First Biab - recipe advice needed!

[soulglo]

G'day - long time lurker first time poster!

I've been brewing with kits for 18 months now and I am now at a stage where I'm ready to pick it up a notch and give Biab a go. I've got all the equipment I need, and ordered all the grain and hops I need.

I'm going to try and make a Centennial Blonde first up and planning for a 9 litre brew to start with. I've crunched some numbers and come up with the following recipe:

Grains
Pilsner Pale Malt 1.50kg
CaraPils 0.17kg
Caramalt Malt 0.11kg
Vienna Malt 0.11kg

Hops
Centennial 3.5gm @ 55 min
Centennial 3.5gm @ 35 min
Cascade 3.5gm @ 20 min
Cascade 3.5gm @ 5min

I'm trying to target an OG 1.043 with a 4.2% ac.

How's it look? About right? I keep looking at the grain thinking it can't be enough.. but my maths is generally better then my beer making.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice - I'm really looking forward to brewing this on Saturday.

Cheers



- edited to fix formatting.

 

[citizensnips]

Great that your getting in to BIAB, I can assure you you will not regret it. Thought about getting brewmate software? Its free and good for BIABers I think? good for no-chill I hear? I BIAB but use Beersmith and didn't change over simply because I'm to stubborn to make the change. But yeah your recipe looks fine, the mistake I first made when starting out BIAB was doing to small a batch like you are. The beer was really good from the get go and it never lasted. First brew I did 11L becasue I thought maybe I'd make a few mistakes and what not.......but by the time my 4th brew came round I'd stepped it up to 27L.
Anyway hope that helps, get the software and figure your equipment out so you can throw in a recipe and all the numbers you need will be there in front of you.
Cheers

 

[Mattress]

Mate,
I put your recipe through Beersmith, based on my system which is BIAB @ 65% efficiency and it came out as OG 1.042 & 4.3% ABV, so well done with your maths.

 

[soulglo]

Great that your getting in to BIAB, I can assure you you will not regret it. Thought about getting brewmate software? Its free and good for BIABers I think? good for no-chill I hear? I BIAB but use Beersmith and didn't change over simply because I'm to stubborn to make the change. But yeah your recipe looks fine, the mistake I first made when starting out BIAB was doing to small a batch like you are. The beer was really good from the get go and it never lasted. First brew I did 11L becasue I thought maybe I'd make a few mistakes and what not.......but by the time my 4th brew came round I'd stepped it up to 27L.
Anyway hope that helps, get the software and figure your equipment out so you can throw in a recipe and all the numbers you need will be there in front of you.
Cheers

Thanks for the suggestion - I've had a look at BrewMate and unfortunately it's Windows only. I've started to put together a spreadsheet for now. Once I've got it all figured out I'm planning to put it into an iPhone/Android app - but that's a thread for another day!

I'm counting on 9 litres not lasting long - mainly so I can get a few brews quickly under my belt.

Mate,
I put your recipe through Beersmith, based on my system which is BIAB @ 65% efficiency and it came out as OG 1.042 & 4.3% ABV, so well done with your maths.

Awesome - thanks mate.

Bring on brew day!

 

[Beerisyummy]

How did you end up SG?

 

[soulglo]

How did you end up SG?

Brew day went well, really enjoyed the process. Took my time getting everything ready and double checking everything as I went which meant it took about 4 hours strat to finish.

I hit 1.049 with the OG so I added about 600ml of water which bumped it down to the 1.043 I wanted. It's now sitting in fermenter at 20°.

I don't think the 9L will last long.. Which isn't such a bad thing - I've caught the Biab bug.

Cheers

SG

 

[jammer]

Quote 'I've caught the Biab bug'.


I've read about this.
Maybe it's a problem with your sanitation?

But seriously.... Welcome to biab. 50L kettle, next stop!

 

[citizensnips]

Nice soul. Yeah once I tasted my first biab I never looked back. And well done with your numbers. First time for me I did a 15l batch and came out with 10 in the fermenter......toppe up with 5L and although a little plain in flavour, was easily the best beer I had done.
All the best on your journeys.

 

[Beerisyummy]

That's great.

I was reading the thread and figured you'd probably get better mash efficiency. My first tasted nothing like it was meant to, but it was more like 75%.
The last batch I did was 83%, which is where I figure it will max out on my current setup.
If your using the beersmith software you'll need to mess around with the equipment ,and mash profiles over time as you settle on a brew system. It just takes a while to work out how the settings are linked.

A bit of someone elses advice, that I finally figured out recently, is there are three parts for the beginning AG brewer to control.
1. Yeast selection.
2. % of speciality malts to add.
3. Mash temperatures ( including time schedules).

The first two are as easy as handing over money in a shop.
The third one is the kicker for a new brewer as it will totally change the brew, as much as changing the first two.

Obviously, you need to choose the ingredients that will make a beer you like, and the yeast should be selected for the fermentation conditions you can provide.

If you're like me you'll love the satisfaction of brewing something from scratch. Not to mention, it tastes great once you get over the first few "learning" brews.

Enjoy
Ross.

 

[Beerisyummy]

Quote 'I've caught the Biab bug'.


I've read about this.
Maybe it's a problem with your sanitation?

But seriously.... Welcome to biab. 50L kettle, next stop!

Another serious yeast infection no doubt.

 

[fletcher]

good for you doing the smaller batches mate. I'm still new to BIAB and I do the same thing. starting smaller has meant the ones I've stuffed up haven't cost me as much as if I'd had 20+ litres of sub-standard brew and excess wasted grains and hops. good for you and happy brewing.

 

[soulglo]

Thanks for all the advice gents! Much appreciated!

I bottled 3 bottles of the beer (to keep semi long term) and kegged the rest. Had a quick taste the other night and I'm very impressed with the end result. Gave the misses a sample and she reckons its pretty delicious.

So I decided I'd pull the trigger and bought a 40 litre urn which is at the post office for me to pick up this arvo. Don't know what I'll do with the 24 free coffee mugs that came with it tho...

I was telling a mate about the brew on the weekend - same mate who got me into brewing to start with. He's keen to taste the brew and see it in action and in town this weekend - so brew night is locked in for Friday night. Should be a good chance to break in the urn and do a full 23 litre batch. I'll stick with the same receipe for this brew as I'm pretty sure this will have a few fans..

Cheers

SG

 

[tbetland]

Good work mate. I've been a BIABER for 2 year now and love it. One piece of advice on your Friday night brew with a mate is to try and take it easy on the brew. Being new to biab and drunk is not so good. Easy to forget things. But have fun

 

[soulglo]

One piece of advice on your Friday night brew with a mate is to try and take it easy on the brew. Being new to biab and drunk is not so good. Easy to forget things. But have fun

A few people have been giving me that exact advice! Not just so the beer turns out right, but so you don't wake up with beer everywhere!

 

[Beerisyummy]

A few people have been giving me that exact advice! Not just so the beer turns out right, but so you don't wake up with beer everywhere!

I did my first dark wheat beer the other day and forgot to check the fermenter tap before heading to the house while the kettle drained. I returned 15 minutes later to a river of wort flowing into the drain in the corner.
Now I don't know if it was five or so beers I'd consumed that made me forget to check the tap, but I do know I went back to the house for a cold beverage and got sidetracked.

Either way it was the drinking that caught me out.

Such a waste.

 

[fletcher]

it's like frankenstein...the creation turning on the creator

 

[Beerisyummy]

it's like frankenstein...the creation turning on the creator

That it is.

One of my mates dropped past the other day and reminded me of the golden rule.

"Never get high on your own supply" he said.

A situation that's often easier said than done.