BIAB first effort - low gravity

[Pointer64]

Afternoon all. I'm a new member and a new all grain brewer. I did my first BIAB last weekend - an American Style Pale Ale. What a great way to spend an afternoon! Anyway, mashed for 75mins at 68deg (dropped to 65.2deg after 55mins so burner back on) and then boiled for 65mins.

Beersmith suggested a pre boil gravity of 1.042 - actual was 1.030. No better post boil - suggested 1.057, actual 1.038. In measuring the SG, I had to wait for the wort to cool in the flask before measuring so as the head did not break the thermometer.

I could cop being a few points off but I'm way off.

I'm planning another brew this weekend so any feed back gratefully accepted.

What did I do wrong/where did I go wrong? And what should/could I have done to recover?

Cheers

Pointer 64

 

[Tex083]

Can you give us some more details of the brew?
Strike Vol ?
Grain weight?
Final Vol?

I had a similar expirence, I built dad a BIAB for fathers day. I used Beersmith and the OG was way too low also. Beersmith reccomended 33.1 L of water for 4.8kg of grain with an expected OG of 1.048 i think we got 1.036 and way more than 22L of wort.

Next time im going to reduce the strike water to 28-30L and see what happens.

Beer is not lost if you have some Light Dry Malt you can boil it up in water and add it to the wort to boost gavity. (http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/ )

 

[verysupple]

Yup as Tex said.

Beersmith takes some setting up to match your system. Without more detail about your procedure it's impossible to say if your efficiency was poor and you have a problem or if the software was just overly ambitious.

 

[Pointer64]

Ok a bit more info. The set up is a 50lt Coopers keg. The brew recipe called for 16.17lt at Mash in + 26.01 fly sparge. I didn't sparge so started with 42lt of water. 6.2kg of grain. Final volume is a bit of a guess - At the end of the boil I went straight into a 20lt cube and had probably 3-4lt left over.

Can I add the dry light malt at any time during the boil?

Thanks for your advice

 

[yum beer]

turn down your efficincy in your software, you will get much lower than ideal numbers.
I always hit around 62%, never the 70% that most programs seem to default at.
Put your numbers into your software and see what your eff was for this brew, then use that for your next and see how you go, should be much closer.

 

[zarniwoop]

I've found it's easier to err on the side of caution and over estimate things like boil off and and underestimate efficiencies etc as you can always dilute if you have a higher OG than you expected but it's harder to bump it up. (Although it can be done as mentioned)

I don't use beersmith so I'm unsure what data it gives, but did you end up with volume you were expecting?

 

[beerking]

Agree with yum, change your expected effeciency to 65% you do this on the recipe design page.buy a refractrometer rather than waiting for your wort sample to cool a refractrometer will alllw you to take gravity readings on the go much easier. Also I think your equipment profile may not be set correctly if you have set for BIAB Beersmith won't give instructions for a sparge. Also its a good idea to take a gravity reading with about 10 min left in the boil so if you miss your numbers you can always push up the gravity with some DME. Also wouldn't hurt to know your mash ph aim for between 5.2 and 5.6 for maximum efficiency.

 

[Pointer64]

Thanks all. Hoping for an improved outcome in brew 2 this weekend

 

[contrarian]

In addition to the above advice did you give it a really good stir when you were doughing in and before pulling the bag? That can help a bit. Also what recipe did you use? Grain bill could have some impact too.

 

[Pointer64]

When I bought the grain I didn't have Brewsmith. I went to my local supplier who is an experienced BIAB brewer. I told him I wanted to brew an American style pale ale so he came up with the recipe off the bat. So it was 5.2kg of Pale Malt 2 Row, 1kg of crystal. Yep stirred well at beginning of mash although didn't stir again until end of mash.

 

[zeggie]

Sounds like too much water to me.

Beersmith is brilliant, but will take a few times to get it setup right. I've only done about 10 BAIB now and finally pretty much hit all my numbers now.

 

[CoopsOz]

On my 2400w 50 litre BIAB keggle, I start with 35 litres for a 5kg grain bill with a 90 min boil. I end up dumping just over 23 litres into the NC cube. Just lower your initial volume and you should be right.


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[JoeyJoeJoe]

Did you measure the temperature of the cooled samples? If you let the post boiled sample cool to 50C then did the test your 1038 would have been 1047 at 20C....
Also I am no expert but 68C seems high for a mash temperature as this is outside the accepted Beta range of 62-67 so I would expect you would have a very high body beer with lots of hard to ferment sugars ( though I dont know if this would affect your OG to much....)

I am pretty sure you will still make beer though so dont worry!

 

[Kak]

Its all about knowing your gear. I have done quite a few BIAB and found in the beginning that brewmate was a good tool.
Dont get me wrong it is still very helpful for creating recipes but i have found that over time I have got to know my equipment and can almost hit the right volumes, numbers etc ( usually 23l) without it.
What im trying to say is that it takes time to get your processes in place on your particular setup.

Keep at it and after a few brews it becomes easy.

 

[sp0rk]

I had this problem for a while, I was getting between 60%-65% efficiency
I've fixed it by:
crushing my grain all the way to flour (and I just accept the extra break and trub matter),
recirculating with a kaixin pump towards the end of the mash when I'm raising to my mashout temp,
squeezing the bag like buggery once it's hung over a bucket after the mash,
being a bit more precise with my mash temps and putting my centre burner ring on to maintain 66deg if it's beginning to drop a little,
giving the mash a mix every 20 minutes or so, Give it a GOOD mix for a few minutes at the start
and lowering my total water volume, I started with 36 litres on my first few batches and now I'm down to 32-33 litres depending on the boil length
I'm now hitting 70%-75% efficiency every brew

**Edit - Forgot to mention, I'm using a 50L keggle over a 3 ring burner with an adjustable reg

 

[malt_shovel]

I think you need to look at the mash a bit closer. Check out braukeiser website on understandong efficiency http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency and check out table 1. For you liquor/grist ratio and full conversion you would expect 1.041 (almost same as beersmith). You are significantly under that so I would look at how the malt is milled at the store (ask to see it before it is bagged up) also mash pH could be afactor or your thermometer is way out. The other point to note is beersmith has a 15 point increase in gravity due to boiling while you got only 4 points. Combined with the extra volumes post boil I would dial down the evaporation setting in beersmith by around half to a third of what it is now. Changing an efficiency number ina piece of software can hide a multitude of problems.

Hope that helps.