1st BIAB with pictures

[Rivvo]

For my first foray into the world of Biab I went for a Belgian wit which is one of my favourite beer styles (and luckily also quite easy apparently) I started at 9am by filling the pot with water and heating to 70', added the grain which dropped it to 65' which was spot on, it had 30 minutes at that temperature and only dropped 1.5' during that time, I then raised the temperature to 68' for a further hour before finally mashing out at 72' over 10 minutes.

Home made insulation jacket

Mashing in

Hops and orange and coriander, though I also added some sweet peel which was drying in the oven when I took the photo.

Grains prior to dunk sparging with 8 litres of water.

Boiling the wort, I initially had the lid half on to maintain temperature as it was a bit of a struggle on the domestic hob, I then moved it across so it was over two of the burners which worked well.

Boil is over.

Ice bath.

Wort nicely aerated after cooling in a ice bath, it only took an hour which I was happy with as I was expecting it to take a lot longer.

Post boil sample.

Now some facts and figures if anyone's interested!
Batch size 20 litres
Water into pot was 18 litres
Lost 4 litres to the grain
Sparge with 8 litres at 78'
Pre boil amount was 22.5 litres with a gentle squeeze on the bag
Pre boil vol was 1042
Post boil amount of liquor was 20 litres (spot on hooray)
Post boil vol was 1048 (should have been 1046 according to the recipe)
I used the brewferm Blanche yeast which was rehydrated before pitching ( I'd ordered the wrong yeast and this was the only one I could source in driving distance)


Recipe-
2kg pale belgian malt
2kg flaked wheat
25g hallertauer heersbrucker hops at 60 minutes
10g of the same at 15 minutes (along with a third of a protofloc tablet)
16g of coriander seed cracked, 25 g dried curaçao and 11g of sweet orange peel at 10 minutes.

The only thing I forgot was the campden tablet but I added it after about 10 minutes

 

[pittsy]

Nice 1 and well done , 1 of my fav brews too . Had a look at your recipe and it's spot on really . Not sure you wanted a protofloc tab though but hey hoy .

 

[Rivvo]

Thanks Pittsy, I really wasn't sure about the protofloc I did post on here but got mixed responses, I should have Pm'd you!
Will a third make a lot of difference?

 

[Duxuk]

Well done. Your efficiency was great. I'm sure that's down to your dunk sparge. I give it a good stir at that stage. it definitely ups your sugar extraction. Others say you shouldn't sparge, but why chuck sugary grains on the compost heap?

 

[pittsy]

It's actually quite hard to get cloudy beer that remains cloudy anyway so who cares really as long as it tastes good . :thumb:

 

[Rivvo]

Thanks guys, I just hope it turns out ok.

 

[Rivvo]

Well done. Your efficiency was great. I'm sure that's down to your dunk sparge. I give it a good stir at that stage. it definitely ups your sugar extraction. Others say you shouldn't sparge, but why chuck sugary grains on the compost heap?

Thanks, I did check the volume for the post mash wort which was 1056 (heat adjusted) and the sparge which was 1025(heat adjusted) I thought the sparge was a bit low but it seems it went ok.

Thanks to you, Pittsy and all the other guys for the advice and tips which gave me the confidence to give this a go :thumb:

 

[Steve]

Looks good. Stress free brewday?

 

[Rivvo]

Haha no, it was quite exciting and a little stressful as it was the first one ever.
I was pleased with the volume and og, and how quickly the wort cooled just using the bath, I thought I might have had to leave it overnight but I used 8 2 litre bottles of tesco water which I'd frozen as giant ice cubes, seems like it did the trick.
Now just waiting for the yeast to kick in, I'm away tomorrow so I just hope it's got a nice big krausen when I get back on Wednesday.

 

[rui]

very well Rivvo, everything looks impressive, and witbier its one of my favorit styles :thumb:

once again, good luck with your brew


:hat:

rui

 

[Rivvo]

Cheers Rui, and good luck with yours.

 

[Rivvo]

Well when I came down this morning, before I even got in the utility room I could hear the steady plop of the airlock, heads foaming nicely and the fv lid is bulging, happy days :thumb:

 

[Rivvo]

Well 1 week on and the fv has gone quiet and the airlock has equalised, checked the gravity but it's only down to 1016 not the target 1011 :shock:
So I've given it a gentle stir to see if it starts up again.
On the plus side it looked properly cloudy as it should and tasted clean, possibly under flavoured or under hopped though the high carbonation after bottling may well improve that.
Anyway once it's ready I will be racking off 5 litres onto peaches and apricots and 5 litres on to raspberries.

 

[pittsy]

Of course give it a few days to make sure but i wouldn't be too shocked if it had finished at 1016 although i would expect more 1012/1014 . Carbonation makes a massive improvement as far as taste goes btw .

 

[Rivvo]

Thanks Pittsy I thought that would be the case, I've got some pics of the cloudiness!

 

[pittsy]

looking all good and normal :thumb:

 

[Rivvo]

Ta very much, you can't imagine the relief when the wheat chief reassures you
You're like a knight in shining armour :thumb:

 

[gazkilla]

Great pictures Rivvo :thumb: Looks like you enjoyed your 1st biab as much as I did on Saturday

 

[Rivvo]

Sort of enjoyed it!
Feel more confident now though, I have the ingredients for a belgian dubble which I may add some spices to and turn it into a Bierce de noël, and I think I will then get the stuff for a weisse bier and an English pale ale of some type, maybe a smash.
It's certainly addictive!

 

[Rivvo]

Well I bottled 8 litres of this today, I think I've over primed it though as I'd set it up for 10 litres, I lost a lot to the trub. I've also got 2 5 litre bottles sat on raspberries and peaches, I'm thinking of leaving it 3 or 4 days then priming this and bottling, hopefully the fruit flavours won't be lost by the yeast eating the fructose up.