Hi guys,

I had my first brew session not too long ago and overall it went pretty well. I tried to be as organized as possible and wrote up a checklist to follow and tried to apply all I've read to the process. I included my BIABacus with all the information updated for my actual volumes and gravities.

I brewed the NRB all amarillo APA and plugged the numbers of my gear into the BIABacus and followed the instructions as described. I came pretty close to my target GIB but fell pretty far short of my GAW/OG. I assume the culprit is that my evaporation number was less than expected?

This was for a 2 gallon batch with a desired VIF of 7.5 L or 2 gall.

Here are some of my numbers that were expected

Total Water Needed (TWN): 14.16 L = 3.74 G
Volume into Boil (VIB): 13.34 L = 3.52 G
Volume of Ambient Wort (VAW): 8.75 L = 2.31 G
Volume into Fermentor (VIF): 7.5 L = 1.98 G

Actual

Volume into Boil (VIB): 12.5 L = 3.30 G
Volume of Ambient Wort (VAW): 9.40 L = 2.48 G @ 1.048
Volume into Fermentor (VIF): 8 L = 2.11 G @ 1.048

My estimated GIB was 1.039: Actual 1.036
My estimated GAW was 1.058: Actual 1.048

You can see the rest of my result in the attached BIABacus.

I guess my question is where I went wrong and what could I have done to fix it or fix it in the future?

Here are my thoughts and correct me if I'm wrong:

- Need to do a better job with wort extraction when removing bag from pot. What I did this time was to lift the bag from the pot and then my girlfriend came in and squeezed the bag to get extra wort. Then we moved the bag to rest on a colander above a bucket to catch extra drippings and added that back to pot while bringing to boil. I feel like I could have squeezed more thoroughly however and perhaps rushed this part a little bit.

- I stuck to the plan of a 90 minute boil to a tee. Should I have increased my boil time to compensate for the low evaporation rate? I felt like this would potentially screw up my hop utilization however by introducing a longer boil. I guess I could have taken notice at the 60 minute mark of the current volume and delayed my 60 minute addition accordingly and then stick to the schedule based off the bittering addition.

- It seems more like that I need to make adjustments based off the evaporation rate of my kettle. Is this the X section of the BIABacus? I'm not sure how I calculate the kettle efficiency adjustment to put there however. Is that based off of your VIF actual vs expected?

- For measuring the GAW, I took my sample after flameout and it having rested for about 5-10 minutes. Then I moved my kettle to my bathroom where I was able to hook up my wort chiller. I chilled the wort down to about 80 degrees and took a sample. I ended up putting the sample in the fridge to get it to 70 degrees which is about where my hydrometer is calibrated at. Is this proper procedure for GAW sampling?

Any insight from the experienced would be great. I split my yeast packet and pitched half of it into the carboy after chilling and within 24 hours it was bubbling and the krausen looked nice and healthy. Right now it's sitting in my basement at about 66-68 F and should be ready to bottle by the end of this week. It may not end up being perfect but I'm sure it'll be drinkable beer. I'm guessing the lower gravity essentially will result in a lighter body and lower abv.

I did not do a mashout. The numbers being there were a holdover from the original document and I must have forgot to remove them.

Is a mash-out pretty much required each brew with biab? Or is a recipe to recipe determination? I've read conflicting information on the subject, some recommend it and some say it's not worthwhile. It seems easy enough to do however, so I have absolutely no problems giving it a shot on my next brew day.

Is there a ball park for mash pH that I should shoot for? I didn't worry at all this time about water chemistry, but it is something I want to play with going forward.

Mad_Scientist wrote:Your two sets of efficiencies were within 3% which is good, however you should have easily gotten the 84% efficiency. It could very well be one or more things going on, water chemistry (as mentioned), some grain didn't get crushed enough, too high of a mash temperature (during some of the mash time), grain bill weight low.


You'll just have to brew again to investigate further.

MS

I did actually struggle a little bit with my mash temperture. I brewed on an electric stovetop and after about 30 minutes the temperture dipped from my target of 151 F to 149 or so. I turned the burner back on but I made a few mistakes in that I left it on too long, or set it to too high a temp. Or perhaps the problem was that I forgot that the burner keeps residual heat after turning off and I should have moved it off the burner. Whatever the case may be, my mash temp hit got up to 156 if I remember correctly for a few minutes and then took 20-30 minutes to cool back down to 151. Perhaps that's the smoking gun right there?

I was also a little concerned about the grain crush since it was only run once through the mill at my local homebrew shop. Luckily, they let you grind your own (the guy did it for me this time) so next time I'll maybe double grind them to get it finer.

Synch.... all great advice up there... you, my friend, are WAAAAAAYYYYY ahead of the game. Worrying about gravity readings and efficencies on your first brew? I was worried about not contaminating the damned batch. And remembering the damned steps... and I did an extract brew the first 7 or 8 times around. Good on you and keep trucking along.

Thanks! I wrote a checklist based off of combination of things I read from books, these forums and other internet resources to help organize my thoughts during the brew. I found it really helpful for helping me to remember when to take sample readings, when to sanitize equipment and so on and so forth.

So it sounds like next brew I need to do a better job of maintaining consistent mash temps and to try doing a mashout.

What I was thinking of doing to help with mashout temps is to move the kettle to a cooler I have after hitting strike temp and putting the grains in. That would help be a better insulator for it.