First BIAB - not so good

I brewed my first all grain BIAB this weekend and I apparently started with too much water.

I started with 8.3 gallons of water which is what the calculator told me to start with.

I ended up with about 6.5 gallons and the gravity was 1.03 the gravity was suppose to be 1.054 so I basically made brown water.

I went ahead and put it into the fermentor. I don’t know how my mash went or how to check efficiency?? I mashed at 153 degrees for 90 minutes. Kept the temp pretty close to 153 for the entire time which was difficult as hell.

I am using a keggle that I made and it took forever to get the temperature to rise on the turkey fryer? So I guess my questions are:

Why did I end up with so much at the end??

How do you check efficiency to know if your mash went well??

Can I use extract at the end of the boil if my gravity reading is really low??

Thanks,

What was the recipe?

cbsdaddy said:

I brewed my first all grain BIAB this weekend and I apparently started with too much water.

I started with 8.3 gallons of water which is what the calculator told me to start with.

I ended up with about 6.5 gallons and the gravity was 1.03 the gravity was suppose to be 1.054 so I basically made brown water.

I went ahead and put it into the fermentor. I don’t know how my mash went or how to check efficiency?? I mashed at 153 degrees for 90 minutes. Kept the temp pretty close to 153 for the entire time which was difficult as hell.

I am using a keggle that I made and it took forever to get the temperature to rise on the turkey fryer? So I guess my questions are:

Why did I end up with so much at the end??

How do you check efficiency to know if your mash went well??

Can I use extract at the end of the boil if my gravity reading is really low??

Thanks,

Click to expand...

What calculator said 8.3g?

Brewhouse efficiency calculator

yes

how many pounds of grain did you use?

One thing to keep in mind when doing BIAB is that if you squeeze the bag after the mash/sparge, you arent going to be losing as much water to grain absorption as you typically would in a regular cooler mash. So a lot of the water calculators will overestimate the amount of water you need.

Here is the recipe:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 10-13
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 3-4 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days at 68 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): None

3rd Place winner of the 2007 Alamo Cerveza Fest

Bavarian Hefeweizen 5.5 Gallon

7# German Wheat
4# German Pils
.5# Rice Hulls (if needed to prevent stuck mash)

Mash for 90 minutes at 153 degrees.

.75 Hallertau @ 45
.25 Hallertau @ 15

Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 with starter.

Ferment 10 days at 68 degrees then crash cool & keg.

O.G. 1.052
F.G. 1.009

5.6% abv


thanks.

thats 11 pounds if you didnt use the rice hulls ... i am assuming you didnt for biab ... you probably didnt lose as much to absorbtion as the calculator was thinking you would and your boil off rate was lower than the calculator thought. Maybe make sure of the setting on the calculator next time ... and now you know your boil off rate so thats good ...


the kind of off thing too was your efficiency ... you now have 6.5 gallons at 1.030 (if means zero) ... that would equate to 5.5 gallons at 1.035-ish ... still way off from the target of 1.052.

a couple things about biab ... you can crush the bajeezus out of the grain and you can squeeze the bajeezus out of the bag ... if you are having the grain crushed for you ask for a double crush

you will still have some beer this time it will just be a low abv one ... might taste fantasic though ... you can always blend it with a stronger beer of the same style when its time to drink it if you don't care for it after its all done ... good luck !!

thanks. my good thermometer also broke so i was using 2 ****ty ones and my temp was iffy.

i think at one point the temp got above 170 so does that stop the process??

i purchased a new thermometer and have a better understanding of my keggle so next time should be better.

yes get a good thermometer and check it with a cup of crushed ice water ... after a few minutes in that water it sould be right at 32* ...if not, make the proper adjustments ... and I believe you are right that conversion can really slow or stop at higher temps ...maybe that was some of it, but do crush very fine and do squeeze the bag quite a bit.

next time you will know so much more ... this place is awesome for info so stick around here for sure ... cheers !! ... and report back on the beer here if you don't mind.

Once the temp goes above about 168 it denatures some of the enzymes and prevents further conversion. If you did that early in the mash, that probably explains the problem.

8.3 gallons sounds like too much water for a 5.5 gallon batch. My first thought would be that something is wrong with the recipe. Either too much water, or perhaps it was intended to be a 90 minute boil instead of a 60 minute boil. That extra boil off would bring your gravity closer to the target.

BryceL said:

8.3 gallons sounds like too much water for a 5.5 gallon batch. My first thought would be that something is wrong with the recipe. Either too much water, or perhaps it was intended to be a 90 minute boil instead of a 60 minute boil. That extra boil off would bring your gravity closer to the target.

Click to expand...

8.3 gal is not too much for biab. I always start with about 8-8.5 gal for 5.5 gal batch regardless of grain bill and sparge at the end with additional 1-2 gal of water to get to desired pre-boil volume. Its all depends on individual set up, and boil off rate, but 8 gal seems really reasonable.

cadarnell said:

yes get a good thermometer and check it with a cup of crushed ice water ... after a few minutes in that water it sould be right at 32* ...if not, make the proper adjustments ... and I believe you are right that conversion can really slow or stop at higher temps ...maybe that was some of it, but do crush very fine and do squeeze the bag quite a bit.

next time you will know so much more ... this place is awesome for info so stick around here for sure ... cheers !! ... and report back on the beer here if you don't mind.

Click to expand...

You actually need to check it at freezing and boiling to check accuracy and adjust for errors.

cbsdaddy said:

thanks. my good thermometer also broke so i was using 2 ****ty ones and my temp was iffy.

i think at one point the temp got above 170 so does that stop the process??

i purchased a new thermometer and have a better understanding of my keggle so next time should be better.

Click to expand...

How the heck did you get above 170? Were you direct heating with the grain bag in the pot?
start with the water at strike temperature ( mine is around 164) put the grain bag in and stirr the living crap outta it. The mash temp should stabilize around 152-154.
Crush fine, & stir a bunch

i did fire the pot back up.

i had a really nice digital wireless thermometer and it literally just stop working during the mash.

Then i tried 2 other crappy thermometers and they all said i was 140?? so i fired it up and found another thermometer that actually worked and at that point i was really hot.

long story short i have now purchased a new thermometer. plus i was drunk after an easter party so i was not on my A game. Not a good idea on the first BIAB AG:fro:

Every time I do BIAB, which is my standard method, I start with about 7.1 gallons. The issue is how much water the grain absorbs, which is less with brew in a bag than with traditional all grain. I think I have my grain absorption set to 0.05 or something in the calculator I use.

I usually end up with 5.25-5.5 gallons.

MrMcPeach said:

Every time I do BIAB, which is my standard method, I start with about 7.1 gallons. The issue is how much water the grain absorbs, which is less with brew in a bag than with traditional all grain. I think I have my grain absorption set to 0.05 or something in the calculator I use.

I usually end up with 5.25-5.5 gallons.

Click to expand...

.05 gallon?

MrMcPeach said:

Every time I do BIAB, which is my standard method, I start with about 7.1 gallons. The issue is how much water the grain absorbs, which is less with brew in a bag than with traditional all grain. I think I have my grain absorption set to 0.05 or something in the calculator I use.

I usually end up with 5.25-5.5 gallons.

Click to expand...

Can I ask what calculator you use?