Made the jump, had an interesting brewday

Brewed my first BIAB yesterday and it was interesting to say the least.

First, after finally deciding on water treatment, I hit strike temp and in went the grains–BEFORE I put in the bag! After about 10 minutes of frantic activity, my wonderful, understanding wife and I actually got the grains out of the pot, bag in, and grains BACK in. Temp came in at 150, so not bad.

Full disclosure–I’m over 50 so something as exciting as moving from extract to BIAB is way more adrenaline than I’m used to, so I’m hoping this major goof is at least understandable.

So at the end of the mash, temp was about 144, so not bad but a little low(NB’s St Paul Porter). Did a sparge dunk at about 170* for 15 minutes, then on to the boil. Post boil gravity NAILED! I was shocked. Got 5 1/2 gallons in fermentor @ 1.052.

Felt a little like the three stooges for a while there but all in all things seemed to have worked out fine.

I imagine I might end up with a little drier, more alcoholic porter than I’d like, but I guess I could always add maltodextrin or lactose to help with that.

Thanks to all you folks for the irreplaceable help I continually receive here.

Cheers,

Ron

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Way to go Frenchie!!! posts like these make me all the more excited to make the all-grain jump myself. House full of kids, and the honey-do list keep my brewing time limited. How did the BIAB compare to extract as far as time?
Prost!!! :cheers:

No major goof at all.

[quote=“Frenchie”]… but I guess I could always add maltodextrin or lactose to help with that…
[/quote]Don’t do this, you could over do it. See how this one turns one out. Mashing in hot could have denatured some of the enzymes, leaving a less fermentable wort, giving more body.

Adjust the next batch.

SOunds good to me

Since you said the magic words…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHQM4bkRgl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZRjy1cFdbE

It was a long day. I didn’t keep a close eye on time, but it was probably somewhere around 5-5 1/2 hours from start to cleanup finished.

About 30 min to heat strike water, one hour mash, 15 minute sparge, about 20 min getting to boil, one hour and 15 minute boil (overdid the sparge volume just a little), about 15 min after boil to 68* with my new homemade IC(we have well water that’s about 58* right now), then about an hour of cleanup. Whew! Hopefully I’ll get faster as I get used to the new system. Really looking forward to tasting this one. It was delicious going into the fermentor.[quote=“Glug Master”]Don’t do this, you could over do it. See how this one turns one out.

Mashing in hot could have denatured some of the enzymes, leaving a less fermentable wort, giving more body.[/quote]

This is what I’m hoping. I really don’t want to sweeten this any. I made the extract version earlier this year and added maltodextrin and a vanilla tincture at bottling and it turned out great. But I really would like to just see how this stands on its own–unless the sample at bottling is super thin.

Just watched the Stooges clips, Harpdog. Thanks, the scene in the kitchen with all the pots and the bathtub is probably real close to what I looked like yesterday! LOL

Thanks all,

Ron

Congratulations on your new adventure in brewing. I’m always glad to see one of us older guys make that kind of move. I’m one of the older guys (72) that have gave the idea plenty of thought to changing but never have. I have been a extract brewer since 2002 and I’m more than happy with I brew. My biggest thing with changing was I never really had the room for storing the extra equipment.

Again, congratulations and good luck with new adventure
Jazzman

Thanks for the encouragement, Jazzman. The great thing about BIAB is that the extra equipment (for me a coil chiller and a bag) is minimal.

Congrats on your clean bill of health–always good to hear of someone overcoming the big C. Brew on!

:cheers:

Ron

Well done, Ron. It’s great seeing another brewer try out this excellent mashing technique that I have come to love and use almost exclusively.

[quote=“Frenchie”]Brewed my first BIAB yesterday and it was interesting to say the least.

Full disclosure–I’m over 50 so something as exciting as moving from extract to BIAB is way more adrenaline than I’m used to, so I’m hoping this major goof is at least understandable.

Thanks to all you folks for the irreplaceable help I continually receive here.

Cheers,

Ron[/quote]
Oh Frenchie, don’t blame the age, 50 is the new 30… blame 1st time jitters. :cheers:

congrats on your first BIA----oh crap I forgot the bag!

:cheers:

Yep. Should have written a game plan down to follow. I was like a kid with a new toy.

My EXACT words as the last of the grains fell into the kettle!

Follow up:

After 1 week, SG is 1.010 and the taste is very good. Still getting airlock activity (barely) so it is going a little lower than any extract porter or stout I have done before.

Thanks and cheers,

Ron

As you know, this is a pastime where sometimes, the only way to know what you don’t know, is to make the mistakes!

I feel bad, a fellow beer nerd just made the jump to START brewing. I have been pretty busy with my 2 month old, so couldn’t really arrange a day to be over there to walk him through the whole process, though I did get over for a few. Some major missteps (amount of strike water, bag not big enough, husks in boil), but sometimes you need to make the mistakes to realize they can be made.

BIAB is seriously great. I had bagbrewer.com sew me a bag, which he customized based on my kettle dimensions. Great guy, SUPER strong bag, and it has really nice handles sewn in, which are surprisingly handy.

Frenchie,

Upon reading your post I’m going to make the following bold prediction…

I bet you’re a Human-Being.

I can tell because from what I’ve observed in my 55+ years is that Human-Beings make mistakes. But the amazing thing is that they learn from those mistakes and carry on.

I’ve gone from HME “brewing” to extract brewing to partial mash/extract brewing and now I’m doing BIAB. My beers have gotten better with each step. And, yes, my first attempt at it was fraught with mistakes. But the beer still turned out good enough for me to want to continue and, while I’m still tweaking my process, I’m not ever looking back.

I’ll just say congrats on the move and for being open minded enough to continue even though things were not perfect. Your beer will be fine and the next adventure will be right around the corner. Nobody is perfect but at least the HOBBY is pretty much forgiving for the most part.

Keep your chin up and get the next batch brewing…!!! :cheers:

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. I definitely won’t be looking back. This is just way too much fun. Where else can you do biology, chemistry, and physics experiments, and your reward is BEER! What a great hobby!

:cheers:

Ron

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Thanks for the write up
that does it…I am jumping in on the BIABandwagon… :smiley:

I finally decided to do BIAB because I’ve gotten to the point where I can really taste that “extract twang” that I’ve heard others talk about. I know there are many on this forum who make great extract beer, but I just felt like after 40 or so batches that I had done all I could do with extract, and I knew mine could be better. I’ve got a good system as far as boil, cooling, temp control, etc, but I was still getting beers that were just slightly watery and twangy. For me, at least, I think this is a step in the right direction. And all I had to do was get a bag and a chiller. No other new equipment.

Always looking for better beer!

Cheers,

Ron

This was a great read. I can tell you that I went to the mash tun before going BIAB. I have now done 4 BIAB and I do not think I will be going back to the mash tun. It is much easier but the bag can get heavy with 12 to 14 pounds of grain in it wet. I will have to work out a pully system I think. A friend of mine brews with me and he is doing partial grain on the same day I brew. He may make the jump to all grain with the purchase of a bag. That is the cheapest move for equipment I have seen and the quality goes up for very little investment.

Cheers,

Greg

Greg,

You’re right about the weight. Even with 10 lbs of grain, mine was heavy. I placed a step ladder over my kettle, placed a slat of wood across two rungs at the right height, and hung the bag on the slat over the kettle with a quick clamp while I drained and squeezed the bag. Worked great and cost me zero. But, a pulley system would be cool, and probably not cost too much.

I’ve seen a video (I think on youtube) with the guys from Australia who supposedly came up with the BIAB idea. I think they were doing a 10 gal batch, and if I remember correctly they had a pulley and rope system of some kind. As long as the bag is strong enough, I’m sure any size homebrew batch is possible with BIAB.

Cheers,

Ron

I do three gallon batches for now so usually the weight of the grain isn’t a big deal. But I went to a kitchen specialty store and bought a large stainless steel colander/ strainer. It sits right on top of my brew kettle. Then I can pull out the grain bag at the end of the mash, set it in the colander and set the colander over the brew kettle and let the wort drain out of the grain bag. Also works great for doing a sparge.