Yankee Biab

[daddymem]

I'm going to be attempting my first AG brew soon and plan on using BIAB. I have posted my recipe and plans on a few US sites but keep getting junk back for input. "This won't work. You have to do low volumes to get any decent efficiency, the idea is dumb, etc." So I figured why not come straight to the source. Hopefully not too much will be held against me for being a Yank...I've got my best friend growing up who is now living in Tasmania if that helps at all

If you can ignore the lack of metric units, I'd appreciate any input/advice.

I could not find 100% swiss voile. I did find what was called voile, polyester. I do have a 2 foot x 2 foot grain bag coming from MoreBeer, what should I be looking for in opening sizes? (this is the bag: http://morebeer.com/view_product/15689//Gr...24_x_24_Medium)

This is the recipe:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?item=8036

I got a recipe from another homebrewer who says this is one of his more popular brews. I tried to adapt the recipe to BIAB following the wiki, spreadsheet, and pdf (converting units, blech). This beer really doesn't fit any style but close enough. I may try toasting 2 pounds of the 2-row to get more color but mine is coming milled already...can I toast that effectively still?

Here is my brew day plan:
Put wok grate in bottom of pot
Pot 3 gallons water, turn burner on
Pot 4 more gallons of water
Attach grain bag in the pot (clamps)
Begin filling grains, dropping from a reasonable height, and stirring vigorously to break up any dry spots


put floating thermometer in the middle
Raise temperature to 152F-start mash time-flame out
Put lid on kettle propped open with a spoon (what purpose does having it open serve?)
For first 20 minutes agitate and check temperature every 5 minutes
Turn on burner when temperature drops to 150F (around 40 minute mark potentially)
Bring to 155F. Flameout for remaining time
At 90 minutes, flame on full
Raise bag above kettle water, give a little twirl and squeeze
Place bag into bucket after it stops dripping
Suspend bag over bucket to drain out squeeze at 10 minutes drain liquid back to kettle
Determine volume of boil and specific gravity (use a ruler for depth and convert with volume per inch and assume 95%) Adjust gravity for temperature!

Bring to a boil and start 90 minutes
First hops @ 30 minutes
Second hops @ 70 minutes
Irish Moss @ 80 minutes
Third hops @ 85 minutes



TIA for putting up with a Yank!

 

[joecast]

cant see anything wrong with your process. all i can say is for your first biab and first ag, dont expect everything to go exactly as planned.
-expect your mash temp to drop quicker than you anticipate
-dont expect to hit your mash temp first up (lower seems to be better, then heat up from there)
-expect your efficiency to be lower than what you calculated. if you get 75% that would be fantastic. i think i was getting 60-65% the first few times.

anyway, not trying to be a downer. the positive side of all this is that none of these things will ruin your beer. it might not be exactly as you figure, but it can still be great. the important thing is, get out and brew :excl:

as for your bag material, you might want to try doing a search for swiss voile, i know there have been a couple of threads about which material is best.
happy brewing, hope it goes well.
joe

 

[matti]

Good luck mate.
Sound like a goodish plan.

The only thing I can say is that ensure the grain is crushed with most of the husk intact and if there is anyway to keep the grain from getting too compact so you get most of the godis out of them.


Report back how you go.

Then again I have never biabed intentionally so what do I know?

(I had a stuck sparge once and had to use my giant hop bag to scoop the grains from the mash tun.)
The beer still turned nice but it took a while to clear.

 

[katzke]

Welcome to one more American BIABer.

Just ignore the dopes that say it does not work.

A few tips. Lower your efficiency or have some dry malt on hand to fix the gravity. I am still working things out so am surprised when I hit my numbers. It looks like you may be a bit low on your volume. You can always add water at the end as long as your numbers are correct. It looks like you have run the numbers for your setup so just saying be prepared. Sounds like the bag material is correct. It is hard to find in the States. For bag size use the rule that the kettle needs to fit in the bag and you will be fine. Add a mashout step at 170F at the end of the mash.

I get my grain locally and run it through the mill 3 times to get a finer crush. I hope to get my own mill someday so I can get it as fine as I like. With pre-milled grains you can expect a drop in efficiency. The 90-minute mash may help some as I only mash for 60.

I just have the wife pour while I stir the grains and have not had any problem with clumps. I also use an old comforter to wrap the kettle and it keeps the temp fine. I just put the lid on, cover, and tie with some rope. Not sure where you got propping the lid with a spoon.

It will help if you get some pH test strips. My water is low on everything and with the increased amount of water in the mash the light grains could not lower the pH enough. You could get some 5.2 stabilizer or some acid malt incase you need to lower the mash pH. My only problem was with an Ordinary Bitter but sense I have been making adjustments to my water the beer has tasted better.

Any more questions just ask.

 

[reviled]

Slightly :icon_offtopic:

Buuuuut, I must admit im loving the increase in the yanks coming over here seeking info on BIAB, its most awesome :beerbang:

Congrats Daddymem for taking the plunge!

 

[Damian44]

Have you downloaded the Pdf files from the original thread? http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=11694

 

[Pollux]

I just have the wife pour while I stir the grains and have not had any problem with clumps. I also use an old comforter to wrap the kettle and it keeps the temp fine. I just put the lid on, cover, and tie with some rope. Not sure where you got propping the lid with a spoon.

I don't get all these people who say they ever get clumps....

I just tip all my grain in from a 15L pot, one dump motion then give it a good stir up with my bunnings paint stirrer "mash paddle"......



Haven't seen a dry lump yet.

 

[reg]

If you are after ready made bags for BIAB I think it was Gryphonbrewing.com.au that was retailing them.
Have a look, but I dont think your grain bag will be large enough. Hope I am wrong though.

Reg

 

[Pollux]

The guideline is the pot should be able to fit in the bag....

 

[joecast]

I don't get all these people who say they ever get clumps....

I just tip all my grain in from a 15L pot, one dump motion then give it a good stir up with my bunnings paint stirrer "mash paddle"......



Haven't seen a dry lump yet.

hmm, i must be doing it wrong. i put the grain in the bag first, then dip the bag into my vessel. takes 5-10 minutes of good stirring to loosen it all up.
next time will try putting the bag in first, then dumping the grain in and see how it goes.
joe

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Polyester voile is fine. I think some of mine is polyester and some is nylon. Here's a photo of what it looks like if you want to lug a picture into the haberdasher's...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Chkml...feat=directlink

The finer you can crush the grain, the better for BIAB. I sometimes put mine through the mill twice. The sparging dynamic is much different to normal sparging where they talk about intact husks and stuff like that. You cannot get a stuck sparge (unless perhaps you use 150% malted rye or cement) - you almost want flour. You will get a cloudy wort, but the only difference I have found between a cloudy wort and a clear one is the clear one is purdier. (Purdy is american for pretty... )

My process is to put all the water into the pot and bring it to temp; insert the empty bag and any water agents; stir and check temp; pour in the grain and then stir it for a while to ensure any lumps break up. Easy.

FWIW, some of my best friends are Americans, but I do know what you mean by "putting up with a yank"...

 

[daddymem]

Wow, thanks on the responses guys. I'm slightly pissed as a fart tonight after an IIPA tasting and some homebrews, so forgive if I don't make sense. I got two yards of the voile so can make the bag to fit my kettle. I'm concerned a bit on the mill, it is coming premilled as I don't have a mill yet. As long as the brew is drinkable and I get a good idea on where to improve I'll be happy. The spoon propped lid comes from the BIAB instruction pdf. No mash out was done on that either. I was wondering about the mash out. Would the mashout be after the 90 minute mash or part of it?

I'd try the nochill, but still haven't seen if there is any difference in the grains we use here, I understand that the domestic 2-row can have much higher DMS. Maybe I'll try it sometime too.

 

[daddymem]

FWIW I'm a yankee yank (new england, right near the pebble the English landed on in the myths). Purdy is a southern term as in "you shore have a purdy mouf."

Any advice on milling premilled grains without an actual mill? I'm looking into making one of those pasta mills.

 

[daddymem]

Awesome pic spills, I'll check that when I'm sotally tober.

 

[Pollux]

Have a read over some people's threads to get an idea of how their day ran....

Here's mine

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Any advice on milling premilled grains without an actual mill? I'm looking into making one of those pasta mills.

Yes - don't bother. For your first (and in my opinion, second, third and more) go, whatever milling is done will be good enough.

It is (in my opinion) too easy to get caught up with what people write on the web about what amounts to incremental improvement when you're first starting. It sounds to me like you're purdy much on the right track and will end up with flawed but quite drinkable beer after your first attempt - which makes you no better or worse than anyone else here.

 

[Damian44]

Your better off closing the lid to keep the temps stable. Get the water slightly above mash temps, before adding the bag and grains.

 

[katzke]

Yes - don't bother. For your first (and in my opinion, second, third and more) go, whatever milling is done will be good enough.

It is (in my opinion) too easy to get caught up with what people write on the web about what amounts to incremental improvement when you're first starting. It sounds to me like you're purdy much on the right track and will end up with flawed but quite drinkable beer after your first attempt - which makes you no better or worse than anyone else here.

That is why I recomend some DME on hand. Never know how the first few will turn out and DME is easy to get here in the USA.

 

[Mantis]

Picks of my first biab AG are in my blog that is my sig
My bag is just a straight pillow shape and by lifting one corner when the bag is lifted it forms a cone for acturate drainage. Bag is lifted with rope and pulling probably the same as most here.

Good luck with it yanky bud

I chat on irc daily with a group of tomato/pepper growing yanks and some of them are right into brewing as well. Dunno if you have come across Landarc on the forums up there as he is one of them

Cheers and have a good day

 

[daddymem]

I keep trying to get to your sig but I can't get past your avatar Mantis. i'm hunting down ppls BIAB experiences here for reference. If my wife ever pops this kid out, I get a week off so hopefully can get half a day to do this.