G'day all, long time listener, first time caller, etc. etc.
Thought I'd share my first experience with my new eBIAB controller (http://imgur.com/a/xYfTH), perhaps against my better judgement, perhaps to serve as a warning to others. Take from this what you will.
The inaugural brew was going to be a tasty Belgian Pale Ale. I did my research, got my recipe, bought my ingredients, all ready to go.
Got back from dropping my girlfriend off at the airport this morning, printed out my Beer Smith running sheet, added the prescribed amount of water to my kettle and fired up the controller. It's going to be a good day.
Following a suggestion from Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer, I started my mash at 55° for 10 mins for the German pilsner malt, then up to 67° for 60 mins, finishing with a mashout at 78° for 10 mins. When I came to check on the mashout progress (I was inside heating up some additional water), the temperature had shot up to around 87°. My little brown pump had died and was no longer feeding wort to the temperature sensor for the element PID.
Not to be put off by this, I turned off the element, let it sit for another 5 mins, and gingerly lifted out the grain bag and slipped my big colander in underneath it. I proceeded to gently press the bag with the bottom of a pyrex jug to get every little bit extra out. One final press, that should be enough. I hadn't noticed the colander handle was slipping off the edge of the pot. In goes the colander and bag, out comes a tidal wave of toasty warm wort. It was down to about 75° by that stage. Lesson learned the hard way there.
After I changed out of my hot, wet clothes, I carried on, adding the top up water that I had heated on the stove. My big mistake here (in hindsight) was adding additional water to account for the lost wort that was now soaking into my workbench.
Once the boil was done, I took a reading looking for around 1.053. I managed a paltry 1.042.
I guess, at the end of the day, I made beer. It may not be the beer I was wanting to make, but beer none the less.
Thought I'd share my first experience with my new eBIAB controller (http://imgur.com/a/xYfTH), perhaps against my better judgement, perhaps to serve as a warning to others. Take from this what you will.
The inaugural brew was going to be a tasty Belgian Pale Ale. I did my research, got my recipe, bought my ingredients, all ready to go.
Got back from dropping my girlfriend off at the airport this morning, printed out my Beer Smith running sheet, added the prescribed amount of water to my kettle and fired up the controller. It's going to be a good day.
Following a suggestion from Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer, I started my mash at 55° for 10 mins for the German pilsner malt, then up to 67° for 60 mins, finishing with a mashout at 78° for 10 mins. When I came to check on the mashout progress (I was inside heating up some additional water), the temperature had shot up to around 87°. My little brown pump had died and was no longer feeding wort to the temperature sensor for the element PID.
Not to be put off by this, I turned off the element, let it sit for another 5 mins, and gingerly lifted out the grain bag and slipped my big colander in underneath it. I proceeded to gently press the bag with the bottom of a pyrex jug to get every little bit extra out. One final press, that should be enough. I hadn't noticed the colander handle was slipping off the edge of the pot. In goes the colander and bag, out comes a tidal wave of toasty warm wort. It was down to about 75° by that stage. Lesson learned the hard way there.
After I changed out of my hot, wet clothes, I carried on, adding the top up water that I had heated on the stove. My big mistake here (in hindsight) was adding additional water to account for the lost wort that was now soaking into my workbench.
Once the boil was done, I took a reading looking for around 1.053. I managed a paltry 1.042.
I guess, at the end of the day, I made beer. It may not be the beer I was wanting to make, but beer none the less.
