All,

So I finished my second brew and it smells great, my converted chest freezer/fermentor control is now full. I'm making beer and am quite happy with it.

That said. I think that my second brew has highlighted some areas that I'm screwing up. I have attached my filled out Biabacus file for the second brew -- a quick look should highlight deficiencies pretty quickly (for what it's worth this recipe is a recipe "without integrity" for Bell's Two Hearted Ale -- I did what I could to give it some integrity and we'll see how it turns out -- it's namesake is a tasty treat indeed).

Some of these may be process errors and some of these may be math/measuring/expectation errors. I don't know how to get help w/ potential process errors w/o posting the process, so here goes:

- My grain was pre-crushed from a mail order place -- I asked them to run it through twice, not sure if they did, if/when I have my own grain mill i would have crushed it more than it was.
- I heated my water to 156F (learning from last time when i struck too high and it didn't want to come down) -- 8.7 Gal of cold water per Biabacus
- Then set the PID to 150F
- I mashed in by stirring in about 2 lbs at a time, it took around 8 mins for 13 lbs of grain
- I put the lid mostly on and let it set -- setting my pig timer for 90 mins.
- I stirred every 20 mins or so for about 2 mins, ensuring that i got down to the bottom of my bag, etc (I don't know what a doughball is, but i don't think i had any)
- At 90 mins I raised the temp to 172 for 1 min for a mashout.
- After a minute I pulled the bag up w/ a skyhook and spun it up tight - I put on my fancy heat resistant gloves and squooze as much as I could, I do not feel like I got ALL the water out of the grain, it seemed like with that much grain it just wasn't going to happen. I squooze it until it seemed it was getting silly and called it good.
- I took a gravity reading -- 1.043 after temp adjustment (let it cool further and it could have been 1.044 - doesn't seem like you can get a very accurate reading off the hydro i have)
- I did some quick math and realized something wasn't right. Given that size grain bill I thought that it was going to be higher, I did realize that I wasn't going to hit my desired OG from here -- but then I guessed at what my FG would be, decided I could still get about 6.something% ABV and that that would be close. I realized I was putting down new train tracks here but couldn't come up w/ a better plan, beer would still be made. I boldly pressed forward.
- OF NOTE!: I have two thermometers -- one is the PID RTD probe and that seems to read 6 deg lower than the clip on pot style thermometer. I basically tried to split the difference on these for temps. I really tried to keep the mash temp at actual 150 as best I could. But I couldn't swear that happened. I have a third thermo on the way and will solve this piece.
- When I pulled the bag and squooze I ended up w/ a pre-boil volume of 8 Gallons. This is a little high according to Biabacus. Hmmm.
- I tried to correct the high pre-boil volume with a very vigorous 90 minute boil. I got it down to 6 Gal after 90 mins
- I let it cool for 10/15 mins - then threw it in the cube. I ended up w/ like 5.5 Gals in the cube
- 1.056 hot and adjusted ---- once it cooled it looked more like 1.058

SO. Seems like my volumes are off a bit and that my conversion wasn't great (I barely understand what I'm saying there). Things I am thinking of mucking with:

- "More" of a mashout -- while the Biabacus says 1 min it seems that 10 mins wouldn't be crazy.
- getting my own mill and grinding a finer crush
- maybe figure out a way to let the bag drip into the mash for the first 20 mins of the boil

I do realize that efficiency is going to suffer w/ higher OG beers w/ the BIAB method -- but I'm pretty sure that's accounted for in the Biabacus (now that I say that i'm not so sure... we're assuming 80% conversion on all grains? and i didn't input my grains specifically so... brain hurts now, need beer).

Other thoughts? Clearly 56% efficiency is fixable?

Other things went well w/ this brew -- my RWStarter with the 1056 went beserk, I have krausen all up in my blowoff tube; I actually TOOK the pre-boil hydro, i didn't mash quite as high as my first brew, etc.

Kegs should be here soon -- can't wait to drink some of this!

Thanks!
Flip Flop Life

Ok -- good info -- so you're ramping up to mash out temps -- leaving it 15 mins -- then pulling the bag.

that sounds like a significantly better way to get the "last of the sugars" ...

What about your crush? I wish I had taken a picture of mine, while there was some "flour" in it, all in all it didn't really look crushed to the extent that the BIAB method should afford (?)