First BIAB in progress

[acarey]

After heaps of reading and advice from guys on this site, I took the plunge and started my first BIAB tonight.

I bought a Little Creatures clone from Marks Homebrew and am using Brewmate software.

I must say, so far it has been fun.

Firstly, one needs sustenance to brew beer so I made a pide (also for the first time). Hope the beer turns out as well as this did.



Secondly, bag'o grain




Get water to strike temp


Bag in


Forget to take photo after adding grain
......

Insulate


Insulate more


After raising to mash out temp



Get rid of bag after squeezing the hell out of it


Boil


This is where I'm at now. 90 minute boil, added hops and waiting until 10 minutes left to add more hops and brew bright.

I've also been partaking of a kit wheatbeer I made a while back the whole time.... probably too much.

More photos to follow.

 

[givemeamash]

looks good

 

[bum]

Bloody hell. You haven't even burned yourself yet! Better get on to it. Not long left.

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

You are doing it wrong. There is not one beer in any of the photos. Lift your game
Carry on
BBB

 

[acarey]

You are doing it wrong. There is not one beer in any of the photos. Lift your game
Carry on
BBB

haha, look closer at the third one :drinks:

 

[acarey]

Bloody hell. You haven't even burned yourself yet! Better get on to it. Not long left.

I have, but thought i'd keep that quiet.....

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

haha, look closer at the third one :drinks:

Your brew night cheery is complete - I stand corrected. Noice.........
BBB

 

[bruce86]

good one bbb u dick head! although you use of pegs is a bit up market mate ! who can afford pegs these days

 

[acarey]

Well, Its done and in the cube.

I'm glad I wrote everything down due to the fact it took 6 hours from start to finish and my wheat beer took a substantial hit.

Anyways...

Missed the OG by a couple of points, aiming for 1.058, hit 1.055.

Missed the volume into the fermenter by quite a bit, aiming for 23L, hit 20. Probably about 1.5 litre of crud in the bottom of the birko.

Main point: do it in a more ventilated space next time. By about 20 minutes in, the roof was sweating and dripping everywhere. Glad the missus was in bed, she painted the room 3 weeks ago and probably would have been slightly unimpressed with the amount of moisture condensating(sp?) on her nicely painted surfaces.

I was going to calculate volumes etc by measuring the height of the liquid in the urn at different stages. I wrote down the measurements but will calculate tomorrow as my brain isnt up to it ATM re: wheat beer.

All in all, an OK first attempt I think. Would have loved to get a bit more in the fermenter but oh well. Its tastes great anyway.

 

[acarey]

good one bbb u dick head! although you use of pegs is a bit up market mate ! who can afford pegs these days

I invested in the pegs because I couldn't get my cat to hold it in place.... paid for themselves I recon

 

[angus_grant]

haha, look closer at the third one :drinks:

There's also a sneaky one in pic 5. :beerbang:

 

[acarey]

There's also a sneaky one in pic 5. :beerbang:

christ, I cant even see that one.

 

[jaypes]

Nice work

I remember my first grain brew, missed every expected level but the beer tasted great!

 

[angus_grant]

christ, I cant even see that one.

Nahh, I am just joking, I can't see a beer in that picture.. h34r:

 

[wbosher]

You get to do yours inside?! I'm banished to the garage to do mine.

Anyway, well done mate...a lotta fun innit.

 

[JDW81]

There is one critical piece of equipment missing, you don't have a milk crate anywhere to be seen. It is a well know brewing fact that you can't make decent beer without a grey milk crate. Blue is ok, but grey is better.

A brew dog also results in better beer, but they can be a bit more trouble than a simple old milk crate. They do help you to clean up spills though.

 

[bum]

You get to do yours inside?! I'm banished to the garage to do mine.

Seriously, outside in the best place to brew. Bit hard to hose the kitchen down when you spill some. You also avoid the nasty situation that sometimes occurs when SWMBO wants to use the kitchen for something during a 4 - 6 hour period.

 

[acarey]

You get to do yours inside?! I'm banished to the garage to do mine.

Anyway, well done mate...a lotta fun innit.

I dont have a shed, so it was inside or out with the mozzies. Next time I'll definitely be with the mozzies though, hours of running around with a towel wiping the roof down so it doesn't drip everywhere wasn't much fun.

 

[acarey]

Seriously, outside in the best place to brew. Bit hard to hose the kitchen down when you spill some. You also avoid the nasty situation that sometimes occurs when SWMBO wants to use the kitchen for something during a 4 - 6 hour period.

I'd pre negotiated access to the facilities, then she went to bed so that was fine. But you are right, next time its gonna be out the back for sure.

 

[acarey]

Next day conclusions:

My efficiency wasn't as bad as I originally thought. There was almost exactly 3 litres of crap in the bottom of the urn, taking my post boil volume back to 23 litres, which was bang on target.

So 71% efficiency (according to brew mate) isn't bad for a first go I recon.

 

[wbosher]

Seriously, outside in the best place to brew. Bit hard to hose the kitchen down when you spill some. You also avoid the nasty situation that sometimes occurs when SWMBO wants to use the kitchen for something during a 4 - 6 hour period.

Agreed. Also there's the small problem of bloody flies if you do spill some. Something I discovered for the first time on my last brew. I was lifting the bag with my rope and pulley, and somehow it slipped the knot and plunged back into my pot, leaving about 1/2 a litre of sweet stickyness on the garage floor...burning my arm in the process as I tried to catch it...won't do that again.

My Mrs would have gone absolutely ballistic if that had happened inside.

 

[Bribie G]

Doing well. If you are a kit brewer up till now you'll notice that the wort is a lot less sweet than kit and kilo - the sugars are different.

So with my first BIAB brew I thought that the mash had somehow "failed" so I stuck a kilo of dex in to be on the safe side.

On tasting day, my buddy came round and we couldn't believe how good it tasted, so we had four or five pints each in the first hour.

He was staggering, and I was crawling around sobbing about Princess Diana - oh why did she have to die?

Looks like you are right on track with that Birko, after a few brews some permanent marker lines on the sight tube will give you a good guide as to how you are travelling each time.

 

[Ivonavich]

How is that wheat drinking now? Still camel arse?
Otherwise well done man - now ive just got to one done

 

[acarey]

How is that wheat drinking now? Still camel arse?
Otherwise well done man - now ive just got to one done

Yeah, it's still fairly arse but I'm soldiering through it. Might have got a bit better or maybe it killed my tastebudes. It's all I've got left ATM.

 

[Yob]

First AG is a great feeling, especially without major blowouts, congrats, don't forget tasting notes

 

[acarey]

BIAB UPDATE UPDATE Update update (Echo effect)

So I pitched on sunday morning @1.055 and as at now, its at 1.029! smashing the fermentation!

Tasted better than I expected too. Quite a few floaties but I'll cold crash for a couple of days once its done to take care (mostly) of that.

Is this crazy fermentation or am I a noob? I used safale US-05 dry pitched @ 28C. Fermenting at 22. Never had it go this well with kits

 

[wbosher]

Looks like millions of little white floaties churning around in the fermenter? If so, perfectly normal. I sat and watched it for about ten minutes the first time it happened to me, also first AG brew and using us05. Looks great doesn't it.

 

[alimac23]

Looks like millions of little white floaties churning around in the fermenter? If so, perfectly normal. I sat and watched it for about ten minutes the first time it happened to me, also first AG brew and using us05. Looks great doesn't it.

I loved seeing that on my first BIAB, it looks like a mini snow storm going on inside the fermenter!

 

[motorhead]

Great read, loved the hugging photo, which I may be guilty of as well

 

[The Beer Baron]

Have to ask, was this all performed in a hot water urn? and if so did you find it easy to control the temps?
I only ask as I'm extremely keen to try my first BIAB and that looks like an ingenious idea.