Advice from a new BIAB'er to those considering going BIAB from ext

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rheffera

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I just completed my first brewday and cubed my wort.

I thought i'd give some advice and simplfy things for the beginner.

First off, the process is far simpler than it seems. Reading these forums often gives conflicting and off-putting information. Such as:
"Urns are shit, they never hold rolling boil". This simply isn't true. These people just fail to clean thier urn or got a dud. every urn is different.

The basic process is:
Strike volume & temp
Mash
Mash out/sparge
boil
CUBE.

I use IAnH's biab spreadsheet (good work btw)

The first time you do this you wont know what your efficency or boil off rate is, so dont worry about aceing your targets, Seriously.

With That in mind you NEED to RECORD EVERYTHING if oyu hope to improve your efficiency and ACE your volumes.

THings you MUST record: Desired strike volume, strike temp, Preboil volume, preboil SG, mash temp. post boil SG, post boil volume.
I keep all this information on me as well as hop additions so i dont have to go running inside to find something.

Speaking of finding things, Have ALL the equipment you need ORGANIZED.
Thermometer, grain, grain bag, cube, rope, scales, hydrometer, sanitizer, shifter (more on that later), towel, ssomething to measure the time, pen and paper for the recording, bucket, ruler, whirlfloc, nutrient.

Once your organized, if oyur running a urn as i am, check that the circuit your plugging into can take 10A. Mine could take 15A. I have several fridges on that circuit so i basically maxed the circuit afaic.

Add some water into your urn (7L) (if using one). I replaced the tap on mine with a ball valve. THis is where the shifter comes in. I had a slight leak (2 drops /30 secs). STOP HERE. DON'T GO SHE'LL BE RIGHT. that 2 drop leak will turn into a stream under the weight of 20+ litres of water. I rebuilt the bulkhead and ball valve. No more leak, so im good to go.

Once oyu have the strike volume, when it hits strike temp, dough in nice and slow. 2-3 minutes in my case stirring at the same time. Then heat to mash temp and mash. i had to add a few bursts of heat over the hour as i did not lag (insulate).

If your mashing out, increase temperature in preperation for boil & when temp passes 75 hoist your bag and let it drip into the vessel.

Now measure pre-boil SG and pre-boil volume depth.

Bring to boil and add your hops per schedule.

add nutrients at 15 and whirlfloc at 5

Measure post boil depth and sg.

Cube. Thats it. YOur done. You will need to enable no-chill in the spreadsheet and adjust your hop additions to suit this.

It's a simple process. Aceing your targets comes with time and maths.

Other words of advice:
​DOn't wander off with things in your hand. You'll put them down and forget where you put it (thermometer in my case
Use a ball or a hop sock if your using flowers. i didn't and clogged my ball valve. It took longer to cube than it should have.
Use the time in between hop additions to clean up.
Once you have hoisted the bag, don't leave it unattended. Very bad thongs could happen if you do...

That in a nutshell was my brew day and i hope others who are also new can see how easy the process is.
 
Nice one rheffera. I made the switch to biab myself a little while ago. Have two batches in bottles and one fermenting at the moment. Most things have gone smoothly and I'd definetly agree with you on organization and being well prepared. First time I was chasing my tail a bit thinking there'd be plenty of time. Not the best idea I've ever had. Can't comment on the results yet as I haven't tasted but the gravity readings on all three have been pretty close to the mark and wort tasted nice out of the tube. The main thing I need to do now is more of it and improve, plus drink it I spose.
 
Once you have hoisted the bag, don't leave it unattended. Very bad thongs could happen if you do...



what kind of thongs??

I always leave my bag unattended and have had no problems with loose fitting underwear, badly constructed footwear, or any other issues to report.
 
Albainian said:
Once you have hoisted the bag, don't leave it unattended. Very bad thongs could happen if you do...



what kind of thongs??

I always leave my bag unattended and have had no problems with loose fitting underwear, badly constructed footwear, or any other issues to report.
What i mean there, and its not too clear i admit. is that if the first timer doesnt secure his bag properly and leaves it it may fall, and if your like me, let it drip into your vessel you could suddenly find alot of wort on the ground or your vessel on its side. More of a message to the fifrst time to make sure to secure your bag
 
Attended or unattended, if it's going to fall, it'll fall - unless you're standing there ready to catch it. Just make sure it's secured properly.

I just double knot my muslin bag, and the slipknot some nylon rope around it, which runs over a beam in the shed and gets tied off onto the leg of my workbench.
 
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