My Father's Day (U.S.) gift from my four amazing daughters was an entire afternoon to do my first BIAB brew. I was very excited going into it, used the BIABacus to calculate my boil volume and other important numbers for the SMaSH Saison I planned (9# 2-row brewers malt, and Saaz Czech hops--FW 6.6g, 60min 32.6g, 15min 18.2g). I came up with 7.5 gallons for the TWN and at the end of cooling with my immersion chiller I had about 5.5 gallons in the kettle which is fairly close to what the BIABacus predicted. I allowed the wort to rest for 5-10 minutes before racking to the fermentor and that's when I discovered I only had about 1.5-2 gals of clear wort in the fermentor when I started drawing trub in the racking cane. What did I do wrong? Should I have allowed the trub to settle for longer? It seemed there should have been a lot more clear wort on top of the trub.
I filtered the rest of my wort thru a hop bag and ended up with about 4.8 gals in the fermentor which has already finished a vigorous fermentation, so all in all it was a great day and a whole lot of fun trying BIAB for the first time. I'm looking forward to learning how to improve my process and make better, more efficient beer. Thanks in advance for any advice provided.
Post #2 made 11 years ago
Congratulations on your 1st brew hoffajd, I bet it will turn out great!
Did you try a whirlpool at all? I have heard of people waiting up to half an hour for trub to settle as well, however, I guess whatever works?
For me, as I no chill, there is still a lot more going on in the wort as it cools slowly from boiling (convection/conduction currents) etc. So for some styles of beer I do not bother removing the trub. I would guess a saison will be quite robust, so you may have no problems either way.
Did you try a whirlpool at all? I have heard of people waiting up to half an hour for trub to settle as well, however, I guess whatever works?
For me, as I no chill, there is still a lot more going on in the wort as it cools slowly from boiling (convection/conduction currents) etc. So for some styles of beer I do not bother removing the trub. I would guess a saison will be quite robust, so you may have no problems either way.
G B
I spent lots of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I squandered
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I ONCE gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life
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
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Post #3 made 11 years ago
Nice daughters 
,
A few things to initially check...
1. Too coarse a bag.
2. Too fine a crush.
But, I think the problem is going to be with your transfer.
A. How did you rack from kettle to fermentor?(I know about the racking cane but how did you 'handle' that?
B. What is the internal diameter of the hose used to transfer?
C. How long did the transfer take?
Sorry for the questions but I don't want to write anything more before getting your answers to the above.
PP
,A few things to initially check...
1. Too coarse a bag.
2. Too fine a crush.
But, I think the problem is going to be with your transfer.
A. How did you rack from kettle to fermentor?(I know about the racking cane but how did you 'handle' that?
B. What is the internal diameter of the hose used to transfer?
C. How long did the transfer take?
Sorry for the questions but I don't want to write anything more before getting your answers to the above.
PP
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First BIAB...problems?
Post #4 made 11 years ago
Pistol,
Thanks for taking the time to investigate. 1: As for my bag, I bought it from Rex at brewinabag.com so I believe it to be made from a properly fine voile material. 2: I had my LHBS grind the grain, so I assume it was done correctly. I guess I have no way to check that further.
A: I attached the racking cane to the edge of my kettle with the intake in the clear wort, above the trub. As the wort was drawn out, I pushed tube closer to the trub. When there was just an inch or so of clear wort remaining I tilted the kettle so the clear wort ran towards the racking cane. Once I couldn't draw any more clear wort, I stopped.
B: The internal diameter of my hose is 5/8"
C: I don't have the exact time of my transfer, but I would guess it to have taken around 8-10 mins.
Mally, I have heard of doing a whirlpool, though when I tried it, it just seemed to agitate the trub. As for the "no-chill" method, I have heard of it before and am intrigued. I'll have to try it sometime. Thanks for the input.
HJD
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks for taking the time to investigate. 1: As for my bag, I bought it from Rex at brewinabag.com so I believe it to be made from a properly fine voile material. 2: I had my LHBS grind the grain, so I assume it was done correctly. I guess I have no way to check that further.
A: I attached the racking cane to the edge of my kettle with the intake in the clear wort, above the trub. As the wort was drawn out, I pushed tube closer to the trub. When there was just an inch or so of clear wort remaining I tilted the kettle so the clear wort ran towards the racking cane. Once I couldn't draw any more clear wort, I stopped.
B: The internal diameter of my hose is 5/8"
C: I don't have the exact time of my transfer, but I would guess it to have taken around 8-10 mins.
Mally, I have heard of doing a whirlpool, though when I tried it, it just seemed to agitate the trub. As for the "no-chill" method, I have heard of it before and am intrigued. I'll have to try it sometime. Thanks for the input.
HJD
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Post #5 made 11 years ago
Thanks for the additional info hoff. I've read it a few times today and have just re-read your first post a few times as I haven't been able to come up with an obvious or instant answer. The only thing I can think to do is give you some random thoughts...
- Once, and once only, on a brew day here actually, I had the cloudiest, murkiest wort ever. Never had it before or since and to this day I have no idea why.
- I'm not keen on 5/8" syphons. I think they draw too quickly (and sometimes stall on the auto-syphons.) A 1/2 " one will take about twenty minutes to drain 6 gallons (23 litres). The nice thing about the slow drain is that you can actually sink the syphon into the trub and it will initially draw a small bit of that trub out but from then on will only suck clear wort.
- Don't expect absolutely clear wort in your transfer. Then again, don't expect mud.
- Try and use your BIAB bag as a hop sock.
Sorry I can't think of anything more but occasionally you just do get weird stuff happening. Maybe,if you have a phone that takes video, try taking a video of your transfer against white paper. Maybe what you are seeing as 'unclear wort' (not perfectly clear wort) is what we might regard as being normal wort (slightly hazy)
- Once, and once only, on a brew day here actually, I had the cloudiest, murkiest wort ever. Never had it before or since and to this day I have no idea why.
- I'm not keen on 5/8" syphons. I think they draw too quickly (and sometimes stall on the auto-syphons.) A 1/2 " one will take about twenty minutes to drain 6 gallons (23 litres). The nice thing about the slow drain is that you can actually sink the syphon into the trub and it will initially draw a small bit of that trub out but from then on will only suck clear wort.
- Don't expect absolutely clear wort in your transfer. Then again, don't expect mud.
- Try and use your BIAB bag as a hop sock.
Sorry I can't think of anything more but occasionally you just do get weird stuff happening. Maybe,if you have a phone that takes video, try taking a video of your transfer against white paper. Maybe what you are seeing as 'unclear wort' (not perfectly clear wort) is what we might regard as being normal wort (slightly hazy)
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