How much base malt to water ratio

I’m thinking of experimenting with BIAB and was wondering how do you go about calculating the base malt to water ratio?

If I want a 3 gallon batch, do I first determine the target OG, then from there calculate the amount of grain I would need?

For figuring how much gain, download one of the recipe calculators, spreadsheets or use an online calculator @ tastybrew.com. Decide what you want the beer to be in your head, color/ABV, and start playing with the grains. Then work on the hops.

For the water, I’ll let those the brew BIAB expand on that.

Thanks! The online calculator at Tastybrew seems to be what I was looking for.

How does this recipe look?

3.00 Belgian Pale Ale
2.00 German Munich
0.50 Belgian Biscuit
0.50 Belgian CaraMunich

0.25 Centennial Pellet - 45 min
0.50 Amarillo Pellet - 5 min

OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
IBU: 23
SRM: 15
ABV: 6.2

Depends what you’re going for. If that’s supposed to be an IPA, I’d say it sucks. :wink:

What kind of yeast?

[quote=“maltybeer”]I’m thinking of experimenting with BIAB and was wondering how do you go about calculating the base malt to water ratio?

If I want a 3 gallon batch, do I first determine the target OG, then from there calculate the amount of grain I would need?[/quote]

BIAB is essentially a no-sparge process, so rather than thinking about malt to water ratio, it’s more about figuring out how much water you need to start with to hit your target final volume. Your main volume loses will be from grain absorption and from the boil, both of which will take a couple brews to fine tune. I had posted my normal BIAB volumes here, may be a good place to start:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=119342#p1044575

[quote=“stompwampa”]Depends what you’re going for. If that’s supposed to be an IPA, I’d say it sucks. :wink:

What kind of yeast?[/quote]

Not really a fan of IPAs. I like the smell of hops, but can’t stand the bitterness.
I’ve only really used Wyeast 1056, so not sure what yeast is best.
Just based on the yeast descriptions off the northern brewer catalog, I might try 1332, 2565, 1968.

[quote=“CliffordBrewing”][quote=“maltybeer”]I’m thinking of experimenting with BIAB and was wondering how do you go about calculating the base malt to water ratio?

If I want a 3 gallon batch, do I first determine the target OG, then from there calculate the amount of grain I would need?[/quote]

BIAB is essentially a no-sparge process, so rather than thinking about malt to water ratio, it’s more about figuring out how much water you need to start with to hit your target final volume. Your main volume loses will be from grain absorption and from the boil, both of which will take a couple brews to fine tune. I had posted my normal BIAB volumes here, may be a good place to start:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=119342#p1044575
[/quote]

Thanks for the link. Very informative!

[quote=“maltybeer”]Not really a fan of IPAs. I like the smell of hops, but can’t stand the bitterness.
I’ve only really used Wyeast 1056, so not sure what yeast is best.
Just based on the yeast descriptions off the northern brewer catalog, I might try 1332, 2565, 1968.[/quote]

1056 is an all around solid yeast. It’s the same strain as US-05 and WLP001.

Different yeasts produce different flavor profiles - make sure you know what you’re going after before just throwing a random yeast in there.