First AG - BIAB Enhanced Double Decoction ... say WHAA?

So the SWMBO is totally sick of hearing about it, so I am writing this post...

Today was my first AG brew and I jumped off the cliff with a BIAB decocted Kolsch Style Beer. I followed BrauKaiser's post on Enhanced Double Decoction to a tee and despite a last min panicked change to add another pound of base malt I NAILED my calculations in Beer Alchemy.

Sadly, my efficiency was in the mid 60's; but, for my first AG batch I am not sure I should have expected more. Well I will add to this in several weeks assuming I did not make 5 gallons of rat pee ... A huge thanks to everyone on this forum for the wealth of knowledge I have gained here.

Peace and RDWHAHB!

congrats!!!!!!!!

My first BIAB was lower than that, mid 50's if I recall. I have three brews staged for the next couple days. Two all grain and one extract. I figure I can get the one all grain batch going then heat the water for the extract, steep the grains that came with the kit and get the boil done before the all grain batch is ready to boil. Hopefully I can improve on my efficiency this time around.

Well the batch has been fermenting for two days now and the washed Kolsch WLP029 is making a hell of a pungent smell throughout my garage. I had made a 2L starter that I chilled and decanted; and this has got to be the strongest fermentation I have seen yet. It is a 5 gal batch in a 6.5/7 gal plastic bucket and there are signs of krausen within a 1/2" of the lid - yikes. A thanks again to everyone - off to research improving BIAB decoction efficiency and iodine conversion testing.

the crush with BIAB is where you'll get more efficiency. if you crush it yourself crush it pretty fine. if you get it crushed at the LHBS have then double crush it. if ya order it from Brewmasters Warehouse... they crush it just about perfect in my experience..

Awesome thanks for the heads up!

Well, I crush my own grains in a coffee ginder that has a stationary plate and a spinning plate, just like the corona grain mill. I crushed this last batch pretty fine. I must have bought a bag of malted barley that was not malted very good. This is the second batch from this bag of Breiss pale malt that my efficiency was about 50%. That's pretty bad. I have another batch already crushed. I will monitor everything very closely to see if there are any discrepansies that I may have over looked, but I don't think so.

Well, I thought I would post an update on my batch ... things have developed well after the last two weeks. The batch started at 1.053 and after 2 weeks has settled at 1.012 - two points over target. I am chalking it up to bad rest temperatures and ending up with a bit more un-fermentable sugars. Luckily the style is pretty forgiving and the flavor from the hydrometer reading is just beautiful. Lots to work on with my techniques; but, this batch is going well ... assuming it carbs up well I will post the recipe.

My kolsch is in the keg now. FG is 1.008 which was 2 points under what I was shooting for. Like you said the style is forgiving enough. 5.73% is high for a kolsch but the sample was tasty!

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OK, well 5 days after bottling ... I snuck one. SUPER yeasty because it was in the freezer for about 2 hours; but otherwise a great beer with a wonderful body, and rich mouthfeel. I really wish I could get some classic/imported samples of a Kolsch to make sure I am on style. Either way it needs at least 2 weeks before I can really judge how it came out. I am going to give this one a shot again on Monday with some alterations to the hop profile as the current batch came in at the high end of bittering for the style and is missing some complexity in both aroma and flavor.