4 hour 20 minute brew day yesterday from the time I pulled my stuff out to the time it was put away and I was taking the pooch to the park. 75 minute mash, single decoction, 10 minute mash out, 90 minute boil. Now I did do a partial chill as this is a pale faux lager and I wanted to leave some trub behind, so I had to transfer vessels later in the night, oxygenate and pitch. Faux AmPils is in the can, yeast are orgying.
I am not one to brag about my brewin’ gear or the beer I make, but I will happily brag about my beer made:time spent brewing ratio!
Like I said in another post, my BIAB didn’t go so well. I missed my projected OG by 8 points resulting in like a 62% efficiency. What I don’t get is that I hit my desired volume, but somewhere along the line the conversions were just not up to snuff I guess.
It was only my second attempt, so I’ve got a lot to learn yet. And I’ll still have beer, it will a lower ABV Maibock (assuming my yeast are happy).
I try to keep some DME around in case this happens. The other option you have if you are way over (that should work on a maibock) is to just boil it down further, but then you will have less beer.
[quote=“ibeentired”]DME…
Wish I would have thought of that. With the DME I have it wouldn’t have fixed it completely, but the extra little goose would have helped.
No big deal. The yest is chugging away now, so I’m happy.[/quote]
A bit off-thread-topic, but I find it really useful to use Ray Daniel’s method of thinking about everything in terms of gravity points and BU:GU ratio.
For instance, if you are shooting to make 5.5 gallons a 1.065 IPA with 90 measured IBUS, you have:
5.5g*65 = 357.5 total gravity points
BU:GU ratio of: 1.38 (90/65)
Then lets say you are ready to start your boil and you have 7 gallons of wort at 1.046. That is 322 total gravity points, so to keep your level of hoppiness the same and not mess with your recipe, you need to find 35.5 gravity points. DME adds 45 points per pound per gallon (or 8.18 points for a 5.5 gallon batch). So for 5.5 gallons of finished beer, you need to add 4.43 pounds of DME (35.5/8.18). The other option is to continue with your 322 total gravity, figure out the new volume, and boil down to that point.
To continue with this example:
322 total gravity points, need to have an OG of 1.065
322/65 = 4.95 gallons.
So, the other option is to boil down until you reach 4.95 gallons, then your OG will be appropriate and the balance of your beer won’t change. Now you may have some kettle carmelization and things like that, but unless this is a super-pale beer or one where melanoidins/carmelized flavors are REALLY inappropriate, NBD.
I feel like I had seen people type this on forums before, but I didn’t understand it until I read Designing Great Beers. Daniels lays it out way more concisely and clearly than I do.
[quote=“ibeentired”]Like I said in another post, my BIAB didn’t go so well. I missed my projected OG by 8 points resulting in like a 62% efficiency. What I don’t get is that I hit my desired volume, but somewhere along the line the conversions were just not up to snuff I guess.
It was only my second attempt, so I’ve got a lot to learn yet. And I’ll still have beer, it will a lower ABV Maibock (assuming my yeast are happy).[/quote]
I routinely hit 75% or so with my BIAB setup. That’s if I’m mashing 10-12lbs of grain or so. This weekend I brewed a big IPA with a little over 14lbs of grain and only got to 65%. Sometimes you just have to learn your system’s limitations and either live with it or account for it in another way. I estimated 70% before this brew day, but knew I was being overly optimistic. In the end I’m not worried. I’m sure the beer will still be good and the lower OG just means the beer will be better sooner!
That batch was a little over 2 gallons. When working with a small setup, there are some tradeoffs for yield vs. gravity in really big brews.
[quote=“Shadetree”][quote=“Beersk”]But this throws the whole pH thing into question, does it not? Like steeping a pound of crystal malt in full volume wort. If one were to mash with a 4qt per lb ratio, let’s say, this would extract tannins, yes?
Unless I suppose you knew how to adjust the pH accordingly…I suppose that’s probably not that huge of a deal.[/quote]The increased water:grain ratio is just another factor to adjust for - thin mash pH needs to be checked just like any other mash but it’s not inherently a problem and it might actually help depending on the source water and the grist.[/quote]
Yep, Brun’water works just as well for No sparge & dilute mashes as it does for traditional ones. Just imagine as if your strike water and sparge water are all combined into a single infusion.
I did a pale ale yesterday, 2.5 gallon batch, and hit 77% efficiency. OG was 1.058 with 5lbs of grain. Did a full volume mash with 15 quarts of water in my 5 gallon kettle. Worked out pretty good. I kept the electric burner on low for the mash and it balanced out the heat loss from the uninsulated kettle; stayed at 150F for the 75 minute mash (with stirring every 10 minutes or so). The only thing I don’t like about it is the wort is cloudy. This is my 4th go at brew in a bag, so I’ve seen it before…just a thing I don’t care for. But it’s no big deal, I don’t think.
Are you saying you have cloudy wort preboil, or post chilling? I guess I never paid that close attention to preboil wort clarity with my BIAB, but I got pretty clear wort in the fermentor with the helles I brewed this weekend. I do use whirlflock, which I finds makes a ton of cold break. I have started letting the break settle out in a carboy, then racking to a new carboy before pitching. I know I risk infectiong with every transfer, but it’s six of one half dozen of the other. Either I have less break material in the fermentor, or risk an infection…knock on wood, haven’t had an infection yet.
I have started letting the break settle out in a carboy, then racking to a new carboy before pitching. I know I risk infectiong with every transfer, but it’s six of one half dozen of the other. Either I have less break material in the fermentor, or risk an infection…knock on wood, haven’t had an infection yet.[/quote]
This is a great move that I have done on my last 10 batches or so. Haven’t had an infection yet (knock wood), but I think if you have good sanitation and cleaning processes (an Oxyclean soak is usually a good idea for at least an hour, maybe during the boil), this is a great practice.
One thing I have found, is if I am doing a ‘decant-after-chill’ is I need to have about 6 gallons of wort in the ‘first’ fermentor/clarifying/chilling vessel, as (especially with hoppier beers) can easily lose 1+ gallons to trub/hop matter left behind.
I have started letting the break settle out in a carboy, then racking to a new carboy before pitching. I know I risk infectiong with every transfer, but it’s six of one half dozen of the other. Either I have less break material in the fermentor, or risk an infection…knock on wood, haven’t had an infection yet.[/quote]
This is a great move that I have done on my last 10 batches or so. Haven’t had an infection yet (knock wood), but I think if you have good sanitation and cleaning processes (an Oxyclean soak is usually a good idea for at least an hour, maybe during the boil), this is a great practice.
One thing I have found, is if I am doing a ‘decant-after-chill’ is I need to have about 6 gallons of wort in the ‘first’ fermentor/clarifying/chilling vessel, as (especially with hoppier beers) can easily lose 1+ gallons to trub/hop matter left behind.
See, all that takes the joy out of the simplicity of brew in a bag. It might’ve been cloudy this past batch because I used Maris Otter and for some reason, this bag of malt I got produces wickedly cloudy beers and needs finings to clear it up. But I’ll see how it goes. I like the simplicity and ease of brew in a bag out of the 4 batches I’ve done, but I’m not seeing much benefit over my simple cooler set up.
I think the issue comes about with higher-gravity brews. I tried to mash a 1.080 IIPA that came out @ 1.065. Maybe that can be fixed by a 90-minute mash though (I also think I may have skipped my mash out on that batch).
I have started letting the break settle out in a carboy, then racking to a new carboy before pitching. I know I risk infectiong with every transfer, but it’s six of one half dozen of the other. Either I have less break material in the fermentor, or risk an infection…knock on wood, haven’t had an infection yet.[/quote]
This is a great move that I have done on my last 10 batches or so. Haven’t had an infection yet (knock wood), but I think if you have good sanitation and cleaning processes (an Oxyclean soak is usually a good idea for at least an hour, maybe during the boil), this is a great practice.
One thing I have found, is if I am doing a ‘decant-after-chill’ is I need to have about 6 gallons of wort in the ‘first’ fermentor/clarifying/chilling vessel, as (especially with hoppier beers) can easily lose 1+ gallons to trub/hop matter left behind.[/quote]
I noticed that as well. Makes you cringe a little about the amount of break etc we usually miss. I’m not saying it is enough to ruin the beer, but at least one of those little differences that help put it over the top.
I guess I see it as more of a shifting of simplicity. Let it settle in a carboy and rack later on brew day(or even next day if pressed for time), or mess around with finings on another day. About the same amount of work/tinkering around, just done at different times.
I BIAB because I don’t want to invested the money and storage space in separate mash/lauter tun.
[quote=“Pietro”]I think the issue comes about with higher-gravity brews. I tried to mash a 1.080 IIPA that came out @ 1.065. Maybe that can be fixed by a 90-minute mash though (I also think I may have skipped my mash out on that batch).[/quote]There should be no difference between bags and coolers given similar mash routines; in fact, given that you can powder the grain using a bag with no fear of a stuck sparge, you ought to see a higher efficiency. If you’re getting lower than expected OGs using a bag, I would look at your sparge and how you’re extracting the wort from the grain as likely culprits.
I BIAB because I don’t want to invested the money and storage space in separate mash/lauter tun.[/quote]
This. This and the fact that I did a premium bitter today in 3 hours, 45 minutes and got to 84% efficiency. Boom.
Now, if I had a garage or a place bigger than 950sqft, I would probably have a cooler mash tun so I could easily brew huge beers every now and then. But I have to say as the father of this thread that BIAB is pretty awesome.
Back to the comment someone made on pH. I’ve not had pH issues doing normal mashing. The grains bring the pH down close to where I want it. But, (I’ve only just done my first BIAB) my pH was quite high… it was 6.4 and I didn’t catch this until late in the mash… grrrr. So there seems to be a pretty big difference with BIAB.
Thoughts? If there is such a big difference… 7.0 to 6.4, should I try to bring the pH down to, say , 6 in my strike water and then do a small adjustment with either some dark grains or acids?
Doing my first BIAB tonight. Irish red only about 9 lbs of grain. I think I got a pretty good crush from NB. I have a 9 gal pot and usually need about 6.6 gallons preboil extract to get 5.25 in the fermenter. Since I’m not adding liquid in the form of extract I’ll need more preboil right? Should I be able to fit 2 qts per lb with the grain in my pot for the mash? Seems I should. Then I can sparge with the balance to get my preboil volume right? I figured I’d do a mash out then drop the bag in a bucket of preheated sparge water stir then pull squeeze and top off.
I have concerns about ph and alkaline water but I’ll address those after I get my process down
grrrr. So there seems to be a pretty big difference with BIAB.