Dreadpiratewes - Relax, you will get beer. Congratulations on getting through your first brew.

1) Yes, the BIABacus is terrific for lots of reasons.
2) You wanted a 90 minute mash @ 152 ºF according to the recipe you were following, but experienced falling Mash Temperature due to wind and maybe a need for kettle insulation. 147 ºF after 20 min. isn't too bad, even assuming that you had measured the Temp after dough-in and stirring just before you covered your kettle. At that point (and others) you could have stirred the grist gently and applied heat to get back to 152 ºF while keeping the bag off of the kettle bottom (to avoid melting the bag). Your Temp. continued dropping over the remaining 70 min. to levels that are not optimal but the mash will still have extracted and converted sugars. It is probably why your Gravity Into Boil (GIB) is low but not horribly so. If you read elsewhere about mash times and temperatures you will see some strange theories but they manage to get beer - Pilsners most often. Next time you brew, use some kind of wrap around all but the kettle bottom after the flame is out. Check the Temp. @ 30 min, remove the wrapping and stir gently while heating back to target if the Temp. has dropped >5 ºF (~3 ºC). You get to choose how often you check and whether or not you re-heat based on experience. Next brew day, you'll have twice as much experience! I check once at 45 min. and stir. The old down comforter I use for insulation works well. Efficiency numbers are reference points for you to use making comparisons among your various batches. Do not get hung up on them, please.
3) Taking an aliquot of wort for starter sounds good. It does have an effect on GIB / VIB / VFO and VIF numbers that cancel one another out so keep that in mind. You will be able to make comparisons when you use this technique, but if you make a starter some other way, numbers will vary.
4) Mash-out temperature is always higher than mash temperature. It is inherently on the curve towards boiling. Among the reasons for "mash-out" is to lower the viscosity of the wort to improve drainage from the bag. Notice that the full bag is still immersed while heating to mash-out target. Do not melt the bag on the kettle bottom and do not heat the wet grains to a temperature where those dreaded tannins become extractible.There is an upper limit to mash-out temperature. I only do it when I have >30% rye malt in the grist. Otherwise, I pull the bag @ 90 min and heat to boil.
5) Boil-over occurs as heat is applied during the slice of time when liquid is changing to gas and proteins are precipitating simultaneously. The newly formed solid particles provide nucleation sites for gas bubbles and they all head for the surface at once. Turn the heat down immediately, but expect a repeat when you turn it on again. I have a stainless stirrer that reaches the kettle bottom. As the temperature approaches boiling, I slowly scrape the kettle bottom and rarely have any foaming problem. You cannot look away for an instant doing this. Stop when the boil is constant and continue to watch for foaming for a full minute.
6) I use a hop sock wrapped with copper wire to keep it closed and the wire is long enough to wrap a kettle handle for retrieval. It can be tricky to open it and charge more hops later, but it works.

Hope for a less windy day, and good luck.

Thanks @Dreadpiratewes for the great read and congrats on your maiden voyage. Also, thanks to @ShorePoints for his always excellent answers.

Dreadpiratewes wrote: ↑

5 years ago

I'm trying to figure out how to attach the BIABacus file but keep getting a "file too large" error.

This worries me Pirate. I just did a test post and attached a BIABacus file with no problems. I think the first things to check are that the extension on the file is .xls (although .ods will do). Also check the file size of the BIABcus file you are uplaoding. It should be less than 500KB.

Be nice to see you being able to upload your file correctly.

Congrats again ,
PP

Hello @Dreadpiratewes,

Good job filling it out! For the most part it looks really good. A couple things I noticed...

Section D, for BCS Book recipes we put the VAW @ 21.77 Liters / 5.75 gallons.

And fermentation time, think you had 10 days plus d-rest, which may be a tad low for a lager. Normally I’m 14 days for a lager.

Used my iPhone to review, so is possible something else was missed that I didn’t catch. But looks like you are getting the hang of it. Sounds like you are fermenting it right now. Good job!

I’ve never used the quick lager method, and about 2/3 my brews are lagers... Brülosophy blog says the quick lager method - think they said they could not taste difference in outcome... Perhaps I will try in the future if need to quicker open up the fermentation chamber for another brew.

Sounds like even un-carbonated, the taste is good. Congratulations!

Hi Tony,

I don’t know what the Munich Madness recipe is? Which brew...?

Good job. Love doing experiments (Brewing one now as well...)! Let us know what you think, for certain.

Thanks,
Scott

Thanks Tony. I have the BCS book. It’s my most used brewing book with well worn, dog eared looking pages. For me getting what style it is helps find what you are doing a lot quicker. May not have memorized the recipe name so if we also have the style it helps connect the dots quicker.

No Belgian Styles. But all that I’ve brewed from that book have been very solid recipes, so it’s probably good...