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Deebo

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Made this as a seperate post so I dont clogg up the biab threads.

After reading the great posts from Nick JD I have ordered all the bits and pieces I need to get going (40l birko urn, bag from craftbrewer, mill etc)
I think I have all the steps worked out in my head. A couple of things I havent decided on (e.g. to sparge / mashout or not ).

I pre ordered beersmith 2 and got the current version so have been trying to work out how to use it and plan to make a recipe as follows:
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 28.85 L
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 6.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 22.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) (3.Grain 95.24 %
0.25 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4.76 %
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (30 min) Hops 15.4 IBU
10.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
10.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Gelatin (Primary 24.0 hours) Misc
12.15 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs German Lager (DCL Yeast #W-34/70) Yeast-Lager


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 5.25 kg
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Mash Add 33.00 L of water at 71.1 C 68.3 C

From what I can work out my steps on brewday should be as follows:

I add 33L of water to the urn with 1/2 tsp calcium sulphate and bring up to 71.1 C
Next I add all the grain which should lower temp to 68.3 ?
I put on lagging etc and wait 90 minutes.
If I am going to mashout do I need to change anything in beersmith (From what I understand to mashout I raise the grainbag off the element and heat to 78 degrees then drop it back in and stir for about 10 minutes?)
I pull out the grain bag squeeze etc and I should be left with 28.85L?
Now if I am going to sparge with a couple of litres of 70 degree water how do I add this information to beersmith? (I think I will leave this step out unless someone convinces me it is a good idea)
Next I boil for 90 minutes adding hop additions and 1/2 whirfloc tablet 15 mins prior to end of boil.
I should now be left with 25 litres in the urn?
I now whirlpool and wait about 20 minutes for crud to settle down the bottom
Then I have 23 litres once I syphon into the cube and lose 2 litres to deadspace (2 litres was a guess, does anyone with a birko have an accurate number?)

Questions:
Have I entered my volumes in beersmith correctly? (I am trying to make 23L of finished beer in a 40L urn, I wasnt really sure what settings I should use for evap rate, cooling loss, specific heat etc in my equipment)
Is there anything wrong with my process / volume assumptions?
Should I add more grain or does 65% eff look ok for a first try at biab?
Should I chuck my 0 time additions into the cube to no-chill instead?
Regarding no-chill. Would it be better to leave in the urn overnight then drain off straight into fermenter? Or cube and leave overnight then run that off into fermenter.
I have heard I should splash the wort around when adding to the fermenter to aerate (I think I also read someplace this wasnt neccesary for dry yeast/ proper pitching ratios?)
 
Mate, if that's your first attempt at getting your head around an AG brew, i'd love to see what you produce in a couple of batches time.

Seriously, that will produce a kick ass beer.

It's almost identical to what i brew (identical hop schedule). the only real difference is the volume at the end. Your aiming for 23lt, whereas i brew to 19/20lt. My IBU'S are a little higher due to the smaller volume. I wouldn't worry about the sparge this time. Just go with your plan and make beer.

Everything about your process looks reasonable to me. I'd happily go ahead and brew it. First brew though with this system, make sure you write down absolutely everything, so you can go back and analyze it later to get a more accurate representation of your expected targets.

Congrats on being new to BIAB and well done on the research you've obviously put in on this batch.

Trust me, it'll be awesome beer.

EDIT: Oh, re: No Chill, i'd transfer to cube if it was me. (I'm a no chiller and love it). Re: 0min additions - i chuck mine in while i turn off the heat.

The other thing i'd do, is dry hop at 1g/lt once it gets to around 1015-1020 thereabout. That's on the proviso that you like what NS hops do. One of the best examples of Nelson Sauvin commercially is Knappstein. Whether you like the beer or not, NS is the hero of that beer. Personally, it's my favourite hop of all time..

It's very easy to overdo NS but your recipe is very safe from this. It'll be great.
 
Ok few things put your equipment into beersmith and set kettle loss to 0lts but make the brew 2 lts more so if you want 23lts make it 25lts ATM you will produce 21lts.

For a sparge I would not bother just hoist the bag and do a mashout. I only have a 20lt pot but my sparge it my mash out. So my way (wont be yours) is to drain the wort and prepare 8lts of water at about 80+ deg then put the grain back into this. but for you I would do a full volume so if beer smith say prepare 32lts of water Id prepare 30lts as I found with BIAB I seem to have 2lts more then it calculates as when mashing in a tun and sparging the grain does not get squeezed or drained over a long period so it holds more water.

Also I dont squeeze I hoist the bag and let it drain if you can hoist the bag and let it drain into the urn or bucket id do this the wort from the mash is merky as and the wort that drains (by its self) is clear as but if you "squeeze it" it wont be clear. my thought is to try to get as clear wort in the kettle as possible.

all looks good after that bar the whirlpool. dont whirlpool straight away try cool it a little by wrapping in a wet towel or something as you want the convection to stop. If you look in the wort and see the trub still rising and sinking thats convection and if you whirlpool it will still happen so the cone you tried to create will be rising and falling from the heat. so cool a bit first then whirlpool

I would start with 65% and adjust for there for me id rather a higher gravity beer then get a mid or low strength

I have prob 20+ time in a pot put glad wrap over the pot and siphoned into fermenter 16-24 hours later.

its best to aerate wort but if like last night I brewed and transfered to fermenter and it was at 35 deg I had to cool it over night (I usually leave it in the pot to cool but knowing I wouldnt have time tonight to siphon it off I done it yesterday) So tonight I usually aerate but didnt bother as I have to sanitse the spoon and everything and have more risk of infection.

Hope that helps
 
Thanks for the tips, will add 20g extra Nelson Sauvin to dry hop in fermenter (do you have any problem with loose hops blocking up the tap? Do you put them in a bag?)
Will also remember to check that convection has stopped before trying to whirlpool (how long does it normally take?).
I couldnt see kettle loss in beersmith, is that just the same as 'lost to boiler trub and chiller' or 'lauter tun deadspace'? (I set both of these to 0) I am kegging so might just leave it batch size as 23 litres and if I get 21 that is fine also.

I noticed on the brewsheet that beersmith makes it says to sparge with 5.61 litres of water, do i just ignore this step? Or should I topup the boiler even if I am not sparging? (I think I might have set boil volume to 33 litres someplace that maybe I wasnt meant to?)

View attachment brewsheet.pdf
 
Thanks for the tips, will add 20g extra Nelson Sauvin to dry hop in fermenter (do you have any problem with loose hops blocking up the tap? Do you put them in a bag?)


Some people probably do use a hop bag, but i just chuck 'em in "au naturale".

Don't have any problems with stuff blocking my tap. When i'm fermenting and conditioning, i put a small peice of wood underneath the front of my fermenter to raise it up maybe 10mm. This helps push the crap to the back of the fermenter away from the tap.
 
I usually wait 20-30 mins for convection to stop, and then whirlpool and wait for another 30 mins.

I ended up with ~80% effeciency on my first 2 Batches but its going to vary depending on your own setup and recipe and so on.

You might end up with more losses to trub than that, but that also depends on your system and how good your whirlpool skills are. I have found Whirlfloc best added at 5 mins BTW, if you google 'whirfloc instructions' you'll find a myriad of threads all saying don't add it earlier than 3 mins.

If you're going to be using liquid yeasts you definitely need to aerate the wort even with a proper pitching rate. For dry yeasts maybe you don't HAVE to but it won't hurt them to aerate it either.
 
OK have now got the birko 40l urn but still waiting for the grain bag so decided to do a test run with just some water to get an idea of how long heating etc is going to take and temperature loss.

It took 55 mins to get 17c water to 70c (was about 17c outside and didnt use any insulation)

Temperature loss of water with an old sleeping bag was as below:
00min 69.4c
15min 69.0c
30min 68.7c
45min 68.3c
60min 68.1c
75min 67.6c
90min 67.2c

Is 2.2c loss of temp ok? Or should I wrap some extra doona/towels around?
Is 68c the temperature I should be aiming for after the grain is added?

Took about 40 minutes to get up to 100c (thought I could hear bubbles at about 96, not sure if thermometer is off)

Edit: Looks like I will have to brew outside, testing evap rates set off the smoke detectors :p
 
It will probably drop at a lesser rate with the grain in there as opposed to just water. So that aspect will probably be fine. With the ibu you've listed (although this may be a bit higher with no-chill) I would suggest mashing lower than 68c. Maybe try 66c and then tweak for personal taste in subsequent batches.
 

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