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First BIAB - Witbier

Post #1 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
Have six extract brews under my belt, and yesterday I tried my first BIAB all grain.

My LHBS sells kits for all grains as well as extracts, so I tried an all grain version
of a Wit that I had previously brewed as an extract.

Purchased a 10 gallon aluminum pot, Friday night I boiled water for an hour to both calculate my
boiloff rate and season the pot for Saturday. I used a calculator I found on the internet to calculate
the mash volume, temp and whatnot, and tried to keep an open mind, knowing full well that this was going
to be somewhat of an experiment.

Our ambient temp right now in DFW Texas is 100+ every day, so cooling wort is an exercise in frustration
(as is being outside for any reason).

About 2pm I filled the pot with 7.50 gallons of water, heated to 156, dropped 10 lbs of grain in and came
back every 15 minutes to stir and agonize. 45 minutes in, even at 100 ambient, the temp had dropped below 150, so I suspended the bag off the bottom, fired up the heat to get back to 155, and got to 60. As an afterthought,
I suspended the bag again, heated the water to mashout of 170, stirred the grain and let it go 10 minutes.

When I pulled the bag, I measured the wort, and the first problem of the day appeared. What was supposed to
be 7 gallons was only 6.6, so the grain absorbtion was .085 gal per lb, rather than the spreadsheet default
of .045....oops.

60 minute boil followed.

put the boil pot in a tub, stuck the hose in and dribbled water in until the wort was down to 100. Left the lid on the boil pot, went to a movie, and at 10 pm moved the pot to the bathtub to rest for the night in the air conditioned comfort. Sunday morning at 7am, hydrated the yeast, pitched and put the ferm bucket in the chamber for the duration.
The OG was supposed to be 1.05, but was only 1.04, I aimed for 5.5 gal into the bucket, but only came up with 5 gallons. Wort was 80 degrees at this point, would have been better at 70 or so, but nothing in Tejas is 70 degrees this month.

I learned a few things. May need to go to a 90 minute mash, look around for a more realistic absorption rate, wait for the heat to break.....(yeah, right).

Anyway, around noon I peeked in the mini-fridge, and the airlock was bubbling right along, so we're off on another adventure to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Already planning the next brew day in a couple of weeks, and hope to solve the water volume issue by then.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Last edited by soccerfan on 11 Aug 2015, 00:40, edited 1 time in total.

Post #2 made 10 years ago
by Mad_Scientist
The beer I'm drinking now was made under a heat advisory, my garage got up to 95F. To shorten the day, I used a no chill container.

Have you been told about our calculator, the BIABacus? It helps with everything, from beginning to end.

Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #3 made 10 years ago
by joshua
SoccerFan, How did you drain the Bag after Mashout???? Lined PVC gloves, or two pot Lids, or an Industrial Press????

Any of those will help recover all, but .015L/Kg(0.4Qt/Lb) of Wort.
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #4 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
I rigged up a hoist and suspended the grain above the kettle and squeezed it with two pan lids.
Did leave it hanging until the boil began, and tried more than once to squeeze more water out.
I was not impressed with my efforts trying to squeeze out the water. I do have silicone gloves
that I use with the smoker, so maybe I'll try that next time.

That half gallon of wort bothered me a little, but not as much as missing the OG by 10 points.

Longer mash time ?

Post #5 made 10 years ago
by goulaigan
Depends, you said you bought a kit? Did the kit specify the volume into fermentor? Volume at end of boil? Volume into packaging? Depending on which of these it specified, and how close you came, this could affect the OG.

Best bet is to use the BIABacus, and put your recipe in before purchasing the ingredients. Then you will know exactly how much grain you need to use to hit your target gravity and volume. It will also calculate a whole bunch of other stuff for you as MS stated above. Give it a whirl and ask questions if needed. It is also very helpful for recording the gravities, volumes etc. at the important intervals through the brew session, and will make it easier for us to pinpoint an efficiency issue if indeed there is one. A 90 min mash is usually the recommendation around here, especially when starting out...
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Canada

Post #6 made 10 years ago
by mally
You could also do your pectorals a favour and twist the bag instead of squashing it.
The twisting stops the grain from being able to move freely, thus the force applied is a little more efficient.
It's similar to wringing out wet clothes instead of squashing them between your hands.
G B
I spent lots of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I squandered
I've stopped drinking, but only when I'm asleep
I ONCE gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Great Britain

Post #7 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
I checked the FG of this Wit on Saturday, and it had dropped to 1.010, about where it was supposed
to be, but the smell of sulphur was evident when i took the bucket lid off. I let it go
until last night (10 days) and bottled. The sulphur smell was still there, but I bottled
it anyway. Did a little reading last night on various forums about sulphur smells from Wit's,
and have sorta concluded that my fermentation temp was a little low. I had my chamber set
for 19C for the first three days, then raised it to 20C.

Now I'm thinking that 24C for a couple of days might have solved some of the sulphur smell.

Anyway, I've learned that patience is a big part of this home brewing thing, so I'm gonna
let these condition for a couple of weeks and see what happens.
Last edited by soccerfan on 31 Aug 2015, 09:32, edited 1 time in total.

Post #8 made 10 years ago
by joshua
SoccerFan, was the Sulfur Smell with rotting eggs(DMS), or like Burned matches(bacterial Infection), or like Skunk oder(hops broken down by Sunlight)???

Is your Fermenter Clear or opaque?? and lastly did your fermenter get much Sunlight???
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #9 made 10 years ago
by goulaigan
I get sulphur smells often with wheat beers, it always conditions out after a couple weeks in the bottles, keep going with that patience theory of yours, it is definitely a virtue when it comes to brewing!
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Canada

Post #10 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
Rotten Eggs.

My fermentation bucket is a 6.5 gallon white plastic bucket.
The chamber is a dorm fridge with a controller, and the bucket
lives inside a cardboard box when not in use, I don't think it has ever
seen direct sunlight.

Post #11 made 10 years ago
by joshua
SoccerFan, then what you have is DMS.

It comes from High Protein Grains, that are under Modified(pale), and Some Styles Of Yeast, mostly Lagers.

Goulaigan may be very correct, but from My Experience there may be a detectable Flavor of Sulfur in the Beer.

If you Brew this Recipe again, you may want to re-condsider the Choice of yeast, and maybe go ALE.

Good Luck!!
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #13 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
So this past Wednesday I chilled a bottle of the Wit while I was at work, and
poured it up when I got home from work. I had decided I would pour this into
a pint glass, try to detect an odor, let it sit for five minutes on the counter
and then start sampling. I did smell the sulphur off the initial pour, set the
kitchen timer for 5, came back and took a sip. The sulphur smell was still there,
the beer had a sulphur aftertaste, although the odor was not as overpowering as it
was at bottling. I had spouse sample, without warning her there was a problem,
she smacked a little, made a couple of frowny faces, and then said....there's something
there, but I can't place it. I volunteered "sulphur?", and she thought about five
seconds and said "maybe..."

So, the jury is still out on this, and I'm making myself wait another week for another
taste.

Post #14 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
Chilled another two bottles of this yesterday (9.2.15) and
poured one up when I got home. Still a faint sulphur
smell out of the bottle. Let it sit and breathe on
the counter for five minutes. A little aftertaste,
and the smell out of the glass is sulphur and witbier.

This is something I'll drink, because I'm cheap and I
invested the work in it. Also don't have any other homebrew
to drink until my Saison is bottled and sits for a couple
of weeks.

I'm still holding out hope that bottle conditioning time
will mellow this out.

Post #15 made 10 years ago
by soccerfan
FINALLY this turned into something drinkable. Sept 13th I chilled a bomber, opened it up,
and was rewarded with a Wit without any sulphur taste/smell. three and a half weeks
in the bottle at room temp worked all the kinks out.
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