First AG BIAB Brew Day Results

[sixfignig]

Just finished putting down my first AG BIAB after spending about a month or so of reading into the topic and assembling my equipment. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it all went considering it was my first brew, but ran into a few issues that I wouldn't mind your comments on. Due to my equipment size I've decided to brew 11-12L batches, as this will ensure I have enough to fill my 9.5L mini-keg as well as a few bottles.

Using BeerSmith I put together a recipe that closely resembled the Stone&Wood PA recipe posted by snow here: http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/47023-stone-and-wood-ale-recipe/


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 11.00 l
Boil Size: 13.33 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 11.44 l
Final Bottling Vol: 11.00 l
Equipment: BIAB
Efficiency: 72.00 %

Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 23.5 IBUs
Est Color: 4.0 SRM

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
1.37 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1        61.2 %        
0.73 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         2        32.7 %        
0.14 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)    Grain         3        6.1 %         


Name                  Description                             Step Temperature     Step Time     
Saccharification      Add 14.71 l of water at 72.6 C          66.0 C               60 min        
Mash Out              Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min               75.6 C               10 min        

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           4        11.5 IBUs    
3.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           5        6.4 IBUs      
0.48 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        6        -             
8.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           7        5.6 IBUs      
18.00 g               Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           8        0.0 IBUs      
20g Galaxy Dry hopped 5 days

Mash:
Didn't really experience any issues with the mashing phase. Had to pop out and grab some things so extended the mash from 60 to 90min. Used a thermapen to measure temperatures and basically got it to stay between 65-67 the entire time. Gave the grain bag a very good squeeze and felt like I got a lot of wort out as the remaining grains were nice and dry.

Boil:
Was suprised at how long it took to get to a rolling boiling on the stovetop, but otherwise didn't really have an issue. Added hops / whirlfloc as per schedule above

Cooling & OG:
So the wort cooling turned out to be the most troublesome step of all. Being on the Gold Coast means the ambient water temp is mid 20's, something I hadn't even considered beforehand. Took several bags of ice and a good 30min to bring it down to acceptable levels. Took a sample (about 25C) and measured OG was 1.052 @ 10L of volume. Punching some numbers into BrewSmith gave me an est. OG at 10L to be 1.050, so obviously means we had better than expected efficiency? Compensated the missing volume with 2 x 600mL chilled bottled waters which brought the OG down to 1.047 @ 11L, which is only 2 points above the estimated.

Racking to Fermenter:
Strained the wort into the fermenter once it hit mid-20C and continued to cool in an ice bath. After another 30min was still only down to 23C so I made the decision to pitch the yeast as the day was getting away from me. I know its optimal to pitch at fermentation temps but I was planning on continuing to chill it down. Just had a look then an hour after pitching and the temp has settled to 20C (was aiming for 19C).

My questions and comments are as follows:

1. BeerSmith estimated I would end up with 11L batch size but ended up a full 1L less. I'm guessing my setup has a higher boil-off rate and I should compensate subsequent recipes?

2. I went with the 72% default brewhouse effeciency, but after scaling our results it looks like we were closer to 75% (can someone check my calcs to make sure I'm right?). I gave the grain bag a hell of a squeeze, I thought I read somewhere that this can introduce tannins into the beer or is this baloney?

3. Any tips for a) chilling the wort down effectively in the Australian heat, and B) keeping my fermentation vessel at optimal temperature? I currently have it sitting in one of these (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxjlvM6Z0u93XR-gTdr_cTycTj6AAlbvEWnn6_VtDjuYp_R5q7) and was thinking about throwing a few frozen ice packs every day?

4. Is pitching at 23 likely to cause me any issues?

Cheers.

 

[madpierre06]

Mate, I'm no expert but can simply share my experience having started out doing stovetops when I got into AG. Firstly, regarding your temperature control, the first thing I got was a wine fridge off gumtree for 50/60 bucks. For brewing ales, it did the job nicely for me and fitted a 30L FV perfectly with the lid and airlock tossed and replaced by gladwrap and rubber seal arrangement. When it came to cooling my wort (and bare in mind I was doing 20L batches via the BigW 19L pot method as outlined in this thread http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/55617-step-by-step-biab-lcba-clone/ ) to bring my batch volume up to speed and help drop my wort temps, I used large soup cans of ice. I also sat the pot of wort on a bed of ice inside the kitchen sink and packed as much ice as I could around it then ran the tap through the ice with the strainer plug adjusted enough to allow a small flow of water through.

To get as much as I could out of my sparging, I was fortunate enough to have a stainless steel wok-style/shaped colander which sat perfectly inside another of the BigW pots. This setup was fine for the smaller style batches and beers where a large grain bill wasn't needed.

Good luck with your brewing, I found it a lot of fun getting into the AG, and very satisfying to drink some very nice beers I'd made from scratch. BTW, in Brissie.

 

[stewy]

Just finished putting down my first AG BIAB after spending about a month or so of reading into the topic and assembling my equipment. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it all went considering it was my first brew, but ran into a few issues that I wouldn't mind your comments on. Due to my equipment size I've decided to brew 11-12L batches, as this will ensure I have enough to fill my 9.5L mini-keg as well as a few bottles.

Using BeerSmith I put together a recipe that closely resembled the Stone&Wood PA recipe posted by snow here: http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/47023-stone-and-wood-ale-recipe/

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 11.00 l
Boil Size: 13.33 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 11.44 l
Final Bottling Vol: 11.00 l
Equipment:  BIAB
Efficiency: 72.00 %

Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG 
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 % 
Bitterness: 23.5 IBUs 
Est Color: 4.0 SRM

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
1.37 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1        61.2 %        
0.73 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         2        32.7 %        
0.14 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)    Grain         3        6.1 %         


Name                  Description                             Step Temperature     Step Time     
Saccharification      Add 14.71 l of water at 72.6 C          66.0 C               60 min        
Mash Out              Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min               75.6 C               10 min        

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           4        11.5 IBUs    
3.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           5        6.4 IBUs      
0.48 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        6        -             
8.00 g                Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           7        5.6 IBUs      
18.00 g               Galaxy [13.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           8        0.0 IBUs      
20g Galaxy Dry hopped 5 days

Mash:
Didn't really experience any issues with the mashing phase. Had to pop out and grab some things so extended the mash from 60 to 90min. Used a thermapen to measure temperatures and basically got it to stay between 65-67 the entire time. Gave the grain bag a very good squeeze and felt like I got a lot of wort out as the remaining grains were nice and dry.

Boil:
Was suprised at how long it took to get to a rolling boiling on the stovetop, but otherwise didn't really have an issue. Added hops / whirlfloc as per schedule above

Cooling & OG:
So the wort cooling turned out to be the most troublesome step of all. Being on the Gold Coast means the ambient water temp is mid 20's, something I hadn't even considered beforehand. Took several bags of ice and a good 30min to bring it down to acceptable levels. Took a sample (about 25C) and measured OG was 1.052 @ 10L of volume. Punching some numbers into BrewSmith gave me an est. OG at 10L to be 1.050, so obviously means we had better than expected efficiency? Compensated the missing volume with 2 x 600mL chilled bottled waters which brought the OG down to 1.047 @ 11L, which is only 2 points above the estimated.

Racking to Fermenter:
Strained the wort into the fermenter once it hit mid-20C and continued to cool in an ice bath. After another 30min was still only down to 23C so I made the decision to pitch the yeast as the day was getting away from me. I know its optimal to pitch at fermentation temps but I was planning on continuing to chill it down. Just had a look then an hour after pitching and the temp has settled to 20C (was aiming for 19C).

My questions and comments are as follows:

1. BeerSmith estimated I would end up with 11L batch size but ended up a full 1L less. I'm guessing my setup has a higher boil-off rate and I should compensate subsequent recipes?

2. I went with the 72% default brewhouse effeciency, but after scaling our results it looks like we were closer to 75% (can someone check my calcs to make sure I'm right?). I gave the grain bag a hell of a squeeze, I thought I read somewhere that this can introduce tannins into the beer or is this baloney?

3. Any tips for a) chilling the wort down effectively in the Australian heat, and B) keeping my fermentation vessel at optimal temperature? I currently have it sitting in one of these (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxjlvM6Z0u93XR-gTdr_cTycTj6AAlbvEWnn6_VtDjuYp_R5q7) and was thinking about throwing a few frozen ice packs every day?

4. Is pitching at 23 likely to cause me any issues?

Cheers.

1- Most likely
2 - See what efficiency you get with subsequent brews. Consistency here is paramount; whether you get 65% or 80% is far less important than whether you hit you numbers consistently. Squeeze the bag to buggery, you won't extract tannins - that's baloney
3- Main goal is to get wort under approx 80C as quickly as possible (this is when hop oils stop isomorising). Either that or go to no chill method & adjust hop additions accordingly. If you want decent beer get a fridge & a temp controller. This is the single most crucial investment if you want decent beer. At the very minimum use a swamp cooler (google it)
4 - No

 

[sixfignig]

Thanks guys, appreciate the responses.

I have the FV submerged in some iced water in a soft standing cooler bag. I've chucked in a few frozen 600mL bottles of water throughout the day and getting a fairly steady 19-21C. I'm assuming fluctuations of a few degrees isn't too bad.

It's been 24 hours since pitching and no airlock activity yet but does look like krausen is forming so won't sweat it just yet.

 

[sixfignig]

Spoke too soon.... it's now ferociously bubbling away

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

+1 on the fridge with temp control (ie STC-1000). This was the single biggest factor in the improvement of my beer. Using some sort of temperature control as you are doing now is obviously better than just sitting it in your garage (as I was doing), but the ability to simply set and forget with a temp controlled fridge is one of the best investments you will make toward the quality of your beer. Particularly if you're now going through the greater effort of all-grain brewing.

 

[sixfignig]

I've been able to hold fermentation temps fairly steady but still not optimal conditions. Good news is I managed to pick-up a free bar fridge, and have an STC-1000 on order that my sparky mate is going to wire up for me. This little hobby has gone from 0-100 pretty quickly :lol:

I added 20g of Galaxy in a nylon bag last night and will leave it until I rack to the keg on Sunday.

A couple more questions:

1. Is 48 hours long enough for a cold crash?
2. Any reasons why I shouldn't leave the dry hops in during my cold crash?

 

[Coodgee]

1. It would be a minimum. Try adding a teaspoon of gelatine dissolved in half acup of freshly boiled water after your beer is cold and leave it for another 48 hours. That will give you a really clear beer.
2. No. Leave them in.

 

[Diesel80]

As above, 48 hours at Cold Crash Temps would be Min. Just make sure you allow time to get down to the temps (in addition to the 48 hours).

I normally do a week, but have had good results with 4 days as well.

Have also done 3 weeks. Beer looks filtered!

Cheers,
D80

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Just make sure the hops aren't in there really any longer than 4 days. Galaxy can produce a very distinct grassy flavour if left in there too long.

 

[Bribie G]

For wort cooling I'd recommend getting a 10 litre white water container from Bunnings and a large funnel.
I use 2 for a full size brew. Do a search on no chilling.
The 10 L holds more like 11 so perfect size.

 

[Chookers]

I tried to do the Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale, and I think I messed up. I was aiming for a 11.5L batch. I was aiming for IBU of around 30.
I boiled it 80min. I mashed it 90mins at 67.

2.5kg JW pale.
0.25kg Wheat malt (in place of the torrified wheat)
Nelson Sauvin hop Flowers @
7g 60min
7g 10 mins
10g 0min

My initial O.G was 1060 but I think I had boiled it too much as I had come out with 10L, I wanted 11.5L, so I topped it up with only 1 litre of boiled water (is this okay to do, or am I a sinner now) this brought the S.G to 1054 still a bit high me thinks.. my yeast ended up being one from a coopers sparkling ale kit.. as my US05 had died.

I was after a beer with around 4-4.5%alc, as it is now its looking like it will be over 5%.
is it okay to add more water at the end of fermentation? to bring the strength down, or will this ruin my first ever AG BIAB..

 

[Barge]

The biggest issue with adding water post fermentation is the introduction of oxygen, which will lead to premature staling. If your batches only last a couple of weeks then this won't be a problem. I recently diluted post ferment by adding cooled boiled water at packaging. I boiled a litre or so of water for 15 min and allowed it to cool with the lid on. This sterilises and removes most of the oxygen. When the water cools it will start to reabsorb O2 so try not to agitate it too much. I then added this to the keg with priming sugar and racked the beer onto it. I allowed the beer to naturally carbonate, which would have helped the yeast scavenge any O2 that made it in.

If you are bottling and want to dilute, the easiest way would be to bulk prime the batch. Essentially do what I describe above and add the cooled boiled water and sugar to a empty, sterilised fermenter/bottling bucket. Add the beer to that and then bottle from there. Should be fine.

 

[chrisluki]

Mate, I'm no expert but can simply share my experience having started out doing stovetops when I got into AG. Firstly, regarding your temperature control, the first thing I got was a wine fridge off gumtree for 50/60 bucks. For brewing ales, it did the job nicely for me and fitted a 30L FV perfectly with the lid and airlock tossed and replaced by gladwrap and rubber seal arrangement. When it came to cooling my wort (and bare in mind I was doing 20L batches via the BigW 19L pot method as outlined in this thread http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/55617-step-by-step-biab-lcba-clone/ ) to bring my batch volume up to speed and help drop my wort temps, I used large soup cans of ice. I also sat the pot of wort on a bed of ice inside the kitchen sink and packed as much ice as I could around it then ran the tap through the ice with the strainer plug adjusted enough to allow a small flow of water through.

To get as much as I could out of my sparging, I was fortunate enough to have a stainless steel wok-style/shaped colander which sat perfectly inside another of the BigW pots. This setup was fine for the smaller style batches and beers where a large grain bill wasn't needed.

Good luck with your brewing, I found it a lot of fun getting into the AG, and very satisfying to drink some very nice beers I'd made from scratch. BTW, in Brissie.

You could move to Tasmania? My beer sits under my stairs all year round and bubbles away at 16 - 19 degrees without any interference!

 

[chrisluki]

1. It would be a minimum. Try adding a teaspoon of gelatine dissolved in half acup of freshly boiled water after your beer is cold and leave it for another 48 hours. That will give you a really clear beer.
2. No. Leave them in.

Does this gelatin trick just attract all the "bits" and send them to the bottom?

 

[Coodgee]

Essentially, yes. It clumps the particulate matter suspended in the beer which causes it to settle much more quickly. The results are very good.

 

[Barge]

+1 for gelatin. The lager I just posted in the what's in the glass thread was fined with gelatin in the FV, left for a couple of days and then kegged. Couple of weeks larer and it looks filtered.

 

[Chookers]

thanks Barge,

I was planning on bottle conditioning anyway as I don't have any other equipment for carbing, so this all sounds good.. I think I will do as you do and bulk prime too while I'm at it.

 

[Bribie G]

If bottling, use the gelatine in the FV and then bottle when clear, don't worry there's plenty of yeast cells still there.
You don't want to bottle when cloudy because even though the gelatine will continue to work in the bottle, it tends to produce "fluffy bottoms" that swirl up when you move the bottles.

 

[louistoo]

Does this gelatine thing work without the cold crash? I also live in Tassie and don't have a ferment fridge, keen to get a little less particulates into the finished product. ??