I’m interested in trying the brew in a bag style brewing. I can’t really invest in
a larger new brew kettle at the moment , but was wondering if I could create a smaller 2 gallon batch that i would be able to brew in my current 5 gallon kettle. Any advice on how I can create a recipe for small batch ? Should I attempt to create my own recipe using some brewing software or just purchase an all grain kit and just divide all ingredients by 2/5? Currently I’m just an extract brewer and also think this my be a great way to branch into all grain.
You could find a kit on our sponsor’s site and read the ingredients list, then order the same recipe as individual grains scaled down to 2/5 of the original. Or buy a kit and divide it in half (2.5-gallon batch will fit in a 5-gal kettle), maybe add an oz of some interesting hop to the order and dryhop one of the batches to make it different.
NB now sells 3gal AG kits designed for a small BIAB setup.
For you being relatively new to this I think the easiest way would be buying one of NB’s three gallon kits or finding the recipe for a five gallon kit and cutting it in half to do a 2.5 gallon batch. 2.5 gallons roughly will get you a nice even case of beer so that is generally what I do when I go for the small BIAB batches. Either way, do some research, make sure you know what you’re doing, ask questions on here and then jump in.
Thanks for the help . Yeah I noticed those 3 gallon BIAB kits. Hopefully NB will add a few more choices to that. If I was to purchase a full all grain kit would I want to just split the whole thing in half as far as water /hops/grains ? Would the strike temp. Stay the same as listed on the instructions ?
Yes if the water/grain ratio is the same then the strike temp is the same.
Since your location makes me think you would be ordering the kit online I’d be worried about just splitting the grains in half. I’ve never ordered online b/c I live a mile away but I’m assuming they all come together and even if you mix well you might get more specialty grain in one half than in the other. Could you just order a half a kit? I’m sure they would do that for you if you called and specified what you wanted. Or I would just shoot them an email, their customer service is pretty good.
Just a thought. I’m sure you’d get close by splitting it yourself but why worry if you don’t have to.
Thats a great point inhousebrew. Yeah I do order online because the LHBS in my state gets raided by local ABC agents at gunpoint like its a ******* crackhouse… breath in breath out ok im better. I will give them a call tomorrow. Thanks everyone
Strike temp will be different than a normal all-grain recipe because you are using the full volume of water for the mash (i.e., there is no separate sparge). If you haven’t checked out BIABrewer.info yet, then I highly recommend it. There is a wealth of information on BIAB brewing there, including spreadsheets and calculators for determining strike temp and so on.
Also, if you are an AHA member, Brad Smith gave a good talk on the topic at this year’s NHC, which is available on the AHA website.
