2nd Biab - Dr Smurto's Golden Ale - Beginner Questions

[neo__04]

Hey all,

Thought id throw up a few questions as im still a newbie at this and have lots of unanswered questions.
Last night i dont my 2nd BIAB AG brew. It was Dr Smurto's Golden Ale. 20l brew
I followed his beersmith brewsheet as best I could.
I started with 12L, heated to 73 degrees and got a Mashin temp of 65 degrees when i wrapped up my keggle.
left for 70 mins, drained out the water via keggle tap, then had 8L boiling water added as per intructions, and gave it a stir and drained that water also. I then squeezed the grain bag into a bucket as best i could.

At this stage I ended up with 14.37 litres @ 55degrees with an SG reading of 1044.
- Does this sound ok?

I then split it into 2 x 7L boils inside for convienience, halved the hops to suit the 7L size, hopped & whirfloc as per beersmith sheet.

Now, I feel like i have lost a lot to evaporation. Cant check till tonight, but as its my 2nd AG brew im still unsure of all this. But i gladwrapped the pots overnight to cool, as per what i did with Nicks JD's AG tutorials.
Should i have done this? or should I be doing the no chill thing into a cube?

Also i hopped as per Dr Smurtos beersmith sheet, how do i adjust these for no chill?

Is gladwrapping the pots to cool overnight classified as no chill?

How many litres to people normally expect to get into the fermenter? before adding water to top up to 20L?

Sorry for all the questions, but ive done heaps of reading, and think all ive done is contradict and confuse myself.

Thanks heaps for the advice

 

[argon]

Hey all,

Thought id throw up a few questions as im still a newbie at this and have lots of unanswered questions.
Last night i dont my 2nd BIAB AG brew. It was Dr Smurto's Golden Ale

you might want go into a little more detail here mate

 

[neo__04]

Hey,

Your too quick, lol, accidently hit post somehow as i was typing.
Hopefully youll be just a quick to respond to help me out!

Cheers

 

[argon]

Hey,

Your too quick, lol, accidently hit post somehow as i was typing.
Hopefully youll be just a quick to respond to help me out!

Cheers

of course

 

[katzke]

You have a keggle, why are you messing with sparging?

BIAB is suposed to be full volume brewing so no need to add an extra step.

If you are just trying to follow the recipe add all the water they call for in the beginning. When done mashing bring to mash out temp, pull the bag and continue to raise the temp to boil.

 

[argon]

You have a keggle, why are you messing with sparging?

Yeah... what's the volume of your mash tun/kettle? If it's a keggle then it's 50L and you don't need to do all the faffing about draining it and using other vessels.

Go here for a comprehensive guide for original full volume BIAB

 

[neo__04]

hey,

thanks for the replies.

Yep its a 50L converted keg. I didnt realise i didnt need to sparge. Just assumed it was standard, as i did it it Nick JD's original tutorial to AG brewing.

So i just put in the total amount of water first up, get it to mash in temp, then put in grain, let it sit, take the bag out, strain as much water out of the bag, then start the boil?

Thx

 

[argon]

hey,

thanks for the replies.

Yep its a 50L converted keg. I didnt realise i didnt need to sparge. Just assumed it was standard, as i did it it Nick JD's original tutorial to AG brewing.

So i just put in the total amount of water first up, get it to mash in temp, then put in grain, let it sit, take the bag out, strain as much water out of the bag, then start the boil?

Thx

Yep, exactly... it's super easy when you've got volume/headspace to play with.

 

[neo__04]

awesome, you learn something new every day

Now for the other questions, With the stovetop brew i did, i just let it sit on the floor in the shed with lid on and gladwrapped then i siphoned the good stuff into a fermenter and topped with water up to 20L.. If im using my keggle, after the boils finished.... Never no chilled properly before, do u suggest i buy some cubes for this? Is that the best way,
or am i suppose to invest in a chiller with the copper piping etc?

Thanks heaps, this forum is awesome

 

[argon]

awesome, you learn something new every day

Now for the other questions, With the stovetop brew i did, i just let it sit on the floor in the shed with lid on and gladwrapped then i siphoned the good stuff into a fermenter and topped with water up to 20L.. If im using my keggle, after the boils finished.... Never no chilled properly before, do u suggest i buy some cubes for this? Is that the best way,
or am i suppose to invest in a chiller with the copper piping etc?

Thanks heaps, this forum is awesome

Have a read here and here

I have 5 or 6 cubes and love the flexibility that cubes give me. I can brew when i have the time. Then ferment as necessary. Sometimes i have 4 or 5 cubes waiting. As long as you understand the issues associated with No Chilling and adjust as you see fit, you can whack out some really good beers.

Full volume BIAB and No Chill is devil's work h34r: so simple yet so effective.

 

[neo__04]

argon, you are a wealth of knowledge. Very much appreciated. Just ducked to bunngings to buy a cube for tonights brew

Also while were on a roll, do you or anyone else have any advice on my SG and amounts Post boil for what i listed at the top.
Just dont know what im suppose to expect.

Thanks heaps!

 

[argon]

Once you've got your process down you should be able to get efficiencies in the range of 65-80% which is fairly typical for full volume biab. I'd suggest just taking the recipes you like and do them as is. Once you know your system and taking plenty of notes you'll get an idea of what to expect.

Get yourself some brewing software like beersmith, have a play around with it over a few batches and it will work out your critical figures for you.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter what the figures end up being, so long as you can brew with predictability and consistency, you'll be able to knock out some great beers.

Cheers
A

 

[neo__04]

thanks again for the info.

I have another questions,

Just finished the Mash of a Corona style brew.
4kg pils malt.
1kg long grain rice
mash in at 66 for 60 mins.

Now i think i might have accidently added way too much water, Im using a keggle, so i put all the water in up front as per the advice above, but i just checked my SG of the wort after mash, it was 1022 at about 63 degrees.
This sounds way too low to me... If ive put in too much water, when i boil, does the water evaporate, the sugar stays and the sg rises? im hoping.. lol

Any advice, have i ruined my brew?

 

[MeLoveBeer]

If ive put in too much water, when i boil, does the water evaporate, the sugar stays and the sg rises? im hoping.. lol

Thats correct... the only problem would be if you have already added your hop additions (because it would increase your bitterness over time). I'd just boil it off until you hit your target volume (or adjust your hop additions and have a whole heap of low alc beer)

 

[boybrewer]

thanks again for the info.

I have another questions,

Just finished the Mash of a Corona style brew.
4kg pils malt.
1kg long grain rice
mash in at 66 for 60 mins.

Now i think i might have accidently added way too much water, Im using a keggle, so i put all the water in up front as per the advice above, but i just checked my SG of the wort after mash, it was 1022 at about 63 degrees.
This sounds way too low to me... If ive put in too much water, when i boil, does the water evaporate, the sugar stays and the sg rises? im hoping.. lol

Any advice, have i ruined my brew?

according to beersmith you got an OG of 1.040 . Not to shabby .

 

[neo__04]

Thank God, and all you guys.

I saw that SG reading of 1020 and almost died. lol. Well thats good to know.
Only 2ng ag brew so these are prob silly questions, but have to be asked.

2 more questions.
Any good tutorials on beersmit setup & use?
Also if a recipe says 20g Galena hops for at 60 mins, for 60 min boil. How do i adjust for no chill?

Thanks heaps everyone, ver much appreciated

 

[bignath]

according to beersmith you got an OG of 1.040 . Not to shabby .

+1 Yep.

Remember that you need to adjust to take into account the temperature of your sample reading.

I'm 3 vessel brewing and using a refractometer for readings and most of my beers give me a reading similar to this. You'll get full strength beer with a reading like that. (1.040 or thereabouts)


Re: No chill - I also no chill and have good results with it.

If it was me i'd try and keep the recipe the same as intended that way you can do a comparison later with the same recipe and maybe chill it to see how much difference it makes for you.
Some people find a massive difference in the bitterness level, some people notice no change whatsoever.
Most people will tell you to push your additions later into the boil (by around 20mins) so that a 60min addition happens FOR 40mins. So if you do a 60min boil, instead of adding them at the start, add them 20mins into the boil.

Atleast if you keep the recipe the same, you will have a steady line in the sand to compare future brews with.

For what it's worth, my house beer is a simple Nelson Sauvin single malt single hop beer. I do a 30min, 15min and flameout addition for my hops. If i was chilling, i'd go 60min, 30min, and also flameout.

Not strict to the 20min rule i know, but it works for my system and my tastebuddies.

bignath

 

[argon]

+1 for what Big Nath said. Just try a few batches exactly as you've been given them. That way you'll know what your baseline is. Subsequent batches, just adjust to your tastes/requirements... But saying that I tend to knock off 15mins for my hop additions to compensate for No Chill.

As for Beersmith, it is a little confusing at first. But after having a little play around with it, it's a very useful tool. Not sure about tutorials... just try their website I guess. For me i just fumbled my way through it and have got a fair handle on it now.

 

[boybrewer]

+1 for beersmith . I just played with it and now have a good handle on it . Down at the bottom left of the program there is a window which you can scroll through to help you .

 

[Siborg]

Beer smith is pretty simple to use. Just have a play with some recipes and go trial and error.

There are a few example recipes that you can play with.

The tools list lets you scale up/scale down brew volume, OG, colour etc. proportionally. Give it a go.