First BIAB in progress

[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.

 

[acarey]

It sure was! Since this post I've done about 6 and have been stoked with each one.

Temp control is easy as long as you have a digital thermometer, stiring device and patience. It takes a while to heat up. I wouldn't try doing a mash with more than one or two steps though. I've just been doing single step mashes with a mash out. It generally takes around 20 minutes to get to mash out temperature (constantly stirring). I also invested in a stainless colander from kmart for $8 that I put upside down at the bottom to stop the bag touching the element.

There is a BIAB urn guide on here somewhere that is excellent.

If I can help in any way don't hesitate to ask.

 

[slash22000]

Have to ask, was this all performed in a hot water urn? and if so did you find it easy to control the temps?

Not OP, but yes, lots of people BIAB in electric urns. It's not hard to control the temps, although the temperature gauge on the urn itself is shit. I have to set mine to about 80ºC to get the urn to stabilise at ~69ºC for mash in.

...

Looks like OP had a bit of an easier time with his first BIAB than me. I had heard that the Craftbrewer BIAB bag was a pain in the arse to drain, but I figured "It can't be that bad". Had like 5.5kg of grain in the bag, Brewmate estimated 0.6L per kg absorption ... So what that is like 3 litres absorbed + 5kg of grain, <10kg piss easy lift right?

Wrong. The ******* thing wouldn't drain, at all. I ended up lifting like 10 - 15 litres of wort out of the urn along with the 5kg of grain, just about did my fuckin' spine in, and ended up with half the wort on the floor.

Was aiming for 1.052 (Brewmate default 70% efficiency), ended up with 1.055 with whatever wort that was actually left in the urn, ~74% efficiency (I think?) so the actual mashing part went just fine. After topping up the missing wort with water it was down to 1.047. Could have been worse, 1.047 is fine, I didn't burn myself or anything, but I could hardly move my arms the next day after holding 20kg of wort/grain in the air for who knows how long trying to get it to drain off. <_<

The moral of the story is, it was super easy, until the draining part. Now I'm in the market for a new brewing bag. :mellow:

 

[acarey]

My bag drained fine. I helped it along by holding it over a bucket while the Mrs squeezed the hell out of it with her thighs two saucepan lids.

Re: getting to temp, I just crank the thing to max and hover over it with a thermometer

 

[jaymzica]

fantastic thread! going to do my first BIAB next week! will get the mrs to start getting her thighs in good shape!

 

[micbrew]

wow this may be what im after ... great read and thread

what size is you're urn by the way and is the element concealed ??

and how have you come to terms with draining ...

can you recommend a digital thermometer

thanks heaps micbrew

 

[The Village Idiot]

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.

PMSL Even SWMBO is giggling......You idiot

 

[Crusty]

wow this may be what im after ... great read and thread

what size is you're urn by the way and is the element concealed ??

and how have you come to terms with draining ...

can you recommend a digital thermometer

thanks heaps micbrew

Weapons of choice for me,


Urn

Biab bag

Bag for hop additions

Thermometer

A roasting rack from Robin's kitchen to cover the exposed element.

Mash paddle

Too easy.

 

[micbrew]

thanks crusty ! and others for youre wisdom and thoughts

think youve pointed me in the right direction :beerbang:
now need to aquire these little gems ,and looking forward to the journey


mick

 

[acarey]

Exposed element covered by an upside down staino colander from Kmart $8.

Digital thermometer from the bottom drawer in the kitchen (who knows before that).

 

[acarey]

Exposed element covered by an upside down staino colander from Kmart $8.

Digital thermometer from the bottom drawer in the kitchen (who knows before that).