First Time BIABer

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
4/12/12
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Location
Lutwyche, Brisbane, QLD
I thought i would write my first post, I have been reading and researching a lot through the last month and finally made the move and bought new gear to start brewing all grain!

I attempted my first BIAB with a the Fat Cat Yak, American Pale Ale recipe from Brewers Choice.

Everything went quite well for my first BIAB, a few little mistakes but thats expected for my first. Everything went fine for the mash and boil, the mash might have fluctuated a few degrees back and forth but i will get something to insulate the kettle for the next brew. My original gravity measured after the boil was 1.040 which was a bit shy of the expected 1.045 but nothing to be worried about i don't think? My major problems were trying to get the wort down to 22 degrees, it was a warm brissy day and 38 at my house so i had a few runs to the bottlo to get ice and managed to eventually get it to 23 degrees but it was happily bubbling away today. Another small mistake was i only had 21.5 litres of wort to ferment but that can easily be fixed.

My next step is to add some dry hops on thursday, i dont have a secondary fermenter so was just going to throw the hops in this fermenter, is there a noticeable difference to doing this? i will probably get a secondary fermenter for one of my next brews.

Well i loved my first attempt and cant wait to get going on my next brew!
 
Good on you Mitch, welcome to the dark side.
You will make great beer.
In answer to your concern about a noticeable difference - no. Not at this stage. When you've done a few more brews you might see the benefit.

Right now you'll be wrapped in the quality of your first all grain.

Lemon
 
Hi Mitch,

I too are just about to move to biab (Thanks to barls) out of curiosity how much water did you begin with to end up with 21.5 lit??
 
Well done Mitch.
If you haven't got it already, BrewMate is a fantastic brewing programme that is well suited to Biab & to no chill. It is free but a little donation via PayPal to the developer will be much appreciated. I used to chill my beers but Summer temperatures make it really hard to get to pitching temp without an ice slurry or something similar so no chill is a great alternative.
What is your Biab vessel, gas or electric?
Do you mill your own grain?
Did you do a 90min sacc rest followed by a mash out? Extra efficiency will be gained if you do both of these steps.
I would wait until primary fermentation is finished, 7 days & then dry hop if you wish. I would not dry hop for any longer than 3 days as it can make your beer taste grassy. I wouldn't bother with a secondary fermenter as it's not necessary & another vessel to clean & sanitize is more chance you may get an infection.
A temperature controlled fermenting fridge is extremely important.
Fermenting @ambient temps is a really bad idea.
 
tonyt said:
Hi Mitch,

I too are just about to move to biab (Thanks to barls) out of curiosity how much water did you begin with to end up with 21.5 lit??
Hey Tony,

I started with 30L which i calculated off of an online calculator but i think there is variations for different equipment so i guess it becomes easier.
 
Crusty said:
Well done Mitch.
If you haven't got it already, BrewMate is a fantastic brewing programme that is well suited to Biab & to no chill. It is free but a little donation via PayPal to the developer will be much appreciated. I used to chill my beers but Summer temperatures make it really hard to get to pitching temp without an ice slurry or something similar so no chill is a great alternative.
What is your Biab vessel, gas or electric?
Do you mill your own grain?
Did you do a 90min sacc rest followed by a mash out? Extra efficiency will be gained if you do both of these steps.
I would wait until primary fermentation is finished, 7 days & then dry hop if you wish. I would not dry hop for any longer than 3 days as it can make your beer taste grassy. I wouldn't bother with a secondary fermenter as it's not necessary & another vessel to clean & sanitize is more chance you may get an infection.
A temperature controlled fermenting fridge is extremely important.
Fermenting @ambient temps is a really bad idea.
Hey Crusty,
I have been looking at getting some sort of brew software but i have a mac so it isnt as easy. i think i will end up going with beersmith, does it have the same features as brewmate for biab and no chill? i will definitely give the no chill a go!
I have a 3 ring burner gas set up with a 50L stainless kettle. I dont mill my grain yet, for my first one i just got the guys at brewers choice to grind it but down the track i will think about getting my own grinder.
I did a mash out but didnt do a 90 minute sack rest, is that just letting the sack rest for 90 minutes after 60 minutes steeping?
Alright will hold off on the dry hops and put them in sunday and yeah definitely will be getting a fermenting fridge for my next purchase.
Thanks for your help.
 
A 90min rest I feel is better than a 60min. It will help with efficiency. Simply leave your grains soak for 90mins, do a mash out & hoist your bag. I brew in a 40lt electric urn & it's fantastic. I made a JSGA clone on Saturday & ended up with 23.5lt into my cube @1.048 giving me 81% efficiency into the cube.
BeerSmith is quite a good programme. It does have Biab support but no check box option for no chill so you may have to play around with your late hop additions to compensate for the extended contact time with the hot wort. There is quite differing opinions on which way to go but a 20min leeway seems to be about the standard.
For example, add your recipe into your software programme & treat your hop additions like this;

Chill No Chill

60min 60min
30min 10min
20min 0min
0min Dry hop

Just search online for no chill hop addition adjustments.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top