First biab brew day a relative success!

[makisupapolice14]

After month of reading through the forum and finally having a bit if time I did my first biab last sat as part of big brew day. I've done extract/specialty grains for several years and while my process made very good beer I was ready for a new challenge.

I used this recipe, which was an all grain kit (dead ringer) I grabbed for about $20 from northern brewer during a recent sale. My intent was to sacrifice a bit of alcohol by increasing the volume to 5.5, anticipating loss due to hops and hoping to get as close to 5 gallons in the keg as possible. I anticipated a low (65%) efficiency for my first time and definitely exceeded it.

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.039
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 5.71%
IBU (tinseth): 76.59
SRM (morey): 7.74

FERMENTABLES:
11 lb - American - rahr Pale 2-Row (89.8%)
1 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (8.2%)
1 oz - German - Acidulated Malt (2%)

HOPS:
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 38.21
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 20 min, IBU: 23.14
2 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 0 min
2 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temperature, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 8.6 gal

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American

Water:
I used 8.6 gallons of ro water for my mash per priceless biab calculator. In terms of water treatment I just added 6.7g of gypsum and 7.2 g of cacl to my 15 gallon kettle the night before, since I wanted to keep it simple for my first go round and the water primer thread suggests 3.9g of gypsum and 4.2g of cacl per 5 gallons of ro water for a hoppy beer. I used ez water calculator which predicted an estimated room temp mash of 5.33 with my values above. Any other tips or hints for water additions or profiles for an IPA for the future?

Mash:
My target strike temp was 158f and target mash temp was 152f. My neighbor distracted us a bit and the strike water got a bit hot. Rather than doing the right thing and adding cold water to bring it down a few degrees I waited a bit of time with the cover off the kettle and mashed in. I stirred the double milled grains like crazy and after a few mins my mash temp was 154.5f (a bit high!!). Covered the kettle in a reflectix wrap and put a heavy sleeping bag over it.

15 mins into the mash I removed some sample and cooled to 70f. My ph Meter read 5.44 (estimated was 5.33), so not far off and within the desirable range. Halfway through the 60 min mash my temp was 152f. At the end of the mash my temp was 150.3f, so in total I lost about 4f throughout the entire mash. Not too bad, right?

I took a preboil gravity reading and prior to stirring the mash with my refractometer and it was only 1.025 (predicted per priceless was 1.043 and brewers friend was 1.039). After remembering to stir the mash my reading was 1.040. I didn't realize stirring would have such an impact of preboil gravity readings. Lesson learned....

I squeezed and drained the heck out of the bag using a strainer over a bottling buck and was able to get about 1.25 gallons out of the grains. After dumping into the kettle my volume was about 8.25 gallons. (Priceless estimated it would be about 8 gallons, but I went conservative on the grain absorption #s I entered. Using this brewers friend calculator, http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/, it appears my brew house efficiency was about 75%. I was pretty happy. Did I determine this correctly?

The boil went as usual ( it seemed there was less hot break than with extract and the wort didn't seem to want to boil over as much either). Recovered volume post boil was about 6.5 gallons, just over the priceless estimate. After chilling my refractometer gave a reading of 1.060. Given my slightly higher mash temps I assume I should finish a bit higher than predicted as well so I may end up with a slightly maltier beer but alcohol % should be comparable.

I used a wilser bag and it worked great! I did notice a bunch more particulate in the wort after chilling than with my extract brews and I ended up with about 5.5 gallons into the fermenter, which included a bunch of the sludge from the kettle, even though I siphoned and didn't dump. Next time I may try the hop bag to minimize this.

All in all I really enjoyed the brew day and look forward to my next batch soon. Now I just need to figure out the who kegging thing! Any questions or comments are appreciated! Here's a collage of the brew day my wife made haha. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1462810391.553093.jpg

 

[makisupapolice14]

One more thing: brew day start to finish was only about 4 hours. Not too and compared to my extract brewdays, which would be about the same time with doing a steep or partial mash and having to jerk around with dissolving the dme. Thanks again for the help everyone !

 

[hezagenius]

Love BIAB. Makes all-grain a breeze. The biggest trick is temp control.

In regards to sludge, filters will get you only so far. If you get a really fine filter, you clog it up as you transfer. If it is not fine enough, you don't stop much sludge. Just do the best you can. In the end, it probably doesn't matter too much. I whirlpool for a bit, let it stand, then just open the valve on the kettle and let it drain. I just a spoon to block as much as I can from the pickup tube. If you are siphoning, just draw from the edge of the kettle to reduce the sludge you pick up.

I've tried putting a bag in the fermentor to act as a filter but it gets clogged pretty fast.

 

[McKnuckle]

Congrats on the brew day! Reading books and forums is great. But by far the best way to learn is to do it yourself. Then do it again, and again... you'll learn and/or improve something every time. And you'll f'up occasionally; sometimes by accident and sometimes by being lazy and doing things you know deep down you shouldn't.

BIAB rocks, but yeah - mash temp control is a pain, and I still don't have a complete handle on it. Then again, things aren't perfect in a cooler mash tun either. At the end of the day, mash temp is important but not so important that it kills your beer unless you go to extremes.

Now be sure to keep your fermentation in check and you'll have a great first AG effort!

 

[Kaz]

Congrats. As to clarity, if you get a handle on kegging, you won't notice much cloudiness at all. Since I started kegging my BIAB brews, the first pint or 2 may have some sediment in it but after that, it looks crystal clear, like it was filtered.

 

[makisupapolice14]

Brewed my second batch last week, which had one pound less of grain. This time I placed a brand new grill grate over my kettle and let it naturally drain and squeezed as well. Recovered a bit more volume and stirred a bit more throughout the mash and my brewhouse efficiency was in the mid 80s! I ended up with closer to 5.75 gallons (target 5.5) into the fermenter but due to my increased efficiency I still hit my og. Loving Biab so far. Just need to play around with water additions. I also nailed my mash temp this time and over the course of an hour only lost about 1.5 degrees.

Ps_i kegged my first Biab beer a week ago, a two hearted clone, and the results so far have been great
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465060273.180451.jpg

 

[kh54s10]

Looks good.

I am one of the very few, it seems, that do not like BIAB. Though I have not set up for it. I do 3-4 gallon batches on the stove. I hate the hot, wet, heavy, sticky, messy bag of spent grain. I also find it much quicker to rinse out my mash tun as opposed to getting (most) of the grain off the bag.

 

[Jimbodaman]

I have a decent three tier system with cooler that I know and love but have recently been "lazy" and bought a few bags and just full volume mash in my BK pull out the bags and voila easy peasy. My beer is just as good if not better as long as I remember to add some acid malt. If I were to redo it I'd just do BIAB. It's hard not to upgrade but IMO biab can make beer just as good as a 2000$ system. Mash temp control is as easy as lifting the bag off the bottom, adding flame for a minute or two every 15 minutes. Cheers keep up the good work.

 

[doug293cz]

Sounds like you're coming up the learning curve pretty fast. Congrats.

Brew on