest for the required time.