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First 2 BIAB and a batch calculator

Post #1 made 15 years ago
by CSchenk
Hey everyone, I just got done with my 2nd BIAB brew a few days ago. My first brew was a ESB and the second was an Sierra Nevada Stout clone. For both I did the maxi-brew with sparging and volume dilution at the end (thanks Ralph for the great guide). I have a 5 gal stock pot with a 30 cm bottom diameter. I can’t emphasis enough that I’m hooked. This was my first time brewing all Grain and my 3rd brew overall.

It took me a while to find voile and to sew the bag by hand, but once I got it finished I went and bought my grain. My LHBS grinded the grain for me to a nice fine grind. For the ESB I used the following grain bill.
88 oz Marris Otter
8 oz Carapils
12 oz Crystal malt 40L
12 oz Biscuit malt

For the hop schedule I used 2 oz Brewers Gold (9 AA%) for 60 min, .5 oz east kent golding (4.5 AA%) for 15 min and .5 oz east kent golding for 5 min. To cool my wort I used my immersion cooler with cold tap water. After reaching 70 F and diluting to my target OG, I pitched my 1 L starter of white lab 002 English Ale yeast. The whole brew day went really smooth and I had a yield in the mid to high 70’s.

A few days later I brewed the Sierra Nevada Stout Clone with the following Grain bill.
144 oz 2 row pale malt
48 oz Munich malt
16 oz Black patent malt (500L)
10.7 oz Crystal malt 60L

For the hops I used 2 oz Magnum (13.1 AA%) for 60 min, 1 oz cascade (5 AA%) for 20 min, 1 oz Willamette (4.7 AA%) for 5 min, and finally 1 oz of Willamette for 0 min. After cooling and diluting, I pitched a 1 L starter of White Lab 001 California Ale yeast. I did have one issue with this batch however. After I cooled wort, I had 12 L of 1.111 gravity wort. I then diluted that to 19 L, which should have resulted in a 1.070 OG. When I read the gravity of the diluted batch, I read 1.100? I’m hoping that I simply made a mistake in reading my hydrometer. I worked backwards from 1.100 and my dilutions and figured there is no way that number is physically possible. Regardless the fermenter is bubbling happily and at worst I end up with an under hopped Imperial IPA haha.

I’d really like to thank all the people that have worked on this site. I would have taken a lot longer to jump into all grain, if not for BIAB. The fact that I can get away with so little gear is awesome. When I’m done, I can literally store all of my brewing gear in my stock pot.

Finally I’d like to ask you all to look at an excel spread sheet I’ve been working on. Its designed to help me formulate recipes. It includes grain bill, dilution, hops, yeast, and water salts. The calculations are taken from John Palmer’s homebrewing book. I’ll post a blank copy of the spread sheet as well as an example one from my Stout. Thanks any feedback on it.
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Post #2 made 15 years ago
by Ralph
Great job CShenk, that's really pleasing, I'm stoked that it all seemed to work out! :clap:
When you diluted the stout, did you add the dilution water last? If so, there may have been some concentrated wort around the tap (if using a drum- style fermenter with the tap at the bottom), it may also still be stratified with the far less- dense plain water floating on top, but don't worry it will be circulating around with fermentation, that creates some convection and it will be thoroughly incorporated in no time.
I had a look at the spreadsheet, its got the elements and important details for Maxi-BIAB. None of the applications I've used actually deal with this method completely, so well done!

Big round of applause for CShenk, hey everyone! :champ:
[center]Give me a beer and I will move the world. Archimedes[/center]

Post #3 made 15 years ago
by wizard78
Congrats CShenk,
Welcome to easy world of biab, it is easy to get hooked on this hobby
Cheers wiz
[center]"All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer."
[/center]
[center]Homer Simpson[/center]
[center]K.I.S.S., B.I.A.B.[/center]

Post #4 made 15 years ago
by stux
Looks like a nifty spreadsheet :)
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #5 made 15 years ago
by CSchenk
Thanks for the feedback. Haha yea Ralph I was hoping that it wasn't completely mixed. Once I reach final gravity, I'll have a better idea of what happened. I'll keep you posted haha.

Post #6 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
CShenk, that is brilliant you jumped into all-grain on your second brew. Well done mate!

As for the confusing gravity reading, whenever you get one of those, try and get another sample. I have done quite a few brews where I have been totally confident in my reading and thought, "that's odd?," then, with a second sample, found the reading different. Theoretically this shouldn't happen but it does. Just keep writing down your figures and all will come together.

As for the spreadsheet, I'll have a good look when I get some time up my sleeve and compare it to The Calculator. The efficiency and hop formulas in The Calculator also come from formulas quoted by John Palmer. Let's hope they agree!!! It looks as though you have done some hard work there I reckon and maybe it will end up getting added to The Calculator???

Nice job CS :peace: ,
PP



Great
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Post #7 made 15 years ago
by CSchenk
Hey All,

Wanted to give you an update on my first BIAB brews. My ESB came out great! The taste and color are dead on. My only complaint is I'm getting excessive head retention. Next time I brew this recipe I'm going to cut the carapils down to 4oz, or maybe even remove it. I think the excessive head is partially due to the carbonation level as well. Regardless the beer is damn tasty and I just have to pour really slow haha.

The stout is bottle conditioning right now and should be ready next week. I decided to split the batch and add 2oz of crushed coffee to one half and let it steep for a week.

All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm already planning more batches.

CS

Post #8 made 15 years ago
by hashie
Top stuff CS, I've never used carapils, why do you think that added to excessive head?

I like what your doing with the stout, I'd love to hear how the one with coffee turns out :)
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #9 made 15 years ago
by CSchenk
Hashie,

When carapils malt is made, it is heated to 158 F while moist and held at that temperature for a couple of hours. This step converts some of the starch into sugar. The malt is then lightly kilned (1.5 Lovibond) so it doesn't effect color of your wort. The main sugar it contributes is dextrin, an unfermentable sugar, so it increases mouth feel and head retention. You can also add maltodextrin to get the same effect. From what I've read, most sources recommend using carapils as up to 5% of your grain bill. My carapils was 6.6% of my grain bill. Not a huge difference, but that with a bit of over carbonation is making for a lot of foam that stays around haha.

I'm really excited about the coffee stout too. I tried some before I bottled and the coffee flavor was great. I used a whole bean blend which had Jamaican Blue Mountain beans in it. The coffee is there but not dominating the flavor profile either. Should be interesting how it tastes once it has some carbonation in it.

Post #10 made 15 years ago
by hashie
Thanks CS. I use a small amount of Wheat malt for head retention, I don't know if it actually makes a big difference though. Some beers I've made with it have good head (not great) and some I've made without have great head. That said, I tend to think, so long as beer pours with a good head, it doesn't bother me if it dissipates before I get to the end of a pint :)

Haha the coffee stout, I'd love to try a bottle (or 2 :) ), beer that gets you an alcohol buzz while getting wired from the caffeine. What a mix :)
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #11 made 15 years ago
by stux
The Xmas Lager I made last year was a cross between a bavarian lager and heffeweizen

The head retention was amazing... it poured with a lovely head, and 90 mins later the glass would STILL have a head, and the carbonation was perfect, it just kept on working.

(an unfortunate glass was left outside by the pool)

It had legs and as you drank the beer it left an amazing belgian lace on the glass

Lager taste and bite were perfect.

The only problem was it had the typical wheat haze and was not clear, but the double batch only lasted 10 days! And it took 7 weeks to ferment, lager and condition! (3/2/2)
Last edited by stux on 30 Jan 2011, 01:52, edited 5 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #13 made 15 years ago
by stux
Don't know exactly, it was made with Full Wort Kits, which are basically commercially produced no-chill cubes ($2 deposit makes a good way to obtain no-chill cubes!)

1x Brewers Choice Lager 15L (Aug 2012)
1x Brewers Choice Hefe Weizen (Aug 2012)
2x S-23 11g (Jul 2011)

http://www.ndbrewing.com.au/index.php?p" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ction-kits

I mixed

Lager – A traditional German style Lager. Bright straw colour with a balance of malt & hop flavours. Goes great with the DCL W34/70 Lager yeast, or any of the White Labs lager yeasts.

with

Hefeweizen - A traditional German Hefeweizen. Low on hop flavours with a large percentage of locally grown wheat in the grain bill. The use of a low flocculating wheat style yeast it will create a cloudy finish, true to style

Made up to 38L, fermented with S23

OG = 1.042
FG = 1.012

Fermented at 12C for 3 weeks (no secondary)
Crash chilled to 1-2C and Lagered in primary for 2 weeks
Kegged and carbonated at 88kpa for 2 weeks at 5C (2.5 Volumes)

I haved not found a dyacetal rest to be necessary with S23
Last edited by stux on 30 Jan 2011, 02:08, edited 5 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #14 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
PistolPatch wrote:As for the spreadsheet, I'll have a good look when I get some time up my sleeve...
Sorry for taking so long to fulfil my promise CShenk. As usual I got side-tracked :roll:.

So your spreadsheet doesn't get 'lost,' I'd seriously think about starting a whole new thread on it or asking a mod to do it for you. It looks great but I have a few questions I'd like to ask. Maybe I'll wait for a day or two to see if a new thread pops up. If not, I suppose I should ask them here?

:peace:
PP

[Moderator Note: Have added link to above post that enables access to Moderators on Duty.]
Last edited by PistolPatch on 30 Jan 2011, 22:09, edited 5 times in total.
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