BIAB newbie

[BKBrews]

Hi guys,

I'm new around here and pretty new to beer brewing (been making cider for a while).

I got myself a bag and a 19L stock pot and just did my first all-grain beer today (an IPA). Still learning but I think it came out pretty well, if not too strong (OG came out at 1.074). Really interested in learning more about how to correctly calculate mash water requirements etc).

Will be converting my stock pot with a ball valve and an inbuilt thermometer when I find a good guide. If anyone has a good guide on hand that would be great.

Cheers

 

[BKBrews]

A few questions:
- best way to measure required water (BIAB no sparge)?
- I rehydrated the yeast (3g in 50ml water) but I let this sit for over an hour. Too long?
- what exactly do I need to buy to fit a ball valve to my mash tun/kettle?
- best way to filter from kettle to fermenter? I had a thick green sludge that clogged my funnel (I filtered it through the brew bag which got clogged)

 

[nosco]

-Theres a gew free spread sheets or software that will calculate required water.
-the yeast should be ok i think?
-for a small pot like that id be thinking about using a racking cane or even just siphon with silicone hose. With a pot that size you could just chill it in the kitchen sink with water and then ice. This will make all trub (sludge) sink to the bottom and make it easier to keep out of the fermenter as you siphon.
After you mash use the brew bag to put your hops in during the boil. That will keep the hops out of the fermenter too.

Do a search for mini biab or maxi biab.

 

[nosco]

Ps. When you chill the pot keep the lid on.

 

[BKBrews]

I had a siphon this time, but I just couldn't get it to work. It was frustrating the hell out of me, so I ended up just pouring through the funnel (quite easy to do with a small 5L batch).

I should have left the lid on when I chilled, but I didn't this time. I have the ingredients to make another identical batch, so will iron out a few things next time. The promising thing is that I tasted the wort when I was trying to siphon it out of the kettle and it tasted pretty spot on. Hope the end product is as good.

 

[Rocker1986]

How big is the batch? 3g of yeast is hardly anything. An hour or more is too long to re-hydrate, it shouldn't be left any longer than 30 minutes before pitching into the wort.

 

[BKBrews]

It was only a 5L batch (started with 7.8L for the mash). Brewtoad recommended 3G of yeast.... So let's say I left it for 2 hours... What does that mean for my finished product?

 

[Rocker1986]

Ok fair enough then. It's obviously basing its recommendations on the idea that dry yeast contains 20 billion cells per gram, something I'm not entirely convinced of, but that's another topic.

It will still ferment out and probably turn out fine, especially given the appearance of that krausen on it, but leaving the yeast to re-hydrate for longer than 30 minutes pretty much defeats the purpose of it in terms of leaving the yeast vulnerable to their cell walls being ruptured when pitched into wort - which is what re-hydrating is intended to prevent from happening as much as possible.

 

[wynnum1]

What did you do wrong with the siphon filling the siphon with clean water is an easy way to get started when using a siphon make sure your hand are clean because you have to handle .

 

[BKBrews]

Thanks Rocker1986. I think next time I will try just pitching straight into the wort and seeing how we go. A lot to learn still.

It's a siphon I got with my brew smith kit (www.brewsmith.com.au). It says to pump a few times to get the liquid in the tube, then release the clip and it should just flow. Tried for aaaaages and it wouldn't work.

I'm quite worried about the chance of infection between when I cooked the wort, to the time I got the wort in the fermenter (stuffing around with siphon etc) and then to finally pitching the rehydrated yeast into the wort. Time will tell, but she seems to be bubbling away this morning so at least it's fermenting. I was very happy with my process from mash all the way through to cooling, but my failings may be a result of my sub par equipment more than anything else.

 

[Bribie G]

If you are average strong and fit, rather than spending over $20 on a ball valve, why not buy a Bunnings 25L water drum with tap, chill your stockpot as suggested by Nosco, pour wort into the sanitised water drum and then run into your carboy, thus giving it a good oxygenation. Later if you upsize your equipment, the drums make good fermenters.

Syphons are a PITA.

 

[BKBrews]

Thanks for the tip mate. At this stage, I'd like to keep the number of pieces of equipment down, just for storage sake. Is there a cheaper valve alternative? Doesn't need to be fancy.

I think I will be quite happy with the small batch sizes for the foreseeable future, so the need to upgrade isn't a major issue.

The 5L batches allow us to make 15 330ml bottles roughly every two weeks, which is already surplus to our needs.

Does anyone have any advice for thermometers too? I don't really understand how the thermometers that are on the side of kettles work, especially for BIAB setups.... How does the bag go in the pot when the spike is hanging out in the middle of the pot?