First BIAB - Can someone please review my proceedure for corrections

This is my first attempt at a BIAB. I am attempting a Yuengling clone. Please see reciepe from beersmith below. I have lots of uncertanty, let me lay out what equpment I have and how I understand the proceedure to go for a single infushion (not sure if I shoudl do a mash out yet).

I have a 20qt pot and a 10qt pot.

Step 1 add 5.63qt of water to 10qt pot with bag inside and heat to 163.7F.
Step 2 remove from heat and stir in all crushed grains 1lb crystal malt, 1.5lbs flaked corn, 2lbs 2 row
Step 3 cover and let sit for 60 minutes (probably cover with blanket to keep in heat....at this time I would fill my 20qt pot with 5 qts water and bring to 168f for later sparging
Step 4 remove bag and let drain for a few minutes
Step 5 add grain bag to sparge water for 10 minutes then drain.

After that I would add mash to sparge pot and proceed with extract and hop additions as normal.

This is using the Single infusion medium body mash profile in BeerSmith. The other option is the BIAB profile which changes the saccharification step to 13.32 quarts of water at 152.1 for 75 minutes instead. I guess I could do this in my larger pot then do the sparge in the smaller. Any suggestions on which route I should go or if I have any errors in my process or temps.

Last I have read about doing a protein rest to help clear up the beer. Is that something recommended to add to the process and if so do I choose the double infusion option in BeerSmith?


Yuengling Clone Partial Mash
Premium American Lager
Type: Partial Mash Date: 6/29/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
End of Boil Volume 2.71 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal Est Mash Efficiency 87.3 %
Fermentation: Lager, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 26.7 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 20.0 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 13.3 %
3 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry
Extract 4 40.0 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 13.1 IBUs
1.00 tbsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
0.50 oz Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 4.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Lager (Wyeast Labs #2035) [124.21
ml] Yeast 9 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 18.9 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 9.0 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB, Medium Body Total Grain Weight: 7 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 0.00 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.1 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 13.32 qt of water at 158.4 F 152.1 F 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min
Sparge Step: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Brew in a bag method where the full boil volume is mashed within the boil vessel
and then the grains are withdrawn at the end of the mash. No active sparging is required. This is a
medium body beer profile.
Yuengling Clone Partial Mash Page 1 of 2

Looks good except the strike and sparge temps seams a little off. You will not have the temp drop as if you were adding strike water to a cold pot.
I would strike at around 160F for a target of 155F.
As for the sparge, I would drain and add water at around 174F for a target of 170F.

One tip for maintaining an even mash temp in the pot:

See if your brew pot will fit in your oven! My 20 qt does so I turn my oven on to 170F (the lowest setting) once it reaches that temp I turn it off and then put the mash in there once it reaches my target 152F. If your oven is 170F the air temp in the oven will easily drop to 150F when you open the oven to put the brew pot in and then just leave the oven off. Your mash temp will stay perfectly even!

I do have a large enough oven so I might try that.

Understood on the temperature corrections. Any comments on the single infushion method vs double infushion method?

Baby steps.
You can try multiple infusions next time.

Jayhem said:

One tip for maintaining an even mash temp in the pot:

See if your brew pot will fit in your oven! My 20 qt does so I turn my oven on to 170F (the lowest setting) once it reaches that temp I turn it off and then put the mash in there once it reaches my target 152F. If your oven is 170F the air temp in the oven will easily drop to 150F when you open the oven to put the brew pot in and then just leave the oven off. Your mash temp will stay perfectly even!

Click to expand...

I do this also. Over 75 BIAB batches later...

As for double infusion, imo its a waste of time. I have done lagers like this before with corn, no double required. If you want super clear.... time, irish moss, and such. BIAB lends itself to a bit more cloudyness, so maybe a double inf will help. But, i still say its a waste of time.

So I am also doing my first mini-biab and Beersmith is telling me to mash with 17.37 qts in my 20 qt pot. Now as this is my first time it seems like it would be easier to get the pot in and out of the oven with less volume. Is it at as easy as say filling the pot with 11.37 qts and mashing that at 60 min and then dunk sparge in the remaining 6 qts for ten minutes at 170 and then combined them for the boil? The grist to water ratio seems fine.

Also when it's in the oven, are you guys monitoring the temp or just set it and forget it? A lot of heat would be lost every time the oven gets open to check the temp, right?

As long as the mash ratio is ok, split up the water how you like. You'll need to adjust the strike temperatures to account for that. You could also tweak your mash profile to use your desired ratio and add multiple steps if you want. Then BeerSmith will agree with your actual mash, if you like that.

Opening the door will change the air temperature inside the stove very quickly, but it won't affect the temperature of your mash very much. It has a far, far greater thermal mass than the air.

thanks!

I plugged it in to beersmith and this is what I got.

6.30 lbs of grain into 11.5 qts of water. Strike temp is 165 to get a mash temp of 156. Rest for 60 in the oven.

Then dunk sparge for 10 minutes in 6 qts of water at 170.

Seems to make sense to me. Any thoughts on the stirke temp? Does it seem high or low to anyone?

Lastly, on the keeping in the oven, should I check the temp(and if so how often) or should I just let it be?

Those numbers seem generally ok. They're a bit different from usual practice, which would be to use a somewhat thicker mash and a larger quantity of sparge water, but it seems that BIAB brewers don't usually worry about that as much. I'd consider perhaps dropping to 9 or 10 quarts in the mash and adding the difference to the sparge. Not a big deal, though.

Temperatures seem reasonable, but whether they're accurate or not will depend on a lot of things (your room temperature, the thermal mass of your kettle, etc). I usually strike at around 170°F to hit 154-156 with around 6 pounds of grain.

Im having a hard time keeping the mash temp. It was 160 on my first measurement out of the stove and now I've cooled it too much and am working on bringing it back. This has been going on for about 30. Once I get it stable how long should I rest and what is this going to do to my brew?

I'd probably start the clock as of when you mashed in. It was converting the whole time, just not at the temperature you wanted.

If you overcorrected to the point that you were under about 145, then I wouldn't count that time, but above there you should be having fairly efficient conversion occurring. It's just a question of which enzyme is active, so your fermentability may come out other than you'd intended.