BIAB getting better with each batch

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dilbone

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
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Location
Bowling Green, Ohio
1st-didn't turn out so well, low efficiency(63%), too many unfermentables, too sweet, only 3.2% abv(hoffbrau dunkel clone)
2nd-much better, double milled grain at LHBS, 73% Eff, hit temps, great flavor...really nice beer(amber ale)
3rd-used my own mill(corona style), 78% eff, hit temps, perfect body and flavor(hoffbrau dunkel clone again and it was spot on)
4th-tightened up mill a smidge for better crush as there were still some uncrushed grains in the 3rd batch, 84% eff, hit temps right on, looked and smelled great(fermenting now, another amber ale)

I am defintely getting my process down and I did this batch solo without my brewing buddy just to make sure it could be done without too much trouble.

Here's a brief description of the process:
4 gal mash in a 30qt ss pot, 165 strike
mashed for 90min...started at 154, dropped to 149 through 90min.
pulled bag and squeezed
sparged with bag in 9qt in a second pot at 154 for 20minutes
pulled bag and squeezed, added 2nd runnings to 1st
poured 1/2 gallon of 160degree water through grain and squeezed the life out of the bag...ended up with around 6gal in the pot for the boil

I know there are folks with much better process, but with the equipment I have this works about as good as I could hope for...I'm not sure who I first saw BIAB from on this forum last year, but whoever it was thanks for sharing your ideas and process...this is such a great place.
 
Glad to hear the improvement! I started BIAB 10 weeks ago and I've done 6 batches so far with about the same progress. First batch was a black ipa that only got ~60% efficiency. Since then I've had the LHBS double crush and i added a sparge step. I've been consistently hitting 75-80%.

Live long and brew strong.
 
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