First all grain/mash/biab help.

[BeerAndFlyGuy]

I'm fairly new to brewing, have done 12 kit with steeping grain batches, and have become completely hooked. While I'm not equipped for, or certain I will go all in, I would like to dip a toe into all grain. I have basic brewing equipment for what I do, but would like to try a small batch to see if the flavors and experience of AG is something worth the time and investment. What I'm looking for is a 2 gallon Porter AG recipe and some tips on doing it with my limited equipment. I do have a both 5 and 7 gallon brew kettles, so I think BIAB would work well. Would like about 5.5 ABV and about 30 IBU in a standard Porter style. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Also, I will be using re-hydrated dry yeast for this brew, as doing yeast starters is not something I am able to do at this time. Thanks again for any help, and for access to a wonderful forum.

R.

 

[KTRyan]

Lets see, recipe off the top of my head:
4 # Pale Ale Malt (Preferably Maris Otter)
1/4 # Crystal 60L-65L
1/4 # Chocolate Malt

1/4 oz Fuggles @ 60
1/4 oz Fuggles @ 20
1/2 oz Fuggles @ 5 (or flame out)

Ferment with 1 packet of Fermentis S-04 @ 64F-66F (My favorite yeast strain for anything English)

I've never done BIAB, but if I was to give it a try at your scale I would do the following:

Heat 3 3/4 gallon of water in your 7 gallon kettle to 165F, add 1 3/4 gallons to your 5 gallon kettle with your grain bag, adjust temperature to 156F if needed. Do your best to maintain 156F for 1 hour, while doing so heat the remaining 2 gallons of water in your 7 gallon kettle to 170F. After an hour drain your wort into what every you have handy, should be about 1 1/4 gallons (First runnings). Add 1 gallon of 170F water to your 5 gallon kettle with your gain bag, mix it around a bit for about 5 minutes and drain into your first runnings. Do this one more time with your last gallon of 170F water. At this point you can take your wort from the first two runnings and put them in your 7 gallon kettle followed by the last runnings from 5 gallon kettle. You should end up with 3 1/4 gallons of wort, ish, that should boil down to 2 1/4 gallons of wort, ish, over an hour.

 

[BeerAndFlyGuy]

Thanks KTRyan, I will get the ingredients and give it a try within the next few weeks and let ya know how my experience went.

 

[KTRyan]

Good luck, and feel free to message me with any questions you have.

 

[RM-MN]

Lets see, recipe off the top of my head:
4 # Pale Ale Malt (Preferably Maris Otter)
1/4 # Crystal 60L-65L
1/4 # Chocolate Malt

1/4 oz Fuggles @ 60
1/4 oz Fuggles @ 20
1/2 oz Fuggles @ 5 (or flame out)

Ferment with 1 packet of Fermentis S-04 @ 64F-66F (My favorite yeast strain for anything English)

I've never done BIAB, but if I was to give it a try at your scale I would do the following:

Heat 3 3/4 gallon of water in your 7 gallon kettle to 165F, add 1 3/4 gallons to your 5 gallon kettle with your grain bag, adjust temperature to 156F if needed. Do your best to maintain 156F for 1 hour, while doing so heat the remaining 2 gallons of water in your 7 gallon kettle to 170F. After an hour drain your wort into what every you have handy, should be about 1 1/4 gallons (First runnings). Add 1 gallon of 170F water to your 5 gallon kettle with your gain bag, mix it around a bit for about 5 minutes and drain into your first runnings. Do this one more time with your last gallon of 170F water. At this point you can take your wort from the first two runnings and put them in your 7 gallon kettle followed by the last runnings from 5 gallon kettle. You should end up with 3 1/4 gallons of wort, ish, that should boil down to 2 1/4 gallons of wort, ish, over an hour.

I have done several BIAB small batches and I'll suggest some changes to this advice. First, get your grains milled fine, as fine as you can. It makes the conversion quick and complete. Put the 3 3/4 gallons of water in the 7 1/2 gallon pot and bring it to your strike temperature (usually about 162 but use a calculator to be sure). Turn off the heat and drop your mesh bag into the pot, then stir in the grains. I've found a stiff whisk works better than a spoon for that. Put the lid on and wrap something around the pot to insulate it. I use a bath towel and it works well.

Your mash period will depend on the milling of the grain. If you have it milled fine, a 30 minute mash will be plenty. A poor crush will need 60 to 90 minutes. At the end of the mash, pull the bag of grain out, letting it drain back into the pot. Squeezing the bag is encouraged too. Now you have a choice, you can dunk the bag of grain in a pot of water that is measured to give you the rest of what is needed for the pre boil amount or you can simply pour water over the bag of grains to get this amount. Hot or cold water work about equally well and it is easier to squeeze the bag if it is cooler. Squeeze it hard, any liquid left has fermentable sugars. There isn't much point to throwing away potential beer. You can have the pot of wort heating up while you are getting the sparge step done too. Using cold water will slow you down a bit as you will eventually have to heat that much more to boil but I don't find that to be a problem.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I use whatever crush my local store sets their mill at (highly debated) and do not squeeze (highly debated) and add as much water as I can to the mash (highly debated) with no mash out (debated) or sparge of any type (highly debated). I have had >75% MASH efficiency on my BIAB batches using 60-75 minute mash. I stir every 10 minutes. I use the biggest pot I can. I use another pot to let the grains drain into after holding them for as long as I care to above my brew pot.

My suggestion would be to pick a beer you want to make and brew it the same way 3-5 times and see if you are consistent. If you see mash and brew house numbers all over the place I'd look at myself first before changing crush/temps/water volumes/mash schedule.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[BeerAndFlyGuy]

Thanks for the input, stopping by LHBS today after work, hopefully he has what is needed, hope to brew this weekend, thanks again

 

[jCOSbrew]

Some sites like brewtoad have lots of recipies. You can also check popular recipes from suppliers like northerbrewer and midwest supplies.

 

[BeerAndFlyGuy]

Got er done, gravity was 1.060, process is fun but not something I will be doing alot of, while I do love brewing and drinking beer, I also have many other hobbies and not willing to give up a day staying home to brew when the extract kits with steeping grains are so quick and easy. Too many fish in the river that need a fly dropped in front of them.

I would like to thank everyone for the help, I will keep you posted with results

R