Brew Day Started!

What I'm hoping will be my first successful AG/BIAB has started! Waiting for the water to climb to mash temps right now. Big day for me, first time brewing with my new blichmann, new chiller, grain bag from CustomBIAB, and first brew in my new home! Let you guys know how it went and add pics later!

Congrats and good luck..

From 60*F to mash temps in 28 minutes. Forgot to start timing my mash, only about 10 minutes. So I'll mash for an extra 15 to be sure. Having trouble holding temps. It will drop to 150* and I light the burner and bob the bag up and down to "stir", let it climb to 154* and shut it off again.

best of luck brah

Good luck! Don't freak out if it doesn't go as planned. Sounds like you have a lot of new variables to contend with.

How do you like the Blichmann? And what did you upgrade from?

I upgraded from a 32 quart turkey fryer, though I only made one AG attempt with that setup.. I LOVE the blichmann. People say there are better pots out there price wise, maybe so. If I was planning a 3 vessel setup I wouldn't hesitate to buy 3 blichmanns.

Don't worry about the mash fluctuating. Just make sure it doesn't go too high or low. Are you on a stove top? Try keeping the burner on low and move the pot off the burner some until it seems to hold constant temp.

Either way as long as you don't climb into the 160's you shouldn't denature any enzymes.

tre9er said:

Don't worry about the mash fluctuating. Just make sure it doesn't go too high or low. Are you on a stove top? Try keeping the burner on low and move the pot off the burner some until it seems to hold constant temp.

Either way as long as you don't climb into the 160's you shouldn't denature any enzymes.

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Thanks! I'm on a propane turkey fryer, temps didn't drop below 150* or above 155*. Mash went smooth, just added my 60 minute hop addition!

Done! Everything went smooth! I ended it with 5.5 gallons into the fermenter just like I aimed for. Chiller worked great. Ended up with an OG of 1.054, an efficiency of 78%. I'd call that a success!

I used a vial of California ale yeast, no starter. Only hiccup of the whole process was the vial kinda popped in my hand as i opened it and yeast spilled out (into fermenter). Overall fun day, setup to clean up 4.5hrs.

BTW anyone looking for a good voille bag for BIAB, get ahold of CustomBIAB. Awesome bag. There hand sewn to fit ANY pot, with drawstring and nylon webbing w/ 4 handles. Company name embroidered into the webbing. For ~$30 shipped, probably my best brewing purchase. Can't say enough good things about it!

Excellent. Sounds like a roaring success. You have made beer.

Couple of pics from today, should have taken more I guess lol

Well guys signs of fermentation are winding down. Airlock bubbles every 12-15 seconds and krausen is going back down. This started at 1.054, should I rack to secondary? I've never taken gravity readings to check fermentation, should I check it? I don't have a wine thief or turkey baster, should I leave it for few days?

Antler said:

Well guys signs of fermentation are winding down. Airlock bubbles every 12-15 seconds and krausen is going back down. This started at 1.054, should I rack to secondary? I've never taken gravity readings to check fermentation, should I check it? I don't have a wine thief or turkey baster, should I leave it for few days?

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leave it for a few weeks.

A few weeks? I don't usually bother with taking numbers, just primary for 10-12 days and secondary for 24-25 days. I leave for work again on the 22 so I'll probably just leave it to primary until the 21st, and it'll be in secondary from then until the 14th of June.

Any other opinions?

A long primary's all you need, in my humble opinion. If I'm using a metric assload of dry hops or planning on re-using the yeast, I may rack it off the yeast but not typically. Absolutely nothing wrong with skipping the secondary- you can go months on the cake and not have any problems, contrary to popular belief. Since it sounds like you may have underpitched a bit, give it three weeks on the cake and taste it. Secondary is more up to personal preference.

When I use O2, pitch the right number of cells, and keep my fermentation temps in line, I can turn around a medium gravity beer in less than 2 weeks grain to glass (kegging). You should get in the habit of doing all those things- remember that the beer can be as much as 10F over ambient temperatures so you need some sort of temperature control. Once you've got that down, are aerating your wort and pitching the correct number of healthy yeast cells, you're well on your way to making fantastic beer.

My only other opinion is that you should make taking the appropriate measurements and recording them a regular part of brewing, like mashing or sparging. Without those, it's impossible to recreate beers you like or diagnose a problem if one should come up. It will also allow you to turn your beer around faster rather than guessing when things are done.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of stuff right- glad you like the BIAB brew day as much as I do!

I just racked to secondary. Hydrometer reading showed a FG of 1.010 so fermentation is complete. I'll leave it in secondary for 3 weeks now to let it clear before bottling.

daksin said:

My only other opinion is that you should make taking the appropriate measurements and recording them a regular part of brewing, like mashing or sparging. Without those, it's impossible to recreate beers you like or diagnose a problem if one should come up. It will also allow you to turn your beer around faster rather than guessing when things are done.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of stuff right- glad you like the BIAB brew day as much as I do!

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What other appropriate measurements should I be taking?

Recipe: Irish Honey Red

8lbs Briess 2 Row
1lb Weyermann Cararoma
.8lbs Weyermann Carafoam
.8lbs Weyermann Melanoidin

1oz Cascade @ 60 mins
1oz Cascade @ 30 mins
1lb Pure Honey @ flame-out

WhiteLabs 0001 California Ale



I drank the hydrometer sample when a racked. It was great. I think my best homebrew yet. The honey doesn't show itself as much as I expected, but my palate is nowhere near refined, might add an extra 1/2 lb next time. Can't wait to try this when it's carbed up!

Try a honey malt next time rather than pure honey. While some honey carries a slight floral flavor with it, most of it ferments out into pure alcohol. Honey malt I've had good luck with sweetness and maltiness.

I'll see if I can find some. It's hard to find brewing ingredients here. There's only one store that sells grain within a 4-5 hr drive.

I had to post an update. I've filtered carbonated and bottled this batch, and tried a 6 pack or so over the last few days. It's an awesome brew! It's still a bit green, the hop flavor is just a little strong, but my palate is nowhere near refined, and I'm sure it's going to mellow out some more. I love the way the honey comes through.

All in all it's a great beer, for anyone who enjoys a good Irish Red Ale this is a beer you have to try. Big thanks to MysticMead for sharing his recipe!

Very nice to hear. I noticed you only pitched a vial of yeast without a starter. Sounds like the brew is ok and your OG wasn't too high to begin with, but in the future I would recommend a starter...I'd hate to put all that effort into AG brewing and then not pitch enough yeast and get a stuck fermentation or off flavors or anything else undesirable.

Also regarding the hop flavor, an oz of Cascade at 60 min and then another at 30 min is definitely going to give you some strong hoppiness. It will probably mellow out somewhat, but will stay a bit bitter.

Anyways, just my opinions.

I noticed you said you filtered, are you talking about the yeast? If so, I'm curious to how you did that?

Cheers!

periwinkle1239 said:

Very nice to hear. I noticed you only pitched a vial of yeast without a starter. Sounds like the brew is ok and your OG wasn't too high to begin with, but in the future I would recommend a starter...I'd hate to put all that effort into AG brewing and then not pitch enough yeast and get a stuck fermentation or off flavors or anything else undesirable.

Also regarding the hop flavor, an oz of Cascade at 60 min and then another at 30 min is definitely going to give you some strong hoppiness. It will probably mellow out somewhat, but will stay a bit bitter.

Anyways, just my opinions.

I noticed you said you filtered, are you talking about the yeast? If so, I'm curious to how you did that?

Cheers!

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I'll be making starters from now on.

I filtered using a water filter setup, lots of people on here use the same setup. It's the style that sits between two legs. Push the beer from keg 1 throught the filter into keg 2.

If you can't find good grains locally, hit up northernbrewer.com good stuff and the shipping is cheap.

Ok, so I'm brewing this beer again in a few weeks. This time around I'd like a little less of the bitterness that the hops leave behind. Should I change the times of my hop additions, or add my hop additions as per the recipe and but cut the quantities in half?

Antler said:

Ok, so I'm brewing this beer again in a few weeks. This time around I'd like a little less of the bitterness that the hops leave behind. Should I change the times of my hop additions, or add my hop additions as per the recipe and but cut the quantities in half?

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Cut down the first hop addition. Cut it by, say, 25%

Really? The beer is pretty bitter for my taste, will 25% cut back the finished product that much?

Antler said:

Really? The beer is pretty bitter for my taste, will 25% cut back the finished product that much?

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Its a start. 50% is fine, just saying I have a beer currently that resembles bud, as it's without enough bittering

tre9er said:

Its a start. 50% is fine, just saying I have a beer currently that resembles bud, as it's without enough bittering

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Ya I think I'll cut it by 50%, see what happens. This is a beer I plan to make a lot of, have a steady supply of so I expect it will take some experimenting to get it right where I want it.

I'm also thinking about adding a little chocolate malt in there with the grains, but I might just hold off until next time. One change at a time I can easily reverse the changes if I don't like the outcome.

More malt will offset bittering. Mashing higher can also help

tre9er said:

More malt will offset bittering. Mashing higher can also help

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Thanks! The last time I brewed this it was my first AG so I was just getting my equipment dialed in and my mash fluctuated from 148-158. I brewed a hobgoblin clone a few weeks ago and held temps much better, I'm sure I can keep it 155-158 now.

I just thought of something. The last time I brewed this recipe I dumped all the hop matter and trub right into the fermenter. Primary for 2 weeks. Could this have caused the beer to have a much stronger hop favour/bitterness?

Antler said:

I just thought of something. The last time I brewed this recipe I dumped all the hop matter and trub right into the fermenter. Primary for 2 weeks. Could this have caused the beer to have a much stronger hop favour/bitterness?

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Yep. I prefer this with IPA, but not ALL of the hop matter. But I let some find it's way into the fermenter

Well that could have been a lot of the problem. I'll be using a hop spider now, maybe I'll go by the recipe again and see how it is.

Well I have to update this. When this was bottled I was thinkin the Bitterness I was getting off this red ale could have been a number of things. The hop trub dumped right into the fermenter was one. This is the first batch at my new house, and the town uses a lot of water treatment products, and last but not least I think it could have been my sanitizer.
A second batch (hobgoblin) clone showed the same bitterness.
Flash forward to today, I've tried another bottle and it's great. The bitterness is almost gone! I've brewed an octoberfest a week ago using bottled water, a different (starsan) sanitizer so I'm anxious to see how this turns out!