First AG Brew - BIAB HBC Exceedingly Good IPA Citra

Hi all,

For Christmas the wife bought me a BIAB starter kit from the Home Brew Company. As this came with a mash kit I opted for the Exceedingly Good IPA: Citra.

Sunday was my first AG brew. I've done a few kits with some success over the last 18 months so was looking forward to making my first AG brew.

This forum has been a great help in preparing me for this brew day so thought I'd share my experience.

Firstly, the bag of grain had split in transit and some was lost when my wife opened the package as grain was pouring out of the holes in the side of the boiler. The kit came with a mix of Maris Otter and Crystal Malt but I'm not sure how much their should have been of each type and what the total weight of the grain should have been.

The grain I had left weighed 4.41kg.

Starting at 9:30 I added a crushed campden tablet and turned the boiler on at 9:45 and fitted the bag around the rim. I was worried about displacement as the boiler looked very full so I only added 24l of water. Turns out there was nothing to worry about as there was still plenty of room once the grain had been added.

By 10:35 the water had reached about 73 degrees so I added the grain and gave it a good stir. The temperature dropped to 67 degrees so I wrapped the boiler in a sleeping bag.

Checking the temperature at 11:00 it remained at 67 degrees and I gave the grain another stir. Not sure if I should have done this or not?

At 11:40 the temperature was still 67 degrees so I was pleased with the insulation. I lifted the grain bag and gave it several good squeezes until my over gloved were soaked and too hot to wear. The grain bag was then placed into a spare FV and approx 4l of water at 80 degrees run through the grain.

This left me with about 27.5l in the boiler.

I took a hydrometer reading at this point as it wasn't clear to me when I should have done this. The initial reading was only 1.038 which was disappointing because the recipe said it should be around 1.045. However, between this reading being taken at 11:55 and 12:55 the figure changed to around 1.046.

The hops were added at 60, 15 and 0 minutes. I was pleased with the boiler because some posts I've read suggested it wasn't very efficient but I maintained a steady rolling boil. It took 30 minutes to bring this volume to the boil.

After the 60 minute boil I used the immersion chiller to bring the wort down to 20 degrees. This took 40 minutes.

The main problem I encountered whilst making this brew was the tap clogging with hops. This happened as soon as I went to transfer the wort into the FV so I had to use a jug and pour this through my sieve. Finished with 21l in the FV.

The OG at this point before the yeast was added was 1.052 which is higher than the recipe said to expect but I don't know how much malt was missing. Assuming all the malt was Maris Otter then putting this in the calculator on www.brewersfriend.com gives an OG of 1.050.

Overall really enjoyed the day. A few questions/observations:

- Must invest in some decent waterproof and heat resistant gloves
- A hop strainer will also be a useful addition
- Does anyone know what quantity of grain I would have had if the bag had not split in transit and the ratio of Maris Otter to Crystal Malt?
- Did I take the OG reading at the right time (i.e. once the wort had cooled and just before the yeast was added)?
- Anything I should have done differently to improve efficiency (although I'm very happy with an OG of 1.052)

Looking forward to making my next batch!

Excellent post.

I would get a bazooka that fits inside the boiler, that stops the hops clogging the tap, they are around £10.
I use washing up gloves, cheap and do the job. I have a pulley to lift the bag up because the weight and that helps to drain the thing.
Only HBC can tell you the split in the grain. Shane is usually good at answering questions and I would tell him the bag had split.
I tend to use more than 4l of water for the sparge, not sure if that would have improved efficiency.
Yes take a reading prior to pitching the yeast.

I love a Citra ale, how much hops came with it.

Let us know how it turns out.

Good work fella - sounds like you had a successful brewday & did everything right to me.
I wouldn't worry to much about increasing efficiency as it seems yours was pretty good anyway - I'd say its far more important to have a consistent/predictable efficiency so you can plan recipes.

Hi Ian,

I too received the HBC BIAB Starter kit for Christmas and I am keen to get started making the leap from kits to AG. Thanks for taking to time to post this detailed account of your first BIAB experience, it seems to have gone very well!

I hope your Citra IPA turns out well and I will be keeping an eye on this thread for any further tips. :)

Thanks again

The hops were Citra and Herkules but as with the grain I couldn't tell how much of each one was in each bag.

10g went in at 60 minutes
25g at 15 minutes
45g at 0 minutes.

I'd consider using a hop bag next time.

The FV is next to me in my home office and in the last 15 minutes it's really started bubbling in the airlock.

I've about to start AG BIAB myself, so I'm reading up on other people's experiences. This is very useful.

I've seen people suggest some extra heavy duty washing up gloves, a size larger than you need, with thin woollen gloves inside. This seems like a good way of protecting yourself from scalding hot wort.

If you can fit a pulley I really suggest it. It cost me around £3 with some rope and I let it hang for a few minutes and it drips really well and cools enough to handle, I do this after the mash and after the sparge.

FOr those with the HBC BIAB kit I did a bit of a review when I first used it.

Good post, well done.

I now have a good ten BIAB brews under my belt and it does get easier and a little less intense the more you do.
I use a rope and a pulley in my shed to lift the grain bag, lock it off approx three inches above my pan of wort, don some heavy duty (thicker) washing up gloves and spin the bag whilst holding the opening. This gradually squeezes the wet grain tighter and tighter and gets a lot more of the residual wort out than simply trying to squeeze the bag.
Prior to this, after the mash, I lift the bag of mash slightly so it's just off the base of my pan and tie it off, light my burner and 'mash out' whilst stirring the grain until the temp is at 80deg, this usually takes around ten minutes.
Doing these two things has dramatically increased my efficiency though from your figures you ain't doing too bad...

P.s I don't sparge at all, as in true BIAB

ian_r said:

The hops were Citra and Herkules but as with the grain I couldn't tell how much of each one was in each bag.

10g went in at 60 minutes
25g at 15 minutes
45g at 0 minutes.

I'd consider using a hop bag next time.

The FV is next to me in my home office and in the last 15 minutes it's really started bubbling in the airlock.

Click to expand...

Nice right up, and welll done on your first BIAB all grain brew.

The 60 minute hops will be the hercules for bittering and the 15mins and 0mins hops will be the Citra.

I had the same issues with blocking tap with my Peco boiler, the hop strainer linked below pushes into the back of the tap and has worked very, very well for me. Allows you to just dump in the hop leaves/pellets for maximum hop extraction. Push fit the strainer into the back of the tap in the boiler before filling the boiler at the start of the brewday. The hop strainer ensures all the hop debris etc is left in the boiler and the tap does not clog. Worth every penny:

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/hop-strainer-p-83.html

Good luck with your current and future brews, no going back to kits once you taste the all grain - 2 weeks in FV, 2 weeks carbing up and pretty much ready to drink without any cold conditioning in my experience - does get better if you can stay off it for 2-4 weeks.

nice post... and a good brew day, sounds like youve got the same kit as me.. ive found it works well

let us know how it turns out :)

Welcome :hat:

and congratulations on your first ag, and thanks for the write up.

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions.

Day 8 and I've checked and it's dropped to 1.008 - looks nice and clear and a nice amber colour.

Had a good drink out of the trial jar and whilst not unpleasant (better than any kit out of a trial jar) it's not blown me away with any sort of aroma or flavour from the hops. Not sure if this is something that will develop whilst conditioning or if it would benefit from some dry hopping?

The flavour will develop and change from this point but a dry hop of 25 -50g for 4-5 days would add a hop punchy aroma.

Thanks, I've just chucked 35g of cascade pellets into the FV and plan on bottling on Sunday afternoon.

ian_r said:

Thanks, I've just chucked 35g of cascade pellets into the FV and plan on bottling on Sunday afternoon.

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Should be great, I love Cascade, reading your post is making my mouth water !

I have an Amarillo pale ale to bottle this weekend, must get on and do it.

Bottled this on Sunday. FG of 1.008 so comes out at a nice 5.8%.

Had to syphon from the FV into a spare FV and then clean the first one because this was the only one I had with a tap that fit by bottling wand.

What I found disappointing was the amount of trub I had left. There was around 3 litres before I added the hop pellets for dry hopping which added about another litres worth on top of this. Once I'd syphoned the beer off this I was down to about 16 litres.



Could this be because I had to use a jug to transfer from the boiler to the FV because the tap blocked with hops? Keen to avoid having this much trub in future.

Anyway, all bottled by my daughters and sat in the kitchen. Will give it a fortnight and then move it out to the garage.

ian_r said:

Bottled this on Sunday. FG of 1.008 so comes out at a nice 5.8%.

What I found disappointing was the amount of trub I had left. There was around 3 litres before I added the hop pellets for dry hopping which added about another litres worth on top of this. Once I'd syphoned the beer off this I was down to about 16 litres.

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That is a lot of trub, does sound like jugging out from the boiler was probably the cause. I get maybe 15mm-20mm of trub in my primary FV after 2 weeks of fermenting with my BIAB all grain from the Peco boiler.

Definately worth getting this hop strainer to fit in the back of the peco tap. Leaves most of the debris in the boiler and the tap doesn't block:
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/hop-strainer-p-83.html

I strain my wort through a piece of sanitised voile (net curtain material) whilst transferring from boiler to FV (see pic below). It takes quite a bit of the solid material out. I also use hop bags as I don't have a hop strainer in my Peco boiler. You could give this a try. I never have more than an inch or so of trub in mine.

I've got a hop strainer to use ready for my next batch but I do like the voile idea too.

Great suggestions, thanks both.

I've sometimes had large amounts of trub left in the FV after fermentation too. I was still able to get most of the free liquid out by gently tilting the FV as it was draining through the syphon so that the beer flows to a pool around the end of the syphon. If I do this carefully, I can get nearly every bit of beer out, though the volume of the trub is there still - however much it was.