First BIAB went... OK. (with pics)

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dooman333

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Completed my first BIAB tonight and thought I might share my experience and ask a few questions. Thanks to guys like "Seven" and their awesome no sparge pulley system, I was able to replicate this style rig. Also I big thanks to "Carrolte" who GAVE me a sheet of swiss viole in the Christmas spirit. I tried to document as much as possible to later correct any errors as there ended up being one, my efficiency. So here we go...

Doo's Pale Ale
Recipe:
8 lbs 2 row pale
5 lbs Munich 10
1 lb Crystal 60

1oz Northern Brewer @60 min
0.5oz Cascade @30 min
0.25oz Columbus @30 min
1oz Centennial @15 min
0.25oz Columbus @15 min
0.5oz Cascade @5 min
0.5oz Columbus @5 min

Results wanted...
70% Efficiency
1.073 OG
1.018 FG
78 IBU
7% ABV
12.4 SRM

Results recieved...
56% Efficiency
1.058 OG
1.015 FG
86.5 IBU
5.7 ABV
12.4 SRM

(obviously FG, IBU, SRM and ABV are estimates as I brewed this today)

I wish it were better but Im not that upset with my low efficiency due to how delicious this wort looked, smelled and tasted compared to my previous extract brews. Here were my steps...

Heat 8 gallons H2O to 175F

DSC04580.jpg


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Everything went very smooth and as expected except for when I pulled the grain bag/basket out after mash out and was going to dump spent grain, there was an additional gush of wort that spilled out (maybe a pint).

Was this the reason for low efficiency? Besides that, I think I did everything else by the book.

So what do you guys think? and what could I do better?

Again, thanks to those mentioned above!
 
Looks like good work to me. I would lift the grain bag while it's in the basket draining and after squishing to see if you can shake loose that elusive leftover wort. Check back in after it's done and let us know if it's a good drink!
 
Next time you do this, open that garage door a crack to let in fresh air/let out any CO produced. We'd prefer you don't die from carbon monoxide poisoning. It would ruin your whole brew day.

Any wort left in that bag of grain will affect your efficiency so squeeze the h*** out of it. Since you have a nylon bag with lots of surface area a stuck sparge will never be in the picture so get your grain crushed/ground pretty fine. That also will increase your efficiency. I've gotten over 80% with a similar setup. For my best efficiency I mashed in a little less water and then "sparged" by pouring cold water through the grain bag to rinse out some wort and cool the grain so I didn't burn my hands while squeezing. That way I squeezed out another quart (estimated) of wort.

Chilling goes faster if your big bucket has a mixture of water and snow. You want the level of the water to be up to where the level of the wort is in the pot and keep adding snow as it melts to keep the water as near the freezing point as you can.
 
Next time you do this, open that garage door a crack to let in fresh air/let out any CO produced. We'd prefer you don't die from carbon monoxide poisoning. It would ruin your whole brew day.

Caught that too... Yeah propane fire in closed spaces is a recipe for CO poisoning...Back to low efficiency... I use a modified BIAB method and dunk sparge too... THere are alot of sugars left in there...also, who crushed your grain? tHe LHBS? or you? or store? Sometimes low efficiency can be due to grain crush...
 
Everything went very smooth and as expected except for when I pulled the grain bag/basket out after mash out and was going to dump spent grain, there was an additional gush of wort that spilled out (maybe a pint).

Was this the reason for low efficiency? Besides that, I think I did everything else by the book.
Wort will continue draining from the grain for up to an hour sometimes. After I lift and squeeze as much as I can from the grain, I set the grain basket in a big plastic tub to collect any remaining wort that may drain later. I'll then add this collected wort back to the boil kettle to get every bit that I can.

Congrats on your first BIAB. It looks like you're off to a great start! :mug:
 
Haha! Give me a little credit guys! The garage door was opened numerous times during this brew and the man door behind me was open the whole time. Thanks for the heads up though. The cooling wort bucket also did have water in it and it was up to the wort level, you just gotta remember thats a 62qt pot and there's only 5 gal of wort in there. The chunks of snow up to the top were for the picture purpose. As for the grain, I think you guys are right, my grain was crushed at my LHBS and I should have asked for a finer crush. My next step is a grain mill! Next time I'll squeeze more. Does starting with less water and sparging a little make a big dif?
 
My post was as much for other new brewers as you and I'm glad you had the door opened. I'm not sure how much difference you get from the smaller start volume/sparge but my last one I did that way got me 85% efficiency. It might have been the grain bill, the crush, the temperature control during the mash....you know, too many variables to be sure. You don't have to spend a fortune on a grain mill. Since you are using a bag with a fine mesh you don't have to depend on having good husks to form a filter in the grain bed so you can use a cheap knock off Corona mill. I haven't even motorized mine but I'm thinking about it. I usually grind the grain while my water is heating to strike temperature. I've always finished the grind before the water was hot but your burner might be faster than mine or you may have a larger grain bill. My grain mill looks like this one. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038NPJVG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Thanks for the mill insight. Another thing I noticed was that most biab recipes I see start with 7.5 gallons h20 and that's for a 5.5 gallon boil. I started with 8 gallons and barely got 5 gallons to boil. That's got to be an indicator that my mash was subpar. I also know that using such a large pot for only 5 gallons to boil accounts for much more boil off. The propane fryer is surprisingly easy to control boil intensity and I had a nice slow rolling boil, so I thought it wouldn't be that big a deal. Maybe it is. So is it safe to say that if I crush finer and squeeze more my issue will be resolved? Heat sparge to 175ish, mash at 154 and mash out at 170 still a decent range? I really tried to get my temps perfect and I think I should have been paying more attention to the " richness" and quantity of my mash. Judging by my numbers, do u think this will still be a tasty brew? I just hope it doesn't turn out like my last AG brew, all hops, no body, cuz that beer was lame.
 
If your thermometer was accurate so you really did mash at 154, I'd drink that beer. I even drink mine that accidently was mashed at 148 due to a thermometer problem but I wish I had checked the thermometer before I mashed.
the fact that you started with 8 gallons and only had 5 going into the boil says that you left a lot of wort in the grain bag. Squeeze it hard. Pretend you are Scrooge McDuck squeezing a penny. Make that grain squeal!

I don't do a mash out, I sparge (just started doing this) with cold water so I can get the bag of grains cool to squeeze. It seems to work fine.
 
Your setup looks allot like mine (although I ordered a Bag online custom made for my kettle). I use Brewing software and always calculate for 8 gallons water in my 10 gallon kettle since I can't hold all the water/grain at one time, then add water later based upon the software. If you use standard mill on the grain you will get low 60s effeciency (the software can help w/that).. just add more base grain to get you to where you need to be. I also do a Mash out to 170 degrees and lightly squeeze the bag; that gives me always 5 more points OG! It really makes a huge difference. One more thing; I notice no wrapping on the Kettle.. I use and old blanket wrapped on/over kettle to hold heat in
 
Good to know. I use Brewmate and it's a great program but doesn't have nearly the info Beersmith does, but hey it's free. Is Beersmith what you use? Also, I would definitely like to get into milling myself but I don't quite understand the fining process. Is there a number or value that biab grain should be set at? How do you know what's too fine or coarse? Does mashing a more concentrated wort and then adding water change the beer? I'm still learning a bit here and don't quite get how you know your efficiency If you top off later. So say I mash a beer and my efficiency is 70% but it's only 4 gallons won't adding another gallon later lower that number?
 
I don't do a mash out, I sparge (just started doing this) with cold water so I can get the bag of grains cool to squeeze. It seems to work fine.

Sparging with cold water? I understand about protecting your hands, but you're leaving a lot behind if you're not rinsing with mash-out temperature water or higher. You need to get those sugars more solvent and liquid to rinse them out. I can't imagine that cold water would do that. That is part of what a raised mash out temp is for.
I've used the wife's silicon cooking gloves to do 'the squeeze'. Probably any type of rubber glove with be useful.
OP, 7.5 gallon strike water is general. You need to calculate strike amount based on boil off and grain absorption.
 
Sparging with cold water? I understand about protecting your hands, but you're leaving a lot behind if you're not rinsing with mash-out temperature water or higher. You need to get those sugars more solvent and liquid to rinse them out. I can't imagine that cold water would do that. That is part of what a raised mash out temp is for.
I've used the wife's silicon cooking gloves to do 'the squeeze'. Probably any type of rubber glove with be useful.
OP, 7.5 gallon strike water is general. You need to calculate strike amount based on boil off and grain absorption.

Dang, is that why my efficiency was only 85%? :D

When you do a traditional mash tun you need the hotter sparge water since you are using only gravity to extract the sweet wort but when you squeeze the bag of grain, you get most of it out regardless of the temperature. I find that lowering the temperature lets me squeeze harder and longer so the grains are pretty dry.:rockin:
 
Dang, is that why my efficiency was only 85%? :D

When you do a traditional mash tun you need the hotter sparge water since you are using only gravity to extract the sweet wort but when you squeeze the bag of grain, you get most of it out regardless of the temperature. I find that lowering the temperature lets me squeeze harder and longer so the grains are pretty dry.:rockin:


Use a couple of pan lids and "press"... no hot wort. And, Mashing out gives me 3-5OG as compared to just pulling/squeezing the bag.
 
Just an other basic error, did you mix your beer in fermentor before taking your sample and was the sample at calibration temp ?
 
I'm happy to see another BIAB brewer. There's a lot of good advise here.

Raising the temp to 170 (by using a good thermo) at the end of mashing and squeezing every last drop helps me to get good efficiency. Also, like mentioned, a good crush and getting your final volume at knock out all plays a part.

Happy brewing...
 
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