Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[jakub76]

Here's a pic

My First BIAB, and now I reckon it's not too bad.
Though it weighs in at 6.1% (+ bottle priming = 6.6%?) and I have had a couple...hmmm

 

[Nick JD]

Good to hear it's gone well for you. A lot of people are using it as a stepping stone towards bigger and better gear and that was my real aim here - to get people to dip their toes in and realise it's quite easy.

Initially, I was going to do the exanmple as a SMaSH brew with only one malt and hops, but I thought adding a couple of spec malts and a different late addition hop are very much part of even the simplest brewing.

To be honest - most of my brews are simpler than the example brew here. A SMaSH ale with only a 60 minute addition is beer that has nothing to hide behind. Producing great "simple" beers IMHO is harder than fancy ones once you've got the technique (and know your gear inside out) down pat.

 

[rday]

I'm planning on doing my first BIAB this weekend, stepping up from extract brews. One thing I am not real sure about is water volume. I have a 20 l stockpot, so I plan on bumping up the volume to about 15 l. So I mash at 15 l and when I mash out, say I have 12 l left. Do I then top up to 15 for the boil? And after the boil, I'm down to about 13 l, do I top up again?

 

[bimbo]

I was aiming for a 12L batch which was 1/2 of the original recipee.
I started with 14L of water for the mash (2.5kg grain bill). at mash out i think i was down to 11L. added the drippings from the back which was about 500ml so then i just sparged with 2.5L of hot water to bring it back up to 14L for the boil.
after the 60min boil I checked the OG and it was way up but only about 10L of wort. so i added a few litres of boiling water which brought the wort up to the expected OG and also the right volume.

Not sure whether this is the right thing to do and I am sure someone with more experience will have more to say.

In a 20L pot I had 14L of water and 2.5kg grain and i wouldn't try to fit too much more in there. you might get a litre or 2 of water more but will have dificulty stiring the mash without spillage. I also left a little bit of room so that is the mash temp was too hot i could add some cool water to drop the temp a few degrees.

Hope this helps
Cheers
James

 

[RdeVjun]

To be honest - most of my brews are simpler than the example brew here. A SMaSH ale with only a 60 minute addition is beer that has nothing to hide behind. Producing great "simple" beers IMHO is harder than fancy ones once you've got the technique (and know your gear inside out) down pat.

Yeah, good point Nick, 100% base malt batches are a challenge that I'd like to see more brewers take up. Probably getting a bit OT here, but many of mine are just so in a bit of a quest to get more familiar with the malts and see what their capabilities really are and with techniques such as decoction and caramelisation plus by fiddling mash profile, water chemistry and hops, some pretty amazing and diverse flavours can be achieved. Quite a while back I was getting a bit frustrated with spec malts and wasn't quite getting the flavours I thought I should be, but was also overwhelmed by the diverse range available and I figured I would have no chance of exploring them all so I logically started looking at the base malt instead. Plus I was looking initially to emulate TTL which is reputedly 100% GP...
I feel a 100% base malt category (or maybe a couple for ale and lager) in competitions would be very educational, perhaps would get a bit 'secret squirrel' though (no offence Doc). Home- maltsers/ kilners/ roasters might make it interesting.

Getting back on topic, well done guys for having a crack at your first BIABs, this method is cheap but very effective (I'm still using it a year into AGing), keep it simple to begin with as there's no need to tear the fork out of the recipe initially- you'll still be making superb beer! :icon_cheers:

 

[RdeVjun]

I'm planning on doing my first BIAB this weekend, stepping up from extract brews. One thing I am not real sure about is water volume. I have a 20 l stockpot, so I plan on bumping up the volume to about 15 l. So I mash at 15 l and when I mash out, say I have 12 l left. Do I then top up to 15 for the boil? And after the boil, I'm down to about 13 l, do I top up again?

Hi rday, firstly congratulations on taking the AG plunge, it should be very rewarding! B)

Yep, 3kg of grain in a 19/20L stockpot should give you about 10-12L of first runnings at 1.050, once you boil that it will increase to about 1.060 or maybe higher, so it will need dilution at some point if your recipe calls for an OG lower than that. Some folks achieve this with a dunk sparge/mashout (like bimbo has and there's nothing wrong with that) or you can just dilute it, either at the start of the boil or at the end once it has cooled and before pitching. I'd leave sparging until later on, just stick with the simple BIAB to begin with would be my advice.
The important thing is really the post- boil SG. In your case, I would keep it simple and dilute it post- boil so that you're sure it matches the recipe. However, I'd be measuring the first runnings' SG to give you an idea of mash efficiency, you can decide to dilute it then, but if you miscalculate it then you risk having too weak a wort at the end of the boil.
Here's a rough formula for post- boil dilution (SG of 1.050 entered as 50 etc):
(Actual SG/ Target SG * wort volume) - wort volume = volume of water to add

Hope this helps! :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

I'm planning on doing my first BIAB this weekend, stepping up from extract brews. One thing I am not real sure about is water volume. I have a 20 l stockpot, so I plan on bumping up the volume to about 15 l. So I mash at 15 l and when I mash out, say I have 12 l left. Do I then top up to 15 for the boil? And after the boil, I'm down to about 13 l, do I top up again?

It's easy to top up at any time - even in the fermenter with cold water. It does no harm and gives you very accurate control of your OG.

Remember to recalculate your gravities according to temperature! 1.035 @ 65C is something like 1.060... hot liquids become thinner.

 

[rday]

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I am looking forward to this little experiment!

 

[bimbo]

It's easy to top up at any time - even in the fermenter with cold water. It does no harm and gives you very accurate control of your OG.

Remember to recalculate your gravities according to temperature! 1.035 @ 65C is something like 1.060... hot liquids become thinner.

Yep I nearly fell for that one. after lifting the bag out i measured the graviry and it was 1.046. I thought that is about right but I am a bit down on volume (8L and aiming for 12L final volume) then checked the actual value using this link calculator and it worked out to be just over 1.060.

I just checked my brew. was a bit worried that there had been no bubbles in the airlock and was thinking about pitching some more yeast. So i shined a torch through my barrel to see bit flying round all over the place. decided to take a gravity reading and it is already down to about 1.021.
Absolutly stoked - it actually smelled and tasted like beer :lol: Only another week and a half or so till i can bottle

Once again thats for all the info and confidence to do my first AG
James

 

[Siborg]

I'm gonna give this thread a well deserved *BUMP*. I'm sick of looking for it on the other pages. And I'm trying this as soon as a try a partial to compare with... may even try an AG version of the partial recipe I'm about to do, purely for scientific purposes.

 

[probablynathan]

Thanks for the post Nick JD. I have been looking at moving into AG brewing after having just found this forum. I'm putting together a larger set-up but this post is a great way for me to start a AG brew strait away. I will be giving this a go on the weekend.

Cheers.

 

[bimbo]

Just thought I would do a little bit of an update on my brew i did almost a month ago. I MADE BEER :beer: and it actually tastes pretty darn good even though it has only been in the bottle just shy of 2 weeks (couldn't wait any longer) and fermented at 23-24C instead of 18C.
I think i have the ferment temp sorted and going to do another batch of the same brew this weekend.

Once again a big thanks to all of you for you input and encouragement to give AG a go. To those that havn't tried it and are thinking about giving AG ago just do it. If a mug like me can do it having only brewed a few kit and kilo while back in uni anyone can.

Here is pick of the wort boil

And the final product

Cheers
James

 

[levin_ae92]

Well I finally got my grain and hops from Beer Belly today, searching for a pot tomorrow, hopefully find a 30L that wont break the bank, but if not the 19L from BigW will do. My grains are 4kg Joe Whie Trad Ale, 500g Caramunich II and 200g Vienna.

Hops im still sorting out, but thinking 10g simcoe, 10g amarillo for bittering, 10g amarillo and 10g galaxy flavour and 20g galaxy aroma.

Plan 10L of water for mashing, plus 4.7 kg of grain in 19L pot should be snug, then dunk sparging in bucket, then back into pot for boil.

Shall see how it goes, will take lots of pics

 

[brewguts]

hi all
Nick jd, a big thank you for this thread, apart from the usual thread hi jackers the #279 posts read so far are fantastic. Tis 02.22 hrs and way past my bed time, (first alarm clock goes off in 3 hours). Will be back on the morrow to read the rest

cheers
al

 

[Hatchy]

Well I was scared of AG until about an hour ago. I reckon I'll give this a go. I've got a decent pot I reckon I can use & a grain bag a mate gave me. I'll need a small fermenting vessel, I don't really like the idea of the cube in case I get some eager krausen that can't be gotten off without elbowgrease. I need a thermometer as well. I steeped some spec grains on Sunday using guesswork. Probably not best practice.

 

[Siborg]

Well I was scared of AG until about an hour ago. I reckon I'll give this a go. I've got a decent pot I reckon I can use & a grain bag a mate gave me. I'll need a small fermenting vessel, I don't really like the idea of the cube in case I get some eager krausen that can't be gotten off without elbowgrease. I need a thermometer as well. I steeped some spec grains on Sunday using guesswork. Probably not best practice.

Mate, go for it. I did this method, with a different recipe, and made a full 20L batch, making up the difference in sugar with some LDME. Its easy as... just watch for boil-off. I boiled 10-12L (whatever NickJD recommended) and ended up with only 5L of wort. It doesn't matter too much to your gravities, as you top up with water anyways, but it messes with your IBU's and hop utilisation (I think).

I just can't go back to kits now.

 

[Nick JD]

Well I was scared of AG until about an hour ago. I reckon I'll give this a go. I've got a decent pot I reckon I can use & a grain bag a mate gave me. I'll need a small fermenting vessel, I don't really like the idea of the cube in case I get some eager krausen that can't be gotten off without elbowgrease. I need a thermometer as well. I steeped some spec grains on Sunday using guesswork. Probably not best practice.

Make sure the fermenter is "food safe" and you're good to go. I haven't scrubbed a fermenter in ages - I've not seen anything that napisan won't remove in 24 hours without laying a finger on it. Rinse three times with cold water. Easy.

Remember there's not rules to how big a brew must be. You can make one six pack if you want and ferment it in a 3L juice bottle.

 

[Hatchy]

The other thing I was thinking of is to do a 9L batch, stick that in the fermenter, chuck some glad wrap over the top & do the other half of my batch on the hotplate, put that in with the 1st lot & pitch some yeast. I assume there's several reasons this is a bad idea.

 

[Nick JD]

The other thing I was thinking of is to do a 9L batch, stick that in the fermenter, chuck some glad wrap over the top & do the other half of my batch on the hotplate, put that in with the 1st lot & pitch some yeast. I assume there's several reasons this is a bad idea.

I'd add the yeast to the first batch as soon as it's cool enough. Then you can easily add (with no splashing) another half to it while it's fermenting. I've done this before and it works fine - but it's better to buy another fermenter of some sort (like a $10 Bunnings container) and then you can have two different beers and be one beer closer to perfection.

 

[manticle]

I'd add the yeast to the first batch as soon as it's cool enough. Then you can easily add (with no splashing) another half to it while it's fermenting. I've done this before and it works fine - but it's better to buy another fermenter of some sort (like a $10 Bunnings container) and then you can have two different beers and be one beer closer to perfection.

If you add the second batch in before high krausen hits, even splashing shouldn't be an issue.