Scaling of recipes for BIAB

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Brewnaldo

Brewnaldo

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Firstly, apologies for being a scattergun of questions. Often struggling to find the right thread but trying to wait till I have a decent topic worthy of chat.

I have Greg Highes book Hone Brew Beer which has loads of recipes to be getting on with. However, as they are straight AG recipes do I need to adjust the grain bill in any way for a full volume mash in a bag? I guess some of the calculators can help with water volumes required but one particular stout Mrs B wants me to try has a massive grain bill. Any thoughts?

Following on from this, who do you all recommend for online grain/hop purchase, and what are essential additive to kick off? I assume I would get by with protofloc and maybe Campden tabs?
 
What size batches are you doing, and are you doing “no-sparge” BIAB or are you incorporating a sparge?

Have you done much BIAB before? What kind of efficiency are you getting?
 
MickDundee said:
What size batches are you doing, and are you doing “no-sparge” BIAB or are you incorporating a sparge?

Have you done much BIAB before? What kind of efficiency are you getting?
Click to expand...

I thought I would try to incorporate some sort of sparge. Even just a dunk in equivalent amount of water absorbed from the mash to make it back up to 23 litres? I know there are various schools of thoight on this so will likely try various.

I have not did it before so whatever recipe I choose out the book will be my first. I think I have read that BIAB suffers from lower efficiency and hence needs a wee bit more grain. Maybe best to leave that recipe alone then as it has about 9 kilo of grain!
 
Brewnaldo said:
I thought I would try to incorporate some sort of sparge. Even just a dunk in equivalent amount of water absorbed from the mash to make it back up to 23 litres? I know there are various schools of thoight on this so will likely try various.

I have not did it before so whatever recipe I choose out the book will be my first. I think I have read that BIAB suffers from lower efficiency and hence needs a wee bit more grain. Maybe best to leave that recipe alone then as it has about 9 kilo of grain!
Click to expand...
I do BIAB with a sparge and I generally get an efficiency of about 65%, but I know there are others who get 70-75% from the same method. It’s generally “true” no sparge BIAB that needs extra grain added to compensate.

If you are starting, you don’t have to change the grain bill if you don’t mind it falling a few points short of the target ABV, but once you have done a few and know your efficiency brewing software will be your best friend.

One thing to bear in mind is that big grain bills will affect your efficiency, I’d probably recommend something around the 5% mark with only a couple of different grains and hops to start with while you get used to your system.
 
Last edited:
If you're having a sparge you don't need to alter the recipe at all, your efficiency should be as good as any other AG system.

A sparge is easy enough to do - raise the bag out of the wort and let it drain back into the boiler. Then dunk it into an FV with some hot water in (2 kettle fulls of boiling to one of cold is enough). Open the bag, give it a swirl round with your brewing stick/spoon then close the bag, hoist it up and let it drain then tip your sparge water into the boiler. Takes a couple of minutes.
 
Once again the assistance is appreciated folks. I will keep any recipe I use as per the book and try and extract as much as I can using a quick sparge.

Anyone got any recommendations on where to buy ingredients online?
 
Brewnaldo said:
Once again the assistance is appreciated folks. I will keep any recipe I use as per the book and try and extract as much as I can using a quick sparge.

Anyone got any recommendations on where to buy ingredients online?
Click to expand...
I’ve always found Geterbrewed the cheapest by far and before I got my grain mill used their custom recipe kits a lot. The twice I’ve had issues their customer service has been top notch (first time was my own fault, I moved house and accidentally ordered to my old address and they changed it in time for the delivery and didn’t call me an idiot; the second time I had a split bag of grain and they sent a new one out first class the same day even though I’d only lost about a kilo of grain they sent a new 5kg sack)

Downside with them is that they use Parcelforce for delivery and they are worse than *****.
 
My preferred supplier is the maltmiller. You can input recipes to exact weights and have them make it up for you so you dont get left over part bags of hops etc. for Biab you can select a fine crush option which helps with efficiency
 
I use the Homebrew Company. Very cheap - be sure if you're ordering a 25Kg sack of base malt to also get everything else you'll need so you only pay a single delivery charge.
 
I use Homebrew Company, I would suggest that you order 2 or 3 AG kits from them in the styles you prefer. This will make the postage cheaper divided by 3 etc and it will take the worry of the recipe being good also it will make your first couple of brew days much easier. As said you do not initially need to alter the recipe if you sparge until like Mick says you know your efficiency. Good luck its a real learning curve but doing your first will teach you plenty
 
Just priced up a milk stout recipe from Malt Miller. Was coming in at about 38 notes. Is that about standard?
 
Brewnaldo said:
Just priced up a milk stout recipe from Malt Miller. Was coming in at about 38 notes. Is that about standard?
Click to expand...
Is that through MMs custom recipe builder or by having some leftovers?

Try the custom recipe builder at Geterbrewed if it’s the former, you should be able to pick up the ingredients for about £10-£15 depending on strength, hops etc.
 
MickDundee said:
Is that through MMs custom recipe builder or by having some leftovers?

Try the custom recipe builder at Geterbrewed if it’s the former, you should be able to pick up the ingredients for about £10-£15 depending on strength, hops etc.
Click to expand...

Malt Millers custom recipe builder. I am starting from zero here so had to order everything. Its Greg Hughes milk stout recipe. I will try geterbrewed next time
 
There's a lot of variety in stout recipes so it's hard to benchmark the right price. I'm about to brew the simple stout recipe from The Malt Miller, which is a relatively low abv, simple recipe, and pretty cheap. A Russian Imperial Stout on the other hand, is bound to cost more given the measures involved. £38 doesn't sound ridiculous. There are plenty of DIPA recipes out there that call for at least £40 worth of ingredients.
 

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