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Jamil's APA - First BIAB

Post #1 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
Brew day started off a bit rough - had to exchange the burner TWICE because something was wrong with the manifold. Finally got a non-dud (or did I...) and started off.

Ended up with 5kg of Pale Malt, 350g of Munich Malt and 250g of Malted Wheat into the mash with a strike water volume of 39L. Burner worked well and got my water up to strike temperature in decent time. Mashed for 90mins at 67C. Required re-heating at 60minute mark from 63C to 66C. Heated to 78C for mashout, then pulled bag to drain on oven rack over a bucket while the wort came to a boil. Squeezed it like it owed me money, with a pot lid. Bought to boil for a boil time of90 minutes, with 24g of Columbus (14.9% AA) added at 60mins, 14g of Cascade (7.3% AA) and 17g of Centennial (8.7% AA) added at each of 10mins and 0mins. Also added 1tsp of yeast nutrient and 1tsp of Irish Moss at 10mins. Wort chiller added to sterilise at 10mins. Gravity at start of boil was 1.044 with a volume of 36.70 L.

The issues started with the wind picking up mid-boil and the boil vigour dropping, so I didnt lose anywhere near the volume due to evaporation I should have. Boil finished at about 32L of volume, which was very high. On the other hand, I lost a lot transferring to the fermenter due to a stopped siphon. Pitched my rehydrated yeast and hopefully it will still be decent. Gravity into fermenter of 1.050 or thereabouts, so should be ok (suggests I have made a measurement error somewhere but I am really tired and will puzzle over it tomorrow!).

Brag: decent efficiency for my first mash.
Beat: boil not vigorous enough, need to look at burner.
Variance: wort tasted sweet and bitter at end so beer may still be good.
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Post #2 made 9 years ago
by Scott
Hi Aidan,

I had a look at your BIABacus file. Good job on filling it out. Where it lists brewer - that's actually you, not the authors of the BCS book. ;) And filling out dates, etc. are a good idea as you start getting multiple batches and brews completed (sometimes look back for details...). But you did good.

I didn't see any problem, except too little evaporation. And looks like you are on track to get that figured out and corrected. I think your beer will be fine - just not quite as "big" as you were expecting. So Good Job!

These are the things you learn from to make things better next time. And just think - if you had not filled out the BIABacus file, you would have no idea that you were very much on track early on and went off course a bit because of evaporation. Now you do! I just think that is awesome!!! Having been down the same rabbit hole myself. ;) Most homebrewers don't go through the little bit of effort that this takes, and I believe it to be important. So again - Good Job!!!!! :thumbs:
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Post #3 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
Hi Scott,

Awesome, I've gone back to fill out dates and things, I had been keeping a diary in a google doc too, but this is much easier. The BIABacus is really amazing, all of the information you need is right there, down to how full your pot should be at each stage... Makes everything a lot more controlled. This morning, the beer temp had stabilized at 19C and fermentation activity was under way - a promising start!

Thanks for all the advice!

Post #4 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
I also drilled out the burner this morning, the second ring in particular was much narrower than the other two and it was the one giving a bit of an orange flame last night. Some solid advice from this forum there! Variable pressure regulator is in the mail, but this is a good start!

Post #6 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
Bottling day! First thing that's noticeable is the colour - much lighter than anyhting achieved with extract to this point. Decent aromoa (but not mind blowing), and I was a bit ineffecient with my transfer so I ended up with less than I should have, but other than that everything went quite well. Needs time to settle in the bottle, and won't be as clear as it could, but overall pretty happy.
Image
Last edited by Aidan on 25 Sep 2016, 11:02, edited 1 time in total.

Post #7 made 9 years ago
by Scott
Good job Aidan! What you achieved is a benchmark...and now know what will make the beer you produced. Now, minor adjustments from here to make minor incremental improvements in your beer recipe, and brew a better version of this beer next time.

This beer will likely get better with some more time in the bottle. And I'm sure it will be a good beer...
    • SVA Brewer With Over 50 Brews From United States of America

Post #8 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
Scott wrote:Good job Aidan! What you achieved is a benchmark...and now know what will make the beer you produced. Now, minor adjustments from here to make minor incremental improvements in your beer recipe, and brew a better version of this beer next time.

This beer will likely get better with some more time in the bottle. And I'm sure it will be a good beer...
Thanks, Scott!

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I got out and brewed again yesterday, this time the BCS Black Scapula Dubbel. Things went reasonably well, hit my mash volume and temp and ended up with a much higher gravity into boil than predicted. Evaporation rate was much more in line with predictions (8L actual to 10L predicted). Hit the final gravity close enough, but only transferred 20.5L due to the large amount of trub in the bottom of the pot - close to 10L worth! When I tipped the mess out, the hops were at the very bottom, so I wonder if I should have kept transferring the precipitatey mixture at the bottom of the kettle. I pitched plenty of yeast and it's bubbling away 12 hours later.
beer1.png
So i guess my question is around transferring or not the kettle trub to the fermenter. I have subsequently read Brulosopher's experiments that show it could even be beneficial to some extent, and even squeezing out an extra liter or two of beer would be big at this scale. Thoughts?
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Last edited by Aidan on 29 Sep 2016, 06:41, edited 1 time in total.

Post #9 made 9 years ago
by rickoles
Aidan wrote:So i guess my question is around transferring or not the kettle trub to the fermenter. I have subsequently read Brulosopher's experiments that show it could even be beneficial to some extent, and even squeezing out an extra liter or two of beer would be big at this scale. Thoughts?
There have been many experiments carried out by the community about whether trub affects the taste / clarity of the final product. Basically the results show that trub doesn't have any real noticeable effect. You should search this for yourself.

I feel it's definitely worth transferring trub to get the max volume as it's painful coming up short after you've put in all that time and effort. The trub also settles to the bottom of the kettle over time so if you're still that worried about it after reading some articles just leave the kettle for an hour or 2 before transferring to the fermenter.
Last edited by rickoles on 01 Oct 2016, 13:39, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #10 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
rickoles wrote:
Aidan wrote:So i guess my question is around transferring or not the kettle trub to the fermenter. I have subsequently read Brulosopher's experiments that show it could even be beneficial to some extent, and even squeezing out an extra liter or two of beer would be big at this scale. Thoughts?
There have been many experiments carried out by the community about whether trub affects the taste / clarity of the final product. Basically the results show that trub doesn't have any real noticeable effect. You should search this for yourself.

I feel it's definitely worth transferring trub to get the max volume as it's painful coming up short after you've put in all that time and effort. The trub also settles to the bottom of the kettle over time so if you're still that worried about it after reading some articles just leave the kettle for an hour or 2 before transferring to the fermenter.
Thanks, Rickoles. I have been reading around and seems like its definitly worth it, and I appreciate the response.

Early tester of the pale ale, I'm pretty happy with it:
Image
Last edited by Aidan on 02 Oct 2016, 13:47, edited 1 time in total.

Post #11 made 9 years ago
by Aidan
Another BIAB day done and dusted, went with a modified Cali Common (Chinook over NB forced due to supply), and I essentially hit my gravity into fermenter and volumes right on the nose. Day went more smoothly, and I'm getting more comfortable/less prone to panicking!

No pics of the finished thing yet, but here's the early start:
Image
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Last edited by Aidan on 24 Oct 2016, 12:53, edited 1 time in total.
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