First Partial Biab

[Bribie G]

Baogsy, get yourself along to the local Op Shop, grab some jumpers, coats etc for a few bucks. That's all I use, nothing fancy, but during mashing my stockpot does look rather smart in a sharp jersey and woolly jacket! :icon_cheers:

:icon_cheers:

 

[RdeVjun]

:icon_offtopic: Ah yes indeed BribieG- how could we forget the Urn twins?! Hey, their careers could really be taking off soon- I heard a rumour that a big fashion house is courting them for some haute couture runway work, however that's now causing some friction in the camp as one of them just wants to go fishing, chase floozies and gamble while one of his favourite past times is drinking malt liquor all day!

 

[Bribie G]

:icon_offtopic:

haha isn't it the case that 'clothes maketh the man' as they used to say. I used to leave the twins fully dressed to save on storage space but then I would walk into the brewery and nearly shit myself because I thought I was being home invaded :blink: Stepdaughter came round one day and there was suddenly a scream from the garage. Gave her early menopause I'm sure. :lol:

Boagsy if you are going full volume as the next stage in your career and are going gas and a big pot, why not get the biggie now and use it as a water bath to float the littly in. I used to do partials in a 9L jug in an esky in a waterbath of around 70 degrees and just walk away for an hour. The 70 didn't seem to heat the mash inside at all, just kept it fairly iso. However if you are going urn then not much help.

:icon_cheers:

 

[Dazza_devil]

haha isn't it the case that 'clothes maketh the man' as they used to say. I used to leave the twins fully dressed to save on storage space but then I would walk into the brewery and nearly shit myself because I thought I was being home invaded Stepdaughter came round one day and there was suddenly a scream from the garage. Gave her early menopause I'm sure.
Boagsy if you are going full volume as the next stage in your career and are going gas and a big pot, why not get the biggie now and use it as a water bath to float the littly in. I used to do partials in a 9L jug in an esky in a waterbath of around 70 degrees and just walk away for an hour. The 70 didn't seem to heat the mash inside at all, just kept it fairly iso. However if you are going urn then not much help.

Hmm, I see where you are coming from there BribieG. I wasn't sure if my little 9 litre job was big enough to do a 3kg mash in with a minimum 2.5 litres /kg and there will be the occasion when I want to mash a little more. I was going to get a 32 litre job(not much dearer) with a similar thought of looking toward full volume boils, burner etc but then I looked into it and found that a 50 litre (shitload dearer) is the go. So, I'm thinkin minimum outlay for now and stick with partials for a year or so. Worst case scenerio I have myself a nice handy 24 litre pot. Word has it I might be able to get my hands on a keg and have someone modify it for me down the track, might be piss and wind but you never know.
I like your logic though.
:icon_cheers:

 

[Dazza_devil]

Just looking into mash-out procedures and I see that a lot of brewers add a calculated amount of near boiling water to the mash to raise the temp to around 76 degrees. Would it be acceptable to just apply heat on the stove while jiggling the bag about to raise the temp for mash-out. Will I gain much by mashing out at 76 before I batch sparge at 76 for 10 mins?

 

[felten]

I don't batch sparge, but I do a mashout by applying heat to the pot while stirring constantly, then when it reaches 76 I let it sit for maybe 5m; before pulling the bag and continuing on to boil.

Stirring constantly is the key if you leave the bag in there.

 

[Dazza_devil]

Thanks Felten.

I'm going to change the base malt in my recipe from Marris Otter to Golden Promise. I can't find any specs on this malt, does anyone know if I would use the same amount as the MO in my recipe or adjust it according to the yield of the malt?

 

[donburke]

Just looking into mash-out procedures and I see that a lot of brewers add a calculated amount of near boiling water to the mash to raise the temp to around 76 degrees. Would it be acceptable to just apply heat on the stove while jiggling the bag about to raise the temp for mash-out. Will I gain much by mashing out at 76 before I batch sparge at 76 for 10 mins?

get yourself a cake rack that fits the size of your pot, so the bag is not exposed directly to the heat

stir the mash whilst you raise the temperature

 

[Dazza_devil]

I ended up getting a 32 litre pot, couldn't resist at lonly 16 bux more over a 24 litre. This one is gonna be a bit harder to handle than the little 9 litre I've been tossing about, especially when pouring the cooled wort into my fermenter. Maybe I should think about siphoning.
Should I be concerned about any hot side airation while sparging through a colander into the pot or transferring the resulting liquid from a batch sparge into the big boil pot?

 

[Dazza_devil]

get yourself a cake rack that fits the size of your pot, so the bag is not exposed directly to the heat

stir the mash whilst you raise the temperature

Just wondering, would sitting the pot on something like one of those wok rings so it's up off the element have the same effect here?

 

[felten]

I'm not sure what kind of burner you're using but unless you're using a high powered burner like a nasa that directs all the heat onto 1 spot on the kettle, I wouldn't worry about a cake rack, because you are going to be stirring the whole time you're applying the heat to make sure the temp is uniform. (you should be anyway )

And buy yourself a ss racking cane and a few metres of suitable silicon hosing if you don't have it already, the plastic canes don't like the heat.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I'm not sure what kind of burner you're using but unless you're using a high powered burner like a nasa that directs all the heat onto 1 spot on the kettle, I wouldn't worry about a cake rack, because you are going to be stirring the whole time you're applying the heat to make sure the temp is uniform. (you should be anyway )

And buy yourself a ss racking cane and a few metres of suitable silicon hosing if you don't have it already, the plastic canes don't like the heat.

I'm only using an electric coil element on my stove. So you reckon that wont melt my bag if I let it sit on the bottom while I stir during mashout? I'm guessing it's made of nylon, it's one of the 24" inch square grain bags fropm CraftBrewer.

I'll grab some of that heat resistant tubing, maybe think about a SS racking can, could be handy.

 

[felten]

It wouldn't in my opinion anyway, I use a 3ring myself and stir constantly while applying heat, but I guess it depends on how much heat it puts out.

As for a siphon, it is the way to go, if you don't want to drill a hole in your pot and install a ballvalve+pickup tube anyway.

 

[Dazza_devil]

If I was to up the the grain to water ratio to 4 litres/kg for this particular recipe would I be best to extend the mash to 90 mins?
If so, should I also change the mash temp? To what degree would this affect the body of the beer?

 

[Dazza_devil]

About to pitch the starter for this one.
Managed to hit mash temp of 66 with a strike of 72 nicely. I buggered about getting dough balls out and had to add a little hot water to bump her back to 66 before I wrapped her up though.
Managed 65 after an hour, nice.
Can't work this one out though, SG after the mash went 1.045 with a volume of 17 litres, that can't be right. Hydrometer correction might be a little of it, the sample was 24 degrees C, but still. I added 730g of LDME at flameout.
Where I really stuffed up was not allowing for 3 litres loss to kettle trub. I siphoned into the fermenter. The wort didn't settle out very well, I whirpooled but it cooled very fast in a bathtub of cold water. I cut the batch by 3 litres when I added the cold water to compensate a little. OG went 1.041 at 18 degrees C with 20 litres after cold water went in. There is a good inch of trub sitting in the bottom of the fermenter as well.
I've boiled and cooled another 300g of LDME but not sure to add or not.
A recipe calculator gives me around 4.1%(same as TTLL) without the extra LDME or 4.7% with it.
Should I add the extra LDME or leave her be at 1.041 and say that's just how she turned out?

 

[Dazza_devil]

Well there's no turning back now, this baby tastes like a real fair-dinkum pommie ale, only better.
Only 2 weeks in the bottle and my dregs taster showed the signs of something extra good. I can only imagine how good this beer will be in another couple of weeks. The depth of the malt character is something I could of never achieved using extracts. The Golden Promise malt is delicious and will remain the base of this recipe for me and brewed regularly.
Cheers for all the helpful advise.

 

[keifer33]

Good to hear Boagsy. Have done a few AG Biab but still dont mind the partials im doing aswell, the grain makes a huge difference. Partials I think will still be a main method of brewing as its just that bit easier to get your head around straight up.