Ahhh, The Dark Side Is Sooo Near..

[chappo1970]

Been waiting all day to see any signs of life... It's gotta be killin' ya all that brew porn just sitting around waiting for D hour? I know I couldn't wait.

What time are ya starting? So I can keep an eye out for the thread...

 

[Pollux]

Just mashed in..........

Todays shopping brought home the following.

Mash in

All wrapped up in it's blanky

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Good Luck! my day didn't go exactly as planned, but not all was lost!

 

[Pollux]

60mins into the mash, just gave it a bit of a stir to help efficiency and do a temp check....

Mash in =67.7
60 mins = 63.4

I'm happy.

Now to wait another 30mins and then the fun begins.....Still haven't had a beer, I want to focus.

 

[Mantis]

60mins into the mash, just gave it a bit of a stir to help efficiency and do a temp check....

Mash in =67.7
60 mins = 63.4

I'm happy.

Now to wait another 30mins and then the fun begins.....Still haven't had a beer, I want to focus.

Yes, you dont want to do anything silly with an urn full of boiling wort
So far so good eh

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Well, my urn arrived this morning, less than 20hours since I ordered it.

As I said earlier this week, I am happy to post many pics......

Here's the ones from today's testing of the urn (ingredients should be here tomorrow)

Just out of the box

Test fitting the bag

With it's $4.99 jacket, comes with a matching hat..... I just did a "test mash" 30L of water heated to 66deg and left for 90mins with the lid on and a sleeping bag over the top, end temp 64deg....



So close, so very close.....

who made the BIAB bag?
GB

 

[Pollux]

The missus.....

I used a guide I found on here somewhere..

It's basically a tube of swiss voile with a round base.

 

[Bizier]

Da
da
da

da dada
da dada

 

[Pollux]

Coming to the boil now, 28L obtained from the original 30 with a grain bill of 4.45kg..........

Chilling a sample now to get SG reading, and then it's boil time..

EDIT: Sample chilled to 25.3deg, close enough using hydro adjust in beersmith...

Volume into boiler = 28L
OG into boiler = 1.041
Efficiency into Boiler = 82.43%

Not bad for a first attempt.

Just looking at this storm though, if I get a blackout mid boil, I am going to be pissed!!!!

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Well....???

Here we are at 10.15 and no update!!

Does this mean that you had a blackout or you've stuffed something up and are stressing?

Farside.

 

[Pollux]

None of the above...

Just whirlpooled, giving it a bit to settle, then it's into the cube and clean up time.....

Will post a nice big update post with piccies once all the above is done.

 

[Fantoman]

Hey Pollux,

Will be doing my first BIAB in the same Urn tomorrow and am curious what your evap rate was on your boil, was hoping to do a test boil today to see what the evap was like, but didn't get a chance, and am hoping to get started first thing in the morning... I think I have most of the bases covered, but currently have the evap set to Beersmith's default of 9%...

Any other tips would also be appreciated!

 

[Pollux]

And I'm done............

Ended up with 20L in the cube, SG of 1.050 which is only 2 points off target.....near enough for me..

A few pics.

Happy happy boil

Draining

My 20L cube.....I feel I need to up the batch size to 23-25L to take up the airpace......That was post a decent squeeze.

Lessons learnt

1. Swiss voile makes an awesome bag for grain, sucks as a hop sock as it doesn't drain overly well or quickly.
2. You shouldn't accidentally dump part of your wet spent grain on your wife's foot, this will not please her.
3. 4.5kg of dry grain = alot more when wet.
4. Best way to clean a grain bag is to take it to the shower with you.......
5. The urn started to cut out after 80mins of boil, there was a bit of wort caramelised on the element, next time I'll cut it back to a 60min only. (90mins was only to allow a sample to cool enough to test pre-boil gravity, I have since discovered this isn't needed as it takes a while for the urn to bring 28L to the boil).
6. Music makes the time pass faster.

 

[Pollux]

Fantoman, I had an evap of 4L over 90mins which is 10% in beersmith for me.

 

[clean brewer]

Well done pollux, looks the goods, that BIAB seems fairly stremlined hey.. :beerbang:

My 20L cube.....I feel I need to up the batch size to 23-25L to take up the airpace......That was post a decent squeeze.

I have my brews worked out to finish at 22lts, I no-chill also and end up with a nice 19ltrs into the keg.. I find with no-chill, you have to get a tea towel and fold it up and put on your knee(so you dont scald the f--k out of it) to push all that liquid right up to the spout of the cube and then lid and really tighten it with a face washer in your hand to get it very tight, the wort always stays at the top, no air getting in here..

you'll be amped to get another done hey??

 

[Pollux]

I did the knee and towel trick....

Nearly stuck my knee through the other side....

It's okay, I can just adjust the next one, the first is always a learning experience...

 

[Cocko]

Awesome work mate!! Not long and that little puppy will be sliding down ya gullet!!

2. You shouldn't accidentally dump part of your wet spent grain on your wife's foot, this will not please her.

Don't worry, she'll get use to it!!

 

[Cocko]

I find with no-chill, you have to get a tea towel and fold it up and put on your knee(so you dont scald the f--k out of it) to push all that liquid right up to the spout of the cube and then lid and really tighten it with a face washer in your hand to get it very tight, the wort always stays at the top, no air getting in here..

Forget who posted it first but surely a great NC squeezer??

View attachment 25444

 

[Pollux]

Tomorrow night is round two.........

Recipe: Old Dart Ale
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 28.89 L
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 24.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 23.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.Grain 70.59 %
1.00 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 EBGrain 23.53 %
0.20 kg Crystal Malt -Bairds (110.0 EBC) Grain 4.71 %
0.05 kg Wheat, Roasted (Joe White) (1477.5 EBC) Grain 1.18 %
10.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
10.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min) Hops 6.7 IBU
20.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 30.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) [StarYeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: !-BIAB Single Infusion, Medium body, No MO
Total Grain Weight: 4.25 kg
----------------------------
!-BIAB Single Infusion, Medium body, No MO
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Infusion Add 30.36 L of water at 69.5 C 67.0 C

Bring it on......

 

[clean brewer]

Forget who posted it first but surely a great NC squeezer??

Ive got those aswell, great idea, ill go one on each side of the cube next time... :beerbang:

It's okay, I can just adjust the next one, the first is always a learning experience...

It takes a couple to work out your volumes and what goes into the keg, I hate seeing wort left in the fermenter after kegging and couldnt be bothered bottling 1 or 2, rather 19ltrs into the keg with nothing left over..