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First brew day & pics - APA with NZ Cascade

Post #1 made 9 years ago
by daveshep
Hi folks, well my very first BIAB is in the fermenter. What an awesome feeling and busy day I've had.
I took loads of pics and have uploaded a few for your enjoyment/comment.
It took about 5 hrs in all but I expect I'll be able to do things a bit quicker next time around.

Mashing
One problem I noticed before starting was a small 1.5cm split in my new grain bag. Didn't have time to organise a replacement so pressed on. Filled kettle from cold tap to avoid risk of garden hose flavor (as advised previously), BIABacus said to hit strike temp of 67C but that turned out 2-3C too low. After mashing in I had 63C so re-lit burners and bought it back to 66C. Put my new insulation one (burnt my first insulation during my dry run - see previous post) and was all good. Lost a couple of degreesC over the 90min mash.
Carefully removed bag to avoid making the split worse and spilling grain into the wort. Put it in a bucket and gave it a good squeeze. Hit gravity 1.047 and volume into boil exactly as BIABacus predicted!

Boiling
Removed my insulation (ha!). Lit the burners and got to a good rolling boil - I now know what that looks like! Added hops in socks as per the hop schedule and a 1/2 whirlfloc tablet. After 90 min boil I hit my predicted VFO so evaporation rate was about 3L/hr similar to my dry run - whew!

Chilling
Used tap water @ 24C with my chill pump until wort was about 40C then I added a bag of ice to the chill pump bucket. That got me to 30C then I added the second bag of ice and got to 22C. Total chill time was about 40mins. Hit my ambient gravity and volume pretty well too. 1.058 and 19.4L

Into fermenter
Siphoning into fermenter I noticed a lot of trub, guess I expected to find this. I think I got a fair bit of it in my fermenter, hopefully that doesn't make too much difference. I also realised just how much wort I had to leave behind in the kettle. Probably 2.5L which I was a bit disappointed with but hey its my first brew. Ended up with about 16.7L in fermenter so pretty happy with that. Hydrated a 11.5g sachet of US-05 yeast, pitched it in. Put the lid on and gave it a good shake to aerate. Fitted airlock put in fermentation fridge. Set my homemade temp controller to 20C, grabbed a cold one (kit Summer Ale) and started the clean up.

All in all a very interesting and day full of learning. Have attached my BIABacus file and some pics.

Thanks all for the help over the last week. Will let you know how the fermentation, bottling and tasting goes.

Cheers
Dave
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Last edited by daveshep on 24 Jan 2016, 14:22, edited 1 time in total.

First brew day & pics - APA with NZ Cascade

Post #2 made 9 years ago
by Contrarian
Nice work mate! Sounds like an amazingly smooth brew day for a first run or in fact for anyone! Most brew day stories involve some sort of burn, leaving a fermenter tap open before filling or similar sort of event but it sounds like you nailed the lot!

No doubt it will be an awesome drop!

In terms of trub it won't make much of a difference. Because you are chilling in your kettle and using hop socks it will be a combo of hot break and cold break. The general consensus is that hot break may have an impact on how quickly a beer goes stale but cold break has no impact and may be beneficial for yeast health.

I've never chilled wort but I believe you can whirlpool after chilling. Basically just stir the wort until there is a decent vortex in the middle and then put the lid on and let it sit until it isn't moving and it will concentrate the trub in the centre of the kettle. That plus a pick up tube (if you don't already have one) might get you an extra couple of litres.

Post #3 made 9 years ago
by PistolPatch
Good on you Dave and congratulations :thumbs: :clap: :champ:,

Looks like everything went very nicely and you didn't even let the torn bag worry you - nice!

Strike Temperature

It is always better to strike low than high as to fix a low strike temp, all you have to do is as you did - add more heat. The BIABacus always defaults to the safest settings. For example, when working out the strike temp, it assumes you are using a heavy kettle and burner and in a warm ambient environment. Two things, agitate the strike water well before taking measurements and take it a few times after you strike your grain as some kettles will continue to increase in temperature after you strike simply through radiation. Don't change the BIABacus default until after two more brews at least.

Chilling

Finally found a calculator to help explain what I was getting at in your prep thread. Read this post and play with the calculator in it. Assuming your bags of ice were 5kg each, you could have got away with one bag to easilly get to 18 C.

Remember to jiggle your immersion chiller when the tap water is running through it. Don't even think about introducing ice until you have your wort to within 4 C of your tap temp. If you jiggle, you also can use a far slower flow rate and save a heap of water.

You have a pump so you need to be re-circulating that iced water. More info in the post I have linked.

Kettle to Fermentor Loss

In your BIABacus, you've overridden the default for this. You've whacked in 1 litre whereas in this brew, The BIABacus would have allowed 3.1 L as it keeps you safe. You ended up with 2.5 L and this is perfect. All-grain has a heap more muck in it than kit or extract brews. In your kettle, every cm equals about 1 litre. It is very hard to syphon down to less than an inch in an all-grain brew. So, get rid of your override :lol:. (Also get rid of the one for FPL).

...

Nice fermenting fridge ;). Can you get a second fermentor in there, side by side? I can just do it in my fridge if I push the first fermentor back hard left and let the next one sit front right.

:drink: Dave,
PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 24 Jan 2016, 20:36, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #4 made 9 years ago
by daveshep
Thanks again for the advice PP and Contrarian. Yes I am pretty pleased with how the day turned out. I think I was in a bit of denial about how much wort I would lose during the process (in kit brewing I only lost what I left in the fermenter) but I'm sure the results will be worth it.

I can think of a few improvements to my technique already just by reading your posts above and the PP's reply on chilling in my prep thread.

I've also got a few questions which I'll do a bit of searching on in the forums before asking them. E.g. what's the best way of washing out my grain bag? Out of time tonight so will save them for another day.

The brew is bubbling away merrily in the fermentation fridge at 20C (despite it being 27C in Auckland today!)

Cheers
Dave

Post #5 made 9 years ago
by thughes
An excellent job Dave, one's first brew day does not typically go as well. Thanks for sharing, hopefully your experience will encourage others to jump right in and get going with BIAB.

---Todd
WWBBD?
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Post #8 made 9 years ago
by daveshep
Hi all, I've been waiting very patiently for this beer to condition in the bottles for a 1 week before tasting.
Tonight was the night to crack one open and taste by first all-grain BIAB....
...and the verdict...
It's freaking awesome. Can't believe how good it tastes compared to the last 4 kit beers I've made.
I'm no beer judge but here's my impression.
Bit light on carbonation - not a lot of head but it's only 1 week in the bottle so that may increase.
Good strong hoppy aroma and felt 'full' in the mouth.
Hard to know how to describe the taste other than lots of depth and a lasting malty aftertaste.
It's a bit stronger than my kit beers so I could feel it after the 2nd glass (on an empty stomach mind you).
Anyway I'm hugely impressed so far and the additional 3-4 hours of effort was well worth.
Thanks to all who helped me along the way - really appreciate this site and quality advice.
Next brew is going to be the Irish Red Ale recipe from BCS!
Cheers
Dave
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Post #10 made 9 years ago
by PistolPatch
Great post and pic Dave! Thanks for letting us know how you went.

Posts like that make us all drool :lol:. Top job :thumbs:.
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