Earlier this week I attempted my first home brew using BIAB, and it was a whole lot of fun! This was my first round of brewing by myself, and although was challenging at some points, I had a blast!
I chose to make a wheat beer for my first go around for a few reasons (1. Its one of my favorite styles of beer and 2. the recommended fermentation temperature for wheat beer fit into the range of my basement temp).
I had found a basic recipe online that would yield about 5 gallons, and scaled it down almost by a half.
Mash and boil steps went smoothly without any issues, other than me not mixing my yeast nutrient with warm water and just dumping it into the boil.
Unfortunately, I had no way of measuring my volumes during brewing, which may have caused a few issues with my beer (I'm curious to know what everyone else uses to measure their wort? wooden dowel, metal rod?) .
After the boil and chill, I ended up with much more wort than anticipated when transferring to my fermentation bucket (approximately a gallons worth). Once I hit my VIF number, I stopped transferring and the remaining wort went down the drain
I also had no way of aerating the wort, other than splashing around the wort as it entered the fermentation bucket (since then I have invested in an aeration stone system and 5 gallon carboy).
With all that being said, I'm not anticipating a "good" beer by any means, but highlighted what I need to do better next time
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