calumscott
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How to: Brew your first BIAB AG Beer
- Thread starter calumscott
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JimmyB78
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Excellent and very thorough guide Calum, great work! :thumb:
rpt
Brewing without a hat
Fantastic guide - really looking forward to my first brew with my new Buffalo boiler. But, isn't 32644cc = 32.644L? :hmm:calumscott said:
calumscott
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Hahaha! I *may* have altered some values there but missed one...
Good spot, thanks!
Good spot, thanks!
cwiseman77
Landlord.
:thumb:
LeedsBrewer
Landlord.
Well done mate, very good guide :thumb:
calumscott
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Thanks guys!
I've just got to now go and edit all the equipment links seeing as we took on a new sponsor! :lol:
I've just got to now go and edit all the equipment links seeing as we took on a new sponsor! :lol:
Cheers Calum,
A really useful guide.
A couple of questions if I may as this is where I want to go this year. I have been reading a bit on BIAB forum but UK experiences would be great.
I see you went for a larger volume but if you are happy with a smaller brewlength is there much saving from building your own boiler or buying a 40l urn (£90 +vat).
I'm guessing if you went for an urn the tap would need to be replaced?
Is the hop filter required or could you avoid this by using another bag (hopsock I think I have seen mentioned)?
A really useful guide.
A couple of questions if I may as this is where I want to go this year. I have been reading a bit on BIAB forum but UK experiences would be great.
I see you went for a larger volume but if you are happy with a smaller brewlength is there much saving from building your own boiler or buying a 40l urn (£90 +vat).
I'm guessing if you went for an urn the tap would need to be replaced?
Is the hop filter required or could you avoid this by using another bag (hopsock I think I have seen mentioned)?
calumscott
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Hi Anthony,
A 50l pot delivered is about 40 quid.
You would have to replace the tap with a bulkhead connector, hopstopper and tap - exactly the same as the pot...
Then you either just pop your pot on the hob or fit a couple of tesco kettle elements (£10 maybe?) and away you go.
You can hopsock but there are disadvantages - a hopstopper does just that, stops hops against itself which turn into a filter for the smaller crud, break material etc in the wort. No free hops - no filter.
So I think you would make a good saving by building rather than buying. :thumb:
A 50l pot delivered is about 40 quid.
You would have to replace the tap with a bulkhead connector, hopstopper and tap - exactly the same as the pot...
Then you either just pop your pot on the hob or fit a couple of tesco kettle elements (£10 maybe?) and away you go.
You can hopsock but there are disadvantages - a hopstopper does just that, stops hops against itself which turn into a filter for the smaller crud, break material etc in the wort. No free hops - no filter.
So I think you would make a good saving by building rather than buying. :thumb:
Lagerloverdude
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This is excellent. Just what I was after. Thanks. :clap:
So brewday was yesterday! Followed the guide to the letter and I now have 20 litres of BIABitter happily fermeting away :)
I made my brew kettle from a 70 litre stock pot, the same one that Calumscott has. Made it by following Vossy1's guide
Here is my home-made brew bag, considering that I have never used a sewing machine before, I'm really happy with it. It's ok to use a sewing machine, it's manly if it's for making beer!
Here's the mash:
The brewday spreadsheet is simply fantastic. I'm not talking about accuracy as I haven't tested that, but the flow and logic of the sheet is brilliant. I can see you have put a lot of work into this guide Calumscott.
I had just two problems, the first, I brewed inside, in my kitchen. I thought the smell would be the main problem but my wife actually said "oh that smells nice" with not a hint of sarcasm so that's good! Unfortunately, I found out my extractor fan is not the greatest and covered the whole kitchen, hall & utility with beer moisture! She weren't too pleased! Next time, I'm in the garage lol.
The second problem is volume. I ended up with 17 litres @ 1.049. I think I must have boiled too hard, I turned one element off but it didn't appear to be boiling enough, it was boiling, but just slightly. So I kept both element on for the boil. This led to a boil loss of 11.1 ltrs! Where it should have been 5.25. So, I have added 3 litres of fresh water to bring the volume up to 20 litres @ 1.041. Question for next time, should I a) use a single element to boil and aim for the guideline boil off rate or b) Add 6 litres extra for start volume to allow for the boil off?
One other note, you mention that the HomeBrew Company provide the hops in 100g packets, this has changed, I got the exact quantities required.
Overall, really happy, thank you very much for this great guide. Hope this is as helpful to others as it was to me.
Cheers
Poke
I made my brew kettle from a 70 litre stock pot, the same one that Calumscott has. Made it by following Vossy1's guide
Here is my home-made brew bag, considering that I have never used a sewing machine before, I'm really happy with it. It's ok to use a sewing machine, it's manly if it's for making beer!
Here's the mash:
The brewday spreadsheet is simply fantastic. I'm not talking about accuracy as I haven't tested that, but the flow and logic of the sheet is brilliant. I can see you have put a lot of work into this guide Calumscott.
I had just two problems, the first, I brewed inside, in my kitchen. I thought the smell would be the main problem but my wife actually said "oh that smells nice" with not a hint of sarcasm so that's good! Unfortunately, I found out my extractor fan is not the greatest and covered the whole kitchen, hall & utility with beer moisture! She weren't too pleased! Next time, I'm in the garage lol.
The second problem is volume. I ended up with 17 litres @ 1.049. I think I must have boiled too hard, I turned one element off but it didn't appear to be boiling enough, it was boiling, but just slightly. So I kept both element on for the boil. This led to a boil loss of 11.1 ltrs! Where it should have been 5.25. So, I have added 3 litres of fresh water to bring the volume up to 20 litres @ 1.041. Question for next time, should I a) use a single element to boil and aim for the guideline boil off rate or b) Add 6 litres extra for start volume to allow for the boil off?
One other note, you mention that the HomeBrew Company provide the hops in 100g packets, this has changed, I got the exact quantities required.
Overall, really happy, thank you very much for this great guide. Hope this is as helpful to others as it was to me.
Cheers
Poke
calumscott
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Thanks for putting the guide through its paces, poke!
I still haven't quite got my volumes right six brews in so don't worry. It's best to get all the water in up front or at least before the boil but I don't mind liquor ing back afterwards if needs be. After all, I had no issues with tap water when making kit beer, why would it be a problem now?
Glad the spready was useful. :thumb:
I still haven't quite got my volumes right six brews in so don't worry. It's best to get all the water in up front or at least before the boil but I don't mind liquor ing back afterwards if needs be. After all, I had no issues with tap water when making kit beer, why would it be a problem now?
Glad the spready was useful. :thumb:
calumscott
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Oh yeah, and windows open is the order of the day... :lol:
calumscott
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PokeHer said:
Ah, I can see where the confusion is. I meant that the malt miller will send 100g packs when I said "they". I'll tweak that to make it obvious. Thanks for the heads up. :thumb:
rich27500
Landlord.
I'd increase your start volume by your shortfall and see how close you get to target volume after that. Tinkering with your system s all part of he fun!
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