All Grain to BIAB conversion help

[Blancaster]

I have only done extract kit brewing, but have now obtained the needed equipment to do BIAB. I'm finding that there are a lot of not so good recipes out there specific to BIAB
Can I just take a standard all grain recipe and go by that? Or is there some sort if conversion or changes that need to be made to the ingredients and the amounts?
Please let me know!!
Brandon

[KennyPurcell]

There is no need for recipes specific to BIAB though I do try to keep my grain bill at 16# or under. I'm not sure where I got this limit, but get 80%+ efficiency with 16 lbs.

[Blancaster]

Thank you! So in theory I could go to northern brewer website, and snatch an all grain recipe, go to the co-op or weber and buy my ingredients and brew it as biab and have great beer with no adjustments to the recipe?

[SkyBrew]

Short Answer: Yes you can print off a recipe from northern brewer and BIAB.

You can actually get all the northern brewer recipes in the beersmith 2 software. There isnt anything special or different in a kit then getting the ingredients together yourself.

Long Answer: It depends on the efficiency of your brewery. The gravity may be low or high depending on how effecient your brewery is. After time brewers learn to compensate for this by adding additional grain or removing some grain until you get the recipe just right.

Just remember, if you are wanting to brew a 5 gallon batch to use more then 5 gallons of water!

Some water will evaporate during boil, some will be absorbed by the grain. I usually start with 7-8 gallons of water for a 5 gallon batch but I use a single tier brewing stand with a pump.

[msjulian]

If you have a recipe and a batch size you are looking at I will be more then happy to punch it to BeerSmith and see what the numbers look like at different efficiencies. That way you will at least have an idea of the OG range you will most likely be looking at.

[Blancaster]

I have looked at beersmith 2 but it looks confusing to me. Michael , do you think I could swing by sometime and you walk me through the steps of how to use it?
I really want to learn this stuff, but I'm more hands on when it comes to learning something, just reading a manual doesn't always work out for me.

[msjulian]

Are you planning on being at the next meeting? I can bring my laptop and go over the basics you need to get started.

[Blancaster]

Yes I should be there!
Thanks!

[Chris Norrick]

As others have stated, It's basically only an efficiency difference. That is, how much sugar you are extracting from the grain.

Most published recipes assume around 70% efficiency (or they list it in the recipe) and BIAB usually gets upwards of 80+%. So if you want to match the recipe as close as possible you need to lower the amount of grain slightly. Having that extra sugar can also mess up your hop utilization. Of course, you need to know how efficient YOUR system is first which takes experience.

It's easiest to just use one of the brewing software packages to adjust it. Basically you input the recipe at the assumed efficiency and then hit a button and it will adjust everything for you.

Or just say "screw it" and use the recipe as is plus a little more hops. I just did that on my last batch.

[SkyBrew]

I mentioned in another post, if you dont have beersmith 2

Free brew software:
http://www.brewtarget.org/

[Blancaster]

Thanks for all the input!! I appreciate it
I'm looking forward to doing my first biab!!