First AG BIAB today

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Redron

Redron

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Mar 19, 2014
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Isle of Skye
Having done a few partial mashes now and on my way to full AG BIAB (just waiting for a wort chiller to arrive), I am left with some Maris Otter and some First gold whole leaf hops plus maybe 50g left of crystal malt. I have a 10litre FV stood idle and it's raining on Skye today (!) so I thought I would have a go at a mini mash with those ingredients , so basically my first AG brew.
Any suggestions ? I guess it's going to be what's known as a SMaSH brew. Do I chuck 20/30g of the hops at the start of the boil or introduce them at intervals ?

For info I have been crash cooling my partial mashes between two builders tubs, an outside tap is very handy for this !
 
You could look at the simple AG thread and just double the quantities. Basically 2 kg Maris otter and your crystal with 10g first gold for 60 mins and 20g for 5 minutes.
 
How many kilos of Maris Otter do you have?

I had an amazing time in Skye last week, by the way. Great weather. I drank every single local beer I could find, and also some from the Hebridean Brewing Company (a 7.4% old style ale). Best cask ale I had was at the Uig Hotel.
 
You got the only decent weather on Skye this year ! I climbed Blaven and got sunburned ! I shall check out those beers.
I have approx 4kg of MO left. Also, would it be foolish to use up a Geordie kit yeast (6g) that I have left or use a whole 11g sachet of safale-04 or 05 that I have. I understand over pitching yeast shouldn't be an issue.
Thanks for the hop tips Clibit. My partial mash brews I have just bunged 20g of hops in at the start of the boil. Have to say, I like the hoppiness it produced.
The 'journey' continues.....
 
I was on Skye early May for a couple of days and the weather was fabulous!
 
For all it's foibles, it is a truly a beautiful place to live, it had to be for me to leave the Yorkshire Dales !
Strike water now on , 13 litres should get me a finished 10 I hope.
Any help with the yeast question ?

I'm gonna go with :-

2.4kg Maris Otter
The 50g of Crystal Malt I have left
30g First Gold whole leaf hops at the timings Clibit suggested.
Yeast ??

I was tempted to dive in with a full scale BIAB with all my shiny new stuff and 5 AG kits from Worcester hop shop waiting to go, but at present I have no means of rapid cooling and received wisdom suggests lifting 23 litres of wort around and moving between builders buckets may be a bit much ! I could 'no chill' I guess but I have no suitable vessel for such and no 'know how' at the moment.
 
clibit said:
I was on Skye early May for a couple of days and the weather was fabulous!
Click to expand...

Up until last week, someone recently told me there has been 8.5 days of sunshine on Skye this year.
Nothing has grown, except my beer belly !
 
Personally, I'd stick to your Safale yeast. It's great yeast. I'd rehydrate if you can be arsed in something sterile. I add a little boiling water to make a ~24c cream. As I'm sure you know: 5 is clean and attenuates well, 4 can be fruitier/breadier and attenuates less to leave more sweetness. If you can't decide, then use 5 if you mashed hot towards 70c, and 4 if you mashed cooler towards the mid 60's.

Try those Skye Brewery ales: the red and black need to be drunk on cask, and the wheat one with the yellow label is great on keg.
 
With that grain bill, if you achieve 70% efficiency (squeeze your BIAB bag and maybe rinse with a little sparge water kept back if you like) then you'll achieve an OG of 1054.

Brewers Friend reckons you'd get 5.34% with a 1014 FG using S-04. Or, a 1010 FG with US-05 and 5.77%.

See how your OG turns out.
 
Brilliant and timely yeasty info Rob, thank you. I'll go with the 05 as I did 'mash out' at 70 odd deg. I always rehydrate my yeast. The boil is on as we speak, I went with 2.25kg of MO in the end so hopefully should get around 1050.
I have tried the Skye brewery offerings, but only in bottles, it's a bit gassy for my Yorkshire real ale taste buds... I'll try the keg stuff.
I did squeeze the grain bag but this time I didn't sparge with a kettle of hot water as I have done previously.

One other thing, do I use all 11g of the yeast in a 10L brew ?
 
Brilliant and timely yeasty info Rod, thank you. I'll go with the 05 as I did 'mash out' at 70 odd deg. I always rehydrate my yeast. The boil is on as we speak, I went with 2.25kg of MO in the end so hopefully should get around 1050.
I have tried the Skye brewery offerings, but only in bottles, it's a bit gassy for my Yorkshire real ale taste buds... I'll try the keg stuff.
I did squeeze the grain bag but this time I didn't sparge with a kettle of hot water as I have done previously.

One other thing, do I use all 11g of the yeast in a 10L brew ?
 
Ok, all done . 4hrs start to yeast pitch.
I'm glad I did this before moving onto a full scale 23L BIAB brew.

Lessons learned :-

I started with 13L in the initial strike water hoping to end up with 10.
I ended up with 7 (!) with an og of 1058 so I added boiled water to make it up to 9L with an og of 1046. I'm happy with that. Not sure how to work out 'efficiency' as yet, that's my next step....
I crash cooled it in a builders bucket tub but this time instead of swapping between two tubs and filling each one up with cold water periodically as it warmed and swapping my pan between the two, I let the wort pan float in one tub of water whilst the hose pipe kept a trickle of cold water going through and over the top (plenty of water here on Skye...)
I got it down to 21deg in 15 mins. Makes me wonder wether I actually need a wort chiller if I can lift 23L of wort into a tub. Same principle really...

My only mistake was accidentally spilling some mashed grain into the wort whilst squeezing out the bag, about 2 tablespoons full. Hoping it hasn't reacted during the boil.

All in all, an enjoyable day and looking forward to a big brew day. That said, it is very time consuming, even doing odd jobs in between mashing and boiling times. I'm lucky, I have the time ,but for those with all consuming jobs or young families et al I can see where kit brewing could be the answer (sorry Clibit...)
 
Cheers MM, I certainly did.
Celebrating with smoked mackerel on my wife's freshly baked bread. The mackerel was caught yesterday and filleted and hot smoked within 3 hours. (Eat your heart out 'Tom and Barbara') .Today it is firm and gelatinous, bloody lovely washed down with a glass of beer. Yes, I know it's early, but what the hell...
The dog is hovering for the skins, but he ain't getting em !

Just need to clean up now !
 
Redron said:
One other thing, do I use all 11g of the yeast in a 10L brew ?
Click to expand...

Up to you. You only need half, but you need to be able to seal it very well if you want to store it in the fridge.

Try the Skye Brewery ales on cask. On bottle they feel "thin" and the flavour doesn't come out quite right. They do a 1/3rd pint paddle of three cask ales in the Uig Hotel, so drop by the next time you are up there.
 
I use 16 litres for a 10 litre brew. 8 for the mash, 8 for the sparge, roughly speaking.
 
clibit said:
I use 16 litres for a 10 litre brew. 8 for the mash, 8 for the sparge, roughly speaking.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Clibit. As you say in the post 'problems with volume', it's as well to guesstimate first off and take it from there with your own set up. I was using a 15L pot on a gas burner, up to a rolling boil and then turned down to maintain the 'roll' . As MM has mentioned, bit like cooking your veg ....
 

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