New BIABer

[pist]

Well im just about ready to do my first BIAB, just waiting on some silicone line to turn up and ill be set to order my grain and hops.

Im pretty sure ive got most of the process nutted out I.E fill with water taking into account trub loss, heat to strike temp, turn heat off, add bag, stir in grain gradually breaking up any doughballs that form, put lid on kettle and wrap with insulation, mash for 90 mins, checking temp periodically, raise bag above kettle and squeeze to remove remaining liquid, turn heat back on and raise to boil and start hop schedule (familiar with this from extract brewing), add whirlfloc tab at about 10 mins before end of boil, whirlpool by stirring the **** outta it until end of boil...turn heat off and drain to cube leaving kettle trub behind. Put lid on cube but not tighten all the way up, squeeze what air i can outta it, tighten lid up and leave on its side for 10 mins or so?? Leave to cool overnight, tip into fermenter and pitch yeast.

Is there anything I am missing here? Any tips or traps to look out for?
Any tips or info you can offer i would be greatful for, still learning and keen to get in and brew some good beer.
Cheers

 

[brad81]

Looks pretty good to me.

I position my burner and pot under a beam. I can then tie some rope (with a loop in the end) above the pot so I can hook my biab to it (meat/S hook) and have it drain above the pot whilst bringing it to the boil and squeezing the shiz out of the bag.

Good BIAB summary

 

[Bribie G]

Hi P, looks like you have it in one. What volume are you doing? If it's for a 23L brew then as Brad suggests, a skyhook is the best bit of kit you can get. I use a double pulley, two pulley blocks and a length of clothesline cost me less than $20 plus a few stainless steel S-hooks. Learn how to do a hangman's noose.

If you fit the bottom of the pot with a cake rack or trivet to keep the bag clear of the bottom, you can heat to mashout (78 degrees) while stirring, then hoist the bag. Will give you a little better efficiency, plus you have to heat the pot anyway so no extra "cost" to the process.

 

[bum]

whirlpool by stirring the **** outta it until end of boil...turn heat off

Whirlpool is post-boil. Whirlpool will do nothing for dropping out trub while a rolling boil is still going on. Even immediately after the boil is finished is a little futile, IMO, because the heat of the wort still keeps everything in there churning around for a bit.

 

[jaypes]

I second the hoist - mine is similar to this - http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/uploads/albums/gallery/album_950/med_gallery_13909_950_153839.jpg

Also purchase some of those red heavy duty elbow length PVC gloves from bunnings

First time I did BIAB, no hoist, no gloves - you can imagine the colloquial language used

 

[Aydos]

With your whirlpool, only start that once the convection (don't know how to spell it) stops in the pot. This will be evident when the break stop flowing around in the wort. Otherwise while your trying to whirlpool and form a decent cone it will just be floating back up into suspension, thus eliminating your efforts to whirlpool.

I usually do this 10mins after flame out and then I give it another 10-20mins to settle after I have whirlpooled.

Hope this helps.

 

[pist]

ahh right got it...so post boil is whirlpool, thanks fellas.

I've made myself a keggle, has a stainless ball valve and pickup tube, ive re-used the top i cut off as a lid...and riveted some 40 x3mm aluminium flat bar to the sides of the lid to slip over the first lot of humps on the side of the keg which holds it in place nice and firm. I used the alloy flat bar as it has enough ductility in it to bend and slip neatly over it, yet still has enough strength to remain straight. Would not recommend this method to people who use electric elements as it wont take long for electrolysis to take hold and corrode both the alloy and SS, however shouldnt pose too much of an issue since im using gas.

The whole thing sits on a stand that houses the 3 ring burner, so ill be doing standard FV 23L batches. Was thinking i might be able to get away with throwing a rope over the rafters in the shed where ill be brewing (doors open of course to allow good ventillation), but the S hook sounds like a good idea...might get down to bunnings and get something. The gloves ill get too, hadnt considered that good point jaypes. I also hadnt considered the cake rack bribie, but might be a good idea to avoid a scorched bag. I seen some racks made to go in large camp ovens at BCF the other day at a reasonable price that looked like they may fit the bottom of the keg...may have to take some measurements and go from there.

I'm planning to do a dry run, probably this weekend just to make sure ive got the heating process sorted, and to ensure im able to retain heat well enough to see me through the mash. Will be using one of those cheap camping mats for insulation id say, should do the job well enough i think.

 

[Bribie G]

I use a double block hoist. Same arrangement at the top, strap some of that rope round the beam and hang the lot from that eye on the block via a hook same as the bottom arrangement. Farmer from Wingham who saw it said I could seriously pull over a telegraph pole with it. Why would I want to do that? Swmbo can hoist a full bag with one hand.

Blocks cost me $8 each at a market stall and the rope was a few bucks. Hooks come 4 to a card.

Edit:

Here we go, found the original picture. Note that in the diagram the fixed end of the rope (shown in darker grey) belays to the beckett of the upper block. Because my blocks don't have becketts I simply belay it to the beam as a fixed point, works great. Thanks to Bum for that suggestion a couple of years ago, actually. Feck this sound's like the "Talk like a pirate" Day. Aaarrr shiver me timbers and poop me deck.

 

[brad81]

Hearty thanks fer th' explanation Bribie. me shoulders copped a beatin' wit' th' last double batch I did. Not to mention th' 2-3mins spent tryin' to get th' meat rusted hook to be off into th' hole on me rope.

Yearg.

 

[pist]

thanks everyone for your input, i appreciate your help greatly. i ordered my grain and hops today. i was originally going to go for something dark such as a stout or robust porter as i figured either of these would be more forgiving if i stuff it up, however i have now decided against this as i believe those styles would hide my mistakes somewhat due to the heavier maltiness and i therefore wont learn much from it. i have decided to go with a lcpa style pale ale should be tasty i think. plan to do my first batch next weekend. will let you know how it goes

 

[pist]

So tomorrow is Brew Day, I will even be starting work a hr earlier im that keen to hook in and have a go. Hopefully by the time i knock off my grain and hops will be ready. I have decided to go with a LCPA style pale ale as I am a fan of this beer. I'll take some pics while im brewing and put them up when im done. Thought I would show you what ive been working on since we are on the topic of my first brew. It's not bling bling but its built to make beer which is the most important part!

Stand and 3 Ring burner:

Keggle on stand with lid:

Pickup tube and a roast rack I picked up from BCF:

 

[pist]

I'll spend tonight setting up brewmate on my tablet (this will be a rough estimate at this stage, as im not sure what im going to get out of my equipment with regards to efficiency, evap and all that - tomorrows brew will be full volume), so come tomorrow ill have the recipe and all my calcs on the ready as im going.
Cant wait to be drinking some decent beer instead of flavourless megaswill, the old crafties are a bit expensive for my drinking habits, so it will be nice to have good flavoursome beer on hand once im up and running

 

[pist]

Well my first brew day is done...wort is in the cube cooling off and all cleaned up. It was mostly successful and feel like i have accomplished something i thought i would never be able to do. I did have a couple of screw ups though! First one...i was using my old fermenter to collect water from the laundry for the mash. After tipping a few loads into it...i looked down and saw water rushing out the tap! Doh! Forgot to check the tap was shut. The next one...i dropped my thermometer right into the wort just as i was ready to put the lid on and let it mash, damnit! I managed to get past that though by using the probe on my temp controller as a thermo...problem solved! Next...i raised the bag when my mash out was done...and started squeezing the crap outta it...next minute the thermo i dropped in there earlier punched a hole through the side of my bag...off to the hbs to get a new one next week! Finally i ended up finishing a few points lower on my sg. Was supposed to get 1.051, but ended up with 1.047. I put this down to a miscalculation of my strike water volume...as i still had wort in the keggle when my cube was full...never mind will jist mean abv will be roughly 4.5% instead of the 5 odd % brewmate estimated. Should still turn out tasty though

 

[AJ80]

Well done mate, just wait til you crack your first bottle!

I actually learned faaaar more on my second AG than my first (the first was like flying by the seat of my pants whereas I had my **** kind of in order for the second!). Make sure you take note of your numbers (including trub left behind) and feed this into your software.

 

[pist]

Thanks mate. Ive got everything i did saved in brew mate, so all the info is there...ive just gotta fine tune my settings. The other thing that could of possibly contributed was i decided not to go with a 90 minute mash due to time constraints...and just went with 60 at 65 degs and a 15min mash out at 77 as per the recipe. Might try 90 mins next time and see if that makes any difference

 

[pist]

I just got home from work and went into the shed to pleasantly find a nice healthy krausen on my brew...and the fruity aroma of the chinook and cascade coming from the fermenter...my god im looking forward to 4 weeks time when i sample the first one. Well...ive made beer...now down the slippery slope fast!

 

[pist]

Well im now drinking my first biab. All i can say is why didnt i make the jump sooner. The beer was supposed to be a lcpa clone. A combination of using notto and no chill has resulted in much less hop flavour than i anticipated, however its still a nice beer to drink. There is also a fair amount of chill haze but im not really worried about clarity just yet until ive got a few under my belt. Also i think i may have misread my hydrometer when taking og (damn beer) ive only had 2 longnecks and judging my the way my face feels already id say ive either hit my targets or even bettered them. Thanks to all that have helped me get here i cant thank you enough

 

[lukiferj]

Nice one. They only get easier (mostly) and better (mostly).