First Time BIAB - Simcoe SMaSH Recipe Check - 2.5 batch

[alexy52]

Hi All,

I'm attempting my first 2.5 gallon BIAB brew this week and need some help with my recipe. I'm loosely following a SMaSH recipe I found on Reddit and I wanted to keep it simple for my first time. I'm attempting a pale ale with Rahr 2 Row Malt and Simcoe Hops.

I have a 5 gallon kettle and will try to full volume mash, although I'm not sure how this is going to go:

OG 1.54

5 lbs - Rohr 2 Row Malt

.25 oz Simcoe Hops - 30 minutes
.50 oz Simcoe Hops - 15 minutes
.25 oz Simcoe Hops - 5 Minutes
.5 oz Simcoe Hops - Dry Hop

Safale US-05 Yeast
14 days primary fermenter then bottling

I plugged this recipe into BeerSmith but I'm still trying to work out how much I water I'm going to need to start the mash.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

The starting water you need will depend on various things, like your boil-off rate and amount of grain. There are calculators out there that will help you estimate it but after you do a batch or two you'll be able to dial it in really well. I do small batches and typically start out with 4.25 gallons if I want 3 gallons into the fermenter. I usually have about 3.9 after mashing, and then 3 after the boil.

https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced

 

[myndflyte]

I second priceless brewing. Fill out the pot measurements and the first few times will be trial and error with the grain absorption and boil off. Mine are set to 0.07 gal/lb and 1.1 gal/hr but I squeeze the crap out of my bag and have a 15 gallon pot so your numbers may differ. I think a good starting point is 0.1 gal/lb and 1 gal/hr. But once you get it dialed in, it is spot on.

 

[alexy52]

I struggle to understand these calculators. I do not want to sparge since I am doing BIAB, and they always assume you are sparging. I can never figure out how to use these calculators.

 

[Bubman]

I brew a very similar version of this in 3 gal batches.

For Biab you will need 4.5 gallons of water. With 5 lbs of grains your kettle will not be large enough.

You could mash with 3 to 3.5 gallons then sparge to make up the difference but that defeats the purpose of Biab.

I use a 8 gal kettle and would not go any smaller.

 

[Zambezi Special]

I've just started brewing. Also BIAB.
I use brewtarget as program.
The calculators are not that difficult:
Basically you need to know or estimate how many water is removed with the grains,
And how much water you loose while boiling.
You will also loose a bit of water that sticks to the hop.
I am still fine-tuning as I only just got new equipment in and I use .75 kg water loss per 1 kg grain, and a boil off amount of 2.5 liter per hour
If I aim for 10 litres in the fermenter, I end up with bottling 9 liters (the last liter that stays behind has hop, yeast and whatever else).
Next batch, I will aim for 11 litres in the fermenter, and 10 litres for bottling (no real reason why, just 10 is a nicer number than 9 )

2.5 gallon is quite easily doable.
I am not as strong as I used to be (and that wasn't too strong anyway), but I can still fairly easily move the pots, pull out the BIAB bag etc with these amounts

I think the best advise I was given at my start was: Just do it!
Yes, you will make mistakes, but you will still and up with a decent beer if you work clean and the next batch will be much easier!

Have fun!

 

[myndflyte]

I struggle to understand these calculators. I do not want to sparge since I am doing BIAB, and they always assume you are sparging. I can never figure out how to use these calculators.

For Priceless BIAB, you can just put 0 gallons for sparging and it won't take that into account. Priceless BIAB is pretty straightforward if you just take a few mins to look through it.

 

[LittleRiver]

I struggle to understand these calculators. I do not want to sparge since I am doing BIAB, and they always assume you are sparging. I can never figure out how to use these calculators.

That's a very valid position, because in your situation the calculators are presenting to you way too many options, and spitting out way more information than you really need. As you progress as a brewer you will understand more and more of it, but for now it all just looks like too much, which it is.

For your immediate needs just hone in on the information you do need, and ignore the rest. Here's one way to do that with the Priceless Calculator. Enter the numbers that are circled in yellow, then record the numbers that are circled in green. Leave the defaults on everything else.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I brew a very similar version of this in 3 gal batches.

For Biab you will need 4.5 gallons of water. With 5 lbs of grains your kettle will not be large enough.

You could mash with 3 to 3.5 gallons then sparge to make up the difference but that defeats the purpose of Biab.

I use a 8 gal kettle and would not go any smaller.

Dunk sparging definitely doesn't defeat the purpose of BIAB. I typically mash with 3.25 gallons(in a 5 gallon kettle) and leave 1 gallon in another smaller pot. After mashing dunk the bag in the smaller pot a couple times, dump all the wort into the main kettle then I set the bag on top of smaller pot with a colander to let whatever is still left drain while the boil gets going. Easy peasy.

I have an 8 gallon kettle which I would use for larger batches but to use it I'd have to go outside and use my propane burner. Being able to do everything inside my kitchen for small batches is beautiful.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Good luck!

I brew 2.5 gal stove top BIAB in a 5 gal kettle and it works well. I usually shoot for 2.6 gals in the fermenter (3 gal Fermonster fermenter, either bottling or a 2.6 gal keg). Your values will vary some based on your equipment and process, but for me that recipe calls for 3.88 gals of water at 157.1 F (for a 152 F mash). Your values should be somewhere in that range.

To hit 1.054 (not 1.54) you need around 75% efficiency. A fine grain crush helps out BIAB efficiency. I hit around 75% using my own grain mill. If you are using store milled grain (even if double crushed) I would expect maybe 65% to 70%. At 65% you would get around 1.047 / 4.8% ABV...which is fine for a Pale Ale.

Depending on how much hop character you want...I find that about 0.5 oz per gal of both late hop additions and dry hop additions gets a beer into the "mildly hoppy" range. I would be tempted to go:

• .25 oz Simcoe Hops - 30 minutes
• .50 oz Simcoe Hops - 10 minutes
• .50 oz Simcoe Hops - 0 minutes
• 1.0 oz Simcoe Hops - Dry Hop

 

[whovous]

Keep in mind that if you wind up with less than 2.5 gallons at the end of the day, you can always simply add water to get to where you want to be.