About to do your first BIAB? What are you finding hardest?

When I first started researching all-grain, I found a lot of information out there was confusing, contradictory or quite hard to get my head around. I remember I asked a lot of questions. Some of these in hindsight were obvious but important. Others that I thought were important at the time weren't and some of these I still haven't had a decent answer to .

It was hard though to know which questions to ask. All-grain is easy once you know what info is important and what can be ignored or advice that is is just plain wrong except in a unique situation.

When I log on here, I always see a lot of guests which must mean that there are a lot of brewers out there exploring BIAB/AG. There are also many brewers who have posted here who are about to have a crack at their first BIAB so I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where those brewers exploring or about to enter the world of all-grain could ask any questions that they personally think might be, "stupid," etc.

I can't readily think of any stupid brewing question I have seen by a new AG'er anywhere on the net as there is so much confusing information out there. I have though, seen a lot of poor, quick and/or ill-considered answers. To date, I haven't noticed any of these on BIABrewer.info so I think this is a good place to ask.

Just off the top of my head (this was before the days of BIAB) I remember getting very confused on the following...

Batch-sparging, fly-sparging and no-sparging.
Trub
Recipe calculations (especially bitterness!)
Evaporation rates, boil vigour and water volumes.
Transferring of liquids (not necessarily AG related)
Burners

Better stop now as the list would be endless!

Sure, you can create a new topic on BIABrewer.info on any of the above (many of which are in some way still very grey areas) but, if you are like me, it is often less threatening to ask a question in an existing thread rather than create a whole new one.

Doing so will also give all of us something more to talk about while we are drinking beer

PP

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Hey Widdley.

First of all, lock up the dogs.

Secondly, brew while the kids are at school. Works for me

Thirdly, stir more gently. I'm also to lazy to lift the bag, but also to lazy to stir to hard

Brewing AG BIAB is easy, once you get over the initial dauntedness. I know that's not a real word, spell checker recommended dementedness I guess they both work.

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Thanks for the interesting and also funny reads above .

SacSoul wrote:I had more trouble with temperature control than anything else on my first go...

I found out the hard way that a little bit of heat goes a long way

Hey SS ,

BIAB offers great control over mash temperature. Traditional brewing (unless with a pump) allows little or clumsy control over mash temps - it consists of pockets of quite uneven temperatures.

There are two things that can go wrong when applying heat to a BIAB mash.

1. Not stirring when applying heat or checking temperatures - Stirring whilst applying heat during the mash, is the most effective way of getting accurate mash temperatures. You have mentioned re-circulating the wort by draining it from the bottom of the kettle and adding it back. Stirring (gentle up and down agitation) with your "potato masher" type mash paddle is easier and more consistent.

2. Overshooting Mash Temperature through Radiation - What you may have also had a problem with SS is that even if you stir whilst adding heat and checking your temp, a few minutes after turning your flame off, the mash temp may then read one or two degrees higher! What's going on there!!!...

With a thick bottomed pot and/or heavy metal frames under the kettle, heat continues to radiate from these into the mash. So, what should you do?...

Firstly, you will get the hang of your equipment's radiation capacity after a few brews and know when to turn the flame off. (It's not a common problem - mainly for thick-bottomed pots, not keggles so much.)

Secondly, even if you under or overshoot 3 or 4 degrees, it is not a major drama. Traditional brews will often vary 6 degrees or more from one pocket in the mash to another.* If your thermometer is inaccurate (say 5 C out which plenty are) then you might run into problems as you will be getting way out of the ballpark.

So, in summary, make sure your thermometer is accurate at mash temperatures (check yours against other thermometers at mash temps every time you can), stir when you apply heat and/or check temperatures and finally, don't get worried that your beer will be ruined by a 2 to 3 C temperature overshoot over 10 or 15 minutes. Relax!

Cheers SS and excuse the long post,
PP

* This might be a good thing? Who has tested if an uneven mash is better than an even mash? However, commercial breweries do aim for an even temperature so it is probably best we follow suit .

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

SacSoul wrote: It was only my first BIAB batch that gave me trouble and mostly because I've never tried to maintain a non-boil temp with my pot before (i.e. I was learning how it would behave outdoors in A)high altitude, B)hot weather, C) 5-10% humidity level). My second batch went smooth as butter, and as soon as I get back from a business trip, I expect my third batch to be absolute perfection (or maybe I'll settle for good).

LOL! Glad to hear the second crack was easier. I still overshoot from time to time often for reasons I can't even work out - i.e. I have been concentrating? Weird stuff does happen .

Good luck for your business trip and your 3rd batch!
PP

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Hi Mr.c, that sounds about right, the only thing I'll caution with your calculations is the water temperature, if you did that experiment cold by adding water from a measuring jug, then when it comes time to do it properly, it may overflow with strike temp water due to the slight expansion due to heating. If you've marked 33L in the boiler, then it should be fine regardless of temperature.
In all BIABs I'd suggest pulling out a few litres into a jug before adding the grain, then add it back when you've got all the grain in there, you can also use this reserved volume to adjust mash temperature, if the mash is too hot then add cold instead and vice versa, otherwise if it is bang on temperature just add the reserved water. Take it gently with temperature fine- tuning additions, add a bit at a time, stir and measure the temperature if you're not sure of the effect you'll be getting, it is easy to overshoot, but it is a handy way of getting mash temperature spot on.

Hope this helps!

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Hi there Mr.c and welcome to the forum.

It looks like the mods are on to you . Read this post carefully and follow the links. Once this has been done, you'll be able to download The Calculator which will answer your questions above.

Your grain to ratio sounds right but I am not sure of how many litres of water your boiler holds. Knowing this will help us out.

Cheers,
PP

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Good post Dazed, if only there was a way to make it known how easy this caper is

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Yes big batch there obviously, dazed. My batches normally only require 5 kilos (about 11 pounds or so). All I can suggest is getting a BIG plastic bowl

(that's mine on the left, paid about $20 IIRC - I originally bought it as a mixing bowl to do huge bake-offs for the Mrs. art group coffee mornings), put it on a low table right next to your mashtun and then get a plastic jug such as a microwave jug and just keep scooping and pouring. I've done that a few times with my smaller grain bill when I've premixed everything at the start.

Also if you can get one of these locally, it's a great tool for doing a vigorous up and down pump once you've got all the grain in:

They are sold as paint stirrers

• • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

Good question jonesy and welcome aboard . This is a perfect thread to ask your question and on this forum there is no need to even ask us to go easy - you'll always get treated well here.

The question you are asking is quite a hard one to answer as there are so many variables. One of them is money.

I think the first step is to read this thread. It is short (doesn't even consider electric BIAB) but is a place to start.

Your biggest problem is you heating on your gas stove. You will not get enough heat to boil enough liquor to result in 20 L of beer. This means you either need to consider buying a gas burner, an electric urn or....

Have a study/read of Ralph's Maxi-BIAB thread. This requires a bit more study and a bit more uncertainty on your first few brews but will give you 20 L of great beer from your stove top which is probably exactly what you want!

Hope the above helps you and feel free to ask more questions here.

Cheers,
PP

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0

I'm not experienced with mini or maxi BIAB's but many people have done them and, from what I read, they work really well so enjoy your reading tomorrow . Without having tried them, I think there is a great upside to these methods. There are obvious disadvantages on mini-BIABs (mainly batch size) and Maxi-BIAB's require a bit more fiddling about than full-volume BIAB but the other advantages are, in many situations, by no means small. I would suspect that for many brewers, mini and maxi-BIABs would prove the ideal method of brewing in their particular situation.

The most obvious situation I can think of is the one you are in where your heat source is limited to your stove top. I was going to also say these methods are great when you are short on dollars but Ralph, who wrote the Mini and Maxi-BIAB guides, has never gone full-volume BIAB. He could afford to, he has done a ridiculous amount of brews with these methods but has never felt the need to get more equipment. I find this very interesting. I suspect, but don't know, that if he and I brewed many recipes, I would be hard picked to tell the difference or, at worst, find one better than the other.

In summary, I am pretty sure you will produce a perfect beer with Maxi-BIAB. As BIABrewer.info increases it's membership, I am sure that we will see beer swaps etc prove this to be true.

Cheers,
PP

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
  • Quote
• • • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    • 0