How fine a crush?

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First post by soupdragon, 16 years ago

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Hi all

Will finally be doing my 1st BIAB next weekend. My question is, although there's not a lot I can do about it. How much lower should I expect my extraction to be from std crushed grain rather than the fine grind that I've seen mentioned on here?

Cheers Tom

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Not a thing complicated about it. Boil some of your mash until you lose about half the liquid volume (stir constantly), stir that back into your mash, take temperature, repeat until you hit your desired temperature. Not hard, just more work. Nothing I'd do for every beer, but if you are looking for some caramel goodness in your beer, a decent way to do it. And that decoction smells sooooo good. As I said, I did mine to bring the mash for second runnings back up into mash temperature range for...

About to do your first BIAB? What are you finding hardest?

First post by PistolPatch, 16 years ago

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When I first started researching all-grain, I found a lot of information out there was confusing, contradictory or quite hard to get my head around. I remember I asked a lot of questions. Some of these in hindsight were obvious but important. Others that I thought were important at the time weren't and some of these I still haven't had a decent answer to :).

It was hard though to know which questions to ask. All-grain is easy once you know what info is important and what can be ignored or...

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I'm not experienced with mini or maxi BIAB's but many people have done them and, from what I read, they work really well so enjoy your reading tomorrow :). Without having tried them, I think there is a great upside to these methods. There are obvious disadvantages on mini-BIABs (mainly batch size) and Maxi-BIAB's require a bit more fiddling about than full-volume BIAB but the other advantages are, in many situations, by no means small. I would suspect that for many brewers, mini and maxi-BIABs...

where to get a big sack?

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First post by Nikobrew, 16 years ago

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LOL.. Big sack. The 5gal paint strainer bags I bought are too small and I want the bag to be open and not tight so the grains can move around. Any suggestions as to where to get a sack that can fit over the edge of a keg in the US? I guess I could break the mash into two bags but that starts to defeat to the purpose of speed and simplicity.

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Worked well. No complaints once the grains were in, though I had to add them a bit slower than normal. The largest bag size might be warranted for ease of use.

The Calculator

First post by BobtheBrewer, 16 years ago

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Hi there,
This is my second post. I am about to launch myself into AG via BIAB. For my first attempt I want to do NRB's All Amarillo APA. I have checked out the calculator and cannot see how I can enter the fact that my Urn is 40 litres, not the 70 litres quoted. The diameter of my urn is 33 cm. I will be using 6.5 kg of grain (just evened out the recipe) and want to know how much water I need for the mash. XL terrifies me but I guess I will have to come to terms with it. Hope somebody can...

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Hi Bob,
You don't need to put in the urn capacity, the important thing is the diameter as that is part of the evaporation calculation. Once you have put in the needed figures i.e brew length, gravity etc, then you just need to look at the approx. mash volume and if that is below you urns capacity then your good to go.
BTW NRB's AAPA is a top beer and you should enjoy it
Hope this helps, and good luck with your first Biab, I'm sure you wont be dissapointed.

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it...

first BIAB tasting

First post by jrodie, 16 years ago

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Here is a tasting of my first BIABs. I brewed a Bavarian Heffeweizen, and Northern Brewers 115th St Hopbursted IPA.
Neither of these beers are bottled, I took a sample of the Heffe just before bottling and it was great. The extract version of this beer was much darker and tasted like extract. This beer was the bright yellow the beer should be, and tasted very similar to something you would get at a microbrewery. Maybe a little less banana than I thought it would have, but I am hoping that will...

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Cool I saw a youtube video where the lady added some beano to the fermenter I guess mainly to reduce the carbs by turning some of the unfermentable sugars into fermentables. I think this is why i got all that alcohol and such a low final OG. No beano for me next time I think.

First Recipe & Beersmith setup advise needed

First post by matr, 16 years ago

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Hi guys, I'm getting closer to my first BIAB so I thought I'd construct my first BIAB recipe in Beersmith. What I need to know is when setting the mash volume do I add the boil volume and sparge volume to get my total volume? It's just that the info in Beersmith says set at boil volume but one would assume you also need to add the sparge volume to account for loss to grain. I won't be sparging just draining.

Anyway here is the recipe - A basic APA (I've done heaps of all extract APAs so will...

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Sorry Mat, I didn't realise you already knew Beersmith so ignore my last post ;). It is of course an excellent program and Brad works really hard at always improving it and his website. Nice to see you have got the figures matching so well. Looking forward to hearing how your first BIAB goes...

:luck:
Pat

First BIAB Plans..

First post by jestersdarts, 16 years ago

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Hello BABBERS! (this is how i say it in my head... babbers.. hehe)

I am planning my first AG (woot) and it'll be the BIAB method (woot woot)

Heres my set up:
40L concealed element urn, so new and shiny
45L Kettle, gas fired
going to no chill in cube (or fermenter, depends where I brew)

I plan on mashing in the urn, and transfer to my kettle for boil. Now I hear everyone going Just boil in ur urn!
Well i've already thought about this, and I dont want to for lots of reasons. I dont want to...

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Thanks Guys -

Yes I will keep everyone posted - Thanks for the tips.
I will try and outline what I have done differently next time as well.

Im hoping to get this cider out of the way, and get this fermenting.

So pumped.

JD

several questions - checking mash temp and some others

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First post by Nikobrew, 16 years ago

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In preparation of my first biab I've got a few questions and apologize in advance for the rambling.

equip I plan to use:

converted keg with a lid, ball valve with ss braid at the bottom (may use it for a mlt sometime), a cookie cooling rack at the bottom (in case the bag o grain hits the bottom), a bag made for hauling a dead carcass that should fit around the top of the kettle

First brew's grain bill:
simple, just 12lb munich and 1/2 lb chocolate malt, for you metric folk thats 5.4kg munich...

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I went with 90 minutes because I couldn't check it easily as I had no valve on the kettle and I could grab samples from different spots in my mash but it would've been inaccurate. Checking temp was as difficult as I had assumed. I used one of the long stemmed thermometers clipped to the side of the kettle. It looked like I was right where I wanted to be 150-160 range (yes I know that's quite a range but I don't care lol) though when I went to raise my temp to 170 for mashout, I moved the...

topping off the kettle

First post by Nikobrew, 16 years ago

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I'm sure this has been asked somewhere I just can't find it :P I'm using a 7.5 gal turkey fryer pot and with 7lb grain and only going for about 3 gal post boil, and I don't know if I'll be able to put my full volume in the kettle at once. I know there will be some different calculations to make of course but is it a big deal if I just use as much water as I can fit, boil, and add some water to top off to hit my volume (of course calculating my proper gravity as well), sort of like making an...

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One thing to keep in mind about any of those volume calculations is that they don't take into account the fact that you'll be pulling a bag full of grain out of the mash tun. You want at least a few inches from the top of the kettle to the water surface because it will rise as you begin to pull out the bag. You can really slowly pull it out to ensure the water level won't rise over the kettle top but it is much easier if you've got some extra room. And of course, as you get closer to the top of...

hot spots in mash

First post by jrodie, 16 years ago

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I brewed my second biab today. I found that I was getting hot spots with 20 degree differences from one side of the kettle to the other. I eliminated this problem at first by constantly stirring while adding heat. While trying to get to 170 for mashout the water inside the bag was only about 155F, but I noticed boiling on the outside of the bag. Checked the temp and it was much hotter. How can I solve this problem of having much higher temps outside the bag than inside the bag?

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10-4 good buddies

Dealing with Kettle Trub

First post by BrickBrewHaus, 16 years ago

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I had my first crack at BIAB yesterday, I did the Lady Liberty Ale from How to Brew . The brew day went really well. I was really close to hitting all my numbers and was only one point from hitting my expected OG.

One value from The Calculator that came in higher than expected was Kettle Trub & Buffer. I know this is something that you can't avoid, but I'm wondering how everyone deals with kettle trub so that the maximum amount of clear wort is extracted.

Currently I am using whirlfloc (I...

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BIAB RECIPE CONVERSIONS

First post by smilinggilroy, 16 years ago

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Hi All,
Would like to know how to convert all grain recipes (which are usually for 3V and the like) to BIAB.
I have only been brewing for a few months and still trying to understand terminology and processes, things
like step mashing, mash outs, protein rests etc. Too much at this stage, that's why BIAB is so appealing-K I S S.
I have the beersmith program but I don't know how to adapt it to the BIAB mashing style and volumes.
Not good with programs!
I use a 40lt Birko urn and no-chill...

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Hi there smilinggilroy and welcome to the forum,

Any all-grain brewer, BIABrewer or traditional, has to convert recipes unless they happen to have exactly the same equipment as the brewer providing the recipe. So, the question is really, How do I convert recipes to suit my equipment, rather than, How do I convert all-grain recipes to BIAB.

Recipe conversion is a hard thing to get your head around when starting out. I suggest having a read of this thread and especially this post within that...

double mashing

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First post by jrodie, 16 years ago

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Would it be possible to make a very high OG wort by mashing grains in the pot as usual, and than discarding those grains and putting a whole new batch of grains in and starting the process over again. :?:

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I would think that the temperature should avoid wild variations. Yeast are temperamental and don't like to be shocked. After the active fermentation (3 days?) the yeast are only needed to carbonate the bottles. The yeast will do some clean up in the primary so it is best practice to keep the beer on the yeast for a total of 2 to 3 weeks. As long as the beer stays reliability constant (3 to 5) degrees I would not worry.

mash thickness

First post by Nikobrew, 16 years ago

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Of course for a BIAB Brewer this doesn't matter. Why have homebrewers cared for so long about the mash not being TOO thin? From Mr. Wizard of BYO - . If the mash is too thin, the enzymes are less heat-stable and are more susceptible to denaturation (enzyme destruction) . I'm not a scientist but in laymans terms it sounds like it has to do with issues occurring if we don't control the temp post conversion...well..we ARE controlling the temp.

It just intrigues me when people do things one way...

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I'll post more when I don't have a baby asleep across my chest :P 2pack of 5 gal paint strainer at Lowes for about $3 USD. I also got a pack of 2 1gal ones as some friends use these for their hop additions. Msybe I'll make the mlt from a keg and ss braid, run twine across the top thru the handles and tie the 5gal bag of grain with a length of twine to the center so it hangs in the water during the mash then I can pull it out and boil and if the bag breaks I can just drain the mlt and boil in my...

Questions regarding my first BIAB.

First post by Nikobrew, 16 years ago

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Hey folks, I want to first say it's awesome there's a whole forum for this. I'm always searching for ways to make beer faster, and do stuff differently. Funny enough when I started brewing and explained to my wife why I had to convert a cooler into an MLT with an ss braid, she said why don't you get a big sack and put your grains in there and just steep it in a big pot? . I of course responded with well that's not how you do it... I don't know why though.. LOL

Anyhow, my goal is to shorten my...

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I'll add to that, I had a refrac for a while. At first I thought it was the bee's knees, but the more readings I took the more un-reliable it became. I actually found the readings could be manipulated to get a more desirable reading. I gave up after 1/2 a dozen brews and went back to my hydro, it's much more consistent.

Crushing Grain - What to use

First post by goldy, 16 years ago

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Hey all,

Wondering what sort of gadgets people use to crush grain? Starting in the bottom (cheaper) end, I was curious if coffee grinders, kitchen wizz sticks etc are ok for crushing for BIAB?

Any experience, suggestions

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Glad to hear you found someone to look after you BB. We are lucky here in Aussie as there are quite a few retailers that you can send your exact recipe to and they'll weigh and crush it regardless of the quantities.

If you do get to the stage where you want a mill, get a good one. I remember going to a mates and he had the slowest, hand-powered mill ever. We had beers while we crushed the grain and I swear we were drunk by the time we had finished crushing - it took ages. The rest of the day...

calculator , can't make changes

First post by cliffyj, 16 years ago

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Hi Guys
I d/l this programme, but i can,t make any changes .
What am i doing wrong?
Clifford

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Sorted guys.

Measuring Gravity @ Efficiency into kettle

First post by redlegger, 16 years ago

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Hey guys,
leave it to me to ask the noob questions :)

Boiling away at the moment is Lloydies Krispy Kolsch. Below is a pcture of the liquor i have in the tube (taken from the keggle at the Efficiency into kettle stage)
Questions
1. seems to be a lot of solids and floaties in it...is this normal?
2. When should i take the gravity reading? when it cools to ambient temp?
3. Should i wait till the solids and floaties settle before taking a reading?

01052010(002).jpg

Cheers!

RL

P.S. my...

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Hi there lespaul,

Use 79% end of boil efficiency for your calculations. Do not worry about the hop utilisation factor. Many other things will effect this more such as boil volume, quality of hops, hop type etc. Most brewers would be hard pressed to pick up these small differences so just make sure you start with a sound recipe and you'll be fine.

Good luck,
PP

Mash and boil on separate days?

First post by AaronP, 16 years ago

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My brewing time has recently become seriously restricted due to the arrival of a new baby (why isn't there a 'sleep-deprived' smiley?). It's very unlikely that I'm going to have half a day spare to do a brew for many months :( . However, I should be able to steal a couple of hours here and there. Sooooo...I was wondering if it is OK to mash one day and then do the boil a day or two later? Obviously that's less efficient as I'll have to re-heat the sweet liquor, but other than that I can't see...

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Aaron, good question. I have been wondering the same thing. Thanks for all the answers on how you can split the process up.

ebo

Where are you from...

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First post by hashie, 16 years ago

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And how does it affect your brewing?

I'm about 30 km NE of Bendigo in Victoria. The weather can be quite extreme here. Last summer we had 15 consecutive days above 40c, 5 of those days were 48c! While the Winters aren't too bad we still get a couple of weeks worth of frost.

Brewing in summer is a challenge, although I am lucky enough to have a creamery on our property (no fermenting fridges here). A creamery is a double brick structure set ~1.2 metres into the ground with a large, overhanging...

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LOL BB!

I actually really enjoy reading what these guys are up to and what the mate I mentioned above is up to. Like you, I can't understand computer code etc and I have never seen a good automated system yet that doesn't have a hundred problems still to be solved except maybe the Braumeister which I have never seen, only heard of.

In fact, the Braumeister is the only automated system I have heard of that is successful and this is a full-volume method like BIAB!

Whilst I love seeing the...

first home brew

First post by jmbingham, 16 years ago

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I kegged my firt extract brew last thursday. It was a blue moon clone.Well being my first brew ,at a buddies house cooking out, and drinking I didn't take very good notes or any for that matter. :x Didn't stick to exact time lines ;) so i dont now what i did wrong in the wifes eyes or did right in mine.Way to much to drink in the florida sun :lol:
tasted right out of the primary really bitter and had an overly sweet soured fruit smell can't beleive i got my wife to taste it too. :o
5 days...

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Top stuff Goldy ;),

Anytime I hear of someone enjoying their first AG, I always think of an old friend's PM sent to me after I wrote to him about mine. At the time I did three-vessel brewing. He replied as follows...

Love hearing about other brewers brew days. The morning I did my first AG I must have been kissed on the bum by an angel. Here was this know-nothing in the shed making AG beer with nothing more than a brew sheet from beersmith and the luxury of having watched the Basic Brewing...

Yeast Question

First post by redlegger, 16 years ago

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Hey everyone,
im doing this recipe next, hopefully on the weekend!

But im not sure what the yeast is, it states 500 ml- Wyeast Labs 1056 - American Ale

Im not sure what this is? 500ml ? is this a liquid? can someone shed some light?

Thanks!
RL

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It looks like its been answered already, but WLP001 = WYeast 1056 = US-05. There may be slight variations due to handling, but basically the same yeast.

I agree with PP about using dried yeast. I got on the bandwagon with the liquid strains, but for a run of the mill ale yeast like 1056/US-05 I'd go with dried. Costs less, you can wash and repitch, and no starters.

I hydrate the yeast in about 100ml of water in a zip top bag about an hour before pitching.

I've also used WB-06 and T-58 by...

Why boil for 60 minutes?

First post by AaronP, 16 years ago

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Just wondering why a boil time of 90 mins is recommended even though the first hop addition might not be until 60 min? :? Is it to do with getting rid of DMS? I'm planning to do a Brown Porter, in which case I would guess that DMS wouldn't be such an issue?

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Yep, the beauty of the dunk sparge/ high- gravity boil is that you can dilute it to exactly where you want it for OG rather then just accepting what you get with other methods. (I am about to do this tonight with 16L of 1.074 3% Caraaroma Landlord, should give me about 24L of 1.050). The maths are roughly:
Actual SG/ Target SG * Actual Volume
(SG such as 1.050 expressed as 50, so 74/50*16=23.7, so, after rounding, water added= 24-16=8L)

The down side is that the final volume may not be quite...