First BIAB want to check what I am doing

[XiRho]

Good morning folks,

After a few years of on and off wanting to try to make my own beer I finally decided recently to just get started with it.

Reading up on the various methods, I have settled on trying to BIAB method because it seems like the most straight forward way of doing things whilst retaining control over the recipe (which I want to get into changing more down the line).

I am only going to make a small batch for my first go, aiming for 5L. I have got all the equipment that I think I need, and I am going to use the following recipe which I obtained from a book and scaled down.

Marris Otter 1.0 kg
Flaked Torrified Barley 125 g
Roasted Barely 110g
Chocolate malt 25g

Recipe called for 15g East Kent Golding all added at 60 min, but I have thought of splitting this up to 10g at 60 min and 5g at 15 min because the hops I can get have a higher AA% than the ones in the recipe.

I have a 12L stockpot and I was thinking about 7L of water at the start, no sparge might get me close to 5L post boil allowing for boiloff and absorption.

My question for you all is does this sound about right? Am I missing anything? Any thoughts on squeezing the bag vs not squeezing?

Appreciate any input, no doubt I'll have more questions!

Thanks!

 

[GerritT]

Absorption is 1 liter per kilo, and boiloff is 15% per hour (give or take) so 7 would leave you with 5.1 in the fermenter.
I BIAB AND sparge and I squeeze the bag well. Not wringing, just squeezing. It's fookin hot so beware! Wringing gives tannins, some say. Hop gift seems about right, a nice late EKG addition. Any details regarding OG/FG?

 

[XiRho]

Recipe is saying OG 1.048 FG 1.013, when I plug it into Brewers Friend it comes out at 1.054 and 1.010. Not really sure where the difference in the OG comes from between the two, but I tried the recipe on Brewmate as well and the OG agrees with Brewers Friend.

Recipe also looks for a liquid yeast, Wyeast 1084 Irish ale - but to keep things easier for myself for a first go I am substituting it for a dry yeast, the book suggests Safale US-05 as an alternative so that's what I will try.

Thanks for some insight into how you do it. I was avoiding sparging to try and keep it simple, Do you find that it adds much value, or is it a pure efficiency thing?

 

[GerritT]

It's efficiency for me, mostly. It's more work and not the most pleasant part of the job, but so isn't cleaning, oh well :)
S05 is a safe choice, it'll do the job.

 

[Nicks90]

What are you going to brew it in?
5l is an awkward size as it's too much for a demijohn but too small for a regular 5gallon bucket, as the wide base will mean you'll end up losing a fair bit on top of the trub at the bottom that you can't reliably Syphon out, without sucking up excessive gunge.
Personally I'd brew to 4.5l and use a demijohn and a blow off tube, just in case it's a lively ferment.

 

[XiRho]

I have a 10L food grade plastic bucket and lid that I've drilled a hole in for an airlock. Unless this seems like a generally very bad idea I might be inclined to stick with this plan for this go and adjust to a slightly smaller batch (or if it goes well, maybe larger!) and get a dj and use that.

 

[braziliain]

You could brew 8 or 9 litres with the 12L stockpot which would minimise the headspace in your 10L bucket and give you more delicious beer.

Just reduce the mash water and perform a 10min batch sparge afterwards. I brewed like this for a while and still use the same procedure now but with a slightly larger 20L stockpot to get me up to 18L batches.

I would use 2.5litres of water per kilogram for the mash then use all the remaining water for a 10 mins batch sparge (just pour it all into the pot and add the bag of grain back to sit for 10 mins). Combine first and second runnings in your pot then boil. I put the first runnings into my fermenter temporarily while I perform the batch sparge, then once the bag is removed from the batch sparge I add the first runnings back into the pot.

 

[XiRho]

That's a possible idea then!

Would I then need to increase the amount of grain to achieve the same gravity as for the smaller batch? If I was planning on using what is roughly 1.2kg to achieve 5L, would I need to almost double this for 8-9L?

 

[braziliain]

Yep, just take each ingredient and divide the amount by 5 then multiply by 8 or 9 depending what you are aiming for. Do this with all the malts and all the hops. Timings remain exactly the same.

You can do this with any recipe of any size .

 

[XiRho]

Thank you so much for your reply. One of the things that had been confusing me when I started reading about all of this was sparging and how this effects and dilutes the wort when not doing a full volume mash. I think I am starting to understand now that when you do less than a full volume mash you are making a more concentrated wort, and then the sparge just dilutes it down to the target gravity. (feel free to enlighten if I have that all wrong).

 

[braziliain]

Yep! You hit the nail on the head!

Although in reality the sparge is still extracting residual sugars from the grain. So you are diluting a concentrated wort with a less concentrated wort.

I (and many others with small kit) take this one step further. You can mash and then boil a more concentrated wort, then ''back liquor" (fancy brewing term for adding water) to the fermenter to dilute it to the desired original gravity.

I brew a concentrated 13L batch (using ingredients for an 18L batch)
and then add 5L of bottled water to the fermenter to dilute it and bring it up to a full 18L Cornelius keg. This allows me to do everything with a small pot on the stove in the kitchen. The added bonus is that the cold bottled water helps to cool the hot wort quicker before pitching the yeast. By diluting like this at the end, some would argue that it affects hop utilisation but try for yourself. It works for me and this is how the majority of big breweries operate. One great thing about this hobby is that there are no rules and every brewer has their own techniques.

 

[Slid]

Very good advice on this thread and the recipe* quoted is a very good one for a dry stout. Have done this or a near variant a few times, always with good results. I also recommend US 05 with this style, if using a dry yeast.

*GH p174

 

[XiRho]

Thought I'd give an update since I have just finished my first brew day with this.

Due to stock at my local shop I ended up just going with the original plan of trying to get 5L in the fv.

All went reasonably well, had a good plan in my head and had everything prepped as much as possible. I thought I would struggle to keep the temp right during mash but I pre heated the oven and put the pot in there @ 67C and an hour later took it out at 66 ish, so not too bad.

My biggest oopsie came when squeezing out the bag, I had a strainer over the pot and was squeezing the bag into it when it slipped off the edge of the pot and into it, making a nice sticky splash, so I lost a bit to that, but not too much.

All else went OK and I ended up with a little over 4L in the fv (probably around 4.3 or so), with an OG of 1.059 - so a little higher than I was aiming for. Going to give it 2 weeks now, looking for around 1.010 to finish, and will then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks to carbonate, and then put in the garage for another 2 week to condition (I think this is the 2-2-2 thing I've been reading about?)

Pleased overall, probably need to account for a little more boil off, another 3/4 liter I reckon and I should be getting there.

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

 

[braziliain]

Sounds like a solid effort! Look forward to hearing how it turns out in 6 weeks time.

It would have been fine to add some bottled water or boiled and cooled water into the fermenter to get it up to 5L and lower the OG a little. There is a free dilution tool here

https://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

It suggests topping up with 700ml would have landed you close to 1.050

 

[XiRho]

I realised that just before I pitched the yeast, but had to leave the house and had no bottled water to hand and didnt have time to boil and cool. I am just happy to have it done now and can start planning the next one!