Newbie advice on BIAB

Hi all,

I guess my first port of call is to do a short introduction of myself, I have joined the forum as I have recently taken a keen interest in brewing and have invested in some BIAB equipment to try and tackle my first attempt at brewing! I'm looking forward to getting involved and learning, of which I am sure there is an endless amount that I have to look forward to.

I have purchased a BIAB starter kit with Peco Boiler, Immersion chiller etc from The Homebrew Company, along with an American Pale Ale all grain starter kit. My equipment is pretty standard, with a 33L fermentation bucket, airlock, infra red and probe thermometer and hydrometer etc.

However the instructions that came with the APA starter kit, I'm struggling to understand. The instructions read as follows:

Original Gravity 1.051 Alcohol 5.1%
Based on 72% efficiency
Wort volume for boil = 27lt
Mash vol 1 = 14lt
Top up with 5.8L
Batch Vol 2 = 13.6lt

METHOD:
"Mash all pre-crushed grain at 67c for 1 hour in 14lt water. Top up after 1 hour with 5.8lt of water at 80C. Mix well and leave to settle for 15 mins. Drains and recirculate until runnings are clear. Drain the first batch to your boiler. Add the second batch of water, 13.6lt at 80C. Mix well and leave to settle for 15 mins. Drain and recirculate until runnings are clear. Drain the second batch to your boiler. Boil the wort for 1 hour adding the hops as labelled at the appropriate times. Add the whirlfloc tablet with 10 mins to go on the boil. Once boil is completed, cool to 20c and drain into the fermenter. Add your yeast."



I have a few questions about this method. I've not really seen this method when reading about BIAB, I am assuming this is an all grain method? Could I just add the water to the boiler and mash at 67C, then drain and squeeze the bag, leaving it to sit in another container as to extract the maximum liquid, then continue to boil as normal with hops?

On another point from the method, what does "drain and recirculate until runnings are clear" refer to/mean?


Many Thanks,
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Josh

JoshW said:

Hi all,

I guess my first port of call is to do a short introduction of myself, I have joined the forum as I have recently taken a keen interest in brewing and have invested in some BIAB equipment to try and tackle my first attempt at brewing! I'm looking forward to getting involved and learning, of which I am sure there is an endless amount that I have to look forward to.

I have purchased a BIAB starter kit with Peco Boiler, Immersion chiller etc from The Homebrew Company, along with an American Pale Ale all grain starter kit. My equipment is pretty standard, with a 33L fermentation bucket, airlock, infra red and probe thermometer and hydrometer etc.

However the instructions that came with the APA starter kit, I'm struggling to understand. The instructions read as follows:

Original Gravity 1.051 Alcohol 5.1%
Based on 72% efficiency
Wort volume for boil = 27lt
Mash vol 1 = 14lt
Top up with 5.8L
Batch Vol 2 = 13.6lt

METHOD:
"Mash all pre-crushed grain at 67c for 1 hour in 14lt water. Top up after 1 hour with 5.8lt of water at 80C. Mix well and leave to settle for 15 mins. Drains and recirculate until runnings are clear. Drain the first batch to your boiler. Add the second batch of water, 13.6lt at 80C. Mix well and leave to settle for 15 mins. Drain and recirculate until runnings are clear. Drain the second batch to your boiler. Boil the wort for 1 hour adding the hops as labelled at the appropriate times. Add the whirlfloc tablet with 10 mins to go on the boil. Once boil is completed, cool to 20c and drain into the fermenter. Add your yeast."

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Hi!

JoshW said:

I have a few questions about this method. I've not really seen this method when reading about BIAB,

Click to expand...

JoshW said:

I am assuming this is an all grain method?

Click to expand...

Yep.

JoshW said:

Could I just add the water to the boiler and mash at 67C, then drain and squeeze the bag, leaving it to sit in another container as to extract the maximum liquid, then continue to boil as normal with hops?

Click to expand...

Yes. If you don't use the full amount of water in the recipe for your mash then you can use whatever is left as sparge water. That is, when you put your bag into the container [fermentation bucket is good for this] you can run more heated water over that to extract more wort. If you can support it lift the bag to allow it to drain, people brewing in sheds and garages put hooks in the ceiling, in my kitchen I use my bike repair stand. Gets you better value from you grain - up to a point, you can overdo it though and end up extracting bitter stuff like tannins. Stick with the water volumes given in the recipe.

JoshW said:

On another point from the method, what does "drain and recirculate until runnings are clear" refer to/mean?

Click to expand...

Vorlauf I think is the technical term. More complicated brewing processes take liquid from the bottom of the mash tun and pump it back into the top. This recirculating process uses the grain bed as a filter so eventually the wort runs clear as it is transferred into the boiler.

You don't have to worry too much about that as this process is not normally carried out when BIABing your beer. You just lift the bag, drain it, sparge it in a bucket if you want to while the boiler's coming up to temperature, chuck the sparge in with the rest and away you go. Hops and a nice rolling boil for an hour or so. If you've got pellets and/or a filter over the outlet pipe expect blockage when you come to drain it all into your FV. Long spoon to scrape the filter clear / bailing with a saucepan / shouting the name of ladies underparts at the boiler then picking it up and pouring the whole lot into the FV are common solutions to this problem.

JoshW said:

Many Thanks,
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Josh

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You're welcome. And welcome!

Thanks for this, very much appreciated. I look forward to tackling this tonight

You could, for a first attempt, not use the sparging stage. Just use the full volume of water for the mashing stage, drain and boil. Maybe use 5% less water to account for slightly lesser extraction of sugars from the grain. It would just make your first brew day a bit easier. I agree that you could really do with a hook to support your grain bag. I just lash mine over a rafter in my garage, where I can afford to spill the odd drop without offending SWMBO!
After a few AG brews I started a dunk sparging stage, where I drain the mash then add 6l of water to the grain, then drain again. It gives an improvement in efficiency (how much of the available sugars you extract) by up to 10%. Avoiding this first time will save time and complexity.

I had a go yesterday night, and it went fairly well for my first time. I forgot to take an initial reading with the hydrometer so I couldn't work out my effeciency, annoyingly. I mashed for 1 hour at 70C, then boiled off for 1 hour, adding hops at the appropriate time. Cool down time was around 35/40 mins with my immersion chiller.

However, my original gravity reading was 1.057, not 1.051 like the recipe stated. Why is this? Will it make a large difference to the end result also? Also, how long would you guys recommend leaving for fermentation...it seems some don't recommend taking too many hydrometer measurements nearer the end of fermentation?

I guess I've got a lot more reading to do, I have thought of some good ways to improve my technique for next time though. I think a hop bag will be in order for next time also, made a bit of a mess not having one.

JoshW said:

I had a go yesterday night, and it went fairly well for my first time. I forgot to take an initial reading with the hydrometer so I couldn't work out my effeciency, annoyingly. I mashed for 1 hour at 70C, then boiled off for 1 hour, adding hops at the appropriate time. Cool down time was around 35/40 mins with my immersion chiller.

However, my original gravity reading was 1.057, not 1.051 like the recipe stated. Why is this? Will it make a large difference to the end result also? Also, how long would you guys recommend leaving for fermentation...it seems some don't recommend taking too many hydrometer measurements nearer the end of fermentation?

I guess I've got a lot more reading to do, I have thought of some good ways to improve my technique for next time though. I think a hop bag will be in order for next time also, made a bit of a mess not having one.

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Seems your efficiency was better than your expectations:thumb:. I give mine at least 14 /16 days and take an early reading around 7 days then two, three days apart towards the end.Others will differ for sure:)
Yes get some hop bags,you will still get crud but less crud!

Did you get the expected volume of wort? If your volume was lower then this explains your higher than expected gravity. I'd leave it for 14 days then it's best to check that your gravity is stable, so at least 2 consecutive readings being the same. If you mashed at 70C then did you allow the mash to cool or did the mash remain at 70C? A high mash temp creates unfermentable sugars so you may end with a high final gravity and sweetness in the finished beer.

3 weeks in the fermenter and I have now bottled. All went well except not hitting my expected final gravity/ABV. It ended up as 1.020, bringing the final ABV to 4.89% instead of 5.1%, not sure why - perhaps a little high on the mash temp or the fermentation temp a little high?

It's also cloudy, perhaps this will clear but I'm not sure. Anyhow I have included a snap of what the final result looked like...

hi josh,seems like you have had a great first attempt at biab I would,nt worry to much about not being spot on with the final abv there are lots of variables in the brewing process and it is all about enjoying the end result !! try and condition for a minimum of 2 weeks then give it a try but it normally gets better with age......happy brewing

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Thankfully the beer has pretty much cleared up after just 3 days which is promising.

Looks OK to me. After secondary fermentation in the bottles it may well drop clear. Do you know what volume of wort you ended up with, or alternatively how many bottles did you get?
1020 final gravity may well have been due to your high mash temp. 66C or less might be a better bet to avoid so many unfermentable sugars.

I managed 36 bottles in total. There was quite a bit of sediment in the bottom, I'd say I left about 2 litres due to it being sediment.

36 bottles with some left in the FV is very good. I can't imagine why you got such a high FG. It may again be due to the high mash temp. Because you also finished high your alcohol by volume is probably about right. You'll have to post your taste impressions, particularly with regard to the sweetness of the finished product.