BIAB Sanity Check - First planned brew

Thought I would just chuck this one out there... All feedback welcome...

Have been planning my first BIAB brew for a few weeks and have assembled the various bits of kit as follows...

19l Stock Pot
Vegetable steamer insert as a false bottom
Large Colander to fit pot for draining
Youngs Mashing and Sparging bag, fits the pot pretty well
Thermometer probe and display unit
15l Fermentation Bucket with airlock
other bits that i had already (Hydrometer, trial jar, spoon etc)

My plan is for 11l into the FV and then 10l into the Corny

I am a big fan of Wheat beers, just done a Coopers kit based Wheat and thought i would try a cleaner more hoppy American Wheat so have gone for the following. I took this from the "Home Brew Beer" by Greg Hughes and scaled using BeerSmith. I was looking for something simple as I am really trying to get a feel for the BIAB process with this brew.

16l Water at 69c then add bag and grain
65c Mash for 60 mins.

1.50kg Weyermann Wheat Malt Light
1.00kg Weyermann Pilsner Malt
0.15kg Weyermann CaraPils
8.5g Citra pellets (70mins)
1/4 Protofloc tablet 15mins
12.5g Citra Pellets (flameout)
Wyeast 1010 American Wheat Ale

Estimated OG 1.055
Estimated FG 1.010
ABV - 4.7%

Ferment at 18c

Would be great to get any views/comments/advice on this...

Planning it for Sat morning as SWMBO is taking the kids shopping for the morning.......

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I'm fairly new too but the guys around here usually suggest a 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil, the reasoning behind this can probably found maybe by doing a quick forum search rather than me trying to explain it (probably incorrectly).

Are you using the BIABacus? It will do all the volume stuff, and makes BIAB much MUCH easier and more predictable. It is also handy for recording volumes, gravities, figures out your efficiencies etc etc which can be really useful as you brew more, since you will have a better idea of what to expect from your equipment. Just make sure you put in your kettle dimensions correctly.

If you are using the BIABacus, then ignore all that, and someone with a bit more knowledge will probably be along shortly with more useful info for you.

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We do recommend 90 min./90 min. times, especially with Pilsner. We speak BIABacus language here, not beer smith.

A couple of things I see when I plug your info into BIABacus;

It is calling for 18 L total water needed, so I recommend starting with 14 L of strike water to mash with your 2.65 kg of grain. After the mash add 4 L water before the boil.

This recipe is known as low integrity because of many factors, one of which is, it doesn't state a AA% of the hops or the IBU (Tinseth or any other). I am coming up with 34 IBU Tinseth IF the AA% are 12%. What % are yours?



MS

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Thanks for the responses all. I have completed and attached the BIABacus. Only slight change is a swap in the yeast from a Wyeast to the Whitelabs equivalent.

Thanks for the advice on the 90 min Mash and the 90 Min boil. Yes this does now mean that the total mash volume exceeds the pot size. I will follow the advice of "mash with 14l and add the rest pre boil".

Please can you explain the "low integrity" ? Is this because the recipe was incomplete in terms of its level of detail or is are there some steps missing from the process ?

Again thanks for all your help, this forum has finally given me the confidence to try my first BIAB...

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I'm short on time Tim so haven't looked at the file you posted above. But, maybe have a read of this thread and maybe the first few posts in this thread.

One really hard thing for new all-grainers to realise (and this is about the only place you'll be informed of this) is that most recipe published on the net lack critical information. The threads above will help you understand Mad_Scientist's comments above.

There are sort of two edges to this brewing sword. You can totally ignore numbers and brew great beer but you'll never be able to tell others how you did so. You can also respect numbers but this place is the only place I know of that can give you a solid number base to start from.

I much prefer a two edged sword ,
PP

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Awesome job on the BIABacus Tim.

The one big thing to do is enter 4 L into Section W, 'water added before the boil', and then it will calculate the strike water needed, the liquor to grain ratio and the grain bill will change. Do you have any extra grain?

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Mad_Scientist wrote:Awesome job on the BIABacus Tim.

The one big thing to do is enter 4 L into Section W, 'water added before the boil', and then it will calculate the strike water needed, the liquor to grain ratio and the grain bill will change. Do you have any extra grain?

Thanks for the advice MS. I have made that change and see how it works now, but the grain bill did not change... My grain all arrived today but I could get more, do you think I need it ? If so how much and what would you recommend ?

Am planning to do the brew on Sat morning. Had a trail boil of my pot today and it seems to manage to just hold a rolling boil.

Thanks for you assistance.

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timfuller wrote:Thanks for the advice MS. I have made that change and see how it works now, but the grain bill did not change...

Hi Tim. Just quickly, I haven't checked your files or followed the thread but if you did, "enter 4 L into Section W, 'water added before the boil'", then the grain bill, on the right hand side, will change.

So, make sure you are aware of the difference between the left and right hand sides of Section C (and D!).

Regardless, from the bits I have scanned above, there is nothing to worry about even if you have made an error. The worst I can see things happening for you is that you might get 5% less wort (volume times gravity) than calculated. This is nothing so relax and proceed with what you have. Ask more questions though so as you are clear on your next brew.

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So, I finally did it....

Had my first BIAB Brew day on Friday last week. - Firstly a big thanks to MadScientist and PistolPatch for their assistance with the BIABacus and without whom I would prob have not had such a good day....

I have uploaded an updated BIABacus here with the actual figures added for reference.

So I got started with the strike water required coming up to temp.

Whilst this was heating I cleaned and prep'd my FV and got all the ingredients ready

Once the strike water was at 68c i added the grain bill with plenty of stiring to avoid any grain balls.

Hit the mash temp spot on and wrapped up in a hoodie.. Managed to only drop 1c in 45 mins, a little heat and back up to temp for the remaining 45 mins

Removed the bag and let it drain on the side for about 15 mins whilst the wort came up to the boil, then added the drained wort from the bag into the pot.

Got a nice rolling boil going and did the hop additions (Citra pellets)

Once the boil was done it was into my DIY cooling bath, this seemed to do OK and got me down to 22c in about 30 mins.

Then it was into the FV and add the yeast, then into the Fermenting chamber.

24hrs later it was going great guns...

Managed to hit most of my numbers spot on, predicted FG was 1.054 and I hit 1.055 - Having the BIABacus there made life much easier.

Now its just to plan the next one - A summer ale I think...

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Just spent any free time I had tonight on another post sorry Tim but before I go, just wanted to say, "Great job". I've had a quick look at your numbers and there are certainly discrepancies there but I don't think we should be jumping into any analysis yet. Small brews, let alone first brews, are very hard to record!

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Thanks everyone.

The brew day went really well.

PistolPatch - Would be very interested to hear your comments/advice as it will help me to improve next time..

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Tim, I can't see anything that you did wrong in your process so all good I reckon .

As for the measurement side, there is a big discrepancy between your Efficiency into Boil and Efficiency of Ambient Wort. In theory, these should be identical. In practice, due to our poor ability to measure such small volumes, they never actually match but I like to see them within about 5% of each other.

I suspect your large discrepancy comes at the end of the boil. See how in Section L, you measured Volume at Flame-Out as 12.8 L? When this cooled to ambient, it theoretically should have shrunk to 12.3 litres but for some reason your Volume of Ambient Wort was only 11 litres (10 + 1). So where did that 1.3 litres go for a start?(It could be the graduations on your fermentor are inaccurate.)

Anywyay, this is nothing to worry about. Just check that your fermentor is graduated properly efore you do your next brew.

Nice job on filling out the file too .

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