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Dunkelbrau

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Well, my BIAB experiences went well, but i wanted more volume, so i finished off the 3V setup and went for it today.

I started with some issues with milling my own grain, i wasn't 100% sure on the crush, so i ran with what i had (i think this is what is coming back to haunt me), my temp was slightly over (2degrees) for the mash, but i assumed with a target of 64 for a lighter body, hitting 66 was going to be fine with a couple of degrees loss expected, i got to the end, and it was around 65.. I'm assuming the burner was keeping it hot, which makes me wonder if i overshot the target by not checking a few times along the way.

First runnings 1.074
Second runnings, 1.034 - by this point, i hadn't hit the volume (beer smith said two batches of sparge water) so i continued with the third run.
Third runnings - 1.015

Total into kettle was around 27L and as i was aiming for 30, i didn't think too much of it, that i could top up later. The boil went well until i put some clothes pegs on the keg rim to hold my hop bag on, turned around to grab something and they had fallen in. after 10 mins of fishing them out with triple layered PVC gloves and a ladle, it was back on the boil. i ran over time 10 minutes on the boil.. while i was taking the hop bag out.. big spill over down onto the burner, so I'm assuming a litre was lost there.

Back to the boil, i got to the end, with a reading of 1.043 and a total of 22.5L in the kettle, but alas, i don't have a pickup tube (was willing to accept 5L loss on the brew so aimed for 25L overall into fermenter in beer smith).

I ended up with 18.25L into the fermenter @ 1.043.. aiming for a FG of 1.007 but i doubt it with the higher mash temp. Im using a commercial yeast, so I'm not sure on its qualities, it is a lager yeast, and i am told it has a high level of attenuation.

My plan is to ferment @ 12 for 2 weeks and drop down to 1 degree in the keg for a few weeks. Do i need to raise the temp again?

Overall, i feel like I've run a marathon, with getting the ghetto brew stands all sorted out. It is crazy! I think i'll build one before i attempt anything else.

Overall Beer Smith measures my mash efficiency at 57.5%. Im really not happy with that, any tips on how to improve? Maybe the milling should be finer? It was looking quite coarse, but couldn't seem to remember what it looked like whenever I've purchased from the LHBS..

Total time was around 5.5 hours, 6.25 including cleaning, room for improvement for sure!
 
Jurt said:
Well, my BIAB experiences went well, but i wanted more volume, so i finished off the 3V setup and went for it today.

Overall Beer Smith measures my mash efficiency at 57.5%. Im really not happy with that, any tips on how to improve?
What size BIAB were you doing? The kind of volume you have ended up with would have to make you wonder if it was worth switching from BIAB.

I've been using a few Coopers tins of late just so I can test out a few different yeasts with the same recipe on small batches.
It takes me too long to brew all grain so I only do it for larger batches. Hoping to get my times down as well.

Finer crush definitely should get your efficiency up. I've used corn flour a couple of times and can tell you it adds a lot of gravity for the amount used. Needs to be gelatinized first though so that adds time too.

Your efficiency should improve as you sort out your glitches.
 
My BIABs were 10L into the fermenter, so in happy with 18L from a bigger batch, just missed everything numbers wise..

Edit: I know it's still going to be good beer, they're only numbers etc etc, but it will allow accurate recipe formulation and execution and accurate revisions of those recipes.
 
Collecting the first sparge on my super safe ghetto stand! (Haha)

image.jpg
 
Get your process down pat firs,t then you can start worrying about numbers. Moving to 3v is a big step, with a lot more involved, though I bet it was easier than you thought it would be. Know your process know your system, the numbers will come. And hey you made beer! :beerbang:
 
do you lay on the roof to add sparge water for that? :lol:

What are you using the eco keg for?

..and also, congrats..
 
Haha I'm 6'2" and I'd stand on the chair to pour it in haha

The Eco keg is an extra drink holder at parties.. We drilled holes in the base and fill it with ice! It sat in the top of my grain bucket pretty neatly so I whacked a block of wood on it to make it flat and threw the keggles up!

I know it's the first brew on the system, and I'm happy with the resulting wort, it tasted good! Just looking toward the future with recipes I have planned ;-)
 
Hey Jurt, sounds similar to my brew day today.

Efficiency of 48% with all my stuff ups.

I had problems with my crush too, tried .9mm as a lot use but it was hardly cracking them. Wheat malt seemed to need an even finer crush too.
 
Build yourself a hop spider.

No more stuffing around with hop bags and pegs and at EOB i just lift my out and sit it on a fridge shelf over the top of my kettle to drain back into the kettle.
 
Well, i made some changes to the grain crush, and i decided i'd give a decoction a go (temps from Noonan's book).

I think i need to insulate the mash tun, and maybe invest in a good thermometer because my temps were all over the place, i made sure i had conversion with the iodine test though. In the end I managed to get 22.5L of 1.050 with brewhouse efficiency @ 61.1% and the mash efficiency at 69.3%, I'm expecting the colour to be off though.. might be darker than estimated, but i was aiming for darker all together.

Total length of the day - 8 hours pretty much to the minute from dough in.

I'll leave it a bit, get some extra gear and go for another single infusion brew to see what difference there is and if i can enter some data to make sure i hit the targets the time after.

At least if its the same as this time (70% isn) i'll have a ballpark to work from.
 

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