First BIAB In Fermenter

This took me WAYYYYY longer than I had planned. Probably because it was my first AG and first BIAB.. I should have known.

There were a couple of errors along the way. First, I forgot to take my pH reading 15 minutes in as I had planned.. I was playing with the mash temperature.. having difficulty keeping it at 152*F/67*C... I'll have to work on that. But, I'm brewing a 2.5G batch in a 10G pot.. lots of surface are to suck away heat.. Next time I'll try to get it in place and wrap the pot in the thing you put in a car window to keep the sun and heat out.. along with a sleeping bag.. maybe that'll work better next time. I tasted the wort and it is a bit astringent.. So much for delaying the pH reading. I put about 4 ml of Lactic Acid in and it corrected it.

The other thing that went wrong.. but will be OK is I should have worked out my bitterness based on the hops I had. I had some that were 5.4% and some that were 6.4%. The IBU's are higher.. but, I like bitter beers.. after all, I'm a West Coaster.

Surprisingly, I hit my numbers almost exactly as you will see in the revised BIABacus. All in all it was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again.. but, I have a ton of beer to drink first. The next one I do will hopefully be a Kolsch. Getting ready for summer

Thanks to all who put up with both my lack of understanding and my verbosity.

BTW, if something looks amiss with the revised .xls file.. please let me know.

BiABacus PR1.3 HopSongAPA- 1a.xls

ADMIN NOTE: BIABacus Pre-Release files can usually only be posted in this thread. Please note that HbgBill has obtained permission to post the file here.

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Nice work Bill ,

With full-volume BIAB, one thing you can do is adjust your pH before you mash in as the grain itself has a much lower effect on pH than in traditional brewing due to the much higher high amount of water use in the mash. If you are worried about trying this, just make your water a little higher in pH and then do any further adjustment after you mash in.

You've done really well. The smaller the batch size, the harder it can be to control things such as temp.

Great to see you managed time to record a few numbers as well. With a couple more brews, you will be able to see if any patterns develop and make adjustments to the default BIABacus settings if needs be.

On this brew, you scored less wort than estimated but at a higher gravity. Overall, your 'Efficiency into Kettle (EIK)' was also higher than predicted. If possible, take another reading to confirm the 1.065 and then use Section N to work out how much water to add to dilute it back to 1.058. Or, you can just leave it as is - no major worries though whether you do or don't.

Congrats again Bill ,
PP

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I'll have to visit one of these days. We have a brewery about an hour away on the way to Sacramento.

I usually use RO water.. but, this time, I did a test boil a few days prior to my brew day. I decided to keep the water and use it. I had talked to a brewer friend who works for Bear Republic Brewery here in town. (Racer 5 etc). He said that's what they do rather than the expense of RO.. as RO uses a ton of water to make a gallon. Beings we don't have unlimited water here in N.Cal.. we not only pay good money for the water.. but for every gallon we use.. the sewer rates climb with it. So, I just buy it. Anyhow, they boil ahead of time and let it cool which precipitates the temporary hardness out of the water.. I did that and siphoned a couple of days later and used 4 gallons of that tap water an only used part of another gallon for the brew. I use the RO water mainly for my StarSan. It doesn't immediately turn cloudy with RO.. which is a good thing

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Good job Bill!

I don't understand what happened that you got a 1.065 OG with only a .44L difference (loss) in the EOBV-A target, but oh well, enjoy my friend.

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Me either.. but, it was #1. Could it be that being it was #1 that I put what was in EOBV-A (K) into EOBV-A (D) and I need to do an adjustment for the next go? We'll see what happens on the next round. I MAY try the same recipe with two hop varieties .. but, that should not make any diff for the numbers. I have so much beer in the pipeline.. unless this turns out to be a dumper.. It'll be awhile before the next brewing session... but, I have to get rid of some of the 5 gal batches first.. or bottle some and give to friends.

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Well, just a couple of comments: I cold crashed my beer for three days and it was still cloudier than ANY beer I have made to date. That said, the FG was 1.016 from 1.065.

The beer tastes wonderful. Slight grapefruit taste and a nice floral aroma. All in all, I think this was/is a success.

M_S... I don't know the answer to your comment.. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my learning curve on Biabacus..

I think this beer should go pretty fast.. however, I'm going to let it sit under pressure for another week or two before drinking any more. Maybe it will clear up some more. Also, I guess I could have let it cold crash another few days before kegging.. but, it can do the same thing in the keg.

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Hey BB.. Well, as I mentioned, this is the first beer I've had in recent years with this haze.. usually, everything eventually settles out.. however, with hoppy ales, I'd rather not let them sit too long so I can enjoy all the hoppy goodness I can get.. before it starts to fade. YEARS AGO.. as in the early 60's.. before we had a lot of the goodies like Clarity-Ferm.. I had some issues with chill haze and used Knox Gelatin.. it worked quite well.. gathering the various proteins and settling them out. I did that in a secondary. Didn't keg back then.. but the bottled beer turned out much better.

Also, as mentioned in my posts above, I didn't do my pH testing until well into the mash.. I got a bit flustered doing "new things" and trying too hard to maintain my mash temps.. I have different plans for my next batch.

This one is definitely a drinker tho.. tastes great.

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I would just let it go as is. The first pull should get the most of it around the tube. That first glass or two may have something at the bottom, if you let it set for ten minutes, I am guessing. RDWHAHB...

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Bill, I’m with MS. If it really is a problem do something next time. You’re fussing again I get all kinds of slodge in my keg, the dip tube goes all the way down through it into the little well at the bottom, and after 2 weeks the beer is crystal clear. I hate that! It looks like commercial beer. I shouldn’t really say anything as you have tonnes more experience than me, but the fussing is making me feel anxious (I’m a type A too). I’m trying to relax here with my hobby dammit!

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GR.. How in the heck did you pick up on me being a Type-A.. Thought I did a good job of covering it up

Actually, it really isn't a big deal.. but, no reason I can't try to learn something new with this brew. I don't think a flavor or other will be changed. If it works.. I've learned about fining in a keg vs primary/secondary. If not.. I'll drink it anyway.

Yeah.. I get some sludge at the bottom every keg.. but they usually not much more than a couple of tablespoons.. is that about 30 ml? I think this one will be about half a cup/ ~120ml. We'll see what tomorrow brings.. guess I could heat the water slowly and dissolve till clear.. cover and add tomorrow.

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Hey folks.. I've been pretty inactive since my last post.. NO brewing.. but poured for a great beer festival.. Again, I poured for Lost Coast Brewery out of Eureka, CA. Love their beers.. We poured three beers and two won best of category.. yea...

I'm getting ready to brew another small batch before I head out to visit my son in AZ next week.. when I get home, I'll have one day to get ready for AHA's Big Brew. My bud's and I will be brewing an AG Blonde (Belgian Pale Ale) per the recipe on their website. We hope to have a lot of newbies there to learn how to brew beer. We'll, of course, have homebrew, food, a band for a couple of hours.. and.. a demo by 5-6 teams on making beer. According to the AHA website we have a couple choices.. and either can be done with extract or AG... FUN.

Now, on to Hop Song APA.. I've decided to call it "Hop Tu It" I'll see if there is a way to post my new label below. As mentioned earlier, I was concerned because it had to be the cloudiest beer I've ever made. Possibly because I did a pretty fine crush.. not a lot of flour.. just quite fine. Well, I've let the beer sit after a few early on tastes. Initially it was cloudy.. the taste was good but seemed a bit astringent. Today, I tapped the keg again and I'm quite pleased. It's clear, the color is as expected, the aroma is not as full as I had hoped.. but, that aside, I made this beer strictly with Cascade pellet hops. What would you expect from Cascade? GRAPEFRUIT.. Well, there is a hint of grapefruit.. but, the overwhelming thing the strikes me is FLORAL with the hint of citrus. Very mild spiciness. All of the astringency has gone. It could use a bit more head.. but, I'm still experimenting with carbonation with this beer.

All in all, I am VERY pleased with this beer. Hop wise, it's a bit, shall we say.. one dimensional.. but, overall.. it's a BIG thumbs up. I'll do it again. I still have an about 3 gallons of an extract APA to drink as well as about 3+ gallons of a milk stout.. I think by the time my next batch of APA is done and ready to drink.. I'll be about out of the other two. To help, I'm going to bottle a few 6 packs of both to bring to AZ for my beer drinking son and his girlfriend who is learning to drink beer.

I have one more experiment with the APA (AG).. Son's girlfriend, who among other things, demonstrates flavored vodka's.. gave me some vodkas that have 'hot' pepper as well as coffee flavoring. I'm going to start with the pepper vodka and add about a tablespoon of that to 12 oz of my new APA and see if I like it. Same with the coffee flavored. It would be better if I do a wheat beer.. but the APA is not overwhelming in any way.. so, I should be able to see what happens.

Let me know how you like the label.. if I can download it I've left the volume and ABV blank.. cuz I don't want to make a new label for each batch.. I'll hand write each in for 12 oz bottles and 500 ml bottles. ABV can change batch to batch.

OOPS, need to find a way to reduce the size before posting.

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Hi HbgBill, That sounds like a lot of fun and this: "Well, there is a hint of grapefruit.. but, the overwhelming thing the strikes me is FLORAL with the hint of citrus. Very mild spiciness," sounds definitely like the kind of tipple Guinges likes/makes. This Friday evening I've run out of my ususal beer and I’m stuck drinking this Tribute stuff that Mally got me on to Grrr (that's GR with an extra R for rage).

Fantastic labels

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Sorry Gr!

Just put the kettle on, get your coffee press out, and turn that cornish ale into something better

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Bill, I caught that label before you removed it - that was excellent . Make sure you get it back up soon! (How come you had to remove it?)

Love the name as well .

Also Bill, I somehow missed the question you asked me in Post #4, sorry. But, the way you were thinking there is right .
PP

P.S. If you have problems on the image, google image re-sizing and something should come up. The last image though appeared fine so am not sure why you had to remove it .

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The pic was removed because I deleted it from Photobucket. I posted the wrong version.. as well as being to large. Here is a new attempt.. although there will still be a couple modifications to the label.

I've had 4 labels made.. APA, IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale and Dry Irish Stout

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