My First Ag

[bullsneck]

Hey all.

50 minutes into my first AG mash.

Its a Golden Ale (thanks to Dr. Smurto!)

In the recipeDB, it says mash out 78deg for 10mins.

I am aiming at a 90min mash.

Should I crank up the urn at the 80min or 90min mark?

Thanks!!

ps - I'm sweating. My brew room is at 65% humidity and 28deg. The urn is a good heater!!

 

[bullsneck]

bump up the jams

 

[marlow_coates]

Are you BIAB ing?

Or using a separate mash tun?

If you are BIAB, I would take the bag out at 80 min, dump in a bucket, and then sparge with water at 85C - this should bring the temp in the grain up to around the 78C mark.
Add sparge water to the rest for boil.

If you have a mash tun, the drain the high gravity wort, and sparge with the 85C water again.

If BIAB you could also do as you saying, and increase the temp to the 78C mark, then take the bag out, but I would still sparge with some hot water to make sure your getting those sugars out and improving efficiency.

The idea is to make the sugars less gooey, and allow them to drain out in the liquid form you want (sorry if you knew this already).

We always sparge, with both BIAB and using a tun, and find the second runnings are still relatively high.
You can always boil for longer if you end up with too much volume

Good luck

Marlow

 

[marlow_coates]

To add to why we bring the temp up, I think it also halts the enzyme activity.

But seeing as you will go straight to the boil, I never understood this reasoning?

Marlow

 

[bullsneck]

Cheers, I will do the sparge next time.

I gave the bag a bear hug using two fry pan lids instead.

Hops in soon, thanks for your help.

 

[marlow_coates]

If it's not too late, pour a 2L jug of just boild water over it like a sieve.

You'll probably find the resulting liquid is pretty sugary and full of the sugars you want.

If your doing this though, make sure it gets at least some time in the boil.

Marlow

 

[bullsneck]

Will definitely do a sparge next time.

I ended up with a OG of 1033. I was shooting for 1047.

Looks like it'll be a bitter Mild. The BU:GU ratio is 1.00!

 

[raven19]

You can also leave the bag hanging over the pot whilst waiting for the urn to get up to the boil, so you continue to gain any last runnings from the grain.

I am sure even at 1033 it shall still taste great!

 

[bullsneck]

Yeah, I squeezed the hell out of it and let it hang for a good half hour.

Definitely sparge next time. Now all I need to find is a decent sparging vessel.

 

[marlow_coates]

A large colander, or a crab pot with cage are good options if you can get them.

Otherwise, any vessel, with a cake tin or something on the bottom, that will keep the grain bag off the bottom, and allow the wort to drain out.

Slowly pour a couple of litres of near boiling water into the centre region of the grain, and dribble it all around.
As it drains through it will capture the wort, and lose temp pretty quickly.

When the liquid in the bottom reaches the bag, then tip it into the boiling pot, and do it again.

We generally keep going till the sparge water is almost clear.

Good to hear you made 1033 without a sparge though.

You will surprise youself next time I reckon.

Marlow

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I wouldn't bother with a sparge - if you manage your BIAB properly, you will get a mash efficiency in the mid to high 70s range and that's plenty. If you cant do pretty much as well as a batch sparge system without sparging your BIAB... then you are most likely doing something wrong. When you have done a few brews and you have your process under control, then if you feel the need to muck around with your process, by all means give sparging a go - but it absolutely is not needed to get an acceptable level of efficiency. I never sparge BIAB beers and routinely get 75-80% mash efficiency.

In BIAB - if you actually use your urn to increase the temperature of the mash - while stirring constantly when the heat is on of course - that in and of itself will add a number of percentage points to your efficiency because you will get more effective starch conversion from the slowly increased heat and the agitation. This will also reduce the likelyhood of starch/carbohydrate haze in your beer.

Simple BIAB for beginners. You have an urn with a built in heat source... just use that to add heat and leave the sparge alone for now. Its not needed and just makes your life more complicated.

 

[PistolPatch]

bullsneck, congratulations on your first BIAB!!!

I am pretty horrified at some of the advice you have been offered here. If you need some help, feel free to PM myself or ThirstyBoy (post above.) Better still, post your worries in the main BIAB thread (airlocked under All-grain and Partials). Very rareley is bad advice posted there. If it is, it is always corrected.

Just quickly, your gravity readings are probably incorrect - it is easy to do, or there is some other faulty measuring equipment.

Good luck, PM us or post to the main thread!

Pat

 

[bullsneck]

Here are some photos from my first AG brew day...









Can't wait to taste it!

 

[bullsneck]

A few mistakes made in this one...

Strike temp to 70 only reduced to 68. I was shooting for 67.

The temp dropped 4deg over the course of 90mins.

I ended up with an efficiency of 49%. Not happy with that, but not much can be done about that now it's fermenting. Looks like I'll be sipping on an Amarillo Mild, instead of a DSGA.

Would the fact that I didn't sparge or mash out effect my efficiency? Also the temperature of the mash would have played a part, too. Am I correct in assuming that?

 

[manticle]

Temperature of the mash will affect its fermentability. I'm not sure that it will affect efficiency unless you go outside the range (too hot/cold for conversion). When I say I'm not sure I mean I'm not sure - it could be a factor.

This little wiki article goes into some detail as to how temperature, pH etc affect fermentability and efficiency based on some home experiements with each. Not definitive by any means but you may find some potential answers.

http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?t...nfusion_mashing

How's the crush on the grain? How's the pre-boil gravity?

Also found this: http://hbd.org/uchima/tech/efficiency.html which just suggests a few different factors that may be the culprit.

 

[bullsneck]

Cheers Manticle.

I'll have to buy you a beer one day. You and Four* seem to answer all my questions.

Cheers!

 

[manticle]

Happy for you to buy me beer but I second Pat's suggestion.

Anything you want to know about BIAB - PM the experts. On this forum, as far as I can work out, the BIAB experts on the forum would be pistol patch, Thirsty Boy and BribieG. I've no doubt all three of them will help you refine your processes whether via PM or within the BIAB thread. Helpful and knowledgeable posters all and BIAB is their specialty.

No offence to anyone well skilled in BIAB who I have not mentioned. I picked the three who come immediately to mind.

 

[bullsneck]

No offence to anyone well skilled in BIAB who I have not mentioned. I picked the three who come immediately to mind.

I can't believe you didn't include me!