A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[katzke]

Thanks, I am pleased with the way it all went, but my mate who crushed my grain for me gets over 75% efficiency with his mash setup

Paul

Do they BIAB or a more traditional mash? I run my grain through the store mill 3 times to make sure all the big chunks are broken up. Why 3? Just because it worked out that way.

It also sounds like you are doing a hybrid BIAB because of your small kettle. Not saying that is a problem but it introduces more variables.

If he is a traditional masher try having your mate crush it twice and see what happens. My first brew was not as efficient as the last one so there must be a learning curve.

 

[katzke]

Congratulations Paul :icon_cheers:

There could be any number of things that went wrong and some of these might not even actually be wrong (e.g. faulty measuring equipment.) One of the silly things in brewing is that efficiency figures people talk about are not specified. Have a look at my post here and right at the bottom you will see I scored efficiencies of 83% and 53% on the same brew.

Mash efficiency is nice to know for formulating recipes. I do not get worried about mine verses others. The final post boil gravity is all that is important and then it only needs to be close. How close depends on the number.

 

[PistolPatch]

[Beware, this is a PP rant like you've never seen before!]

Totally agree katzke but try finding two brewers that even think that post-boil efficiency is the most standard measure of efficiency and the one that is used to (inaccurateley) describe brewhouse efficiency in computer programs.

Furthermore...

I ran a thread here about two years ago, asking why my efficiency was higher pre-boil than post-boil. Several subsidiary threads and a poll stemmed from this (and hundreds of posts.) People kept saying that pre-boil efficiency should theoretically equal post-boil efficiency. Since then, I have learned (from professional brewers) that this is actually not the case but being a newer brewer I believed (and therefore doubted myself) and that the majority of opinion on this forum must be right i.e pre-boil efficiency equals post-boil.

Looking over that last paragraph, I correct myself. I never did actually believe it because I went to great lengths at the time to triple-check my measurements using a variety of instruments and they all agreed.

There are a heap of myths around on efficiency and no evidence to back them up but they get handed on with great authority. There are a heap more brewers that use the term without specifying where they took their measurement (which makes their figure useless to other brewers) and we pass this myth/non-specification onto new brewers!

Someone here called me the guru, well if I'm going to be a guru, then let it be known I am the guru of seeing through the brewing myths of the way brewers talk about efficiency and the silly respect they give it and then hand that non-descript figure down to new brewers without bothering to explain what it really means and how it can be useful. I have never seen a new brewer educated well in what efficiency means, how truly useful it can be and how to report it to others.

For new brewers, efficiency is the most mis-leading term in the brewing language.

"Recipe," would be the most helpful.

The good and successful brewers I know don't worry about their efficiency. They know they are not doing anything obviously wrong and they brew great beer.

The only relevance efficiency can have to any brewer is to make sure that any major change they make to their brewing is not a bad one. With new BIABers, you are making a major change, you are brewing all-grain!!!!!

There are very few ways you can bugger BIAB up and if, on the off-chance, you have a problem, report it here.

I haven't seen one BIAB problem (efficiency or otherwise) that I or others have not been able to quickly solve. It doesn't get much better than that!

And, as a final word of advice, to new brewers, keep your eye out for posters here who post from practical experience. These are the ones you will learn from.

Oh, and seeing as I am the one who actually started this thread and sweated profusely over the original guides and still continue to do so, can we please keep advice from now on, where appropriate, coming from first-hand experience? I have no problem with brewing science but a lot of it lately has been totally off-topic to the original intentions I had of this thread and therefore often unhelpful to the new brewer, let alone the new BIAB Brewer. It has also often been presented with authority without one iota of home-brew, let alone BIAB, fact.

Hence my request for people to contribute their figures to the BIAB Brewer Register. Of course, they won't pass the most basic of scientific scrutiny but, if you are like me and like learning, then you'll contribute and you'll also know that the figures we get from there at least have some basis in reality.

[Scuse the rant but I think it is fair. I'm usually pretty sedate in this thread but enough is enough.]

 

[paulwolf350]

Congratulations Paul :icon_cheers:


I think you'll find there is actually no real problem at all so relax and look forward to a great beer.

Good on you!
Pat

yep ater reading your threads again I think you are right. I hit my pre boil target spot on @1039, corrected temp. but i second guessed it, boiled the shite out of it, then had to water it up to volume. i think my mash went fine, it was the boiling and water addition into the fermenter, that threw the figures out.

thanks, i will just have another go and see if i can nail it

Paul

 

[PistolPatch]

Glad that made some sense Paul Will look forward to hearing how you go second time around.

Just having a read of my rant last night Hope at least a little bit of that made sense. Think I did a tad too much posting last night

 

[katzke]

Well I sent a PM to Pat about a brew I was mashing at the time. Will not get into specifics of that brew but wanted to add one more advantage to BIAB.

No stuck sparges.

I am trying to get rid of a sack of raw wheat my wife does not want to mill into flour. So what else but a White beer or Wit. Problem is I have no way to crack the wheat for the mash. Ended up with a goopy mess kind of like refried beans if you have ever seen them down there. I gave up on squeezing the bag as it was kind of like squeezing butter out of mashed potatoes. I was surprised that I actually got most of the liquid out when I dumped the bag. You will have to do the conversion but I had 4.5 pounds of raw wheat, 1 pound of oats (oatmeal), and 5 pounds of 2 row barley. So for those that do not want to do the math it works out to less then 50% barley and the rest sticky stuff. A traditional masher would panic with out rice hulls.

I will say the bag was slow to drain compared to an all malt mash. It was slower then an oatmeal stout I did.

And Pat, I have not posted to the registry because I am not a scientific brewer and kind of guess at my water. For me that works but for other more detail oriented people I am sure that would drive them nuts. To be honest this last brew I forgot what the marks on my mash spoon were for so I was not sure how many gallons I had in the kettle to start. I blamed the low volume on a too long boil and topped up to get a good gravity.

I followed Thurstys advice on what the grain sucks up and adjusted as I went on what I leave in the kettle and carboy. I have found that gets me close enough. I am more worried at what the gravity is in the fermentor then what the volume is. If I am off on the volume I file it away in my head and hope I remember to adjust next time.

I guess what drove me to this method is the crummy brewing software available and the need to figure water by hand. I kind of gave up when I got close. And to be honest it kind of changes every time anyway. Like this brew was very cloudy because of all the wheat and the odd milling so I got lots of trub. And some of our American brews have lots of hops and they suck up wort.

But back to my original intent, BIAB is great. I found a brew that would take extra effort to mash traditionally.

 

[reviled]

Well I sent a PM to Pat about a brew I was mashing at the time. Will not get into specifics of that brew but wanted to add one more advantage to BIAB.

No stuck sparges.

I am trying to get rid of a sack of raw wheat my wife does not want to mill into flour. So what else but a White beer or Wit. Problem is I have no way to crack the wheat for the mash. Ended up with a goopy mess kind of like refried beans if you have ever seen them down there. I gave up on squeezing the bag as it was kind of like squeezing butter out of mashed potatoes. I was surprised that I actually got most of the liquid out when I dumped the bag. You will have to do the conversion but I had 4.5 pounds of raw wheat, 1 pound of oats (oatmeal), and 5 pounds of 2 row barley. So for those that do not want to do the math it works out to less then 50% barley and the rest sticky stuff. A traditional masher would panic with out rice hulls.

I will say the bag was slow to drain compared to an all malt mash. It was slower then an oatmeal stout I did.

And Pat, I have not posted to the registry because I am not a scientific brewer and kind of guess at my water. For me that works but for other more detail oriented people I am sure that would drive them nuts. To be honest this last brew I forgot what the marks on my mash spoon were for so I was not sure how many gallons I had in the kettle to start. I blamed the low volume on a too long boil and topped up to get a good gravity.

I followed Thursty's advice on what the grain sucks up and adjusted as I went on what I leave in the kettle and carboy. I have found that gets me close enough. I am more worried at what the gravity is in the fermentor then what the volume is. If I am off on the volume I file it away in my head and hope I remember to adjust next time.

I guess what drove me to this method is the crummy brewing software available and the need to figure water by hand. I kind of gave up when I got close. And to be honest it kind of changes every time anyway. Like this brew was very cloudy because of all the wheat and the odd milling so I got lots of trub. And some of our American brews have lots of hops and they suck up wort.

But back to my original intent, BIAB is great. I found a brew that would take extra effort to mash traditionally.

Same with the Roggenbier Was like oil running off the bag, but no effort to deal with... My mate brewed a roggen trad styles and got a stuck mash :icon_cheers:

 

[PistolPatch]

And Pat, I have not posted to the registry because I am not a scientific brewer and kind of guess at my water. For me that works but for other more detail oriented people I am sure that would drive them nuts.

That's no worries Tom. I think that for a lot of us, the more we brew, the less we worry about detailed measurements. Some people do none!

Congrats on the third place mate. I was pretty surprised to get a bronze over here recently for a beer I threw in to Royal Perth Beer Show. I only threw the beer in to get tickets to the exhibitors tasting. Finished up at 5am the following day! (The beer was a mid-strength Munich Dunkell brewed at a time when I had a mild infection from a min-ball valve I use on a fermenter.

Good to see you and reviled appreciate the advantages of no stuck sparges - they are a pain!

Looking forward to hearing how your Wit goes :icon_cheers:

 

[Katherine]

PP why under estimate your beer? It was a really nice beer. All your beers are! Even the so called infected GALAXY brew you did... Loved it... Still not talking to you tho! LOL!

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Off topic Pat - from your rant above you said that you had been told by professional brewers that efficiency pre- and post boil should not be the same. I would like to hear that explanation. Because, to be honest it sounds like BS to me. Don't want to have the discussion here, it would be massively OT, but I would appreciate a PM of the rationale though.

Back on Topic (or the recent one) - I will as usual disagree with you a bit about your efficiency rant.

I think a quick and reasonable calculation of efficiency (measured in the kettle pre or post boil) is a perfectly reasonable thing for a brewer to do. It doesn't have to be super accurate and people do, as you say, place far to much importance on it - but there are reasons people take that measurement.

Is my system working comparatively well?? -- well, a BIAB system that has all the bugs ironed out of it probably gets a kettle efficiency somewhere in the high 70 percentile range for a moderate gravity beer. If yours is getting significantly less than that ... fair chance there are still some bugs to iron out. Significantly more... maybe the way you measure stuff has some bugs that need ironing out. Worth checking.

Hey that beer is great, can I have the recipe? - you need to be able to translate recipes from other sources to your system. That means either the recipe has to be given in terms of percentages of grain in the grist - OR - if weights and volumes are given, as they are in the brewing magazines, the brewing software and most of the brewing books... you need to have an idea of your system's efficiency (and all those sources usually use efficiency measured in the kettle)

I changed this and my efficiency is averaging x% higher than before - good change!

I changed this and my efficiency is averaging y% lower than before - bad change! (maybe)

My efficiency just went through the floor.. what the hell? - something has changed... go look for it

By simply measuring gravity and volume at pre-boil - something you should be doing anyway if you ever want to be sure that you are brewing the beer you intend to brew - you get to do all of the above stuff. Knowing your efficiency (wherever you decide to measure it) is part of knowing your brewery and knowing your brewing practice. In my opinion its something that a brewer who intends to be "good" should know.

But as I said, I completely agree with Pat that many brewers place far too much importance on the actual figure they get and do silly things to try and increase it... pointless in most cases and just confuses people generally.

When you think about efficiency - think about a couple of things. Why do I need to know?? What do I need this knowledge for? What am I going to do with it? Why? - if you can answer those questions reasonably, and you should be able to - then efficiency is a useful thing for you to measure. If you cant... then refer back to Pat's rant; it is perfectly applicable to you. Oh and make sure that when you mention efficiency, or someone mentions it to you ... you know where it was measured. Or its useless to you/them at best and damaging at worst - a point where Pat and I completely agree.

TB

 

[katzke]

Back on Topic (or the recent one) - I will as usual disagree with you a bit about your efficiency rant.


TB

Mostly agree with what you wrote. Just a different way of saying it.

When I was active on some American forums I kept trying to say you can not brew 5 gallons of beer by mashing with 6 gallons of water. If they can then they are doing something different then I am. With boil off, break, and yeast cake being only allowed at one gallon they could not possibly be ending up with 5 gallons. That does not include what the hops suck up or other minor losses.

So I look at others recipes only to see what they put in and what gravity they expect.

Then I put it in my brewing software, that I have gotten to understand some of its quirks, and work it out for my system. When I brew I check the pre boil gravity to see if I am close. I then hand calculate what the post boil gravity should be as my software does not do that. The efficiency figure in the software is relative as I have no idea how they calculate it.

So what I really care about is if my gravity in the fermentor is what I expect and I can make small allowances if I check my pre boil gravity. My recipes on your system will likely give different results and so on. You all have the advantage of being able to copy other BIAB recipes. All of mine are converted from traditional mashing systems and some just say to collect so much wort. That does not sound too hard to convert but read back to how some brewers are magic and can collect less then I have left after the boil.

So bottom line do I care what my efficiency is? No I am not interested in a magic number. My number is more of an estimate and final numbers are what is important. The final numbers I am interested in are volume of packaged product, IBUs, and starting and final gravities. The recipe will have how much grain , hops, and other additions. With this I can adjust the recipe to make a close copy, close enough for home brewing.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

So bottom line do I care what my efficiency is? No I am not interested in a magic number. My number is more of an estimate and final numbers are what is important. The final numbers I am interested in are volume of packaged product, IBUs, and starting and final gravities. The recipe will have how much grain , hops, and other additions. With this I can adjust the recipe to make a close copy, close enough for home brewing.

But of course - efficiency is just one of the many tools in the chest that allow you to do that.

 

[PistolPatch]

TB,

I've got the flu and I certainly don't want to get into yet another email efficiency discussion with you - these can be pretty exhausting and circular! You constantly say that you disagree with me in many ways on efficiency issues but there is little we disagree on if anything. The only thing might be that you like taking your efficiency reading pre-boil because that is where the big brewers take it and that this should be identical to the efficiency post-boil. My problem is that my figures and some others don't agree with this commonly held assumption. I have for over two years now wanted to find if this common brewing assumption is also matched with actual figures.

This is yet another reason why I want to collect some figures. It is no use telling people that pre and post-boil efficiency is the same, if in reality, it isn't. So, instead of embarking on yet another theoretical debate, let's gather some figures.

I am not the only one who experiences a consistent drop in pre-boil and immediateley post-boil measurement and a read through this thread and this thread (done over 2 years ago and that you have read) will show that I do know how to measure

Some other links....

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/giving-bre...ser-look-79829/ Check out Post#4. This guy took some careful measurements and if you read his articles linked in Post #1, he sounds as though he knows what he is talking about and has the open-mindedness to doubt his science.

http://www.byo.com/stories/wizard/article/...iency-mr-wizard This guy also nticed a drop in efficiency during the boil but was told to go and re-check his figures as they don't match the science.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=202851 MHB, who has a brewing degree and an open mind, kindly put forward a reason for the drop in this post. (Just re-reading it now and think I interpreted it in reverse two years ago - lol - makes sense now.)

Also in that thread, you offered to do some testing as follows...

Pat,

Next time I brew my house ale, I'll make the batch a bit bigger so I have 4 litres of AG wort with which to conduct as tightly controlled an experiment as I can. I will heat it to nearly 100C and tap it off into a small no-chill. After I have finished my regular brew day, I'll geek out on the 4 litres.

-Everything calibrated from the same schot duran measuring cylinder.

-All volumes taken at the same temperature and measured by fully decanting the whole kettle into the measuring container

-All gravity samples taken to my work and run through the serious arsed desktop density meter

I still doubt if I'll be able to get any better than +/- a couple of percent, but I will do my best.

I will also go talk to the guy who runs our lab brewery (mate, I drool when I see that lab brewery, it is every hombrewers wet dream made real) and find out whether dissapearing extract is possible in his view. His whole job is to conduct mashes, boils and fermentations to 3 decimal places in accuracy and consistency. If it happens, he'll know about it and be able to tell us how to calculate it.

Doing the above would be something constructive.

As for any further debate, I'm happy to do it but only with people who take the trouble to provide me with their own figures. I have done the theoretical arguments to death

I'm going back to my flu!

Spot,
Pat

 

[Thirsty Boy]

TB,

I've got the flu and I certainly don't want to get into yet another email efficiency discussion with you - these can be pretty exhausting and circular! You constantly say that you disagree with me in many ways on efficiency issues but there is little we disagree on if anything. The only thing might be that you like taking your efficiency reading pre-boil because that is where the big brewers take it and that this should be identical to the efficiency post-boil. My problem is that my figures and some others don't agree with this commonly held assumption. I have for over two years now wanted to find if this common brewing assumption is also matched with actual figures.

This is yet another reason why I want to collect some figures. It is no use telling people that pre and post-boil efficiency is the same, if in reality, it isn't. So, instead of embarking on yet another theoretical debate, let's gather some figures.

I am not the only one who experiences a consistent drop in pre-boil and immediateley post-boil measurement and a read through this thread and this thread (done over 2 years ago and that you have read) will show that I do know how to measure

Some other links....

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/giving-bre...ser-look-79829/ Check out Post#4. This guy took some careful measurements and if you read his articles linked in Post #1, he sounds as though he knows what he is talking about and has the open-mindedness to doubt his science.

http://www.byo.com/stories/wizard/article/...iency-mr-wizard This guy also nticed a drop in efficiency during the boil but was told to go and re-check his figures as they don't match the science.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=202851 MHB, who has a brewing degree and an open mind, kindly put forward a reason for the drop in this post. (Just re-reading it now and think I interpreted it in reverse two years ago - lol - makes sense now.)

Also in that thread, you offered to do some testing as follows...



Doing the above would be something constructive.

As for any further debate, I'm happy to do it but only with people who take the trouble to provide me with their own figures. I have done the theoretical arguments to death

I'm going back to my flu!

Spot,
Pat

But see Pat - I don't need to - because my figures match nicely. As do the figures of most homebrewers. You say its a commonly held assumption - but its actually the common observation. I don't do anything because its what the big brewers do Pat - I do things because they make sense to me and I have observed that they work.

MHB's suggestion is not only a reasonable explanation - it is the likely explanation and always was.

If you measure your pre-boil at the wrong time. If on the other hand you measure pre-boil where and when you should - then it is my experience that there is no mysterious missing sugar and reality meshes up nicely with theory.

I asked for your rationale after you said you had information from professional brewers to support your argument - I thought it would be something new, I thought I might learn something; and I thought that that something might even change my mind. But it seems its not, its just the same stuff as before - and as far as i am concerned you have had sufficient explanation for the effect you are observing. You were given it all that time ago - by MHB. So this is nothing new, its just beating a horse thats been dead for a couple if years now.

You don't want to debate theory? - sick of theory? - fair enough. That doesn't mean I'm going to hesitate for even one second to point it out if I think you are wrong about something - and give a nice description of the theory behind why it is I think you are wrong. And I will do exactly the same when I think you are right and someone else says you are wrong.

Thats one of the troubles with being a guru - every now and again someone will come along and ask why it is you need all the gold Rolls Royces to do the holy work ... it can be handy to have a nice confusing theoretical answer to back you up.

TB

 

[katzke]

Short answer. Sugar in = sugar out.

Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the density of a liquid compared to the density of pure water.

So pre boil gravity can be different then post boil gravity because we get break material that removes some of the solids from the wort. Because sugar in = sugar out the efficiency is not changing. It is the way we estimate the sugar that causes any problems.

 

[bill_gill85]

After getting through a few kits, I've decided to take the plunge into all grain & BIAB. A major issue is that I'm limited to a 19L pot. I don't mind brewing a small batch to start, but would like to get the best use I could from a 19L vessel & thought that a LC Rogers clone would be the way to go, making a higher gravity wort & topping up in the fermentor. Not overly interested in efficiency for this first attempt, mainly interested in brewing a good beer. Could anyone please comment on the suitability of attempting a Rogers clone & suggest a recipe & starting volume for a 19L pot.

Many Thanks

Ben

 

[PistolPatch]

Thats one of the troubles with being a guru - every now and again someone will come along and ask why it is you need all the gold Rolls Royces to do the holy work ... it can be handy to have a nice confusing theoretical answer to back you up.

TB

This is why I find these theoretical discussions without any figures to back them up not very rewarding. I have questioned a commonly accepted premise as my figures don't agree. A read of the threads I linked above show that I have an open mind to the answer and am still very willing to explore it. When the guru comments start coming back, rather than figures or logic, that is usually a good sign that I am onto something

You have certainly provided a nice, confusing, theoretical argument in this case. Firstly, you say that pre and post boil efficiencies will be the same and anything else sounds like BS. I gave you a couple of links and now you are saying, "Oh but pre-boil measurements shouldn't be taken pre-boil, they should be taken after the hot break, which is anything up to 15 minutes after the start of the boil." I have never heard of anyone taking a pre-boil measurement after the hot break and I have never had you tell me that you take it after the hot break.

MHB's answer was a sensible answer to the question but my discrepancy was higher than the 3% that this explained.

Let's just approach this with an open mind. Let's see if the figures that others are kindly and helpfully providing here show whether this a consistent problem or an erratic one. If it is consistent, then we can put a number on it. If it is inconsistent then we will remain bewildered.

Now stop being naughty Dan and help billgill with his problem above. You've done 14 mini-BIABs so I reckon you will set him on the right path.

 

[PistolPatch]

After getting through a few kits, I've decided to take the plunge into all grain & BIAB. A major issue is that I'm limited to a 19L pot. I don't mind brewing a small batch to start, but would like to get the best use I could from a 19L vessel & thought that a LC Rogers clone would be the way to go, making a higher gravity wort & topping up in the fermentor. Not overly interested in efficiency for this first attempt, mainly interested in brewing a good beer. Could anyone please comment on the suitability of attempting a Rogers clone & suggest a recipe & starting volume for a 19L pot.

Many Thanks

Ben

Hopefully ThirstyBoy will help you out here Ben. I did find a recipe though that a lot of the ISB guys were pleased with. You'll want to mash this at the higher end of the range so make sure you have an accurate thermometer. Here it is and we'll look forward to hearing how you go...

Size: 21.0 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%

Ingredients:
3.4 kg Traditional Ale Malt
0.07 kg Crystal Malt
0.07 kg Dark Crystal
0.05 kg Pale Chocolate Malt
0.05 kg Chocolate Wheat Malt
37.0 g East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
45 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
1 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Notes:
Mash at 69-70C for a fuller mouthfeel for such a light beer

 

[Thirsty Boy]

This is why I find these theoretical discussions without any figures to back them up not very rewarding. I have questioned a commonly accepted premise as my figures don't agree. A read of the threads I linked above show that I have an open mind to the answer and am still very willing to explore it. When the guru comments start coming back, rather than figures or logic, that is usually a good sign that I am onto something

You have certainly provided a nice, confusing, theoretical argument in this case. Firstly, you say that pre and post boil efficiencies will be the same and anything else sounds like BS. I gave you a couple of links and now you are saying, "Oh but pre-boil measurements shouldn't be taken pre-boil, they should be taken after the hot break, which is anything up to 15 minutes after the start of the boil." I have never heard of anyone taking a pre-boil measurement after the hot break and I have never had you tell me that you take it after the hot break.

MHB's answer was a sensible answer to the question but my discrepancy was higher than the 3% that this explained.

Let's just approach this with an open mind. Let's see if the figures that others are kindly and helpfully providing here show whether this a consistent problem or an erratic one. If it is consistent, then we can put a number on it. If it is inconsistent then we will remain bewildered.

Now stop being naughty Dan and help billgill with his problem above. You've done 14 mini-BIABs so I reckon you will set him on the right path.

But I didn't say that to you Pat - I said it to someone else. And If you had read the private message that wasn't actually sent to you more carefully, you would have noted that I specified that the majority of the hot break actually happens before the wort even comes to the boil. As far as I was aware... everybody took their pre-boil measurements after the hot break, thats when you are supposed to.

It doesn't matter anyway - I have never said you should take a pre-boil measurement for efficiency - I have said that you should take your efficiency reading "in the kettle" it just so happens that pre-boil is the most sensible place to take it, because you should be taking a pre-boil measurement anyway, to find out if you need to make adjustments to your planned boil scheme. And if you do need to make adjustments (such as adding sugar or dme) then your post boil figures will be meaningless... therefore if you develop a habit of taking pre-boil, you will always be taking the same measurement that means the same thing and requires the least adjustment to reflect how well you conducted your mash and lauter. The assumption is - that preboil and post boil figures will be the same, so it doesn't matter where you take it.... so take it at the point that makes the most sense for your process. It so happens that in my case, that assumption is true. If its not true for you ... just take the reading twice. Hell, I measure volume and/or gravity at least three and usually 4 times during any given boil.

Oh - and I have done considerably more than 14 mini BIAB brews Pat.. I just stopped updating the database. I have done a number of full sized brews and some double batches as well. So I'm afraid you aren't able to discount my point of view because I don't have enough experience. Oh and boiling... in case you forgot, that happens in non-biab brewing as well and I have something more than 100 of those sorts of brews.

I have to go - If no one helps Billgill before tonight, I will.

Then I will think up a few more ways to have a go at you --- so there

TB

 

[PistolPatch]

LOL!

You silly boy, I wasn't trying to discount your experience. I think you have done more mini-BIAB's than anyone and so will be the best person to help him out. I'm sure he can look forward to a good answer tonight.

Spot :icon_cheers: