Wanted: Favorite 5 Gallon BIAB Recipe

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jpr.edison

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New to BIAB (breweed 2 so far). and have 10 (or so) extract brews under my belt. Next week a friend will be visiting and I thought it would be nice to have a homebrew session. After googling, I settled on Sister Sun of the Star. The recipe seems to have been written for BIAB. I ordered the ingredients yesterday. While searching for recipes, I was disappointed in that there does not seem to be many BIAB-specific recipes. ....So I gotta ask.... What is your favorite 5 Gallon BIAB recipe.

Thanks
Jim
 
I've gone back to my 3 vessel system for 10 gal batches and have noticed when I use an old BIAB recipe for 6 gal and do an 11 gal batch my hop utilization increases. So if the 6 gal was 28 grams the 11 gal wouldn't be 56 grams but 42. The other thing is grain absorption is .06 gal per pound in BIAB and .11 in the mash tun system. I can't think of anything else that needs to be addressed, I'm sure others will chime in. The hop thing is weird, I can't explain it.
 
What is your favorite 5 Gallon BIAB recipe.

Really, for any all-grain recipe you need to adapt it to your process and equipment. If your overall efficiency is higher or lower that the target for the recipe, you might want to scale the ingredients. If the recipe says to use X amount of mash and Y amounts of sparge water, just swap that over to your BIAB process.

I used to brew with a 3-vessel fly sparge process with recipes tuned to 75% efficiency. I moved to a very simple BIAB setup that gets a very similar efficiency. I have brewed the exact same recipes with zero changes (other than changing the water volumes and process).

The hop thing is weird, I can't explain it.

Could it be related to how fast you chill the different batch sizes? I am starting to think this is one of the biggest differences from system to system that often gets ignored. In any case, I suspect the difference is more 6 gal vs 11 gal batch size and not 3-vessel vs BIAB.
 
What's a BIAB specific recipe?
By that I meant the recipe had water volumes, temperatures , grain amounts specific to BIAB. My understanding is that the water volumes would / could be different if the brew was being prepared non-BIAB.
 
One brewer's BIAB system can be different from another's.

Full-volume mash, dunk sparge, pour-over sparge? Grind coarse or fine? How fine? Do you let gravity do the work of lautering, or do you squeeze? Maybe you just twist the bag a bit? Etc, etc.
 
By that I meant the recipe had water volumes, temperatures , grain amounts specific to BIAB. My understanding is that the water volumes would / could be different if the brew was being prepared non-BIAB.

Grain amounts are generally specific to your efficiency, not really your process. Water volumes should also be customized to your process and equipment (your boil off rate, dead space in your system, trub left behind in the kettle, etc.). If you mean strike water temperatures, that is also system dependent (mashing in a cool plastic cooler vs a preheated stainless vessel, grain at 65F vs 75F, etc.). Other temperatures like mashing temps and fermentation temps are the same.

Water chemistry and mash pH are areas treated a bit differently between full volume BIAB mashing vs a 3-vessel sparge system (but plenty of people have a sparge step in their BIAB process).

For as long as I can remember, I used brewing software to calculate water volumes and strike water temperatures. If I purchased a kit, I would plug the ingredients into whatever brewing software I was using at the time. If I am using a published recipe, I may need to tweak the grain bill a little to hit target numbers (maybe due to efficiency differences, maybe because the recipe was for 5.0 gals into the fermenter and I want 5.5 gals).

What recipe are you looking at? This one? Sister Star of the Sun I am not sure I would recommend an IPA recipe from 1995 these days (3 oz of Chinook!!!), but nothing on that page jumps out to me as being process specific.

A typical full volume mash BIAB batch will use a little less total water than a sparge recipe. If you hang or squeeze your brew bag, you will squeeze a bit more liquid out than with a typical lauter tun.
 
When looking at recipes, there are a few take-aways that you can plug into your own system.

Grist proportions
Original gravity
IBUs
Late hop additions by weight to wort volume
Yeast type
Pitch temp
Fermentation temp/schedule

You can take those items from any all-grain recipe and apply them to your system. I use BrewCipher, there's a ton of other options free or paid. Taking very good volume and gravity measurements throughout the brew day will allow you to dial in the software for predictable results.

Recipes give the wanted outcome. How you get there is up to you to figure out. The good old YMMV.
 
One brewer's BIAB system can be different from another's.

Full-volume mash, dunk sparge, pour-over sparge? Grind coarse or fine? How fine? Do you let gravity do the work of lautering, or do you squeeze? Maybe you just twist the bag a bit? Etc, etc.
Thanks. I get what you are saying.
 
My equipment is a 10 gal Bayou Brew Kettel, a 10 Gallon converted Igloo cooler, a Wilser bag, a hop spider, Anvil 7.x gallon fermenter and I keg.

As I mentioned I have only 2 brews under my belt (so no real history to extrapolate for future brews) . On day prior to brewing, I grind the grain with the grain mill set to credit card thickness Should I go finer? On brewday, while my Poland Springs water is heating, I am heating water in my house to be used to preheat the Igloo coller. When I hit my water temperature , I transfer the water to the empty, preheated cooler, Put the bag in place, add the grain (whisking while I am adding), cover the cooler. I leave things alone until my timer reminds me to pull the bag out. I squeeze the bag slightly and then transfer the liquid back to the brew kettel to begin the boil. I will capture bag drippings for the next 15 minutes (or so) and pour them to the BK. Hops are added to a spider. I use an immersion chiller to get the wort temperature into the pitchible range.

So , my intent was to solicit recipes but instead I got schooled on the process. My takeaway are:
* Most all-grain recipes can be adapted for BIAB
* There are many variables in the BIAB process, some of which are based on equipment being used
* Brew software can be very useful (any recommendations for non-subscription based s/w)
* Some people post replies without adding any value to the discussion
Thank you everyone!

Jim
 
For a solid survey of beer styles (according to the BJCP) Josh Weikert's Make Your Best series is a great resource. When I started I brewed through all his UK recipes. Each was quite enjoyable.

https://beerandbrewing.com/category/Make Your Best/1/
For software, as mentioned above I use BrewCipher. Free full-function spreadsheet. Developer is an active member of this forum.
 
I've been brewing a little over a year, switched to BIAB about 6 months ago. I do small batches of 2.5-3 gal based a) my equipment size, b) desire to brew more often, and c) desire to brew lots of various homebrews. As for recipes, I've learned that any recipe can be scaled with software. I've done a wonderful porter and hefeweizen recipe from this site. BrewDog publishes their recipes and makes them available in beerxml format. I feel like a kid in a candy store!

As for software, I recently joined the BeerSmith club. I'm fascinated by what it can do. However, before diving in I used the Aussie's BrewMate free version for my recipes (it supports beerxml) coupled with Priceless BIAB website to do all my BIAB calculations. Worked extremely well for me. I also did a ton of comparing between BrewMate/Priceless and BeerSmith to confirm all the calculations that I'd learned about matched up and they all did!

https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advancedhttps://brewmate.software.informer.com/1.2/
 
So you already know from just looking that Sister Star of the Sun is your favorite recipe.

Why would you say that? I haven't brewed it yet.

Just a momentary thought since you ask the question but didn't really offer us what yours favorite is.... so far.
. ....So I gotta ask.... What is your favorite 5 Gallon BIAB recipe.
Were you unhappy with them? Or what particularly intrigued you about Sister Sun of the Star?
 
New to BIAB (breweed 2 so far). and have 10 (or so) extract brews under my belt. Next week a friend will be visiting and I thought it would be nice to have a homebrew session. After googling, I settled on Sister Sun of the Star. The recipe seems to have been written for BIAB. I ordered the ingredients yesterday. While searching for recipes, I was disappointed in that there does not seem to be many BIAB-specific recipes. ....So I gotta ask.... What is your favorite 5 Gallon BIAB recipe.

Thanks
Jim
It's been covered, but yeah any AG recipe can be used as biab. As you said, water volumes would be different. I used a full volume mash (no sparge, simply pull the bag and let it drain. I squeeze. A lot.).
This particular recipe is one of my favorites, and one that I tend to get asked about a ton. I call it a lager, but I use an ale yeast at cool temperatures, and like to cold condition it for 3-4 weeks before cracking into it.
Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 10.01.40 AM.png
The carafa is only there for color. I prefer it with tettnang hops but I was all out the last time I brewed it and I think any German noble will work perfectly fine.
I mash at 150F for 75min with 7G of water. Can get away with an hour, but I'm always doing other crap around the house during the mash and it ends up going long. Plus it seems to help lower my fg a bit.

I've got a few other ones that I have yet to blow up from 3G for a few different reasons, but the recipes should scale to 5G perfectly fine. This one has just been the standout so far.
 
My equipment is a 10 gal Bayou Brew Kettle, a 10 Gallon converted Igloo cooler, a Wilser bag, a hop spider, Anvil 7.x gallon fermenter and I keg.

This is a good example about why you need to adapt recipes to your system and process. You don't actually do BIAB, you do what many people call MIAB (Mash in a Bag). I could publish a recipe designed for my BIAB system but it would not exactly fit your MIAB process, or somebody else's BIAB that has a sparge step, or somebody else's BIAB (Basket?) system that recirculates with an all-in-one system, etc.
 
I'd say get 9# pilsner, 2# munich II, heat up 8 gallon strike water, mix the grain and mash at 155, cool the wort, pour in wyeast 1007 German Ale and ferment two weeks at 20C (68F). Can even add 1/2# melanoidin malt and call it a cheated Altbier.

Extra points if you keep it cold for a few weeks.
 
It's been covered, but yeah any AG recipe can be used as biab. As you said, water volumes would be different. I used a full volume mash (no sparge, simply pull the bag and let it drain. I squeeze. A lot.).
This particular recipe is one of my favorites, and one that I tend to get asked about a ton. I call it a lager, but I use an ale yeast at cool temperatures, and like to cold condition it for 3-4 weeks before cracking into it.
View attachment 729074
The carafa is only there for color. I prefer it with tettnang hops but I was all out the last time I brewed it and I think any German noble will work perfectly fine.
I mash at 150F for 75min with 7G of water. Can get away with an hour, but I'm always doing other crap around the house during the mash and it ends up going long. Plus it seems to help lower my fg a bit.

I've got a few other ones that I have yet to blow up from 3G for a few different reasons, but the recipes should scale to 5G perfectly fine. This one has just been the standout so far.
Thank you !
 
Just a momentary thought since you ask the question but didn't really offer us what yours favorite is.... so far.
Were you unhappy with them? Or what particularly intrigued you about Sister Sun of the Star?
Out of the two BIAB (or as been pointed out, MIAB) sessions that I had, I liked Traveling Irish Red Gold Medal Winner – Traveling Irish Red « The Beer Borg .
Honestly, what intrigued about Sister Star of the Sun was the fact that it won quite a few awards and the recipe seemed very straight forward. That is all. The ingredients should be arriving this coming Tuesday and myself and a friend will be brewing it the following Friday.
 
My equipment is a 10 gal Bayou Brew Kettel, a 10 Gallon converted Igloo cooler, a Wilser bag, a hop spider, Anvil 7.x gallon fermenter and I keg.

On day prior to brewing, I grind the grain with the grain mill set to credit card thickness Should I go finer? On brewday, while my Poland Springs water is heating, I am heating water in my house to be used to preheat the Igloo coller. When I hit my water temperature , I transfer the water to the empty, preheated cooler, Put the bag in place, add the grain (whisking while I am adding), cover the cooler. I leave things alone until my timer reminds me to pull the bag out. I squeeze the bag slightly and then transfer the liquid back to the brew kettel to begin the boil.

Jim

I used to BIAB in a cooler, now I just use the kettle, but I also have a cheap 16 quart side pot for a dunk sparge. No more pre-heating the cooler, or transferring brewing water, so it saves some time and hassle. I also used to stir the mash, recirculate at the end, increase temperature for mash out by adding boiling water and fly sparge. Now I just wrap the pot up in an old coat and go do something during the mash, and do the dunk sparge when I get back. No stress, easy brewing sessions work for me, but I realize some folks want to actually "do something" while making wort. You'll find a method that works for you.
I run my grain through the mill twice.
You can use any recipe for BIAB, just figure on doing some re-brews and tweaking to suit your methods and to achieve whatever flavors you are looking for.
I'm not sure I would choose an old-school IPA recipe from the early 90's, but you already ordered the ingredients so go for it.
I've brewed several clone recipes from the old "Can You Brew It" podcast and they all come out very good.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/category/shows/can-you-brew-it/Since you are just starting out, you may want to find commercial brews that you like and then look for clone recipes. You can learn a lot by comparing your version to the commercial example.
 
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Grain amounts are generally specific to your efficiency, not really your process. Water volumes should also be customized to your process and equipment (your boil off rate, dead space in your system, trub left behind in the kettle, etc.). If you mean strike water temperatures, that is also system dependent (mashing in a cool plastic cooler vs a preheated stainless vessel, grain at 65F vs 75F, etc.). Other temperatures like mashing temps and fermentation temps are the same.

Water chemistry and mash pH are areas treated a bit differently between full volume BIAB mashing vs a 3-vessel sparge system (but plenty of people have a sparge step in their BIAB process).

For as long as I can remember, I used brewing software to calculate water volumes and strike water temperatures. If I purchased a kit, I would plug the ingredients into whatever brewing software I was using at the time. If I am using a published recipe, I may need to tweak the grain bill a little to hit target numbers (maybe due to efficiency differences, maybe because the recipe was for 5.0 gals into the fermenter and I want 5.5 gals).

What recipe are you looking at? This one? Sister Star of the Sun I am not sure I would recommend an IPA recipe from 1995 these days (3 oz of Chinook!!!), but nothing on that page jumps out to me as being process specific.

A typical full volume mash BIAB batch will use a little less total water than a sparge recipe. If you hang or squeeze your brew bag, you will squeeze a bit more liquid out than with a typical lauter tun.
Thank you.
I like your blog and I found the 5 gallon batch video to be very helpful.
 
My equipment is a 10 gal Bayou Brew Kettel, a 10 Gallon converted Igloo cooler, a Wilser bag, a hop spider, Anvil 7.x gallon fermenter and I keg.

As I mentioned I have only 2 brews under my belt (so no real history to extrapolate for future brews) . On day prior to brewing, I grind the grain with the grain mill set to credit card thickness Should I go finer? On brewday, while my Poland Springs water is heating, I am heating water in my house to be used to preheat the Igloo coller. When I hit my water temperature , I transfer the water to the empty, preheated cooler, Put the bag in place, add the grain (whisking while I am adding), cover the cooler. I leave things alone until my timer reminds me to pull the bag out. I squeeze the bag slightly and then transfer the liquid back to the brew kettel to begin the boil. I will capture bag drippings for the next 15 minutes (or so) and pour them to the BK. Hops are added to a spider. I use an immersion chiller to get the wort temperature into the pitchible range.

So , my intent was to solicit recipes but instead I got schooled on the process. My takeaway are:
* Most all-grain recipes can be adapted for BIAB
* There are many variables in the BIAB process, some of which are based on equipment being used
* Brew software can be very useful (any recommendations for non-subscription based s/w)
* Some people post replies without adding any value to the discussion
Thank you everyone!

Jim
Sounds like your setup is similar to mine. Minor difference is I put my bag in the cooler before adding water. A simple remedy for mashing imo is the BIAB calculator (Brew in a Bag (BIAB) Calculator ~) . Gets my water temp almost spot on. I grind my grains quite fine, getting very good efficiency. I've also recently have gone "no sparge" with good results and have also started using Bru'n Water with tap or RO water.
 
I used to BIAB in a cooler, now I just use the kettle, but I also have a cheap 16 quart side pot for a dunk sparge. No more pre-heating the cooler, or transferring brewing water, so it saves some time and hassle. I also used to stir the mash, recirculate at the end, increase temperature for mash out by adding boiling water and fly sparge. Now I just wrap the pot up in an old coat and go do something during the mash, and do the dunk sparge when I get back. No stress, easy brewing sessions work for me, but I realize some folks want to actually "do something" while making wort. You'll find a method that works for you.
I run my grain through the mill twice.
You can use any recipe for BIAB, just figure on doing some re-brews and tweaking to suit your methods and to achieve whatever flavors you are looking for.
I'm not sure I would choose an old-school IPA recipe from the early 90's, but you already ordered the ingredients so go for it.
I've brewed several clone recipes from the old "Can You Brew It" podcast and they all come out very good.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/category/shows/can-you-brew-it/Since you are just starting out, you may want to find commercial brews that you like and then look for clone recipes. You can learn a lot by comparing your version to the commercial example.
Thank you
 
Sounds like your setup is similar to mine. Minor difference is I put my bag in the cooler before adding water. A simple remedy for mashing imo is the BIAB calculator (Brew in a Bag (BIAB) Calculator ~) . Gets my water temp almost spot on. I grind my grains quite fine, getting very good efficiency. I've also recently have gone "no sparge" with good results and have also started using Bru'n Water with tap or RO water.
Thank you.
 
I used to BIAB in a cooler, now I just use the kettle, but I also have a cheap 16 quart side pot for a dunk sparge. No more pre-heating the cooler, or transferring brewing water, so it saves some time and hassle. I also used to stir the mash, recirculate at the end, increase temperature for mash out by adding boiling water and fly sparge. Now I just wrap the pot up in an old coat and go do something during the mash, and do the dunk sparge when I get back. No stress, easy brewing sessions work for me, but I realize some folks want to actually "do something" while making wort. You'll find a method that works for you.
I run my grain through the mill twice.
You can use any recipe for BIAB, just figure on doing some re-brews and tweaking to suit your methods and to achieve whatever flavors you are looking for.
I'm not sure I would choose an old-school IPA recipe from the early 90's, but you already ordered the ingredients so go for it.
I've brewed several clone recipes from the old "Can You Brew It" podcast and they all come out very good.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/category/shows/can-you-brew-it/Since you are just starting out, you may want to find commercial brews that you like and then look for clone recipes. You can learn a lot by comparing your version to the commercial example.
Thank you
 
While adding another vessel might give you some finer control over temperatures, I thought the whole idea of BIAB was to get the mash/boil process down to one bucket. But I'm not going to get hung up over BIAB vs MIAB...

Here's the recipe currently in my fermenter:
Jack Sparrow's Why Is The Beer Always Gone? - Belgian Tripel (18C)

Batch Size 5.500 gal
Boil Size 6.531 gal
Boil Time 1.000 hr
Efficiency 70%
OG 1.078 sg
FG 1.019 sg
ABV 8.3%
Bitterness 33.0 IBU (Tinseth)
Color 13.2 srm (Morey)

Fermentables
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Briess - 2 Row Brewers Malt Grain 8.000 lb Yes No 80% 1.8 srm
Briess - Munich Malt 20L Grain 4.000 lb Yes No 74% 20.0 srm
Briess - Caramel Malt 20L Grain 1.500 lb Yes No 76% 20.0 srm
Briess - Carapils Malt Grain 1.500 lb Yes No 74% 1.3 srm
Briess - Goldpils Vienna Malt Grain 1.500 lb Yes No 80% 3.5 srm
Candi Sugar, Clear Sugar 1.000 lb No No 78% 1.0 srm
Total grain: 17.500 lb

Hops
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Northern Brewer 9.0% 1.250 oz Boil 1.000 hr Pellet 30.0
Hallertau 4.5% 1.250 oz Boil 5.000 min Pellet 3.0

Miscs
Name Type Use Amount Time
Coriander Seeds Spice Boil 0.700 oz 5.000 min
Peel, Orange Flavor Boil 1.000 oz 5.000 min
Yeast Nutrient Other Primary 0.500 tsp 8.000 min

Yeasts
Name Type Form Amount Stage
Wyeast - Trappist High Gravity Ale Liquid 4.00 cup Primary

It's an all-grain version of an extract Tripel I did a couple of years ago that my kids absolutely loved. Try this one if you care/dare...but beware -- it's a big beer!
 
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