First BIAB today

pms67 · Nov 17, 2016

At last........
Brewed my NZ Helix Pale Ale
Burco boiler (30l) worked a treat and ended up with 18l, topped up to 19 and had a sg of 1051 even though the target was 1056.
A lot of things learned, temp dropping etc.
But overall it felt amazing, a weird proud sensation and i am weeks away from tasting it.
As long as its not infected i will be a happy brewer. Now onto my Cold Crash Lager AG kit.
Cheers

pms67 · Nov 17, 2016

Tried to take a few pics but having a few issues, on a side note,i know a lot of people have trouble changing the tap on these,i changed mine to a steel gas valve tap for a fiver and made a washer to suit,its pretty simple.If anyone interested let me know and i can post a few pics of it broken down.
30l does a rolling boil no problem btw

cheapbrew · Nov 17, 2016

Nice one I hope it comes out great for ya geez, your post threw me as I was sure I'd seen posts from you on AG before but obviously not. :doh:

pms67 · Nov 17, 2016

cheapbrew said:
Nice one I hope it comes out great for ya geez, your post threw me as I was sure I'd seen posts from you on AG before but obviously not.

Cheers mate, hope so,200g of hops in it so should be tasty, yeah,been doing kits and tweaked kits for a few years but im eventually fed up,will still probably knock up a few Youngs and Festivals kits in between mind you.

braziliain · Nov 18, 2016

Good stuff!

Did you do any kind of sparge? Dunking or whatever?

pms67 · Nov 18, 2016

Yeah, i ehhhhhh kind of grabbed a kettle whilst the grain bag hung over my fv as my boiler got up a boil and sparged in the loosest term possible, rinsed the grains really.
I had some dextrose ready and a better brew bag of hopped malt extract handy just in case my fg was ridiculously low but 1051 wasnt bad i think?

Slid · Nov 18, 2016

pms67 said:
Yeah, i ehhhhhh kind of grabbed a kettle whilst the grain bag hung over my fv as my boiler got up a boil and sparged in the loosest term possible, rinsed the grains really.
I had some dextrose ready and a better brew bag of hopped malt extract handy just in case my fg was ridiculously low but 1051 wasnt bad i think?

Nice one, my friend. Great to see you on the Dark Side at long last.:thumb:

It is quite easy to do a small "dunk sparge" in the FV and re-cycle the extra wort back into the boiler. During the boil time, you just re-sterilise the FV.

Hope this makes sense :lol:

pms67 · Nov 18, 2016

Lol
Not sure what my friends in the congregation at my local church will make of me going to the "dark side Ã°Å¸Ëâ" but none the less its the start of a new adventure.
Cheers mate Ã°Å¸âÂ

pms67 · Nov 18, 2016

And yeah,i should have done that,next time i will heat a few litres up in the FV for the sparge.
Thats if this one tastes ok Ã°Å¸ËÂ¨

jaquiss2005 · Nov 19, 2016

I have a Burco boiler and desperate to change tap. Very strange shaped hole not fit to take ball valve and reluctant to try with a qmax cutter to adjust so will be very keen to know how you sorted tap out

sven945 · Nov 19, 2016

Sounds like another Brewstore customer there. I made the NZ Helix as my second all grain and it turned out well. Though I opened the last few bottles recently and they'd turned into gushers so had obviously been infected with something or other.

I'd recommend quickly moving on to finding/devising your own recipes, because they add a fair few quid onto the kits as a markup. They're great as a starter (and certainly don't begrudge paying the extra few quid for not having another thing to worry about), but they don't tell you what the ingredients are (understandably, to protect the margins on the kits!) so they're not great for leaning what's going on with recipes.

pms67 · Nov 19, 2016

jaquiss2005 said:
I have a Burco boiler and desperate to change tap. Very strange shaped hole not fit to take ball valve and reluctant to try with a qmax cutter to adjust so will be very keen to know how you sorted tap out

Ok mate,will get on to it tomorrow and post a couple of pics

pms67 · Nov 19, 2016

sven945 said:
Sounds like another Brewstore customer there. I made the NZ Helix as my second all grain and it turned out well. Though I opened the last few bottles recently and they'd turned into gushers so had obviously been infected with something or other.

I'd recommend quickly moving on to finding/devising your own recipes, because they add a fair few quid onto the kits as a markup. They're great as a starter (and certainly don't begrudge paying the extra few quid for not having another thing to worry about), but they don't tell you what the ingredients are (understandably, to protect the margins on the kits!) so they're not great for leaning what's going on with recipes.

Yeah,i agree,although i noticed my Pale Ale came.with 170g of hops and the Cold Crash Lager comes with 200g so not too bad but after i brew my lager a large, hops and yeast order will be placed online

pms67 · Nov 20, 2016

Ok,im just going to stick a couple of pictures here for anyone with a Burco boiler which has a strange tap set up,as mentioned before, the sides of the hole are square which is a real pita.
I bought a tap from Screwfix (its meant for gas but who cares) for a fiver, two rubber washers from B&Q for ÃÂ£1.80 and had an existing steel washer in my shed,the inside brass wingnut?was from a plumber at my work but im sure i saw them on the plumbing section at diy store,all i done was drill a 20mm hole in the steel washer,put a rubber washer inside and out, some ptfe tape(white plumbers tape) on the thread and screwed it all together. I know its not the most sophisticated set up but it woked fine for my first brew.

pms67 · Nov 20, 2016

I hope these work ok

pms67 · Nov 20, 2016

I may have to do one at a time,sorry

pms67 · Nov 20, 2016

Think its working now

pms67 · Nov 23, 2016

sven945 said:
Sounds like another Brewstore customer there. I made the NZ Helix as my second all grain and it turned out well. Though I opened the last few bottles recently and they'd turned into gushers so had obviously been infected with something or other.

I'd recommend quickly moving on to finding/devising your own recipes, because they add a fair few quid onto the kits as a markup. They're great as a starter (and certainly don't begrudge paying the extra few quid for not having another thing to worry about), but they don't tell you what the ingredients are (understandably, to protect the margins on the kits!) so they're not great for leaning what's going on with recipes.

Did you find it hoppy enough? I dont mind throwing a dry hop in,i have some Mosaic and Sorachi Ace pellets,nothing worse than opening first bottle and thinking i could have done more?
Ta

Smileyr8 · Nov 23, 2016

pms67 said:
At last........
Brewed my NZ Helix Pale Ale
Burco boiler (30l) worked a treat and ended up with 18l, topped up to 19 and had a sg of 1051 even though the target was 1056.
A lot of things learned, temp dropping etc.
But overall it felt amazing, a weird proud sensation and i am weeks away from tasting it.
As long as its not infected i will be a happy brewer. Now onto my Cold Crash Lager AG kit.
Cheers

What I do to get the most out of the malt is while it is hanging/draining over the boiler I get 2 clean chopping boards & squeeze the grain bag to extract the last of the wort, I never sparge.

pms67 · Nov 23, 2016

I was a bit under 19l and a litre or two from sparging with my high tech method(kitchen kettle) helped top it up,even then i got 1051 instead of 1056

First BIAB today

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