makisupapolice14
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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
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