Biab Brewer Register

[katzke]

Here's the other brew I did last night.

START

The following figures are based on this number of brews (number): 1
Desired Batch Size* (lts): 28
Vessel Type (Keggle or xlt Pot): 70lt stock pot
Length of Mash (mins): 90
Length of Boil (mins): 90
Grain Bill (kgs): 5660
Starting Volume of Water (lts): 38
Volume at Boil Start (lts): 33.37
Are You Using a Hydrometer, Refractometer or Both?: Both
Specific Gravity Reading at Start of Boil (hydrometer sample cooled to 15 or 20 degrees): 1.043
Volume at End of Boil (lts - deduct 4% if measured at 100 degrees): 23.62
Specific Gravity at End of Boil (hydrometer sample cooled to 15 or 20 degrees):1.060
Are you chilling? (Yes/No): No Chill in Kettle overnight.
Trub Left in Kettle (lts): 5.3
Volume into Cube (lts):
Volume into Fermenter (lts): 23
Top Up Water Used to Make Up Volume into Fermenter: 4.75
Specific Gravity Reading into Fermenter (hydrometer sample at 15 or 20 degrees): 1.048
FINAL Specific Gravity Reading after Fermentation (hydrometer sample at 15 or 20 degrees):
Fermenter Trub (lts): 1
Resulting Brew Length* (lts): 22
Recipe (name or link): NRB All Amraillo Ale. Reversed Hop Schedule and FWH.
Notes (Anything else of interest you might like to write):

*Desired batch size for the above is not brew length. Batch size is what you would use in Beersmith. This (misleadingly) actually means how much wort is in your kettle at the end of the boil. Brewlength means how much beer you get from your fermenter. So, Batch Size = Brewlength + fermenter and kettle trub.

END

You boiled off almost a third of your wort in 90 minutes? Might need to turn down your boil?

 

[PistolPatch]

Yeah Tom it's about 19%. I've never been able to reduce it either.

From the figures so far, it's showing that the bigger the surface area of the pot, the higher the evaporation rate. My pot is 50cm diameter whereas a keggle is about 33 (I think?) and urns even less.

Managed to get my pre and post boil figures pretty close this time

 

[troopa]

Mines 44cm and i get about 17% evaporation.. took me a dozen brews before i got over the fact it wasnt me doing something wrong and that it is what it is

Tom

 

[katzke]

Yeah Tom it's about 19%. I've never been able to reduce it either.

From the figures so far, it's showing that the bigger the surface area of the pot, the higher the evaporation rate. My pot is 50cm diameter whereas a keggle is about 33 (I think?) and urns even less.

Managed to get my pre and post boil figures pretty close this time

I would guess your aroma and flavor additions suffer from such a high boil off. Have you noticed any difference in your brews to others that brew the same recipe? Do you make any changes?

Have you ever thought of putting a lid on part way to decrease the boil off? I know DMS and all that but you are on the high end of the boil off rate.

 

[PistolPatch]

I would guess your aroma and flavor additions suffer from such a high boil off. Have you noticed any difference in your brews to others that brew the same recipe? Do you make any changes?

Have you ever thought of putting a lid on part way to decrease the boil off? I know DMS and all that but you are on the high end of the boil off rate.

Tom, I'll post an answer now in the main BIAB thread as your question might interest a few people.

Cheers,
Pat

 

[Rodolphe01]

This morning I did my second BIAB, a summer ale, my first was a hefeweizen which I am already drinking. In doing BIAB I only wanted to use equipment I already had so I am restricted to max ~3kg of grain therefore I do BIAB partials. My largest pot is a 15L stanless one that works on my induction cooktop so it boils very rapidly and temperature adjustments are a breeze with the indirect heat. I don't drink a great deal so will probably just do smaller batches and drop the malt extract all together in the future. Pic attached because everyone loves pics.

 

[Bribie G]

Good one Rudi, do you use malt extracts to 'top up' the partial brew or do you use kits? When I was doing partials - depending on the style of course, I found that some kits are brilliant for partials. For a lager I would use a Coopers Canadian Blonde or Morgans Canadian Light, go light on the bittering hops as there are already a few in the tin (not too many ) and add a fair whack of aroma hops such as Saaz and I would get a brew almost indistinguishable from an all grain lager because the light goop in the Canadians doesn't fight with the grain malt flavours and aromas. Didn't have a lot of luck with Uk bitters (which is why I went AG) but another brilliant usage of partials is to do a mash plus dark malts and roast barley, about 3k, and add a can of Coopers Stout. That's how I still make all my stouts :icon_cheers:

Edit: were you at Half fix's case swap down the road from you off Appleby a few weeks ago? Can't remember whether I met you or not. Still can't remember whether I met a lot of people there :blink: :huh:

 

[Rodolphe01]

Yea basically top up with extract so I can get 22-23l into the fermenter (at a decent gravity).

For my hefe I used the coopers wheat kit because that saved me having to do a bittering addition basically, and just added a wee bit of tettnanger for aroma. For the summer ale I did today I used 1kg of wheat malt extract to top up the gravity, 22l in the fermenter @ ~1.045.

In the past when making beers (I have been doing kits and bits for a while) i'd chose kits based on their colour and IBU for the style I wanted, regardless of what style was written on the can, kits like the coopers lager and cerveza have given me plenty of mileage It probably works out a fly shit cheaper than using un-hopped extract and bittering it myself. I will probably avoid kits and liquid extracts purely for the kit twang and stuff people talk about, my pallete is too dull to perceive this though There are definately a few kit and bit beers I'll still make though, nice and quick to put down... The BIAB this morning was painful with 2 kids and the wife under my feet!

As for the case swap, nah I wasn't there, didn't even know about it. I might have spoken to you at the last BABBs meeting I went to about a month ago.

 

[rock]

Here is a brew I did last week
The following figures are based on this number of brews (number):1
Desired Batch Size* (lts):25
Vessel Type (Keggle or xlt Pot) 50 ltr converted Keg
Length of Boil (mins): 90
Grain Bill (kgs):7000g
Starting Volume of Water (lts):35
Volume at Boil Start (lts):30.5
Specific Gravity Reading at Start of Boil (hydrometer sample cooled to 15 or 20 degrees): 1.052
Plato Gravity Reading at Start of Boil (refractometer sample cooled to 20 degrees):
Volume at End of Boil (lts - deduct 4% if measured at 100 degrees):
Specific Gravity at End of Boil (hydrometer sample cooled to 15 or 20 degrees):1.060
Plato Gravity Reading at End of Boil (refractometer sample cooled to 20 degrees):
Are you chilling? (Yes/No): YES
Trub Left in Kettle (lts):4
Volume into Cube (lts):
Volume into Fermenter (lts):25
Specific Gravity Reading into Fermenter (hydrometer sample at 15 or 20 degrees): 1.060
Plato Gravity Reading into Fermenter (refractometer sample at 20 degrees):
FINAL Specific Gravity Reading after Fermentation (hydrometer sample at 15 or 20 degrees): 1012
FINAL Plato Gravity Reading after Fermentation (refractometer sample at 20 degrees):
Fermenter Trub (lts):1
Resulting Batch Size (lts):25
Added 4 ltrs to grains, after sqeezing bag,then added back to pre-boil volume
Cheers,
Rocket

 

[Katherine]

Finally over taken you again REV.... better get brewing.

 

[Bribie G]

Just snuck ahead of you on the litres :icon_cheers:

 

[Scruffy]

You gotta keep filling it in...


...oh...


:mellow:

 

[Mantis]

I have given up trying to catch Bribie, he is too much of a soak.
And here I was thinking I could take him easy h34r:

 

[katzke]

No better place to post my small victory for BIAB.

Entered my American style Wit in our county fair and out of 4 beers I got first and best of show. I guess it is better then second.

Best thing is no stuck sparge. I brewed a similar recipe Sunday and with 1 pound of oatmeal, 4.5 pounds of malt, and 3.5 pounds of raw wheat. It drained very easy. My gravity was 2 points higher then expected. Looking for a nice easy drinker at about 3.5%. Kind of a White Ordinary Bitter. The only big mistake was I should have used Maris Otter instead of plain 2 row.

 

[PistolPatch]

rudi_101: Excuse the late congratulations but :super: Am I going to meet you when I fly over for the QLD Xmas Case Swap? It's a heap of fun so get there if you possibly can. Lots of top brewers there too.

rocket58: Thanks for the figs! I will throw them in along with several others that have come in including 4 of mine done for Katie's Australia's Brew Day from Hell . Will send you the update soon and a volume calculator.*

katzke: You're the man! Good on ya!

* I tried some high tech stuff on these brews like ball-valves, glycol and plate chillers. I hadn't had time to set them up in advance and so had my most comical brew weekend ever. The only good news is that from the recording of all our figures in this thread, I was able to predict the volumes and gravities for the brews (both double and single batches) to pretty much spot on. That was the only thing that went right - lol!

 

[Katherine]

Lates Brewery put down to single batches over the weekend.

I did my first Munich Lager, and Lloydie did a kolsh!

 

[pdilley]

Hefeweizen BIAB this weekend.

Also, with no ztuck sparges to worry about I'm now incorporating some pure flours as part of the grain bill into BIAB sessions to give it a go.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[BjornJ]

Just adding my name to the list of BIAB'ers..

I did a Porter last Tuesday, BIAG in a small pot then filled up with water.

thanks
Bjorn

 

[reviled]

Finally over taken you again REV.... better get brewing.

Only cos ive been too slack to update it

Which I now have, 46 BIAB's, average of 20 litres per batch = 920 litres brewed!!

Also - have been asked to do a presentation on the BIAB process at the Auckland guild of homebrewers Im looking forward to it! Hopefully convert a few of the old kit brewers there

 

[Katherine]

Only cos ive been too slack to update it

Which I now have, 46 BIAB's, average of 20 litres per batch = 920 litres brewed!!

Also - have been asked to do a presentation on the BIAB process at the Auckland guild of homebrewers Im looking forward to it! Hopefully convert a few of the old kit brewers there

ahhhhh! good luck bro!