Can't Wait!

Hello All
I have been brewing off and on from kits for a few years now and have finally taken the plunge and bought the BIAB kit from Geterbrewed. I'm now waiting delivery hence the Can't Wait! title. Being the sort of bloke I am, I have been reading and researching for a number of weeks for best methods to the point I'm practising in my sleep! I have opted for BIAB as a starting point with the intention to expand to a full hlt, mash, boiler operation as and when the knowledge (and funds) allow. Anyhow, there seems to be a lot of discussion and debate regards sparging, ie whether it is, or not necessary for BIAB. I intend to go down the not necessary route and mash out for my first attempt. Can you learned people please give comment as to whether this is a suitable method, or should I not get into bad practice from the start. I have bought a Cool Box in anticipation of going down the sparge method in time so can utilise this from the start if advised. FYI, the Cool Box is a 35 litre from The Range for £16.99 which seemed a very good buy compared to other prices I've seen. My first brew will be the Proper English IPA from geterbrewed and Can't Wait!
Cheers HBHuey

Welcome to the forum :

HBHuey said:

Hello All
I have been brewing off and on from kits for a few years now and have finally taken the plunge and bought the BIAB kit from Geterbrewed. I'm now waiting delivery hence the Can't Wait! title. Being the sort of bloke I am, I have been reading and researching for a number of weeks for best methods to the point I'm practising in my sleep! I have opted for BIAB as a starting point with the intention to expand to a full hlt, mash, boiler operation as and when the knowledge (and funds) allow. Anyhow, there seems to be a lot of discussion and debate regards sparging, ie whether it is, or not necessary for BIAB. I intend to go down the not necessary route and mash out for my first attempt. Can you learned people please give comment as to whether this is a suitable method, or should I not get into bad practice from the start. I have bought a Cool Box in anticipation of going down the sparge method in time so can utilise this from the start if advised. FYI, the Cool Box is a 35 litre from The Range for £16.99 which seemed a very good buy compared to other prices I've seen. My first brew will be the Proper English IPA from geterbrewed and Can't Wait!
Cheers HBHuey

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Proper BIAB does not involve a sparge, you put all the water in with the mash, and this is completely valid. People who sparge generally do so as they can't fit all the water into their mashing vessel.

Thanks for the welcome Chippy_Tea, I have gleaned a lot off this site and am sincerely hoping the practice goes straightforward once I'm underway. I found it particularly useful to join when I saw I could get the 5% discount code for my order with geterbrewed. This works for them too as I'm sure they will now have my ongoing custom.
Thank you clibit for your reply, I feel humble to have been replied to by one so prolific! I'm glad that I will be going down the correct route, hopefully once I'm into it proper I will look at upscaling and then the sparging will commence.

Welcome to the forum

You also get 5% discount from the Home Brew Company:thumb:

Thank you clibit for your reply, I feel humble to have been replied to by one so prolific!

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He's a Sith, and always on the look out for new recruits :party:

Welcome to the forum.

My opinion of whether you should sparge or not is, it depends on your efficiency and whether you are hitting your target OG/brewlengh. Doing a sparge is just one more thing to do which makes your brew day longer. So if you can get away without doing one all the better. But you may not be hitting your numbers. So some sort of sparge will more than likely help you to hit them.

HBHuey said:

I have been brewing off and on from kits for a few years now and have finally taken the plunge and bought the BIAB kit from Geterbrewed. I'm now waiting delivery hence the Can't Wait! title.

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I've this evening ordered the same kit from Geterbrewed, i'll be interested to know how long they take to deliver the kit to you, i'm guessing as its coming from Ireland at least a few days

Thanks for the welcome Stevej. I have looked at the Homebrew Company's all grain kits with interest and will certainly be ordering something from them - thanks for the heads up.

Thanks for the welcome and advice MyQul. The first attempt is the trial run for this new venture but I have experience from brewing kits and country wines so feel I can adapt along the way if necessary (gulp!). We being the homebrew community are such a frustrating breed as you can read 8 people saying that is the way to go and then 2 will say its not to put the element of doubt in your mind.

Hello Duffman - I ordered this Friday and got a message that it was dispatched Tuesday so should get it for the weekend - will let you know when it arrives. I ummed and erred for a while as to what to buy, it was this or a larger capacity steel boiler but decided to start off as cheap as possible and upgrade along the way. The deciding factor was when they dropped the price - only £6.50 difference between the starter kit and the full kit. I don't really need all the extras but it will be nice to start completely afresh and when you break down all the separate elements it seems a complete bargain and would have been rude to have said no!

Good Luck with your 1st brew with your new kit, always exciting waiting for new kit to arrive and using it for the first time.

Keep the first one simple I would say and don't worry about a sparge. You can always add a sparge or a dunk sparge in a spare FV for future brews if you find you are not quite hitting your starting gravity numbers as has been stated.

Sure your 1st brew will turn out great !

Duffman - Oh bugger! The stars dictate that no man shall be present when a package is to be delivered. I very much hope that the card put through my door today is for my new toys. I hope to confirm this tomorrow. I now remember what it was like as a kid on Christmas Eve!

The kit did arrive yesterday and I collected it this morning - I am really pleased. I had in my head that for the money the boiler would just be an element in a bin, but it has the thermostat as well. Thanks geterbrewed, this looks amazing value. Unfortunately as happens work gets in the way so my only question now is will it be a late night first brew tonight, or an early morning tomorrow? :hmm:

I wouldn't rush it tonight, for your first brew leave plenty of time - eg. 6 hours - yes, 6 hours !

You will get quicker but the first one will take a long time.

I did resist brewing last night (thanks for the advice Spapro) and spent my time putting hoses on chillers and generally tinkering. I put my boiler on a timer for 7am and when I looked at around 7.40am the temperature was already up to 64C and got to 70C by 8am when I added the grain. All went OK I believe except for learning that a pulley system really is a good idea. I thought I would try first without one thinking 'I'm a strong enough chap, how heavy can it be?' Answer - very heavy (and hot!). A pully will be in place for next time. I was ready to chill at 11am expecting this to take half an hour from reading peoples experience but after an hour and half it was stubbornly holding onto 25C. I am chilling using the recirculation method by rigging up a pump in a bucket of water and had prepared two x two litre bottles of frozen water. Next lesson learned is more frozen bottles next time. I decided to draw it off to the FV thinking going through a bit of air will help cool it but it only did slightly. All done now though, just waiting for it to drop to 20C then will pitch the yeast. Only other thing that I may do is add some more water depending on my readings as I was left with only 19 litres in the end. All in all though, satisfied with my first attempt and hope the final result is as good as I hope for.

Sounds like you did well mate - no major cock-ups is always a result with new kit !

I found my chill took over an hour and a quarter to get to 24°C. Next brew I will stir the wort more while chilling and also connect the cold inlet to the upper tube of the wort chiller - read that makes it more efficient.

I kept topping up my boil to around 25litres so got around 22 litres of wort in the FV.

Make sure to post some piccies of the finished pint when its ready, good luck with it.

Hello Spapro. Sods law again! I connected the inlet to the lower input. Please let me know if changing to the upper makes a difference. I had a lot of mucking around getting it to fit without a leak so would rather not change it but will if you say its more efficient. I did add more water to the FV being the sort of bloke I am wanting more for my money. I added 4 litres of water to take it up to 23 litres which gives a reading of 1050. This is the lowest recommended OG so am happy that I have just about met the parameters. I already can tell the difference with this is and the wort in a can though simply by the fresh smell! This is very much a learning process and already know how to try things differently in several aspects already mentioned. I also feel that I won't do the mash out next time but will do a dunk sparge instead which I think would be a better way to give me my volume back. One bonus though is that the kit was supplied with the hop 'tea bags' and found there was very little trub and was happy to transfer the whole volume from the boiler to the FV. These hop bags are more expensive but will consider the cost against waste in future purchase. I have the hoppy APA to do next but will wait until I get back from my hols. Thank you very much for your input and interest and pics will be uploaded in time. Cheers Huey :hat:

You can always add a bit more pale malt to hit your figures - its cheap enough to not worry too much. Ending up with 25l in your boiler after the boil give you 23l in the FV.

Not sure the hop utilisation using the hop tea bags rather than loose leaves is as good but thats just my feeling. If using leaf hops directly in the boil you will need a hop filter or false bottom if using the tap as it will block. Alternatively ou can just jug your brew out and run through a sieve into the FV if the tap does block.

I fitted hozelock style connectors to my wort chiller, makes it an easy connect/disconnect for cleaning etc. did you use jubilee clips to hold your hose on ?

Here is a shopping list at B&Q - can be done for £12 - excluding the cost of the garden hose and some plumbers PTFE tape:

2 x Brass 10mm to 15mm couplers (you ditch the nut and olive from the 15mm side): http://www.diy.com/departments/plumb...m/34126_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Tap Connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../189833_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Hose connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../262127_BQ.prd

Plus some plumbers PTFE tape as the brass couplers are designed for 10mm pipe and my wort chiller was made with 9.5mm copper pipe. 5-6 layers of PTFE tape bulks out the width of the copper tube so the olive fits more snugly for a better seal once tighten up.

I may brew again next weekend so will post back to let you know if connecting the cold supply to the upper pipe of the wort chiller (and stirring much more) makes much difference to cooling time.

Good luck with your brew, sure it will be superb.

Thanks again for your advice Spapro. I had normal garden hose and jubilee clips for the chiller. The problem was that the jubilee clip just didn't have the strength in it to clamp tight enough. Not being one to give up particularly because I wanted to use it the following morning I eventually had the brainwave to wrap an amount of PTFE tape and a good dose of LS-X gel around the chiller part which then did the job. Now its there and doing the job I will cut the pipe and put a connector on it for ease of use next time. I look forward to your advice regards swapping it round. I am pleased to report that the yeast has kicked in and there is a healthy fermentation on the go now. Just down to how it will taste now!