brew in a bag, amounts.....

[billybacardi]

Hi all, I dont have massive boiling pots, 15Ltrs I think, and was wondering if anyone could tell me how much water i need per kilo of malt, I intend to do a SMaSH in a bag boil. Any help on a recipe for an english bitter type ale would be nice too, bearing in mind its my first SMaSH, so the simpler the better. Thanks for reading.. pete

[Jocky]

The amount of water will vary depending upon your recipe, whether you have other vessels.

But a ratio of 3.25:1 (3.25 litres per KG of grain) is a medium thick mash. At the end of the mash you can top up with very hot water to bring it up to 76/77C for mash out and to rinse out some of the sugars from the mash.

If you want to find a simple bitter recipe off the internet I can help convert it on here to the right quantities for you.

[billybacardi]

ok thanks for getting back,, as soon as i find a recipe i'll get back to you

[Jocky]

This appears to be a forum favourite - if you're happy with it I'll scale it and provide you with some rough instructions for your BIAB:

SEYMOUR - MORRELLS VARSITY BITTER CLONE
The pint of choice for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien during the Oxford years.

6 US gallons = 5 Imperial Gallons = 22.7 Litres

GRAINBILL:
83.3% = 7.6 lb = 3.45 kg, English Pale Malt
8.7% = .79 lb = 359 g, Torrified Wheat
8% = .73 lb = 332 g, English Crystal Malt

MASH at 151-153°F/66-67°C for 90 minutes

HOPS:
.6 oz = 17 g, Challenger, 60 minutes
.25 oz = 7 g, Target, 60 minutes
.3 oz = 8.5 g, Goldings, 30 minutes
.55 oz = 15.5 g, Goldings, 5 minutes then steep until chilled

YEAST:
Safale S-04/Whitbread-B, ferment warm around 70°F/21°C

STATS (assuming 75% mash efficiency and 75% yeast attenuation):
OG: 1042
FG: 1011
ABV: 4%
IBU: 30
COLOUR: 9°SRM/18°EBC

[Jocky]

Big question to help you scale this - how much beer do you want to make?

You can either go:

Mini-BIAB - boil the full volume of wort you get from mashing, perhaps with some top up water
+ Positives - closest to all grain technique, will produce beer as good quality as possible
- Negatives - gives you a small batch - about 11 litres into the fermenter from a 15 litre pot

Maxi-BIAB - mash with extra grain and boil more concentrated wort, then dilute in the fermenter up to a bigger volume
+ Positives - You get more beer - I think you should be able to get 23 litres of 4% strength beer, or 19 litres of 5% strength.
- Negatives - Limit to the strength you can brew, increased chance of infection from water added

[RdeV]

Amen to Jocky's summary, just spot on. If its a maiden BIAB, suggest Mini variant though, keeps it all nice and simple whilst getting a grip on the process. After that though, go for it with the bigger batches.

[basswulf]

I've been experimenting with mini-BIAB. My latest revelation was that you don't need a sparging stage - all the grain and all the water go in from the start of mashing. My latest brew (April Shilling, based on Graham Wheeler's recipe for Belhaven 80/s) hit the target OG (1.040) spot on and with much less hassle than mashing a thicker porridge of grain and then applying multiple rinses of very hot water.

However, I don't have the equipment to go large. My pot has a maximum capacity of 13l so I'm limited in the batch size I can cook up. That's alright though; what I sacrifice in efficiency (the amount of effort per bottle of beer) is made up for by being able to brew more often and keep my skills developing without having to drink through the results too quickly to keep my storage areas clear.

The method I've arrived at this year is to recalculate the recipe around the reference point of a 1kg bag of crushed pale malt. That meant I ended up with 9.2l of water to start with and about 6-7l into my fermenting vessels (two 5l water bottles). The end result will be about 10-12 bottles once further wastage has been taken into account but it does mean that my primary ingredient, the pale malt, is as fresh as can be for each brew.

Wulf

[Jocky]

As I understand it, mashing with all your liquor will produce a thin mash, which will I turn give you a more fermentable beer.

I'm not saying you'll make bad beer, but you'll have a bit less control over the end product.

You could instead mash thick, bring it up to mash out temperature and then add your sparge water to rinse out sugars. Of course that requires you have another vessel to heat water in.

[Cpt.Frederickson]

Personally, I use the 'traditional' full volume BIAB, mashing with the full volume of water and then with a mash out stage, resting the grain in the bag at 76-78c. This always gives me a few extra gravity points. My beer generally works out well and ferments as expected.
There seems to be many an argument about mashing thickness etc. but in m experience its worth keeping it simple. See what you produce. If you're happy with that, your beer is good. If not, make some changes.
The BIABrewer calculator was my first starting point and it was immensely helpful. Maybe try that for a start while you continue to research.

[Jocky]

There seems to be many an argument about mashing thickness etc. but in m experience its worth keeping it simple. See what you produce. If you're happy with that, your beer is good. If not, make some changes.

+100 to that.

Keep it simple, measure everything and keep lots of notes on what you did, be critical of your own output, and then decide how to improve it.