My first brew ever (and therefore my first BIAB ever) is currently in the fermentor! After 9 months of preparing I finally pulled it off here in Beijing …I jumped straight into AG with no prior brewing experience so there has certainly been a steep learning curve. I think I've managed it well for the most part, especially considering some of the limitations we face here in China. I learned a ton preparing (many thanks to this forum). I learned more by actually brewing! And now I hope that a few kinds souls here will help me learn even MORE by giving me a bit of feedback. I have a couple of questions but also would appreciate any other unsolicited comments about my recipe or about anything noteworthy in my BIABacus file.

1. So I had trouble keeping a rolling boil. Unfortunately, I failed to test out my brew kettle on my apartment's electric hot plate so I wasn’t aware that this could be an issue until I was well into my brew day . I aimed to boil for 90 minutes but ended up boiling for just over 2 hours (with lid on part of the time) to reach my OG and to get down to a manageable EOBV. How could an extended boil affect my beer? Any adverse effects to be on the look out for?

2. This may have something to do with my first question...I hit my target OG (1.071) but after 3 weeks in the fermentor I’m sitting at 1.030 when I hoped to hit 1.018 for my FG (do all newbies ask this question? ). I raised the temperature a bit and swirled the fermentor to resuspend some yeast, but nothing’s changed. It seems that many of the experienced brewers on this site don’t pay much attention to their actual FG (because they know what they are doing), but in my case, I’m thinking that the 12 point discrepancy actually means something! I think it tastes just What does it mean? I don’t know. But I think it probably means that something didn’t go quite right somewhere in the process:

a) I mashed at 152.6F. Is that too high? Do I have too many unfermentable sugars?
b) I pitched more than enough rehydrated US-05 yeast. Yeast issue?
c) Did my specialty grains give me too many unfermentable sugars?
d) I haven’t done any water testing or measured pH, but I used bottled Nestle water. Water issue?

Anything left to do with it but bottle it?

Thanks so much!

B


Recipe Report
Brewer: bmcphail05
Style: American Stout

Original Gravity (OG): 1.071
IBU's (Tinseth): 36
Bitterness to Gravity Ratio: 0.51
Colour:
ABV%: 6.87

Efficiency into Kettle (EIK): 70 %
Efficiency into Fermentor (EIF): 60 %
Note: This is a Pure BIAB (Full Volume Mash)

Times and Temperatures
Mash: 90 mins at 67 C = 152.6 F
Boil: 90 min
Ferment: 14 days at 21 C = 69.8 F

Volumes & Gravities
Total Water Needed (TWN): 19.35 L = 5.11 G
Volume into Kettle (VIK): 17.66 L = 4.67 G @ 1.046
End of Boil Volume - Ambient (EOBV-A): 11.04 L = 2.92 G @ 1.071
Volume into Fermentor (VIF): 9.46 L = 2.5 G @ 1.071
Volume into Packaging (VIP): 8.76 L = 2.32 G @ 1.018 assuming apparent attenuation of 75 %

The Grain Bill (Also includes extracts, sugars and adjuncts)
83.7% Pale 2-Row 3163 grams = 6.97 pounds
4.1% Roasted Barley 154 grams = 0.34 pounds
4.1% Chocolate US 154 grams = 0.34 pounds
4.1% Crystal 120 154 grams = 0.34 pounds
4.1% Black Patent 154 grams = 0.34 pounds

The Hop Bill (Based on Tinseth Formula)
32.8 IBU Chinook Pellets (12%AA) 14.3 grams = 0.506 ounces at 60 mins
3.2 IBU Chinook Pellets (12%AA) 2.9 grams = 0.101 ounces at 15 mins

Mash Steps
Mash Type: Pure BIAB (Full Volume Mash) for 90 mins at 67 C = 152.6 F
Mashout for for 8 mins at 72.2 C = 161.96 F

Chilling & Hop Management Methods
Hopsock Used: N
Chilling Method: No Chill

Fermentation& Conditioning
Fermention: Safale US-05 for 14 days at 21 C = 69.8 F
Secondary Used: No
Crash-Chilled: No
Filtered: No
Req. Volumes of CO2: 2
Serving Temp: 13 C = 55.4 F
Condition for 14 days.
Consume within 12 months.

Thanks for your advice, PP. Super helpful!

I bottled this brew last night. Now for the hard part....waiting. And since my fermentor is empty, I decided to start brew number 2, a blonde ale (something lighter for my wife! ) this afternoon. It's mashing as I type.

Luckily for me, between the co-cop of the Beijing Homebrewing Society and local micro-breweries grain isn't too difficult to come by. You just have to know somebody (or at least know somebody who knows somebody!). And since I've only just gotten started, I've only obtained the basic equipment, which is for the most part readily available especially if one becomes handy at using taobao.com, China's massive online marketplace. Quality of ingredients and equipment can be a problem, especially if it's "Made in China" but not "made for export."

PistolPatch wrote:2. In your actuals (the white field in the second column) some of your numbers look too accurate. I'm looking at the 1.071/6. Were you reading your hydrometer and it looked like it was half way between 1.071 and 1.072?

I have both a refractometer and a hydrometer. To get such a precise reading, I took a 17.9 BRIX reading with my refractometer and multiplied by 4 to get 71.6. Before bottling, I measured the FG with the hydrometer and saw that I had a bit of a discrepancy with that of the refractometer. Refractometer read 1.030 and the hydrometer read 1.026... Of course, I leaned towards using the refractometer because of its convenience, but I'm assuming that I'm probably not getting the best accuracy with it?

PistolPatch wrote: So, thermometer is alwasy the most important instrument of a mash brewre. Make sure you have several of them.

I'm searching for another one on taobao.com!

PistolPatch wrote:Is Nestlw water just drinking water or is it distilled? Distilled water will lack in calcium whihc will affect the yeast.

The Nestle water we buy is just drinking water, not distilled.

PistolPatch wrote:As for the extended boil time, no problens there. Buy a stainless steel bowl to float on top of your wort. Test this before the next brew. This is much better than putting the lid on. We really need the lid off to allow all the crappy stuff out. Floating the boil allows this while increasing the boil vigour.

Great idea with using a bowl! I also purchased some insulating material to wrap around my brew kettle to help retain the heat as well. Between the boil and the insulation, I should be able to make my current setup work better for me.

Thanks again for your help!

bmc

Cracked my first bottle open a few weeks ago after it had conditioned for a couple of weeks. I was pleasantly surprised. Not too bad for my first brew! And just in time for some middle of the night viewings of World Cup games...

Though I expressed concern over the gravity readings and failing to hit the marks I'd aimed for, I probably couldn't discern much of a difference anyway. I'm a newbie brewing beer but I'm also a newbie "tasting" beer. There's so much to learn!

Thanks again for the great help, PP!