Higher OG than Recipe

[Clarke]

Hey all you BIABers

I here a lot from traditional brewers that BIAB gets lower OG and we should up our grain.

How many of you find this not to be true. I personally don't, I have to lower my grain bill to hit the recipe OG, I am always higher, I have to dial it back. What you say?

 

[budonze]

I'm always higher as well


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[jnacey]

The crush is extremely important. I don't have a grain mill and my efficiency suffers because of it, so I usually have to up my grain amounts. Usually not a ton, maybe like an lb or so.

 

[DonH]

Well, I Have done it twice.... yesterday the recipe called for an OG of 1.051 I hit 1.062... my efficiency was higher tho....

 

[Amalgamator]

I've done three BIAB batches so far. I didn't measure first one but it was a 4.8% recipe, I hit 6.7% abv. Second batch I hit 82% third batch I hit 86%.

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[Clarke]

The crush is extremely important.

Yes, I agree, I had my LHBS double crush my grain and I was getting higher OG, then the LHBS guy told me that double crush doesn't do anything unless he changes the grinder closer together, which made sense, not sure if I agree or disagree but made sense, my wife got me my own mill for Christmas and now I can pulverize my grain and I get an even higher OG. So this seems to be true...

 

[Tryin2brew]

I have done two BIAB brews so far. My first time (Milk Stout) I nailed my OG of 1.062 the second (Pale Ale) I was over the 1.064 it called for and was at 1.070.

Does going over affect the taste of the beer?

I see it as a good thing because the abv came out to 7.8% with the 1.024 FG.
Cheers,

 

[jnacey]

It will effect the taste of the beer by altering the balance of malt and hops that you had originally set out to produce from the recipe you're working from.

In this case, you will have a stronger beer and a marginally diminished hop profile. The higher the gravity the lower the utilization of hops.


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[dobe12]

Unless we're talking about full volume mashing with no sparge, I don't buy into that theory. I mash on the thinner side (1.5 - 2qt/lb) and batch sparge in a second pot. I also mill my own grain pretty fine. My efficiency is around 80-85% with a high of 88%.

I did try full volume mashing a few times to simply my process, but my efficiency dropped to 65-70%, so I quickly went back to my normal method.

 

[Clarke]

It will effect the taste of the beer by altering the balance of malt and hops that you had originally set out to produce from the recipe you're working from.

In this case, you will have a stronger beer and a marginally diminished hop profile. The higher the gravity the lower the utilization of hops.


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I agree, it's a ratio game, when I am brewing I try to match the Vital Statistics of the recipe itself.

So if the OG is 1.060 for example and I wanted to match this, I would alter my grain to meet the OG and then alter my hops to meet the IBU. Do I end up with a different beer???? I don't know because I have never had this beer from the creator of the recipe, but if I didn't alter my grain bill or the hops, would I have a different beer, I think so because my OG is higher and my hop utilization would be different.

Hop utilization (gravity vs time)

so I lower my grain bill and alter my hops to match the vitals of the recipe, and hope I am close.

at the end of it all, I get beer... so I am happy