First Small Batch BIAB

[BSheridan]

So I went to home depot the other day and picked up some 5gal and 1gal paint strainer bags. Looking to do a small test batch of BIAB to see if I can make it happen and also test a recipe. Very simple wheat beer recipe that I plugged into brewers friend.

Aiming for 2.75gal in Fermenter

2.5lbs 2-row
2lbs wheat malt (white or red? differences?)
.5lbs flaked oats
1oz Amarillo
Yeast- Safale US-05 or Nottingham ale

Wanted to use amarillo hops for their orange-like character as well as some fresh orange zest late in the boil.
Shooting for somewhere around 1.050OG and 17-20IBUs.
60min mash @ 152F
75min boil

Let me know what you think of the recipe and if you have suggestions. Newbie at all grain

 

[chickypad]

I do 2.5-3 gal BIAB batches also. To hit 1.050 with 2.75 gal + post boil you'll need to get decent efficiency on your first go. My advice would be:

1) really try to get a fine crush, especially with the wheat which can be harder to crush properly (can use either white or red, I use white in my American wheats)

2) make sure the grains are really loose in the bag so that you can stir well and they are not bunched up. I found some of the paint strainer bags with the elastic too confining. I use these bags which are big enough to completely line my 5 gal pot
https://www.morebeer.com/products/mesh-bag-24.html

3) do you know your water profile? that's a very pale grainbill and will almost assuredly need some acid or acid malt to get the pH in range. That effect will be magnified if doing a full volume mash on this smallish grainbill. If you don't want to mess with water calculations yet you can follow the basic instructions in the water primer for baseline beers using RO water
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/a-brewing-water-chemistry-primer.198460/

Have fun!

 

[BSheridan]

Thanks for the reply. I don't have a grain mill so I was just going to ask for a double crush at the home-brew store so that its nice and fine. As far as bags go, I think I'll give this a shot first and upgrade as needed.

I have no idea what my water profile is, but do you think that adding some 5.2 ph stabilizer will suffice? I'm really trying to K.I.S.S. my first time around. I don't really want to be messing with a whole bunch of different water adjustments.

 

[chickypad]

I'd say the consensus is that the 5.2 stabilizer is a not a good product. It was made for a specific water source and as I understand it really doesn't do what it's advertised, plus adds a lot of sodium and some say a funny aftertaste. If the RO water with minimal adjustments linked above is too much then go ahead and give it a try but I'm going to be worried about your pH with that grainbill.

 

[RM-MN]

1. Depending on how your LHBS has their mill set the double crush may still not do a good job on the wheat. You can use a blender to get it into smaller pieces. The smaller the grain pieces the higher the efficiency and the faster the conversion.
2. The main difference in the red or white wheat is that the white wheat is lighter color so you can get a lighter colored beer.
3. Crushed coriander seeds give a lot of orange flavoring and is often used in a wheat beer recipe along with the orange zest.
4. I probably would use a different hop for bittering and save the Amarillo for dry hopping where it will give more of the citrus aroma. Boiling Amarillo for bittering will drive off a lot of the aroma. Try half an ounce of Nugget or Magnum for bittering.
5. I use a little acid blend that I picked up at my LHBS. It seems to work fine with my tap water. I'd probably try a batch with yours to see if it turns out well. You can decide then if you want to get into water adjustment. If your mash pH is off a bit isn't going to completely spoil the beer. What can spoil it is chlorine or chloramine in the water. Use 1/4 Campden tablet in 5 gallons of water to get rid of it.
6. Unless you have too much water for your recipe you don't need a 75 minute boil and if your grains are well milled the 60 minute mash isn't very critical. I'd probably stick with the 60 minute mash for this batch though and do the 60 minute boil. You can experiment with different timings later.

 

[BSheridan]

Thanks for the tips. Hopefully the LHBS has their mill set up to get a good enough crush on the wheat. I think I'll go with the red wheat just for a little color, and I'm not gonna fuss too much about water adjustments on the first go-around. Thats kind of the point of doing this small batch first. If it turns out rubbish, then I'll try to dial it in for the next one.

My thought with the amarillo was that I'll only have to buy 1oz and I wasn't going to add until late in the boil since I'm not really trying to get any significant IBUs out of it. I think playing around with it on brewers friend I was somewhere around 20IBUs with .25oz @ 20mins and .75oz @ 5mins

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I do 2.5gal BIAB batches. I like the convenience of being able to brew in my kitchen. A few times I've even done double batches in order to fill my 6 gallon fermenter and 5 gallon keg. Brewersfriend is a great site, I use it for formulate recipes and track numbers. Once you do a batch you can basically back into what your efficiency is, and use that going forward on your system. I get about 58-60% brewhouse efficiency, which kind of sucks but it's because I buy the grain online typically pre-crushed and it isn't super fine. But since I know what it is, it isn't hard to hit my target gravity, just takes a little more grain.

I can't help much with recipe, since I've brewed almost exclusively IPAs.

 

[BSheridan]

The ability to do these small batches in the kitchen is going to be great during the winter in the northeast. I think I'll just go for my batch and figure out the numbers afterwards and adjust next time. Looking forward to doing this. Now I just need to find a day that I can do it

 

[BSheridan]

Got all my ingredients this morning! Hoping to brew tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll let you guys know how it goes

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I think I'll just go for my batch and figure out the numbers afterwards and adjust next time. Looking forward to doing this. Now I just need to find a day that I can do it

That's what I did. Brewersfriend will estimate all your numbers based on whatever efficiency you put in. I used a conservative number my first time. After you do your batch check your gravity and adjust the efficiency on the site so their estimate matches yours, and that's your efficiency. If you source your grains from the same place with same crush every time you should be able to reliably use that efficiency and hit your numbers pretty accurately going forward.

Good luck on the brew day

 

[BSheridan]

Brewed it up today and I'm super stoked to have hit all of my gravity numbers. I may be a bit short on volume, tough to tell in the carboy but it doesn't look like very much in a 5 gallon carboy. Estimated my efficiency @70% in brewersfriend and all of my numbers matched so I'll take that as a win.
Hopefully hitting my numbers will mean a tasty beer in a few weeks. If it is, I won't go back to extract!