Hello BABBERS! (this is how i say it in my head... babbers.. hehe)

I am planning my first AG (woot) and it'll be the BIAB method (woot woot)

Heres my set up:
40L concealed element urn, so new and shiny
45L Kettle, gas fired
going to no chill in cube (or fermenter, depends where I brew)

I plan on mashing in the urn, and transfer to my kettle for boil. Now I hear everyone going "Just boil in ur urn!"
Well i've already thought about this, and I dont want to for lots of reasons. I dont want to taint my loverly shiny thing, burning out elements, I have my beautiful kettle that I want to build a hop screen, dont want to use a hop sock I could go on and on - but i'm using my kettle for boiling, thats that. Anyway, thats not the point.

I plan on brewing a JSGA of sorts, which I plugged into the calculator spreadsheet - and I get something like this:
Desired length: 19L (for keg)
Grain bill 4639g
Approximate Mash Volume 40.13L

So my QUERY is this, before I dive head first in and refine my spreadsheet values ( which may help reduce some original volumes)

obviously 40+ L mash is going to be hard to manage in a 40L vessel - so
is it comfortable to mash in a volume that fits in my TUN and make up the volume with water after I remove the grain bag?
Will this dramatically change what I am trying to achieve?
(which is 1047 wort in 24Litres end of boil batch size)

Can a method such as mashing with say, 30 Litres, remove to kettle, and sparge with the remaining required volume, and remove to kettle, sound a good way around this? should this remaining sparge water be at a mash out temp perhaps?

I hope the above gives a small insight to what i'm planning, and if theres any GLARING oversights, my friendly babbers will jump up and down and advise..

thanks, Babbers!

JD

Cheers for the welcome

Thats right mate about adding the esky tun - Ive gotten to this stage of my 3V setup, and realised that.. hey! I can go babbing.. so my mashtun plans are on hold.

from what I can see, this method sounds like the next revolution, so unless I'm going to go automated, I dont see why this setup isn't all i need for the time being.
I cant wait to get stuck in.

I overthink these things I know, but I would love to get it right the first time around.

Good Afternoon BABBERS!
I have done my First BIAB on the weekend just gone! it went really well (I think)

Anyway - I detailed my process for your amusement on AHB http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... =48869&hl=


which contains photos and a full run down of what I got up to.

I will post this below, but I dont know if the pictures will turn out (i'm on a restricted computer for this sort of thing)

I hope you enjoy. Please leave comment on how I can improve for next time! - cheers - JD
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Well I've done it. I've managed to get organised enough to perform my first all-grain BIAB brew!

It was a Dr. Smurto Golden Ale – and its all cubed up and ready to go.. when my fermenters are free of the ciders ive been making.

I cant wait to get this one bottled! I'll definitely cellar a few for the future..

I never ran a 'water' only test with the setup, so I was flying blind, I hope to do a few batches and work out my liquid losses so I can fine-tune it for the future.

I executed this stunt this in the Riverland, with my Dad (an old school K&K brewer), who is puzzled at the whole process, but happily helped me anyway.

Classic realisation that this is a little bit magic is when when we were doughing in and that malt hit the water, he yells out to my mum in the kitchen.. "possum…. POSSUM!!! GRAB…GET ME THE CAMERA!" haha I'll convert him soon enough I can tell..

Here is my method I used:
Placed the voile in the urn ( un sewn and fraying at the edges – doubled it over actually, because I found a small tear in it) I used a wire thing I found to stop the bag touching the element.

Heated 30L water in the urn to 70 Degrees, and doughed in. Now I had 4 different thermometers, and they all read different values. This is DEFINITELY something I need to sort out for next time because I was in a panic that I was way off. And I probably was. I was hoping for a 66 Degree mash for 60 minutes. This 66 is what my thermometer read (an old vacola fruit preserving thermometer) after we doughed in, so I popped the top on, and wrapped it in a sleeping bag for an hour. I'm unsure of the accuracy of the urn's thermostat and dial, but I left the urn set at 60 Degrees just incase it dropped that low over the hour it could bump it back up by itself. It never got that low.

After the hour was up, the thermometer (I left it inside the urn) read around 63 Degrees.
Then into the kettle for the boil.

(BIABBERS may question why I don't just boil in my urn… well I don't want to. I feel more eclectic this way. The roar of the burner…the boil over when you throw in the hops… aaahhh)
We squeezed the bejeezus out of the bag and got about 1Litre plus extra.

I managed to pour almost all the wort from the urn into the kettle, losing only about 250mL that didn't get into the tap. There didn't seem to be any break material, so it went all in.

I forgot to turn the urn off, so the left behinds decided to burn themselves onto the element. Well I hope that comes off!

A relatively hassle free boil. Two rings roaring on the 4-ring burner bought it to a rolling boil in about 10 minutes, where I started with my 60 min hops addition.

A few games of darts showed that I'm still not as good as my old man,
And not paying attention after chucking in hops will cause boil overs! Had to happen ey!
All the hops stuck up the walls of the kettle from the boil over, so I tried to splash them back in. Liquid loss here was negligible.

Now, I don't have any measurement on my kettle to see how much evaporated, It dropped about an inch over the hour. I know that around the half way mark is about 25L. And that's where I ended just under this after the boil thereabouts.
I also forgot to see how much wort I had left after the mash n squeeze, into the kettle.
Bugger, must take more notes. Must get gloves for squeeze.

It didn't evaporate as much as I thought it would, and I had a strong rolling boil going. So I really cranked it for the last 10 minutes because I thought I'd have waaay to much to fit in that puny cube, and I didn't want to leave any behind. Anyway, the kettle drained, filled the cube up exactly, and left about 1Litre of hops and trub at the bottom of the kettle. A perfect amount for the cube.

At least I fluked one thing!
And that was that!
Took about four and a half hours all up with all the mucking around and second guessing.

The wort into the cube had a gravity of 1054 (20Degrees temp adjusted). I was hoping for 1047. I figure another 4 ½ litres of water will bring it to the desired gravity. I'll do this in the fermenter.

This process has bought about so many questions – and I know I left out a few steps.. Advice on how to proceed is welcomed.

Steps I believe I left out:

Mash out.
Once the hour mash is up, should I just raise the temperature of the urn and wort to a mashout temp, and hold for 10 minutes? Is this the right thinking?
I rekon I could rinse the grain for more sugars, because I definitely can add more water to the method, seeing I ended up with a 1054 gravity wort. Should this water be at mashout temperature?

Minimising trub into cube
I forgot to allow for hot break, and rekon there's going to be a crudload of break material in the cube. Should I use whirlfloc and whirlpool next time?

Should I have taken so much from the kettle?
Am I meant to let the kettle sit and this break material fall out, then transfer?
With this cube, I I'll try and minimise the amount of trub I pour into the fermenter.

Thankyou AHB for all the learning's, teachings, and getting me this far. I know there is so much more for me to do, and no doubt will offer your advice of where to improve next time. I really would like if everyone could pick apart my process, and tell me what to do better next time – I need the guidance!

I'm going to give it another crack this weekend, so Dad can have some wort to ferment for himself. I think he was a bit sad when I packed the piping hot cube in my car and left back for Adelaide.
he brews coopers stout cans with a kg sugar.

I'm hoping to do a version of "Three shades of stout" http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... recipe=304
and show him the reason we spent 4 hours making wort.

Cheers

JD

Thanks Guys -

Yes I will keep everyone posted - Thanks for the tips.
I will try and outline what I have done differently next time as well.

Im hoping to get this cider out of the way, and get this fermenting.

So pumped.

JD