Brew In A Bag And Equipment Questions

[BreathingHeat]

Upon my AWESOME girlfriend buying me a brewing setup for my 30th, I did my first BIAB batch the weekend before last (20 liters of American IPA

). All things considered, I think it went fairly well.

Definite mistakes:

• Left the lid of the pot on for most of the boil. Needless to say, we didn't boil off as much shit as we should have.
  
• One of the hoses popped off of "Copper Cobra" (homemade wort chiller) during chilling. We then reverted to an ice bath, which took a few hours. We did not have the top of the fermenter on during this time, but it was inside.
  
• When racking from the pot to the primary we accidentally added some of the sediment at the bottom of the pot. It was being passed through a wire mesh strainer that caught most of the nasty shit.
  
• Forgot to take the OG
  
• The primary got up to 23 a few hours after we pitched the yeast. It was bubbling like all hell by the time we got up. It has been at a steady 19-21 ever since
  

One question is that I noticed the temperature outside of the grain bag was roughly 10 degrees higher than the temp in the bag. For instance, during mashing when the temp was 65 on the built in kettle thermometer (outside the bag), it was only ~55 in the bag (checked with a electronic probe thermometer). Both thermometers are calibrated, so that's not an issue. Also, my bag is large enough to fit my 46 liter pot in it. I assume I should only rely on the temperature taken inside the bag during mashing/mash out/etc? My false bottom is about 4 cm tall, which might be a bit too tall. As in too much liquid outside of the bag at the bottom achieving a higher temperature.

Equipment questions-

I am preparing to buy a kegerator and a couple cornie kegs. At this point I can go in the direction of ball locks or pin locks, as I will have to buy the connectors for the kegerator lines. Are there advantages to either? I'm thinking that ball lock cornie kegs are more common. Suggestions?

Where is a good place to buy a Co2 gas bottle? I do not want to hire one.

Kind of siphon to rack the beer from the fermenter to the keg? Where to buy?

Thanks for the help!!!

Here are some brewing pictures:

Key ingredients

Super fresh New Zealand Cascade flowers.

 

[BreathingHeat]

Weighing out the ingredients. Corn sugar.

Adding gypsum to harden up the water

 

[BreathingHeat]

11 lbs 2row, 1.5 Vienna, 0.5 Crystal, 0.5 Dextrose. Milled twice.

Hop additions (Centennial pellets, Cascade flowers) and Wyeast 1272.

Strike temp for step mash

 

[BreathingHeat]

Mash out at 170

Draining the sweet wort

Sparging the grain

 

[BreathingHeat]

reintroducing the sweet wort

Lining up the additions. 60, 30, 15, 5, 0

2 hop socks during the boil

Chilling the wort

 

[BreathingHeat]

Hop aftermath

In to the fermenter

Pitching the yeast at 21

Jack Daniel's in the airlock

 

[BreathingHeat]

Fermentation time

7 days later. Time to dry hop.

preparing the dry hop addition

 

[BreathingHeat]

 

[flano]

AWESOME girlfriend

correctamundo!!!!!

 

[Barley Belly]

:icon_drool2:

Super fresh New Zealand Cascade flowers.

:icon_drool2:

Brings back fond memories on popping the packet of another member of the cannabis family.

Being a family man, hops is the closest I get nowadays. :huh:

 

[bcp]

Great job. My wife is supportive, but doesn't exactly come out and help me.

One question is that I noticed the temperature outside of the grain bag was roughly 10 degrees higher than the temp in the bag. For instance, during mashing when the temp was 65 on the built in kettle thermometer (outside the bag), it was only ~55 in the bag (checked with a electronic probe thermometer). Both thermometers are calibrated, so that's not an issue. Also, my bag is large enough to fit my 46 liter pot in it. I assume I should only rely on the temperature taken inside the bag during mashing/mash out/etc? My false bottom is about 4 cm tall, which might be a bit too tall. As in too much liquid outside of the bag at the bottom achieving a higher temperature.

You've got me curious.

Were you adding heat during the mash? If so, you need to give the grain a pretty good stir, because it operates a little like insulation, slowing down natural circulation of water.

If not, that's a very big temp difference, and since heat loss occurs to the outside, it should if anything be marginally warmer on the inside. Was the grain refrigerated? I stir in the grain as it goes in, so in theory the temp difference shouldn't be much.

Next time it'd be useful to lift the bag and stick the probe thermometer in and see if it's reading the same. I've heard that built in thermometers can give different results in some cases.

 

[Brewme]

G'day BreathingHeat

It looks like you're pretty well set up with your gear.

Ever thought of trading in that grain bag for a decent esky with a tap.

Then make a copper manifold for it.

No more lifting heavy bags of wet grain. No more draining/squeezing the bag to get all the goodness out. Twice.

You got the boiler. I'm sure you got a pot or two for the hot water. The initial strike water can be heated in your boiler.

I done 1 BIAB and found it too cumbersome. Hanging the bag over a bucket to collect the drips. Soaking the bag in more hot water and hanging it up again to repeat the procedure. Squeezing the bag to extract all the goodness from it. No guarantee that all the goodness has been extracted as the grain is compacted in the bag.

IMO an esky is easier to use than a bag. When you're not using it for brewing, it can be used for parties, picnics, camping/shooting trips and even keep your ice cream and meat cool from the shops to home.

My 2c worth.

Cheers

 

[Gretschem]

:icon_drool2:


:icon_drool2:

Brings back fond memories on popping the packet of another member of the cannabis family.

Being a family man, hops is the closest I get nowadays. :huh:

lol, the ol stick ???

Awesome brew day mate, and the pictures are great, well done.

I'm doing an all grain JSAA Clone real soon,

Regards

 

[BreathingHeat]

Great job. My wife is supportive, but doesn't exactly come out and help me.


You've got me curious.

Were you adding heat during the mash? If so, you need to give the grain a pretty good stir, because it operates a little like insulation, slowing down natural circulation of water.

If not, that's a very big temp difference, and since heat loss occurs to the outside, it should if anything be marginally warmer on the inside. Was the grain refrigerated? I stir in the grain as it goes in, so in theory the temp difference shouldn't be much.

Next time it'd be useful to lift the bag and stick the probe thermometer in and see if it's reading the same. I've heard that built in thermometers can give different results in some cases.

Thanks for your time. Thinking about it again, the 10 degree disparity was while approaching my mash out temp, so I think it was the grain acting as insulation. The heat was on full blast at that time and the grain hadn't been well circulated. I will need to take more reads with the probe while brewing next time.

 

[outbreak]

G'day BreathingHeat

It looks like you're pretty well set up with your gear.

Ever thought of trading in that grain bag for a decent esky with a tap.

Then make a copper manifold for it.

No more lifting heavy bags of wet grain. No more draining/squeezing the bag to get all the goodness out. Twice.

You got the boiler. I'm sure you got a pot or two for the hot water. The initial strike water can be heated in your boiler.

I done 1 BIAB and found it too cumbersome. Hanging the bag over a bucket to collect the drips. Soaking the bag in more hot water and hanging it up again to repeat the procedure. Squeezing the bag to extract all the goodness from it. No guarantee that all the goodness has been extracted as the grain is compacted in the bag.

IMO an esky is easier to use than a bag. When you're not using it for brewing, it can be used for parties, picnics, camping/shooting trips and even keep your ice cream and meat cool from the shops to home.

My 2c worth.

Cheers

I don't get why people think draining the bag is hard... I seriously lift bag after 10min at mashout temp, wait for it to drain (usually 30 seconds) then twirl it to form a ball and put it in my 12litre pot with a colander under it. I have been getting 80% efficiency into the kettle. Dam site easier than cleaning out a mashtun.....

Anyhooo, nice work Breathingheat. I have one of those metal plunging paint stirrers that i use when heating to mashout temps it seems to work fine. You're lucky the Mrs helps out so much!

 

[felten]

A pulley and a bit of rope makes it easy work, you don't have to hold anything up, just lift and tie it over the kettle (or the cake rack like in the pictures above). A sparging step is also unnecessary unless you're having difficulty fitting all the grain and water in the pot, sure you probably leave some extract behind in the grains, but there is only a small amount retained compared to other methods. You should be looking at around 80% in the kettle for your average size grain bill.

 

[jakester]

Nice setup mate, as for answering one of your questions goes, i bought some silicon hose from Craftbrewer a while back and use it for transfering all my wort. I use it straight from the kettle after the boil, straight into my no chill vessel then it comes back out at racking time and again at kegging time. It fits right over your fermenter taps so no fittings needed. Simple piece of equipment that i cannot go without these days.
Oh and the corny kegs, in my experience ball locks seem the most popular, have not come across too many pin kegs, so it depends on where you are buying them from. It also helps to put in your location so people can recommend where to buy the gear as well.
Im no expert though, just my two cents woth. Cheers.

 

[flano]

my only piece of advice would be...put some bloody shoes one will ya.

100 dgr wort onto sandaled feet would suck arse.



cool looking setup though.

 

[argon]

Great setup mate... testament to the simplicity of BIAB.
As for your "mistake"s, don't worry too much i'm sure you'll end up with awesome beer. But consider these points;

- Make sure next time you leave the lid off for the boil as you want to boil off the nasties and precursors to some detrimental flavours. If you'r not getting a vigorous enough boil with the lid off, try floating a food grade plastic bucket lid or SS bowl on the surface of the wort. This will cut down surface area, allowing a more vigorous boil.
- I like to make sure all hoses are silicone. PVC can leach off flavours int the wort, especially when hot. Silicone is great as it insulates nicely, holds firm under heat and doesn't leach anything.
- Don't worry much about the sediment into fermenter. If you're taking measures to exclude as much kettle trub and break material as possible. You're doing well enough.
- Measuring OG, something I forget on a regular basis. Your beer won't taste any better or worse cause you don't know it. So not really worth a worry.
- Starting at 23 then getting to 19-21 for 1272 is about right, if a little high. 18 is spot on in my opinion ... it will throw up a few fruity esters. But appropriate for an IPA. so you should be cool. Look into getting a ferm fridge if you can. Temp control is paramount in creating good repeatable beers.

Ball lock kegs... easily available. Kegging is awesome.

Cheers
:icon_cheers:

 

[mwd]

Very Good pictorial guide of A-Z of BIAB. Don't know how you do it I make a big mess just doing K&Bits. Thanks for sharing.