First Ag Biab

[Wonderwoman]

[Hmm.. I like the old clothes hanger idea, I will have to steal that one!]
Here is another cheap one.

1. Cut off PVC pipe 10 - 15 cm, drill 3 - holes for wire
2. 3 - 4 pieces of wire
3. Some cut off from your leftover bag material
4. hose clamp

View attachment 27337[

That looks like a nice set up. I'd seen photos of similar setups on here and I'm aiming for something similar for my next AG, but I had to imporvise on the day.

I had acutally planned to just chuck in three separate tied up hop bags. The urn comes with a stainless steel element cover, so I thought they'd be protected from the element, but once the boil started the element cover was floating around in the middle of the urn. That's when I started desparately searching for something to suspend the hop bags from and found the coat hanger wire. The hops for each addition were in different bags and I just slipped the string over the wire.

 

[Phoney]

I bought a couple of 25L cubes from Ray's Outdoors recently. They were $15.95 each from memory. Taps were an extra 2 or 3 bucks.

 

[Wonderwoman]

I use those tall jerry cans for secondary/ccing as i can fit more than 1 in the fridge.

plus, the taller and slimmer a vessel, the faster the yeast settles.......

good points - I hadn't thought of those... I'll just have to rip out the kitchen cuboards... i'm sure the landlord wont mind

 

[brettprevans]

great effort by the way WW. I meant to say that in the first post.

youll have to add your name to the BIAB register. ashame your not coming to Mrs Parmas tomorrow to meet Katie and Llyod from WA, KT is another BIABer

 

[chappo1970]

WW? Not wanting to pry tooo much BUT

If your now BIAB what method does HWDMB do for his brews?

Chappo

 

[Wonderwoman]

great effort by the way WW. I meant to say that in the first post.

youll have to add your name to the BIAB register. ashame your not coming to Mrs Parmas tomorrow to meet Katie and Llyod from WA, KT is another BIABer

thanks to everyone for the congrats.

I tried to add my name to the BIAB register, but the formatting is all f'd up???

would have loved to go tomorrow, but I would in the burbs, so lunch is out . If it's going to drag on till the evening I could make an appearance...

WW? Not wanting to pry tooo much BUT

If your now BIAB what method does HWDMB do for his brews?

Chappo

I have to confess I'm not completely converted to the dark side yet. I still plan to do some k+b, just to save time, and try to do 1-2 AG's per month. HWDMB has so far been mostly satisfied to go along with whatever recipe I'm planning, so I assume he'll want to try some BIABs

 

[chappo1970]

...I have to confess I'm not completely converted to the dark side yet...
SNIP
....HWDMB has so far been mostly satisfied to go along with whatever recipe I'm planning, so I assume he'll want to try some BIABs...

Oh yes you are wait till you try your brew and then try saying it again?

I'm glad to see HWDMB is a good puppy dog and does exactly what he is told! I'm telling ya if I was you I would kick 'im out of bed to lift the grain bag, then let go back to bed.

Cheers

Chappo

 

[Bribie G]

I was round at another forum member's place yesterday afternoon getting ratarsed and he said that just before getting into brewing he sold his Fowlers Vacola urn because he never envisioned using it for anything. EEK. Well I'm sure we've all got stories like that.

Temperature control: I use a Birko urn with a pretty good temp control dial, however I switch it off on reaching strike temp, then I use the doonah method to avoid either melting the bag or getting hotspots at the bottom of the mash. First I slip over an old kid's size sleeping bag then I wrap the whole thing in a single feather doonah and strap it with some nylon cord. My last mash, two hours, I lost one degree per hour. You've got the hot mash already, best to keep it insulated and let it do its thing IMHO.

Your method is bog standard textbook BIAB, looks great. 30 litres is pushing the envelope just a bit. For a bit more efficiency, what I often do with a stronger beer is:

After mashing, run about six litres of the sweet wort off into a stockpot. Pour six litres of very hot water into the urn, stir like buggery. Hoist and drain the bag. Pour the six litres of first runnings back in, then do the boil. You need to boil for an extra half hour or so to evaporate off and get the level back to what it would have been, but you get a better extraction (ie less sugaz left clinging in the spent mash).

Welcome to the black arts :icon_cheers:

 

[flattop]

Well done WW i knocked up a couple of batches of Dr Smurto's GA for my 2nd and 3rd AG and the first hit 1.040 just like yours, i managed to squeeze a couple more points from the 2nd by stirring a whole lot more often. This will also ensure you get a more accurate temp reading by preventing hot spots near the the heat source.

Like you, i don't turn off my urn but rely on the thermostat to keep a constant temp, in fact Dr Smurto's requires a higher mash out temp anyhow.

As for draining the urn to the cube, i drain my urn directly into the cube running the wort down the side, not straight in, trying to reduce splashing to prevent oxidization (if you believe in HSA i don't)
Seems to work fine.

 

[Pollux]

Oh yes you are wait till you try your brew and then try saying it again?

This is so VERY true....

I remember drinking my first AG, after 5 days in the bottle it crapped all over my best extract which at the time I made it I thought was awesome...

 

[Wonderwoman]

As for draining the urn to the cube, i drain my urn directly into the cube running the wort down the side, not straight in, trying to reduce splashing to prevent oxidization (if you believe in HSA i don't)
Seems to work fine.

hmm... I hadn't even thought of that. would be much easier than f'ing around with the hose

 

[crundle]

I dump my hot wort into the cube using the bog standard Crown Urn tap, no hose. No problems, and no HSA. Keep it simple.

I am changing my mashing system for the next brew to mirror BribieG's. The urn thermostat may be fine, but it seems that the grain in the bag may form a blanket of sorts over the element and thermometer, so while it will heat up, it is only local to under the grain bag, leaving the rest of the grain at a lower temperature. I hope to get better extraction for my next brew.

Oh, and you will find it hard to go back to kits ever once you taste the first AG you have made. We all said the same thing I think, but the power of the dark side is very strong indeed!

cheers,

Crundle

 

[Wonderwoman]

if the pull of the dark side is indeed as strong as you all claim it is, I'm going to have to get a bigger pot/urn so I can do double batches cos I just don't have time to do a 20L AG every weekend!

besides, Crundle, you're still making kit brews...?

 

[marcuspianta]

if the pull of the dark side is indeed as strong as you all claim it is, I'm going to have to get a bigger pot/urn so I can do double batches cos I just don't have time to do a 20L AG every weekend!

besides, Crundle, you're still making kit brews...?

hey all,
long-time forum note-taker, 1st post.

Did my first biab on the weekend - inspired by many of the biab posts, and most recently, this one.

All went well aside from half the wort on the floor cos when i pulled it out of the urn, the pot i put it in was too small.

Trap for young palyers. makes efficiency calculations tricky.

Anyway, was a little creatures bright ale clone (thanks Tony - http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&recipe=301).

Only advice i'd have is just get in and give it a go. I procrastinated trying to perfect the finer points, but there is no substitute for trouble-shooting as you go and just getting into it.

Thanks again all,

marcus.

 

[Mantis]

Hey Marcus, welcome onboard

When pulling the bag out of the pot you can gather up a corner of it so the bag has a pointy bottom. Gloves here would be handy (makes ANOTHER mental note to buy some), but if you can grab a bit of bag and shake the grain out of it , it cools imediately and can be pulled up . See the pics in my blog.
Welcome to the double dark side, AG and BIAB
heheheheh

 

[Wonderwoman]

hey all,
long-time forum note-taker, 1st post.

Did my first biab on the weekend - inspired by many of the biab posts, and most recently, this one.

All went well aside from half the wort on the floor cos when i pulled it out of the urn, the pot i put it in was too small.

Trap for young palyers. makes efficiency calculations tricky.

Anyway, was a little creatures bright ale clone (thanks Tony - http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&recipe=301).

Only advice i'd have is just get in and give it a go. I procrastinated trying to perfect the finer points, but there is no substitute for trouble-shooting as you go and just getting into it.

Thanks again all,

marcus.

congratulations Marcus!

i'm still waiting to taste this beer... it's still in secondary, and I haven't had a chance to do a second AG yet... maybe in two weeks time

 

[bconnery]

HWDMB (He Who Drinks My Beer)

Brilliant!
Did you and braufrau come up with this one?

 

[Wonderwoman]

Brilliant!
Did you and braufrau come up with this one?

thanks - I don't actually know braufrau.

It came to me because I was thinking that "HWMBO" isn't accurate... obviously I still have to be obeyed and no sensible man is going to try to stop me from spending more time brewing, spending money on improving my brew gear, buying better ingredients etc, which seem to be some of the common complaints from guys about their SWMBO's

 

[chappo1970]

mutter....mutter....grumphhh!
Wish my SWMBO brewed beer
Why is it that all the good ones are gone?

Chappo

 

[marcuspianta]

Hey Marcus, welcome onboard

When pulling the bag out of the pot you can gather up a corner of it so the bag has a pointy bottom. Gloves here would be handy (makes ANOTHER mental note to buy some), but if you can grab a bit of bag and shake the grain out of it , it cools imediately and can be pulled up . See the pics in my blog.
Welcome to the double dark side, AG and BIAB
heheheheh

thanks, will need to organise some sort of pulley system - ill just have to move my brewing area out of the kitchen - the girl will be v happy bout that!

pics on the blog helped a heap...