Mr B's All Grain Adventure

[mofox1]

Thanks guys

I decided to repeat without varying anything - Just mashed in, actual temp is 67 - Using a stick digital thermometer. Not a bad idea to check its readings, I'll have to do that.

Any tips on the whirlpool to minimise trub into nochill cube? I plan to let it sit for 15 mins or so at end of boil and then whirlpool, let sit another 10 and then drain.

I wrapped a stainless scrubbie around my kettle pickup tube for my last brew.

Worked a treat, but slowed down the cube fill quite a bit... probably because I tucked it under the tube as well. Next time I'll just wrap it around, so it can draw a bit better.

Not a bad upgrade for a dollar fiddy.

 

[Mr B]

Ok, things went a bit better today.

Importantly, I did find out that the kiddies have a 'special' doona that absolutely must not be used for brewing. It was somehow detected under another sleeping bag over the pot.

Target SG end of mash was 1.043, I got 1.035. Hit target liters (25.5).

Post boil target SG was 1.046, I got 1.045. Liters also good at ~22.5.

I did squeeze and re-dunk grain bag during mashout temp raise (65 to 78 degrees), maybe this helped, and was the only difference between the two brews. There is something weird in the above figures (low end of mash SG and close post boil), but don't fully understand it yet.
'
My measure indicated 22.5l post boil, and 2l trub. So should be close to target of 20l. Maybe Bunnings square fermenter measurements are out, which gave me indication of 18l for previous batch. Today's cube weighed just over 20kg interestingly - on crap scales.

All in all, feels a better attempt. Feels a bit silly to put so much detail, but it might help someone else.

Thanks all for advice above, some of it I'm still rationalizing so apologies for no response - but appreciate your input, and any further comments/clarification.

Perhaps I'll try to verify my volume measurements initially.

 

[Yob]

Do yourself a favour and get make yourself a measuring stick, I used a bit of dowell from the big green shed.. mark increments of 5lt in your kettle and then you can see pretty quickly if you are at volume.

 

[philmud]

For the first time yesterday, i stirred rapidly I ladled the first 21 Litres of brew into a ferm once it had settled in a few minutes (my usual practice) but this time I used the jiggle syphon for the residual 21L to the cube. Highly recommend - it sucked up virtually all the liquid and left all the trub and hop matter on the bottom of the boiler. Took me a while to get a handle on but.

Is this one of the jobbies with the marble in the inlet? I've considered using one of these, but how do you intend to clean it properly?

Edit: ducking autocorrect

 

[rusty274]

DiD you mill your own grain? That's the most likely culprit for low efficiency. Did you stir during the mash period? 1.042 is still an ok starting gravity. The beer should still be ok. Might taste more bitter than you planned.
What was mash temp at start of mashing?

I have 3 biab under my belt. I've had the same issues as Mr B.

Is stirring a bad thing?

I use a combo of a 3ring burner (for bringing water up to temp and boil) and a hand held electric element (for holding mash temp). If my mash temp drops I turn on my element and stir/jiggle the wort. The guys at G&G suggested doing it this way. Is this correct?

 

[philmud]

Is stirring a bad thing?

It potentially means your mash temps are less consistent & lots of BIABers believe it to be unnecessary. I stirred for a while because it was suggested at the G&G demo, but I don't anymore & my efficiency remains the same.

II use a combo of a 3ring burner (for bringing water up to temp and boil) and a hand held electric element (for holding mash temp). If my mash temp drops I turn on my element and stir/jiggle the wort. The guys at G&G suggested doing it this way. Is this
correct?

Would the element scorch the grain it's in contact with? Otherwise sounds fine, but if you insulate your pot properly, the element would be unnecessary.

 

[nosco]

I have done 6 biabs so far using BIABicus. I reckon it's way better than anything else as far as biab is concerned. No bells and whistles, easier to use and very accurate. I use a $10 steel ruler to measure volumes and then enter into BIABicus or there is calculations you can use. For temps I use a digital (get one that measures to .1 degs) thermometer with a probe. Drill a hole in a heat proof food safe plastic bowl, put the probe through the hole and then float it on top of your mash for constant temp readings. I got a set of 2 bowl for $2 from bigw. A decent thermo will cost $30 - $50.

Using a no chill cube and a auto, jiggler siphon is a good way to reduce trub into the fermenter but I've heard a little bit (not a lot) in the fermenter is a good thing. My first brew had the whole cube tipped in trub and all and it turned out fine so like cheeseburgers said don't worry about it too much.

I do 90min mash and 90min boil as recommended by BIABicus so the grain crush is not an issue. For my last 4 brews I have been getting 5 or 6 point over on OG but because of the 90 min mash I stir half way to raise temp a bit and then I stir at the end all the way to mash out. Yes overkill. It may or may not explain the extra OG. I have a kinda SS false bottom above my 5500W element so no danger of scorching but when the heat is on to bring up the temps it's down low and I stir like hell over the element. I would say stirring is good but with only 6 brews I don't have a lot of experience to back that up.

 

[Mr B]

I wrapped a stainless scrubbie around my kettle pickup tube for my last brew.

Worked a treat, but slowed down the cube fill quite a bit... probably because I tucked it under the tube as well. Next time I'll just wrap it around, so it can draw a bit better.

Not a bad upgrade for a dollar fiddy.

Interesting idea. I found that the trub settled into quite a fine layer, so maybe its not such an issue. I'll see how it goes over the next few brews and keep your trick in mind.

Do yourself a favour and get make yourself a measuring stick, I used a bit of dowell from the big green shed.. mark increments of 5lt in your kettle and then you can see pretty quickly if you are at volume.

Heh, good idea and I have a nice shiny peice of alloy marked in 2l increments. I marked it by filling the kettle with a 2l jug. It should be accurate, but the volume in the Bunnings fermentor is about 18l going by the marks on that. Seemed a bit low in the willow 20l jerry no chill as well. I'll have to doublecheck the measurements as either my stick is off, or the containers are - which has an effect depending which is off. Both batches turned out pretty close in volume which is good

It potentially means your mash temps are less consistent & lots of BIABers believe it to be unnecessary. I stirred for a while because it was suggested at the G&G demo, but I don't anymore & my efficiency remains the same.
Would the element scorch the grain it's in contact with? Otherwise sounds fine, but if you insulate your pot properly, the element would be unnecessary.

This is interesting, I will try a no stir etc in a couple of batches.

I have done 6 biabs so far using BIABicus. I reckon it's way better than anything else as far as biab is concerned. No bells and whistles, easier to use and very accurate. I use a $10 steel ruler to measure volumes and then enter into BIABicus or there is calculations you can use. For temps I use a digital (get one that measures to .1 degs) thermometer with a probe. Drill a hole in a heat proof food safe plastic bowl, put the probe through the hole and then float it on top of your mash for constant temp readings. I got a set of 2 bowl for $2 from bigw. A decent thermo will cost $30 - $50.

Using a no chill cube and a auto, jiggler siphon is a good way to reduce trub into the fermenter but I've heard a little bit (not a lot) in the fermenter is a good thing. My first brew had the whole cube tipped in trub and all and it turned out fine so like cheeseburgers said don't worry about it too much.

I do 90min mash and 90min boil as recommended by BIABicus so the grain crush is not an issue. For my last 4 brews I have been getting 5 or 6 point over on OG but because of the 90 min mash I stir half way to raise temp a bit and then I stir at the end all the way to mash out. Yes overkill. It may or may not explain the extra OG. I have a kinda SS false bottom above my 5500W element so no danger of scorching but when the heat is on to bring up the temps it's down low and I stir like hell over the element. I would say stirring is good but with only 6 brews I don't have a lot of experience to back that up.

Good idea with the thermometer float, bit of a pain holding the thermometer in there. Thermowell sounds pretty good, just the bag snagging issue. Any comments on how much of a problem this is?

Do your calcs (strike volume) account for the 90 min boil? (I would assume so). I might try a longer mash next brew.


I pitched yeast into the second batch tonight, and also took SG of a sample I had sitting in the fridge at 18 deg C. Was a clear 1.050, where was 1.045 on brew day - Maybe a temp issue in my measurements - and first time using a hydrometer I'll also do a bit of reading on accounting for temp differences.

I'm feeling a bit better about the process, and think I have some consistency between the two batches. Acknowledge I am a complete novice, and Only up from here.

I must say, its great fun

 

[AntonW]

Just wait until to you try your beer Mr B. Then you'll know how good this hobby really is.

 

[Mr B]

Yeeees...... I hope so..... :

Idly reading some stuff, and just realized I nochilled, and used the Dr Smurto Golden Ale recipe without taking that into account, so bitterness goes from ~33 to ~51 in Brewmate....

Whoops

 

[philmud]

Good idea with the thermometer float, bit of a pain holding the thermometer in there. Thermowell sounds pretty good, just the bag snagging issue. Any comments on how much of a problem this is?

I'm about to start using a kettle with a thermowell & thermometer & was concerned about this, however plenty of BIABers use them and from what I've read it's a good idea to gather the bag from the opposite side first to avoid snagging. To be safe I'm going with a 3" thermowell (unless there's a good reason to go larger).

 

[Mr B]

Bottled 94 stubbies yesterday - quite time consuming but somewhat therapeutic. The best part was that I bulk primed and volume of each previous brew was 18l - so volumes all good.

Brewed a Fatter Yak today.

Volumes all good but not hitting efficiency targets.

Using Brewmate set on 70% efficiency.

The post boil SG target was 1.057, but I got 1.050 - so I'm a fair few points off which is annoying. (Preboil target was 1.055 and I got 1.042, which seems to validate hydrometer readings) I acknowledge this is only my third brew, and looking to improve. Pure BIAB process.

I did a 90 min mash, checked temp at 60 mins and all good. Mash temps 68 initial to 67.3 at end of mash. Found an alternative to the kids 'good' doona, was closely watched when I was examining the linen cupboard.

I did a 'mash out' - raised temp to 78 and let it sit for 10 mins. lifted and dunked/squeezed the bag during this.

Hydro readings have been corrected for temp, measured at around 40 deg C.

Actual efficiency this brew was ~59% by Brewmate

Any ideas how I can improve efficiency? Please let me know if more info required.

 

[Mr B]

Edited twice and my edists dont seem to be saving. Hmmm. Anyway, just worth noting that i am reading heaps, and cant understand why I'm so far off efficiency (sg) targets where my temps and volumes seem pretty good. Plenty of people get >70% with straight BIAB, no sparge etc. I must be dong something wrong?

 

[nosco]

I have been getting 3 or 4 points over on my brews but i maybe over stir which could be it. I think the key is to take accurate records of every brew. Then after 5 or 6 or more brews if your efficiency is consistently under by the same amount then you adjust it in Brew Mate. If you try and improve your technique or eqipment to fix it try and change one thing each brew so you can pin point the problem.

 

[contrarian]

One thing you will notice with BIAB is that as the grain bill gets bigger the efficiency will go down. A target SG of 1.060 is reasonably big so that could be the issue.

I'm also assuming that when you talk about efficiency you are talking about efficiency into the fermenter rather than mash efficiency? The efficiency into the fermenter or cube is heavily impacted by how much trub/wort is left in the kettle.

By your calculations it also sounds like you are getting a lower than expected mash efficiency. One thing to try is a larger starting volume and a 90 minute boil for bigger beers.

I also found that by adding my grain more slowly an making sure there were no little dough balls at all that I picked up a few points, not sure if this could be it for you.

There are a range of different things you can try to improve efficiency but while you are getting comfortable with the process it might be easier to adjust your efficiency down a bit in the software and add the extra few handfuls of grain that will make it up. If you go over you can always water down a bit in the fermenter!

 

[Mr B]

Did a brew today, used a refractometer which showed 1.058 post boil.

I no-chilled, when I got to the trub on draining the kettle I stopped, and then ran some of the wort/trub into a measure. About an hour later (after cleanup/cooling) I put it on the refractometer and is showed 1,066.

Whats going on here? I would have thought the two readings should be consistent? I also double checked the second reading with a hydrometer, it gave the same. refractometer had been calibrated too.

 

[Mr B]

Well, the adventure is going quite well, had some good brews, and will be doing a couple more in the next few days hopefully.

BTW, in reference to the question above, gravity turned out to be 1.061 before pitching yeast, quite happy with that, getting about 70 to 75% efficiency, some solid stirring seems to have made a difference (potential dough ball issue previously). Still a newbie though, sorting the technique

Sooooo:

I have 2 x 23l in the fermenting fridge at the moment. I have a westinghouse fridge/freezer, approx 8? years old (so newish model).

For the first time I thought I might try a cold crash to clear the beer.

On Friday night I changed the STC from 18 deg to 2 deg. Today (Tues) it has got down to 5 deg. Probe is wedged in between the two fermenters - so should pretty much read liquid temp. Temp decline has been gradual/linear.

I guess the fridge thermo must be kicking on when the air temp gets down to 4 deg or so, and the beer takes a while to catch up?

Does it usually take this long to get down to temp?

Any changes I could make to improve the process?

 

[Mr B]

Well, interesting reading over the early problems.

Some 30 brews down the road. Have been BIAB, and slowly accumulating gear to make a 3v.

I'm not quite there yet, but close, and in the interim made a new 1v mash tun today.

50l keg version (legally acquired).

I'll post some pics from the phone.

Quite an enjoyable day fabricating.

 

[Mr B]

This will be a sort of 1v, made from a keg. False bottom made from the bottom of the keg.

 

[Mr B]

Kegs are hard to drill, much better with the drill press than the cordless.

Move the press to the keg......