Biab Woes

[QldKev]

We brew outside in the elements...

lol I had to rough it, I started a brew the other day at 7am; and the temp gauge out on my back patio (brew area) said it was just 14... Brrrrr.

QldKev

 

[Katherine]

Nice and warm when the boil is on though!

 

[cdbrown]

Katie - have a chat to Nev about borrowing a bag for the weekend.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

If you need to add heat when the bag is in the pot - all yo have to do is keep the burner turned on relatively low and stir the bloody thing. CONSTANTLY

A cake rack or whatnot can give you extra security, but you don't need it if you are willing to put in the effort to stir it, and you have the patience to not compulsively turn your burner up to flat out.

Adding a degree or two during the mash to bring the heat back up - if you do lose enough to warrant it of course - should take maybe a minute or two, and maybe 10-15 minutes to bring mash temp up to sparge temp.

 

[huscre]

Cool. I just got back from the stores with:
- 1.5m of swiss voile from spotlight ($10.50),
- cake cooling rack from woolies (~$8.00), and
- a paint stirrer (jiant potato masher) from bunnings (was ~$9.50 but it had no price tag so they sold it for $6.50 to speed up the line)

Thanks for all the positive feedback.. I'll try again tomorrow night if my grain arrives in time.
One of these days I'm gonna make a homebrew that people enjoy drinking.. one day..

 

[Katherine]

Cool. I just got back from the stores with:
- 1.5m of swiss voile from spotlight ($10.50),
- cake cooling rack from woolies (~$8.00), and
- a paint stirrer (jiant potato masher) from bunnings (was ~$9.50 but it had no price tag so they sold it for $6.50 to speed up the line)

Thanks for all the positive feedback.. I'll try again tomorrow night if my grain arrives in time.
One of these days I'm gonna make a homebrew that people enjoy drinking.. one day..

Thate will be before you know it.... though Im finding Im becoming more and more critical of my beer.

 

[eamonnfoley]

Last night I started my first ever BIAB session and despite my best intentions just about everything under the sun went wrong..

My brewpot which I ordered a week and a half ago still hasn't arrived, so I was making do with a keggle instead.

Another store was out of stock of the deluxe burner I wanted so I was using a cheapo high pressure turkey (nasa) burner instead.

It turns out the turkey burner starves of oxygen unless you have a gap for air to escape around the base of the keggle, so I used some sandstone tiles to chock up the keg creating an air gap..

It turns out that sandstone tiles have a tendency to crack when you turn up the temperature threatening to drop the keg and spill hot wort across the floor, so I took a few breaks during initial heating to try get it safe.

It took a good 20minutes extra (than the checklist allowed) to reach 66degrees since I was afraid to turn up the burner to max power and crack the sandstone tiles. The instructions didn't emphasize stirring during this phase, but I did anyway since I was constantly monitoring the temperature.

After reaching 66 degrees I turned off the burner and let it mash, and after a few 5minute checks I was distracted by an unrelated emergency (fishtank overflowing due to a water timer that gave up after a few years of reliable service) and dropped my thermometer in the mash.

After tending to the fish tank I lifted the bag to get at the thermometer and realized the bag had a huge hole burnt through it and had lost all my grain into the keggle. I had been mashing with a burnt out bag

So now I feel kinda ripped off. I lost my swiss voile bag with mum's expert sewing, I lost my grain, my keggle has black polyester burnt to the bottom of it, yet I heated it slower than the instructions recommended, I stirred it more than the instructions recommended, I don't see what more I coulda done..

Has anyone else had this problem? and If so, is there a way I can save/re-use my grain if it happens again?

Looks like most of your problems are the type that will not reoccur (fishtank, tiles etc). I dont use a cake stand, but find with a fairly large brewpot (50L) and a nasa burner, that I do not need a cake stand. It keeps the bag off the bottom. Might also have something to do with having a heavy duty, good quality brewpot (Robinox) that disperses the heat evenly.

You'll look back and laugh at this :lol:

 

[Renegade]

Yea, your next beer is going to be awesome, probably the best one youve ever made. We all screw up on something from time to time.

:icon_offtopic: For example, my kitchen floor saw three litres of a Porter puddle yesterday afternoon ! Someone (me) left a racking process unattended. The floor's so sticky now it's like being in a strip club.

Anyway, good luck, I'm sure your next brew will be fine. Let us know of your successes (and eventually how the beers tastes)

 

[eamonnfoley]

The floor's so sticky now it's like being in a strip club.

A strip club with good beer - now your talking!

 

[troopa]

Gee i wish i could only drop 3 degrees when i add grain.. strike temp of 71C stir like buggery for 5 mins, i hit 65C and it was 16C outside and the grains stored where its about 13C atm

CBF raising the temp so i just left it
lost 2.5C over the hour .. its still going better then drinking the Tooheys New i was on Saturday (maybe the extremely shocking hang over had something to do with not really giving a rats LOL ) but in the end its always going to better then commercial crap and cans of goop

You learn from your mistakes except when hung over

Tom

 

[pdilley]

I feel your pain. If you could take sound recordings of everyone who has done something new like AG brewing for the first time and spliced it together. You'd have hours long rolling of obscenities that would make a whore blush and a priest drop dead on the spot


It gets a lot better, trust me

Keep on brewing!

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[huscre]

Thanks for the positive words guys,

I was hoping to make a big comeback post today with stories of epic success, but unfortunately my replacement grain didn't arrive in the post this morning.

The order included express post delivery which has always taken a day in the past from this supplier (which was why I was ok with paying the inflated prices).
I placed the order before start of business yesterday so I thought I'd surely get it today. I also made cancellations in my shedule to free tonight up for brewing, but nothing arrived this morning. Don't you hate it when you fork out the cash for express post and the shop CBF posting it, or even emailing you to say there'll be a delay? Not happy Jan!

I guess before I'm labelled a loose cannon who gets his knickers in a knot over the smallest of delays I should point out that I'm flying off overseas this friday, hence my haste and impatience. I really want to have something fermenting while I'm gone since I've been out of tasty homebrew for a few weeks now (enough to make any of us grumpy) and quality retail beers are damn expensive!

Now it looks like I'll either be pulling an all-nighter before I fly out, or leaving my cracked grain to degrade while I'm away.

Just for future reference, can anyone recommend a reliable, affordable online source for grain? I'd love to support my LHBS, but I'm still waiting on some yeast I ordered a week and a half ago from them so I'm reluctant to rely on them ordering in my grain.

 

[cdbrown]

Craftbrewer has been great for communications and posting on time. Ross and his team do a great job. Give him a call when you order to see if he can post it out that day.

I do try and get most of my stuff from Gryphon Brewing which I guess is my LHBS (local home brew shed) - not needed anything posted from Nev. But the post would take a while being on the other side of aus.

Did you contact the supplier about the order to find out where it is? How long will you be away?

 

[huscre]

Lol. Actually it was craftbrewer I was dealing with. They appear to have the widest variety of ingredients.

I sent them an email this morning to ask if they had shipped the order and they said they are closed on Mondays and will post it today.
I wouldn't mention names if I was badmouthing them, but shops closing on weekdays is okay in my books. Means they can stay open on weekends when locals actually have time to visit them.
Sucks for me since I have no grain, but at least now I know their policy now and that they aren't slackers.

I'll be heading off for a bit over 2 weeks. Doing the Top Gear thing and riding motorbikes across vietnam

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I'll be heading off for a bit over 2 weeks. Doing the Top Gear thing and riding motorbikes across vietnam

:icon_offtopic: I think you mean avoiding trucks , buss's and Hondas with 5 people on them, not to mention the holes in the "road".Crazy place but I love it. Make sure you check out Lousieanne (sp?) brew house in Nha Trang.Park your Honda right at the front door.
GB

 

[huscre]

:icon_offtopic: Thanks for the tip. I'll add it to the list.. Bia Hoi!

 

[Maxt]

Cool. I just got back from the stores with:
- 1.5m of swiss voile from spotlight ($10.50),
- cake cooling rack from woolies (~$8.00), and
- a paint stirrer (jiant potato masher) from bunnings (was ~$9.50 but it had no price tag so they sold it for $6.50 to speed up the line)

On top of the first bag and all the effort etc, would a mash tun have been that much more hassle and expense?

 

[eric8]

On top of the first bag and all the effort etc, would a mash tun have been that much more hassle and expense?

You don't think that an esky would have been more than that??
If he wants to try BIAB, whats the big deal??? Let him make his beer anyway he wants.

 

[huscre]

Hey Maxt I'm currently doing BIAB because it's the only way I can make beer in time before I leave to go overseas. I bought most of the initial equipment before I had committed to raising funds for a HERMS setup.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with BIAB. My goals are fairly modest. I'd like to make beer that tastes as good as the beer you can make at thebeerfactory or u-brew-it stores. So far I've made 2 batches at thebeerfactory that tasted great (better than the beers they were trying to clone in my opinion) and since their recipes aren't even partial grain, I'm hoping I can make beer of equal or better quality by going AG.

I am determined to make good beer that isn't overcarbonated, that doesn't have half an inch of sediment on the bottom of each stubbie, that doesn't smell like feet. I have sold heaps of old stuff on eBay to raise funds for an all grain Stainless Steel HERMS setup. The money is in the bank but unfortunately the store I want to buy my stuff from is REALLY slow and I'm still waiting on a brew kettle I ordered from them 2 weeks ago. I'm reluctant to buy the rest of the setup from them while they are still stringing me out on my initial order.

Hence BIAB is where it's at for now. Who knows, if this batch turns out well enough I may save my dosh and cancel the HERMS project alltogether.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Just for future reference, can anyone recommend a reliable, affordable online source for grain? I'd love to support my LHBS, but I'm still waiting on some yeast I ordered a week and a half ago from them so I'm reluctant to rely on them ordering in my grain.

You need a cheaper store, because when I read

I've placed another order for the grain.. $44 for 5Kgs of grain delivered at least I didn't have to re-purchase the hops and yeast.
I'll buy some new fabric today at lunch, and hopefully have another go tomorrow night.

My response was 'wut' :blink:


I, like the others recommend Craftbrewer- good service and much cheaper prices. Dang, you should be getting a lot more than 5kg of grain for $44!