First Biab..

[FreeBaseBuzz]

Hi All,

Tried my first BIAB yesterday, and despite me doing everything humanly possible to mess it up, I think it may turn out alright. touch wood.

Bit of background about me.. I've done K&K's, Partials, etc before, so have a little bit of experience, not much. I'm NOT a perfectionist, I do a lot of reconing when I cook.. I'm also a person who learns by trial and error, and I made enough errors this time around

Doing a Dr. Smurno's Golden Ale

The start.. mistakes before starting..

Left the recipe at work, including starting volumes. ran off memory
Didn't do a practice boil on my new home made keggle.
Didn't put volume markings on said keggle.

So, filled the keggle to approx 36l, (18 2 liter pitcher's worth, I think, I lost count) I seem to remember the recipe called for that.

Don't have a stand, so keggle is sitting directly on a 3ring burner on the concrete.

Bought it up to 68 degrees, allowing for a temperature drop when I added the grain.
Switched off burner.
Added the grain.. measured temp.. 70 degrees? WTF?
Stirred, measured temp, 71 degrees, it's going up! what the hell? I guess there must've been latent temp in the keg and/or burner+base.
Ok, it'll drop..
Stirred, cracked floating thermometer with mash paddle.. now my mash has glass, lead beads and wax in it.. (thermometer itself didn't crack)
$h!t, ok.. what's the worse that can happen? keep going.

That takes the breakage total to 2 hydrometers, and 1 thermometer.. not bad for someone who's only done 8 brews

1.5hrs mashing.. temp finally made it back to 66 around the end. (By this stage, the thermometer paper with the markings is getting quite soggy)
Lit the burner and raised it to 78 degrees and removed the grain. Oh, to light the burner, I'm lifting the keggle off the burner, lighting it, and lifting the keggle back on.

Found that my cloth hadn't been attached around the outside properly, and some of the mash (not too much thankfully) made it into the main volume.

Lift went well.. No glass, wax or lead made it into the main batch and remained in amongst the grain bed.

note to self, Next time use gloves when squeezing so as to not burn my hands. (The chickens in the back yard enjoyed the warm malty grain leftovers)

Raised to a decent rolling boil and went to prepare hop additions. Oh, that's right, I forgot to buy scales.
The recipe called for 20g amarillo at 60, 15g at 10, 15g at 5, and 15g at 0. Not having a recipe or scales I roughly devided 80g into 4 piles of what I thought would be around 20g each, and added them at 60, 40, 20 and 5.

I don't have a hopsock so was tossing the hops directly into the liquid.

Burner off, lifted the keggle onto a bench, (heavy SOB, just about did my back) and gave it a decent swirl to generate a trub cone (finally something worked right)

When to siphon directly into my Fermenter cause I'm doing no-chill and I don't have a cube yet.
Ok, the siphon tube absolutely collapses when it has hot liquid in it.
Burned fingers again trying to get siphon started.

Got 22.5 liters into Fermenter (I have no-rinse in the airlock with cotton wool, to try to prevent infections as the air is sucked back in as the wort cools.

So, As of this morning, temp is at around 34, measured the SG, 1.042, not too bad I guess. tastes like wort..
Recipe says 1.047, but for a first attempt considering the mistakes, I'm happy..

I was planning to pitch this morning, but still too warm for US-05, hopefully it'll be cooler this evening, and I'll pitch then regardless, I want to get the yeast in asap.. (on my bench, ambient temp for fermenting has been around 24 over the last couple of weeks.) Recipe calls for 18 degrees, I'll move the fermenter downstairs, hopefully it's cooler down there..

Lessons for next time.
1. Have a recipe with me.
2. Let temp settle before adding grain.
3. Remove Thermometer before stirring.
4. Work out a better siphon.
5. Buy some scales.
6. Put some volume markings on my keggle.

Fingers crossed..

 

[Sydneybrewer]

good going mate! the mash was a little high so it might have a bit more body/less alc, also i wouldn't recommend no-chilling in the fermenter might get a little trub in there still.. i actually used the divide hops by guess method for all my extract brewing career and only brought scales when i went AG.. my tip get the scales if working with any high AA hops as a few grams more can bring alot of bitterness.. but yeah top effort mate! :beer:

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

.. also i wouldn't recommend no-chilling in the fermenter might get a little trub in there still..

Yeah, it wasn't planned, but I haven't managed to acquire cubes yet.. they are on the shopping list for next time..

 

[Pistol]

good read, hope it turns out well.

 

[Bribie G]

Sounds the go: when you get a hydrometer that isn't broken I'd suggest doing a final gravity reading - at those temperatures I bet it will finish real high - say 1020 and be lower in alcohol but high in body. No shame in slipping half a kilo of dex into the fermenter to start off with, to maintain alcoholic strength if that's a worry.
Whereabouts in Brisbane are you?

 

[matr]

So, As of this morning, temp is at around 34, measured the SG, 1.042, not too bad I guess. tastes like wort..
Recipe says 1.047, but for a first attempt considering the mistakes, I'm happy..

Using the hydrometer adjust in Beersmith.. 1.042 @ 34C = 1.046

So closer than you thought.. :icon_cheers:

Cheers, Mat.

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

Sounds the go: when you get a hydrometer that isn't broken I'd suggest doing a final gravity reading - at those temperatures I bet it will finish real high - say 1020 and be lower in alcohol but high in body. No shame in slipping half a kilo of dex into the fermenter to start off with, to maintain alcoholic strength if that's a worry.
Whereabouts in Brisbane are you?

haha, I bought 2 hydrometers last time.. take extra care with them now, haven't had a breakage in 3. no 4 batches now

I was really surprised at the OG reading this morning, not sure exactly how it works, but I thought the high mash temps would retard the extraction, and I expected a lower OG.
What effect will the higher mash temps have? Sounds like, with you expecting a high FG, that less fermentables are produced?

To my untrained palete, I thought the wort tasted reasonably good (compared to the other worts I've tasted when doing an OG)

Not too worried about alcohol content, as long as the taste is there.. If I want to get drunk, there's Scotch in the freezer. But, I DO have that spare 1/2 kg dex in the supplies cupboard....

Using the hydrometer adjust in Beersmith.. 1.042 @ 34C = 1.046

So closer than you thought.. :icon_cheers:

Cheers, Mat.

Oh yeah, didn't adjust for temp... Thanks!

 

[Bribie G]

To get technical, the grain malt contains an enzyme called a diastase that converts the starches in the grain to simpler sugars. Diastase in malt actually consists of a pair of enzymes, alpha amylase and beta amylase.

The pair of them work best between 60 and 70 degrees.

Alpha amylase breaks starches into complex sugars that don't ferment well but remain in the beer to add body, and works best in the high 60s lower 70s.
Beta Amylase produces more fermentable sugars that get turned into alcohol, and works best in the lower 60s.

If you mash at the high end of the range you get lots of body, less alcohol
If you mash in the low end you get more alcohol, but a drier "thinner" beer.

However all these sugars contribute to the OG and there's no way of telling until you take a Final Gravity reading. Higher the FG, more "body" sugars left in the beer. :icon_cheers:

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

Thanks BribieG,
that's exactly the detail I wanted to know..

Oh, to answer your earlier question, I'm in Kedron..


I think it's all going to be OK. I pitched the yeast last night (US-05), wort temp 28 deg. and wrapped the fermenter in a wet towel to bring down the temp.. Woke to find a very vigorous ferment occurring (temp down to 26), with 3 INCHES of krausen on top! that's the most I've ever seen..

 

[Bribie G]

Yes try to keep it cool in this hot spell, March is here so the golden months of brewing are on the way.
You'll have to try and get up here for a brew day. :icon_drunk: - also Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers meets Holland Park fourth Thursday of the month, great crew. Go on, support the Clem7 you know you want to

 

[Yob]

I think it's all going to be OK. I pitched the yeast last night (US-05), wort temp 28 deg. and wrapped the fermenter in a wet towel to bring down the temp.. Woke to find a very vigorous ferment occurring (temp down to 26), with 3 INCHES of krausen on top! that's the most I've ever seen..

this one

Huge krausen with US-05, yep, had some monsters.. those temps are a bit high mate, got any ice bottles to cool it down with?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Yes try to keep it cool in this hot spell, March is here so the golden months of brewing are on the way.
You'll have to try and get up here for a brew day. :icon_drunk: - also Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers meets Holland Park fourth Thursday of the month, great crew. Go on, support the Clem7 you know you want to

Hopefully it gets cold after this hot spell - and quickly. I'm impatient to get my brews underway.

Goomba

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

this one

Huge krausen with US-05, yep, had some monsters.. those temps are a bit high mate, got any ice bottles to cool it down with?

I'll get some ice around it this evening.. Yeah, the temps are a bit high.. from what I understand, the simpleified effect of high temps is that the fermentation will produce more of the complex alcohols, resulting in bigger hangovers.. correct me if I'm wrong..

heh, glad I'm not the only one suffering from the double full stop syndrome , I have to usually check my posts before submitting to make sure I've removed them all.. not in this case, illustrating a point..

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'll get some ice around it this evening.. Yeah, the temps are a bit high.. from what I understand, the simpleified effect of high temps is that the fermentation will produce more of the complex alcohols, resulting in bigger hangovers.. correct me if I'm wrong..

heh, glad I'm not the only one suffering from the double full stop syndrome , I have to usually check my posts before submitting to make sure I've removed them all.. not in this case, illustrating a point..

And it will taste like rubbish. I live at Wavell, and my last two summer batches were rubbish because of the temps my house has been.

 

[flano]

funny read.

They should have a reality show based on home brewing a la MKR....

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

And it will taste like rubbish. I live at Wavell, and my last two summer batches were rubbish because of the temps my house has been.

Heh, if I can't afford a cube and a racking cane, a fermenting fridge is a little out of reach too :icon_cheers:

funny read.
They should have a reality show based on home brewing a la MKR....

I'd watch it

 

[MVZOOM]

Well done, easy faults to fix and some good advice here to keep moving forward. My first AG was more of a disaster than that - it'll taste so bloody good, you'll wonder where you have been all your life.

Then you'll think 'wow, if it tastes this good with all those mistakes, how's it gonna be when I nail it'!

Cheers - Mike

 

[Nick JD]

Right this moment I'm drinking a Belgian Pale Ale that was fermented at 32C with Wyeast 3725.

Not a hint of fusels.

Yeast. Yeast is where it's at. It's THE (smallest and) most important ingredient in brewing. Mainly because every ... last ... drop of your sweet, sugary wort goes in the cell membrane of it, and comes out again as...

...BEER.

Those interested in ingesting the waste-products of organisms would be well-advised not only to feed the organism the best meal you can but also to choose the organism with the tastiest shit. :beerbang:

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Those interested in ingesting the waste-products of organisms would be well-advised not only to feed the organism the best meal you can but also to choose the organism with the tastiest shit. :beerbang:

Err...... well said i think. :icon_vomit:

Back on topic....... Search the forum for temp control options. There are heaps of different solutions to keep your beer cool. Personally i liked the fermenter in the bath/laundry sink, but with a couple of kiddies at the time the bath was no option :angry: .

P.S. I hope all of your future brew days go better than your last...... :icon_cheers:

_wallace_

 

[FreeBaseBuzz]

Personally i liked the fermenter in the bath/laundry sink..
_wallace_

heh, I'm sure my housemate can go a couple of weeks without a shower for the sake of beer


I think I got an infection, the flavors coming from the airlock are starting to smell a little sour.
Maybe from the attempt to no-chill in the fermenter.
I put cotton wool and starsan in the airlock to try to prevent nasties being sucked back in as the wort cooled..

Unless it's an effect of the high ferment temp?