First BIAB Done and Dusted.

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]G’day,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]On the 11th[/SIZE] January I made my first BIAB batch, coming off the back of 16 months of kits ‘n’ bits and extract brews. I deliberately chose a very basic recipe consisting roughly of:

[SIZE=medium]3kg Pilsner[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]0.5kg Wheat[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]0.3kg Crystal[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Pride of Ringwood, approx. 30g at 60 minutes[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]S-23 yeast.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Being that it was my first time, I was overall quite happy with the way things went. I used a 50ltr aluminium pot and a 2-ring gas burner, using hot water from the tap it only took about 20 minutes to reach strike temp (68 degrees according to Brew Mate), mashed for an hour at 66 (checked half way and needed to add a bit more heat) then did the boil. I added whirlfloc with 15 minutes to go, gave it a bit of a whirlpool stir then let it sit (actually, I then stupidly picked up the pot and moved it to the bath too cool down quicker, thereby unsettling all the crap in the bottom but oh well). Into fermenter at about 4pm, cooled enough to pitch yeast at around 10:30pm. OG was 1.035 which was a bit under what I had hoped.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Now after 11 days it’s down to around 1.011 and the sample I tasted had almost no bitterness at all. Incredibly sweet and not much else. I'll certainly use more hops in my next baatch. Is it too late to brew up a small “hop tea” with a litre or two of water and some more POR for extra bitterness? I don’t mind diluting down the ABV if it means I get a more bitter beer.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Cheers fellas,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Ben.[/SIZE]

 

[pist]

Congrats on your first biab ben well done mate. Its only up from here! I was so surprised with the difference in quality between kit brewing and all grain...and i havent looked back!

I usually add whirlfloc with my 10min hop additions...then let it sit for about 20 mins to ensure all convection/movement has stopped...then whirlpool then let sit for another 20 or so to give it time for all the crap to drop out and settle. Seems to work for me...comes out of the kettle super clear. Dont stress too much about the trub going through...youll still get a great beer out of it

 

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks mate, think I was a bit too gung-ho and should have just let it sit longer in the pot before trying to move into the fermenter. It’s cleared up quite well so far and I hope that cold conditioning will help further.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]I reckon I’ll go the no-chill route for next time, mainly so I can do a double-brew day to get some stock up. I’m trying to track down one of those “racking canes” or ”auto siphon tubes” but they are proving difficult to locate (or I need to go to Specsavers!!)[/SIZE]

 

[boybrewer]

Yes you can do a hop tea and you could also add some DME if you want to keep or even increase your ABV . If you do a hop tea let the hops settle for a few days . For the racking cane try one of the sponsors at the top of the tool bar . I know Grain and Grape have them , or at least some time ago .

 

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks beer belly, I’ve got around 250g of light malt that I’ll boil up tonight in 2.5L and chuck in some extra POR. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]I’ve decided to ditch the idea of racking the hot wort into a cube and will instead get a weldless ball joint and go that route instead, thank you anyway for the suggestions.[/SIZE]

 

[mikeintmba]

My advice would be to leave it as is. Judge the bitterness when it is ready to drink. Then you can review your readings from brewmate and adjust up the bitterness next brew if you still think it needs it. Leaving the brew the way it is will give you a baseline for the next brews. It helps to compare different brews so you get the hang of how the ingredients affect the outcome.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My advice would be to leave it as is. Judge the bitterness when it is ready to drink. Then you can review your readings from brewmate and adjust up the bitterness next brew if you still think it needs it. Leaving the brew the way it is will give you a baseline for the next brews. It helps to compare different brews so you get the hang of how the ingredients affect the outcome.

This.

Give yourself a basis from which to adjust, otherwise, you'll be wondering how much the 'emergency hop tea' adjusted what you made.

If you like it hoppier, fix it with another brew, by adjusting the recipe. You learn from this process too.

 

[Blazar]

I did not even consider that....makes perfect sense!

I ran my situation by an AG brewer here at my work who also suggested that perceived bitterness can be less in uncarbonated beer, something to do with carbonic acid?

 

[lukiferj]

Agree with the above. Very difficult to plan your next brew if you don't have a baseline to work with. Sounds like it all went pretty well though. Nice one.

 

[hoppymonster]

I also agree! I did the same thing on my first all grain brew, best to ion out the creases in your recipe then tea hop it... You will learn so much more this way..

 

[fcmcg]

Congrats and well done on your first BIAB..
Just a quick question..how long did you boil for ? Your base malt is pils malt..I always boil for 90min when using pils malt..and what yeast are you using ?
Cheers
Ferg

 

[Blazar]

Boil was 60 minutes, and using S-23 at 10-11 degrees.

 

[fcmcg]

You may find the the beer may have diacytl..so it's very important that you do a diacytl rest when the beer is around 1.020...give the yeast an opportunity to carry off any pre-cursors..Crank the temp to 18-20 for. Day or two...
Unfortunate that pils malt is full of the pre-cursors..

 

[CosmicBertie]

If it tastes sweet it might not have finished fully fermenting yet. Double check what your FG should be, maybe give the fermenter a swirl to re-suspend the yeast. You dont want to bottle too early.

 

[Blazar]

If I raise the temp for a diacetyl rest, should I drop it back down to 10-11 for final ferment, or will the raise in temp accelerate the last few points of fermentation?

All part of the fun of learning, I really do appreciate all of the comments.

 

[fcmcg]

Raise and then drop back down to let it finish

 

[yum beer]

Just to keep things...forumish.
Raise the temp to finish then chill to clear.

 

[Blazar]

Beauty, again thank you all for the helpful info. When I got home from work last night I set my fridge temp controller to 18, will leave it there till Saturday then drop it down for a chill (might even transfer to the keg first then chill it).

I'll report back in a few weeks once I'm game enough for a sample