Planning My First All-Grain BIAB Experience...

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mavandeh

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I'm going for a simple and sessionable English style IPA. The idea is fewer variables means fewer things to screw up since I'm used to brewing extract.

Note: Used BeerSmith, and since I am used to brewing extract, efficiency has never been a concern. I just left it at default, but I'm sure I'll have to toy with it and get to know my setup a bit.

Feedback? Suggestions? Need more information?

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Looks pretty good. I use Beersmith with my Briab setup and haven't had a prob yet. Good luck and cheers!!!!
 
If you can get the grains crushed pretty fine (stuck sparges aren't an issue with BIAB, so this is OK to do), I would imagine you'll get closer to 70-75% efficiency. The worst thing about this will be stronger beer, so you should be OK. If you have extra hops available, check your preboil SG, and adjust additions to get the hop profile you want with the extra gravity from the (assumed) higher efficiency.

But you'll only really know with a couple batches' worth of experience, so good luck!
 
The only advice I'll give is to watch your temps closely at the mash stage. I haven't had much luck hitting the mash temp based on the suggested water temp. It comes in high. With BIAB you don't have equipment loss since the equipment is already heated. I think there is a checkmark in Beersmith for this.
 
Change your mash tun temp in BeerSmith to be the same as your initial strike temp. Since you're using heat to bring the temp up, the tun will be the same temp as the water that is inside it. This will lower your strike temp by a degree or two and help you keep from overshooting the desired temp for the first rest.
 
Change your mash tun temp in BeerSmith to be the same as your initial strike temp. Since you're using heat to bring the temp up, the tun will be the same temp as the water that is inside it. This will lower your strike temp by a degree or two and help you keep from overshooting the desired temp for the first rest.

With regard to your comment at the end about my first rest, I'm not planning on doing a step mash, just going straight for saccharification. Should I change my plan? How will my beer benefit? Just better efficiency?
 
Yes, my advice still applies. See the strike temp of 157.5°? BS is calculating that based on water volume, grain volume and temp, and tun temp. For both grain and tun temp, your settings show 72, and BS is using this info to come up with the 157.5 strike temp in order to end up at 152 after dough-in. However, your tun will not be 72 at dough-in, it'll be whatever the water temp is, which should be about 155.

If you go into the mash settings in BS and change the tun temp from 72 to 155, you will see the strike temp drop a degree or two. Then, change your tun temp again to match the new strike temp exactly so the two temps are same-same. My experience with similar size grain bills is that the strike temp should be about 155.0-156. Overshooting by 2 degrees may not seem like much, but it will make a difference in the amount of fermentable/unfermentable sugars that get converted, and therefore FG, so it pays to try to get as close as possible to your intended mash temp. Making this easy to overlook setting correct will help with that.

Also, I see in your brew steps that there is a step for mash out at 168. Lot's of BIAB'ers skip this, but I would suggest that you do it. I firmly believe that it helps improve efficiency. For most recipes, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to hit 80% mash efficiency every time if you do the mash out.

One more thing: prior to dough-in, as you approach strike temp, make sure you stir the mash water well while it's heating to keep the temps even throughout. It's easy to be several degrees warmer near the bottom of the BK than what your thermo is reading near the top. Stirring well will help to minimize temp stratification so you get accurate temp readings. I usually dial the flame back a little when I get within a few degrees of strike temp so I have better control of how fast the temp is rising.
 
For a full volume no sparge biab I'd go with 70% efficiency into the boiler, if you wanna be conservative figure 65%. Keep in mind the more accurately you weigh your grain, measure your preboil volume, and take your preboil gravity reading, the better your efficiency estimations for future batches will be.
 
Keep in mind you won't denature enzymes in the matter of a couple of minutes. I ALWAYS dough in high on purpose, then stir down to temp. this is way easier than frantically heating boiling water and adding it when you are too low, only to still be below your temperature.
 
With full-volume BIAB there is no boiling water, as the mash contains the entire pre-boil volume. All the heat comes from the flame under the kettle. While convenient, the major downside is that the water closest to the flame heats up first. If you don't stir constantly while it's heating to churn the water, you could be 10 degrees warmer at the bottom than what your thermometer is reading near the top by the time you figure out that you've overshot. This is the reason a lot of first-timers get on here and whine that their first attempt at BIAB was a disaster because their mash temps were all over the place and they have no idea where they actually mashed at. All they know is that it was much higher than they were shooting for.
 
LLBeanJ said:
With full-volume BIAB there is no boiling water, as the mash contains the entire pre-boil volume. All the heat comes from the flame under the kettle. While convenient, the major downside is that the water closest to the flame heats up first. If you don't stir constantly while it's heating to churn the water, you could be 10 degrees warmer at the bottom than what your thermometer is reading near the top by the time you figure out that you've overshot. This is the reason a lot of first-timers get on here and whine that their first attempt at BIAB was a disaster because their mash temps were all over the place and they have no idea where they actually mashed at. All they know is that it was much higher than they were shooting for.

That's true. I'm thinking of a sparge setup, but point remains that being a tad high isn't a problem.
 
Lesson: stir, stir, stir!

Couldn't find the bittering hops I wanted originally (Columbia), so I read up on a few varieties and I thought the description on Phoenix sounded nice for what I wanted to accomplish. Also, I did change the mash tun temperature to 155 and the strike temperature did go down as well. Thanks again for all the advice everyone.

=------------------=

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: English IPA
Brewer: mavandeh
Asst Brewer:
Style: English IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 4.31 gal
Post Boil Volume: 3.56 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.91 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.69 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 8.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 44.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.91 gal Chicago, IL Water 1 -
0.58 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 3 76.9 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 23.1 %
0.50 oz Phoenix [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 24.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 10.4 IBUs
0.75 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 4.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 9 5.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [35.49 Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 6 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 19.13 qt of water at 157.0 F 152.1 F 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
 
Had a taste today when I checked gravity, and it's very malty. The hops mellowed out a lot. What surprises me is that I have a 2:1 sulfate to chloride ratio favoring the bitter/hoppier side of balanced. I should be tasting more complexity in the hops, but that might be after the beer has matured. It's only been fermenting for 6 days.

Patience...
 
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