First biab 'mergency

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

My first biab today, just infused at 68degrees c for an hour didn't lose a single degree over the hour, but I've only got about 1.040 and my target was over 1.060.
I've now put the bag and grain back in and am going to attempt a mash out, but can anyone advise me how to rescue this or what could have gone wrong.
Initial thoughts were that I had too much water, 35l but my buffalo was brimming. Very messy

BeerCat · May 30, 2016

35l sounds like a lot. how big is the batch? What temp was the sample you tested? If it was not 20C use this calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp You could always boil it for longer until you get the desired SG. Even if you have added bittering hops wont matter if you boil longer than an hour. Hopefully you wont of extracted too much harshness from the grain and it will come out alright. Best of luck.

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

Aiming for 23l post boil - this is my first ever AG so lots of guesswork - Someone suggested 35l, but by the time the 6kg of grain was in there it was up to the brim so I've had a fair bit of overflow, glad I did it outside!

Thanks for the temperature compensation calc - That seems to give me an adjusted result of 1.053 which I think I can live with.

Do I need to re-adjust my hop additions to compensate for the lower sg ?

I also have no clue how much wort I have in there.

OH DEAR. I tried to heat it up a bit with the bag of grain in there, it was making a lot of boily noises but now the buffalo has cut out completely and will not come back on - This really is an emergency!

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

found a reset button on the bottom of the boiler... its working again..

Now, what to do with this .

Any opinions on adding some kind of sugar at this point to bring up the SG ?

Covrich · May 30, 2016

If you're doing true BIAB then 35L wont be too far out . still sounds a little high to me even for 6KG..

when you took the post mash gravity how did you measure it? nto with a hydrometer I assume? because you have to bare in mind the wort is much hotter and you cannot get an accurate reading with a hydrometer at that temp..

Do bare in mind the liquid will boil off and reduce

do you have any dme? have some on stand by an measure your garvity when at pitching tem after the boil.

Brew_DD2 · May 30, 2016

Don't worry too much about adding sugar at this stage if you've not got anything usable around. It's not the end of the world to add it during fermentation.

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

Hello gents.

My boil is on but it doesnt want to boil vigorously the whole time and keeps cutting out. My thermometer tells me it hasn't dropped below 99 degrees though, but it's not the rolling boil I was hoping for.

I use a refractometer to measure the sg, I actually took a sample and stuck it in the fridge, got it down to 20 degrees but I still got 1.040, so I guess I've just got really terrible efficiency here. My grain didn't seem to have any dry clumps or anything.

I don't have any dme, but I have agave nectar syrup and a load of dextrose. I really need to bump up the abv, when should I add the sugar and how much to add?

Brew_DD2 · May 30, 2016

If you've still got a boil just stick in some dextrose for the last 10-15 minutes. You'll end up with a drier beer, but all is not lost.

We all have days where our gravity isn't what it should be. Maybe take the hit of boiling longer for a higher gravity but lesser volume?

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

I could easily let it boil for longer, any idea how much sugar to add?

Brew_DD2 · May 30, 2016

If you get your final volume down to 20l you could add 500g dextrose to get you to around 1.056. I'd be loathe to put much more in it for fear of thinning it out to much when it finishes.

Or you could add some malt extract when you can get your hands on some and add it to the fermenter.

Spapro · May 30, 2016

chuff76 said:
I could easily let it boil for longer, any idea how much sugar to add?

I would go without adding sugar to the boiler, get the wort into the FV then measure at 20c. Then add sugar if required.

Having said that 1053 or 1055 against an expected 1060 for a first brew with new kit isn't the end of the world.

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

I don't think I'll get it down to 20l, looks like I've still got about 30l in there and it's had about an hour boil.

My brew today has taken about 6 hours so far, nothing seems to have gone right and I've got a lovely burn on my arm. :thumb:

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

I think I just started with too much water and haven't had enough boil off. I will need to figure out a way of measuring the wort in the boiler for next time. Currently still 'boiling' around 80 mins and still holding off my late hop additions. Lots of clumpy bits in it, I assume this is break material? Will this end up in the fv? I've taken a sample just cooling it in the fridge

Brew_DD2 · May 30, 2016

See what your sample says and report back.

If you're really far off your desired gravity get the half kilo of dextrose in and get another gravity reading when it's cooled. If you can get some malt extract in a few days, bung that in the fv and you've got yourself a partial mash beer.

Seems as though you lost a lot less water than you were predicting. It happens. I bet your beer will turn out just fine.

BeerCat · May 30, 2016

Any **** will settle out in the fermentor. Did you add Irish Moss or protofloc? I added sugar to a few of my early brews and i wished i hadn't. Would rather have weaker beer if i had to choose. You should see some of the disasters i have had. You could theoretically boil for hours i believe as long as only 1 hop addition.

chuff76 · May 30, 2016

Okay sample says were at 1.048 at 18 degrees c.

It's had over 90 mins now, so I've put the cooler in to sterilise, my 10 minute hops and half a protofloc tablet.

We family is waiting to go out for dinner, 'it'll take me 4 hours max', I said almost 7 hours ago :lol:

Covrich · May 30, 2016

Bare in mind your beer will concentrate as it boild off I don't think you will be a million miles away tbh..

Spapro · May 30, 2016

chuff76 said:
Okay sample says were at 1.048 at 18 degrees c.

It's had over 90 mins now, so I've put the cooler in to sterilise, my 10 minute hops and half a protofloc tablet.

We family is waiting to go out for dinner, 'it'll take me 4 hours max', I said almost 7 hours ago :lol:

How many litres did you end up with in the FV? I lose around 4 litres of volume to deadspace/trub/hops etc in my peco boiler so need to finish the boil with 26 -27 litres to get 23 litres in the FV.

Where did you end up with volumes and starting gravity?

Oh and the beer will be worth the 7 hours, and the next brew will go much more smoothly.

dad_of_jon · May 31, 2016

chuff76 said:
found a reset button on the bottom of the boiler... its working again..

Now, what to do with this .

Any opinions on adding some kind of sugar at this point to bring up the SG ?

a tin of golden syrup would give a better emergency sugar addition than plain 'old sugar and is not difficult to get compared to dme

chuff76 · May 31, 2016

Thanks everyone for the help here - I've created a new post detailing the entire day. Cheers!

First biab 'mergency

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