My first ""big beer" BIAB was a miss

Turned out to be good news/bad news!

I was aiming for a high ABV RIS and ended up with an OG of 1.053. Far from my goal of >1.09

The bad news is that I was about 43% efficiency and missed my OG by a LOT. The good news, I guess, is that I made a stout.

I used the same crush as always and usually get around 70%. I think I'll crush finer next time.

I also over shot my pre-boil by about a gallon due to the wrong profile. That's corrected already.

I could try and course correct with DME I guess but I think I'm going to ride this "as is" and see how it turns out. Just hope I didn't over pitch the yeast. It should be ready to drink sooner now!

Perhaps your water pH was off, discouraging proper conversion?

I measured my pre boil pH and it was in line with the target according to Brewers Friend.

since you had a lot of grain was your mash thickness too low, requiring some sort of sparge to get a reasonable efficiency?

You said you overshot your preboil by a gallon, which I'm assuming you mean volume, right? Why didn't you continue to boil that off? That's quite likely why your Gravity was off.

Jimbodaman said:

since you had a lot of grain was your mash thickness too low, requiring some sort of sparge to get a reasonable efficiency?

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It was a full volume BIAB so mash thickness was high! 18.75 bs of grain and a little over 10 g of water.

SleepyCreekBrews said:

You said you overshot your preboil by a gallon, which I'm assuming you mean volume, right? Why didn't you continue to boil that off? That's quite likely why your Gravity was off.

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I did a pretty rigorous, longer boil and was only .25 g off my final target. (5.25 target v 5.5 actual). Still a little high but not enough to throw me off that much??

Murphys_Law said:

It was a full volume BIAB so mash thickness was high! 18.75 bs of grain and a little over 10 g of water.

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That'll do it... BIAB efficiency benefits from a thin mash and a fine crush... Definitely crush finer for larger grain bills... You won't get a stuck sparge

One of the highest efficiency brewdays I've had yet was my barleywine. I mashed as thin as I could without overflowing the kettle and then sparged the hell out of the bag (I want to say I sparged about 15 liters, maybe even more!) because I was doing a several-hour boil with another pot on the side boiling wort to a concentrate for high-levels of maillard reactions. I targeted 13.5L at 1.107 OG, calculating for 70% efficiency which is low for my brewhouse but high-gravity brews are notorious for lower efficiency. I ended up with 18L at 1.104 OG (got tired of boiling after five hours so I stopped when I was just shy of my target OG) for 90.9% efficiency.

Don't fear the BIAB sparge! It may not be "traditional", but it can be your best friend. Do a "dunk sparge" style sparge where the sparge water sits in the grain for a bit longer rather than a "pourover sparge" where most of the sparge water sloughs off the sides for better efficiency.

If you are to thick, you can do a double mash.
Split your grain into separate mashes. It will extend you brew day, but wont eff your efficiency.

Murphys_Law said:

It was a full volume BIAB so mash thickness was high! 18.75 bs of grain and a little over 10 g of water.

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That's a lot of water for that much grain... what are you assuming for boil off rate and grain absorption? I would guess you want 8-8.5 gallons of water to mash in.

jtratcliff said:

That'll do it... BIAB efficiency benefits from a thin mash and a fine crush... Definitely crush finer for larger grain bills... You won't get a stuck sparge

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18.75lbs in 10 gallons of water is a very thin mash. I think terminology is getting mixed up.

Murphys_Law said:

Turned out to be good news/bad news!

I was aiming for a high ABV RIS and ended up with an OG of 1.053. Far from my goal of >1.09

The bad news is that I was about 43% efficiency and missed my OG by a LOT. The good news, I guess, is that I made a stout.

I used the same crush as always and usually get around 70%. I think I'll crush finer next time.

I also over shot my pre-boil by about a gallon due to the wrong profile. That's corrected already.

I could try and course correct with DME I guess but I think I'm going to ride this "as is" and see how it turns out. Just hope I didn't over pitch the yeast. It should be ready to drink sooner now!

Click to expand...

How did you maintain your mash temp? And what temp did you attempt to hit?

petrolSpice said:

That's a lot of water for that much grain... what are you assuming for boil off rate and grain absorption? I would guess you want 8-8.5 gallons of water to mash in.




18.75lbs in 10 gallons of water is a very thin mash. I think terminology is getting mixed up.

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My equipment profile was off for grain absorption, which is why I overshot by a gallon. I didn't catch it until I measured the pre-boil volume and then tried to boil-off the excess water.

Curious what most people use for a grain absorption rate?

cannman said:

How did you maintain your mash temp? And what temp did you attempt to hit?

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I was right at 152 for 60 mins. I brought my strike water up and then added the grains, insulated the kettle and watched temp on both a probe I have in the mash, and the weldless thermometer on the kettle (don't really trust the latter so I want a check and balance).

I also stirred my mash about every 20 mins

Murphys_Law said:

I was right at 152 for 60 mins. I brought my strike water up and then added the grains, insulated the kettle and watched temp on both a probe I have in the mash, and the weldless thermometer on the kettle (don't really trust the latter so I want a check and balance).



I also stirred my mash about every 20 mins

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So I biab and recirculate constantly and have to refire the burner several times. Prior recirc I used sleeping bags to maintain temp. My point is, if you're not needing to refire or insulate, you are likely missing your temp. Have you calibrated your thermometers in ice water? Chances are parts in your process need to be refined, and your target efficiency can be reached. But for what it's worth, Missing BIab high gravity Og is nothing new. I've only tried for 1.075 and hit it. Would you list the recipe?

Murphys_Law said:

Curious what most people use for a grain absorption rate?

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Depends on your technique. I squeeze the bag, no sparge. If I squeeze very hard my grain absorption is 0.04-0.06 gal/lb of grain.

Murphys_Law said:

It was a full volume BIAB so mash thickness was high! 18.75 bs of grain and a little over 10 g of water.

Click to expand...

ummm. 18.75 lbs of grain in 10G of beer is about 1.050 at 72% efficiency
(never mind, I see you ended up with 5.25G in the end)

cannman said:

So I biab and recirculate constantly and have to refire the burner several times. Prior recirc I used sleeping bags to maintain temp. My point is, if you're not needing to refire or insulate, you are likely missing your temp. Have you calibrated your thermometers in ice water? Chances are parts in your process need to be refined, and your target efficiency can be reached. But for what it's worth, Missing BIab high gravity Og is nothing new. I've only tried for 1.075 and hit it. Would you list the recipe?

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I use yoga mats to insulate the hell out of my kettle and did test both thermometers and they're pretty accurate. This is also why I use two - as a check and balance. The recipe is the Russian Imperial Stout found on this site:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=238807

petrolSpice said:

Depends on your technique. I squeeze the bag, no sparge. If I squeeze very hard my grain absorption is 0.04-0.06 gal/lb of grain.

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After this mess I changed mine equipment profile for .06 gal/lb, which should get me (much) closer to what it really is. I don't squeeze a lot but do let the bag hang over the kettle while I start the boil and gravity does a pretty decent job!

petrolSpice said:

18.75lbs in 10 gallons of water is a very thin mash. I think terminology is getting mixed up.

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~ 2.1 qts/lb

It's a thin mash for traditional mashing... But not necessarily for full volume BIAB.

I typically have thinner mashes and I do a dunk sparge, so I'm not even doing full volume.

In any case, bigger beers are more challenging to hit your usual numbers. Mash thickness and crush are 2 areas to consider.

Since I missed on the RIS I was thinking of soaking some oak in bourbon and letting the beer sit on that for awhile. Trying to "make lemonade", I guess!

THIS may help, it did for me when going north of 1.060...

Do a split mash. Msh in with half the grain at your temperature. Wait your mashtime and remove the grains. Mash in the other half of the grains and sparge your original in the meantime. After the second mashtime you can sparge that bag. Adds an hour but makes the process much easier and I found that my efficiency increased a lot for big beers this way.

I had the oak and a near empty bottle of Old Lahania dark rum and added this to the primary (soaked oak in rum before adding). Kegged and let sit. I'll be damn!

What started out as Sophie's Imperial Stout ended up as Sophie's (not so Imperial) Rum Stout! I'm enjoying one with a Tatuaje cigar now.

Sophie is one of the dogs. I name beers after my dogs! I've brewed a Bulldog Slobber (anyone who has been around bulldogs will know what I mean!) and will be making a Riley's ESB next week.

Moral of the story is don't give up on a beer if it doesn't turn out as planned, I guess!

petrolSpice said:

Depends on your technique. I squeeze the bag, no sparge. If I squeeze very hard my grain absorption is 0.04-0.06 gal/lb of grain.

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I get the same, usually around 0.06 gal/lb. I squeeze very hard, with most of my 200 lbs pressing down on the pot lid with the bag on a cake rack over a bucket. I rely on this method to get to my pre-boil volume and usually get an extra 1/4-1/3 gallon