My first BIAB - AM/MO SMaSH

HIya, thought i would post my first BIAB brew. I have previously made a brooklyn brew shop beer, but have no other brewing experience.

I decided to brew 1 gallon of a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) version of the ‘standard’ All Amarillo APA. (I know strictly speaking it should be called Mo/Am, but AMMO sounds cooler)

Although my glass demijohn holds 3.78L, I decided to aim at 4L. This meant using;

7.92L water, (5.92L at the start, and 2L added before the boil)
1160g Maris Otter Malt grain
23g Amarillo Hops. These were added as follows
6g @ 75mins
8g @ 20 mins
9G @ 5 mins

My Pot is 25cm wide by 18cm deep, and holds about 8.8L

I started off by adding 5.92L to the pot and heated it to the strike temp of 70C. I then ‘fitted’ my ‘bag’ – essentially a round piece of Voile which I kept in place with a bungee chord.

I added my grain, gave it a stir, and took the temp (66C) Then put the lid on and covered the pot with an insulated cool bag (that I had previously warmed by leaving a hot water bottle inside for ½ hour) The bag fitted perfectly and it worked BRILLIANTLY - I only lost a couple of degrees in 90 mins (although it could be that my thermometer/eyes are a bit rubbish)

Unfortunately when I came to mash out, the pot was positioned over the large wok burner which licked up the side of the pot and singed the voile/stuck it to the side of the pot – lol (Lesson learnt for next time – If you are going for a very simple bag, don’t have too much material hanging over the side!!)

Consequently, I didn’t mash out! – I decided to cut my losses and ‘pulled the bag’. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I found it really easy – I just gathered it all up, twisted it round and gave it a squeeze.

At this point I was meant to add 2L of bottled water, but in the end I only added about 1.3L, the pot seemed full enough, and I was pleased with how much wort I had collected. Not sure what effect using less water will have?

I boiled for 75 minutes, adding the hops at 75mins, 20mins & 5mins, and also crushed a protofloc tablet and added 1/10 of the powder at 10mins. I re-used my bag as a hop bag, and clipped it to the side of the pot – it worked OK to a point, but I would probably use something smaller/less unwieldy next time. As I was carefully removing it from the pot, it fell open and pretty much its entire contents plopped back into the pot!! Doh!

There was loads of ‘bits’ circulation through the wort as I was boiling – my understanding that this was ‘break’ and it is a good sign?

After that I move the pot into the sink, put the lid on, and added cold water & ice. The ‘cold break; wasn’t as impressive as the first time I did it (I only had 1 bag of ice, as opposed to 2 x 2KG bags) – but it seemed to do the job, and cooled it down to about 22 degrees C in about 35 minutes.

Then I stirred it to create a whirpool, and left it for another 20 minutes – which made all the crud/trub/break to settle in the middle, which meant I could siphon the clearer stuff at the edge of the pot. I found it a bit tricky holding the siphon in one hand, and the end of the tubing & sieve & funnel with the other – but got it sorted

Finally, I took a sample to take a measurement from the remaining liquid – The recipe stated 1.058. I seem to have 1.052ish?? - I genuinely don’t know if this is good or bad?

And here is it the following morning. I assume all of the gunk will sink to the bottom at some point? - Its like watching a boozy lava lamp at the moment :D

All in all, i really enjoyed making it, and it was far less stressful than messing about with sieves, extra pots etc, a la the Brooklyn Brew Shop method.

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mally wrote:Congratulations on your 1st BIAB Zymeck, well done

You mentioned you lost 6 GP (1.058 - 1.052), but what about volume? If you had more volume then that's where it has gone.

BTW, what is that "gunk", it looks like cold break to me?

Thank you

I didn't lose any volume, if anything I lost less than I expected. The BIABacus calculated that I would need to add and extra 2L before the boil, but as it happened I only added about 1.3L. I still ended up with just under 4L

As for the gunk;) yes it probably is cold break

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Thanks bob and Todd, I'm already planning the next one

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Just a quick update on this.

The beer is now bottled and labelled

I had a quick taste and it was GREAT

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porchfiddler wrote:Nice looking brew pictures, and great looking label. Do you live in Hull? I went to Trinity house school there in the seventies and was born across the river. Used to take the ferry before the humber bridge.

Hi porchfiddler, yes, I do live in Hull. Came to university here 20 years ago, and haven't quite got round to leaving

PistolPatch wrote:Hi again Zymeck . I've been enjoying reading your thread here but haven't had time to post until now .

Firstly congrats . How good is your name for the brew and your labels?

Here's a few things...

1. Smaller brews are much harder to 'hit' your figures on than large brews so you are at the hardest end of the scale.

2. Especially when starting out, stir your brew and check the mash temp several times through the brew. There is no downside to doing this apart from it costing you time.

3. Lol on the hop bag falling open...

4. I'm hoping those loads of bits 'circulating through the wort as I was boiling' were just hop debris. Break is something you will see for a short time and then it dissolves into the brew and becomes invisible.

5. The 1.058 versus 1.052 is no biggie. A single gravity measurement on one brew cannot be given much weight. You really need to take several readings to get any sort of accuracy.

6. I'm also hoping that the green lumpy bits at the top of your fermentor were just hop debris. If not, I am trying to work out what they are . Mind you, I have plastic fermentors so probably miss cool stuff like that in a fermentation . Maybe it is normal?

Good stuff and congrats again!
PP

Thanks for the advice. The good news is that I've already upgraded - I managed to get hold of one of these for next to nothing!!

It' says 20L capacity on the label, but the biabacus calculates it as over 26L - realistically what size brews would it be possible to make with it?

Natdene wrote:Those labels rock! How did u make those?

Thanks :D

I made them using photoshop.
Making the labels and setting up a fake brewery is a much fun as the actual brewing

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Thanks PP, I should have explained myself better - I guess what i mean is, Is it possible to produce a 'full sized' 23L brew, with my 20-26L(ish) boiler? Or is this just going to open a can (or should that be 'boiler full') of worms???

But anyway, I opened the last two bottles the other night (I gave the majority say to friends and family) - and heres the 'money shot;

thanks everyone for your help and support

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