Biab Ready To Roll!

[AdelaideHillsBrewer]

Hi just thought I would share a few pic's of my Biab set up so far. Virgen run today, so expecting to learn lots and make a few small errors throughout the day. Going to use a beersmith recipe NRB's All Amarillo APA so I hope all goes well.

Any Tips to help the day flow? :icon_cheers:

 

[milob40]

congratulations on havin a go at ag.
have your ingredients ready to roll first. have all your hops weighed out so you can add them at the exact time.
if you have multiple hop additions place them in plastic bags and label them.
remember that once the boil is finished sterilization is paramount to avoid infection.
i hope all goes well for you today :icon_cheers:

 

[Tanga]

Welcome to the club AdHB. I'm about to put my mash water on for my second BIAB. As they say, measure your hops first. It's where I fell down last time. With that said you'll be surprised how easy it all is. Goodluck!

PS. Sweet setup.

 

[Nick JD]

Hell yeah, nice setup.

My only advice would be to test your skyhook with twice the weight it's expected to haul out.

 

[Bribie G]

As Nick says. A good tester is a cube full of water. If it will lift that it will lift anything you are likely to experience with BIAB.
I see your runoff hose goes into a fermenter with airlock. If planning to nochill in the fermenter then make sure it's all as sterile as a clean-room, especially the tap section. I'd recommend cubes IMHO - cheap in the long run.

 

[Shifter]

I'm doing a Golden Ale with 4.5 kg of grain, mashed in at 66 for 75 mins and mashed out at 75 for 10 mins. Problem appears to be the SG of the pre boil wort is very low. Started with 32 ltrs of water as per BS and after squeesing the bag got about 31 ltrs of wort for boil. SG is 1030 corrected for temp. Now boiling, aiming for an OG of 1045 - 1049. Perhaps the boil will increased the SG by decreasing the vol of wort?

 

[Nick JD]

Perhaps the boil will increased the SG by decreasing the vol of wort?

Most definately it will.

With 31L of 1.030 wort:

if you divide your current SG (30) with your desired SG (47) you get 0.64

0.64 times 31 = 19.84L

You'll lose a liter to trub - but that's gonna require one hell of a boiloff to lose 1/3 or the volume.

Hints that you've mashed with too much water. You probably need to tweak BS's parameters a little to more suit your system. I'm not a big fan of using brewing sorftware for this very reason. People use it to do the thinking for them - but it can't "think".

 

[Bribie G]

Your measurements seem to be a bit off - you have magically only lost one litre of water in the process - 4.5kg of grain including the wort still soaked up by it, even after a squeeze and bearing in mind that you now have spent grain not fresh, would still come to way more than a litre.

Suggest (easy to do, done it myself) that you really started with about 34 or more in the pot. At this current stage I'd be expecting more like 28L or less remaining.

A longer boil won't do any harm on this occasion. :icon_cheers:

I'd suggest that for next brew get an accurate measuring jug (3L is a good size and very useful around the brewhouse anyway) and precisely measure out your strike water into the pot and get a dipstick (long steel ruler, bit of dowell, anything) and mark off.
Then take out some jugs to get the level down to where you would like it for your final length (22,23L whatever) and mark that off as well.
Return jugs and off you go.

Urn sight tube is handy for this but with a keggle, a dipstick would be the go and you could have it marked off for typical house brews, e.g a set of marks for a 5% beer, a set of marks for a 4% quaffer etc etc.

 

[Shifter]

I hear you both. This is the second time this has happened when using BS. I thought I had set up BS to me equipment, but I reckon I haven't. It asked for 32 ltrs of water and that is what I measured in to my Crown Urn.

Going to go manual for the next brew until I fully understand what is going on. OR revert back to Extract brewing, never has these problems.

I did measure and mark the urn in graduations. perhaps I had a brain fart!

Ended up with 27 ltrs of wort after boil.

 

[stux]

Almost the same as my setup. You might want to look at a 2:1 pulley setup
http://biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=972

 

[AdelaideHillsBrewer]

OK MASH JUST ENDING AND ABOUT YO START MY BOIL. THANKS NICK AND BRIBIE BUT THE SKY HOOK IS ALL GOOD, HOOK AND PULLEY BOLTED INTO A FRAME FOR THE GARAGE, YOU COULD LIFT A MOTOR OUT WITH IT IF YOU WANTED.. LOL. THE MASH IS STILL LOOKING GOOD AND SMELLING GREAT, SHAME I CANT SAY THE SAME FOR MYSELF.

 

[Bribie G]

Shifter, sorry I didn't realise you have an urn.
So sight tube method is the way to go. BS 2 has a BIAB in 40L urn profile built in, thanks to AndrewQld who liased with Brad Smith on this. Well worth the $29 to buy BS2. Should solve your probs.

 

[AdelaideHillsBrewer]

Grain all drained and boil started with first hop addition. A little mess but its done! :icon_cheers:

 

[QldKev]

Welcome to the dark side, we have cookies

Looks like a decent brew day

QldKev

 

[Amber Fluid]

Well worth the $29 to buy BS2. Should solve your probs.

Even better, Ross has it for $19.95 :icon_cheers:

 

[Shifter]

I have got BS 2 and note the 40 ltr urn profile. It's what I used. When I look at the equipment profile to get a batch volume of 21 ltrs in to the fermenter, it asks for 28.95 ltrs of water for the boil and 31.69 for total water required . I made that up to 32 ltrs. I will have to check the calibration of the urn again, maybe it's not right. Are there any other parameters in the profile set ups that need to be varied?

Final OG of the wort is 1032. It will very hoppy maidens water!

 

[AdelaideHillsBrewer]

Well what a great day, all cooled and in the ferment fridge now at 19deg! All the clean up done, nothing left but to crack open a long neck and relax. Big day , gained heaps of knowledge and made a few stuff ups along the way, nothing huge but will learn from next time. I'm glad I gave it a shot and can only hope my efforts reward me with a nice beer. Thanks to all the forum members, because without AHB I don't think I could have done it. :icon_cheers:

 

[Logman]

Nicely done bro - cool setup you made too. Second time is way easier than the first. By the third brew I became convinced I wasn't going to burn the house down

 

[beerbog]

Nice work. :beerbang:

 

[Cocko]

Well what a great day, all cooled and in the ferment fridge now at 19deg! All the clean up done, nothing left but to crack open a long neck and relax. Big day , gained heaps of knowledge and made a few stuff ups along the way, nothing huge but will learn from next time. I'm glad I gave it a shot and can only hope my efforts reward me with a nice beer. Thanks to all the forum members, because without AHB I don't think I could have done it. :icon_cheers:

Awesome work mate, no turning back now!


Its seems to have cooled very quickly, how? - Only 4-5 hours ago you said it was first hops... How do you no chill so fast?