Finally went all grain

[CxRxExAxM]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for creating such a great community. I have been lurking here for years, and have learned a ton.

Started out stumbling through extracts, and royally messing up some meads. More recently, I have been successful with a couple meads and ciders. Tonight I completed my first all grain BIAB batch and ended reasonably close to my numbers so far.


MO/Amarillo SMaSH

4.25 Gallons RO Water
6# Maris Otter
.25oz Amarillo @ 60min
.75oz Amarillo @ 15min
Whirlfloc
.75oz Amarillo @ 0min
US-05 at 65*
Planning .75oz Amarillo Dry Hop 7 Days

2.75 Gallons into the fermenter
OG: 1.053
IBU: 36.7
Est. ABV: 5.5

If I'm reading Beersmith right i got 65% efficiency. Single milled from LHBS. Seems fair?

Let me know your thoughts. I plan on doing the same brew with simcoe next week. (adjusting hop rates as needed per Beersmith to reach similar IBUs)

Thanks!

 

[RM-MN]

It looks to me like you have this figured out. Once you have done a couple more batches you may decide to try increasing your efficiency. It isn't required but some of us like to get all we can from our grains. The best way to do that is to get your own mill and set it tight so you really crush the grains. If you plan on doing several batches a year and have the storage space, buying your grain in bulk will save you enough money to pay for the mill shortly. You didn't mention if you sparged or not. Sparging with BIAB can be as simple as pouring water over the hanging bag of grain or dunking it slowly into a bucket with some water in it. Sparging will increase the efficiency.

 

[Day-Day]

Congrats on moving to all grain !!! I noticed you used RO water... did you build a profile and add minerals or did you mash with just straight RO water?

 

[mashpaddled]

Congrats on moving to all grain !!! I noticed you used RO water... did you build a profile and add minerals or did you mash with just straight RO water?

This is an important question. RO water by itself lacks the minerals that help out flavor, mash conversion and healthy yeast fermentation. It is fine for extract brewing because all those minerals are in the extract. I don't think jumping into water chemistry is necessary right away for all grain brewing though. If you buy water because your tap water isn't good for brewing then buy drinking water--which is filtered tap water--rather than RO or distilled water.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This is an important question. RO water by itself lacks the minerals that help out flavor, mash conversion and healthy yeast fermentation. It is fine for extract brewing because all those minerals are in the extract. I don't think jumping into water chemistry is necessary right away for all grain brewing though. If you buy water because your tap water isn't good for brewing then buy drinking water--which is filtered tap water--rather than RO or distilled water.

If one is brewing with RO / distilled water, Homebrew: Beyond the Basics (M Karnowski) offers an approach to water profiles that requires a couple of brewing salts and a scale with 0.1 gram accuracy Brewing Better Beer (G Strong) is another good resource for RO / distilled water and brewing salts. As an aside, Brewing Engineering (S Deeds) has a similar approach for adding brewing salts to DME/LME - "season to taste" with a couple of brewing salts and an accurate scale.

+1 to @Dgallo for mentioning "Homebrew: Beyond the Basics" earlier this year.

 

[Kenmoron]

Good work! MO and Amarillo was my favorite SMaSH beer! I ended up getting a really bright tangerine and fresh peach flavor and aroma from it. I brew similar size BIAB batches as well. I don't own my own mill but do a double crush at the grain store and am right around 78% efficiency. If you don't plan on getting your own mill go ahead and do a second pass through the mill and see if that helps with an efficiency bump. As others have said, doing some water chemistry additions would take your beer to the next level. With my setup, most beers call for about 1-3 grams each of gypsum and CaCl2 depending on the profile I'm going for.

 

[CxRxExAxM]

It looks to me like you have this figured out. Once you have done a couple more batches you may decide to try increasing your efficiency. It isn't required but some of us like to get all we can from our grains. The best way to do that is to get your own mill and set it tight so you really crush the grains. If you plan on doing several batches a year and have the storage space, buying your grain in bulk will save you enough money to pay for the mill shortly. You didn't mention if you sparged or not. Sparging with BIAB can be as simple as pouring water over the hanging bag of grain or dunking it slowly into a bucket with some water in it. Sparging will increase the efficiency.

Grain mill and storage are definitely in the future plans. Idk if it would count as a sparge so i didn't include it... i poured about a quart of room temp water over the bag to up the volume slightly. I was attempting no sparge though.

Congrats on moving to all grain !!! I noticed you used RO water... did you build a profile and add minerals or did you mash with just straight RO water?

I did not, but do plan on deep diving into water chemistry. I did not realize until seeing some responses here that straight RO might not be the best idea. Phoenix tap water though can be iffy at best so that's what i had on hand.

If one is brewing with RO / distilled water, Homebrew: Beyond the Basics (M Karnowski) offers an approach to water profiles that requires a couple of brewing salts and a scale with 0.1 gram accuracy Brewing Better Beer (G Strong) is another good resource for RO / distilled water and brewing salts. As an aside, Brewing Engineering (S Deeds) has a similar approach for adding brewing salts to DME/LME - "season to taste" with a couple of brewing salts and an accurate scale.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Good work! MO and Amarillo was my favorite SMaSH beer! I ended up getting a really bright tangerine and fresh peach flavor and aroma from it. I brew similar size BIAB batches as well. I don't own my own mill but do a double crush at the grain store and am right around 78% efficiency. If you don't plan on getting your own mill go ahead and do a second pass through the mill and see if that helps with an efficiency bump. As others have said, doing some water chemistry additions would take your beer to the next level. With my setup, most beers call for about 1-3 grams each of gypsum and CaCl2 depending on the profile I'm going for.

I didnt even think to ask them to put the grain through a second time. Great guys there so i don't see why they wouldn't. Do you use a calculator to figure out water salt additions? The ones i have tinkered with seemed a bit daunting. Probably due to me putting the cart before the horse and not reading into chemistry fully.

 

[Day-Day]

I didnt even think to ask them to put the grain through a second time. Great guys there so i don't see why they wouldn't. Do you use a calculator to figure out water salt additions? The ones i have tinkered with seemed a bit daunting. Probably due to me putting the cart before the horse and not reading into chemistry fully.

I start my water profile in beer smith. I find my target profile online from secondary sources (magazines, forums, etc.) and plug it into beer smith along with my starting profile (distilled or RO), and my recipe. It will spit out mineral additions. I then take those additions and plug them into Bru'n Water (free edition) along with my grain bill, and adjust my ph with acid malt (if I need to lower ph) or baking soda (if I need to raise).

I double check everything across both platforms (BeerSmith and Bru'n Water) to make sure they are close and nothing strange is going on.

I always end up using the Bru'n Water additions, which breaks it down in to separate mash and sparge additions. Beers smith just gives me a good starting point, and I like to store my recipes in there anyways.

It's actually not that hard once you mess with it, there's also some great youtube videos showing you how to utilize both programs the same way I do.

Others probably have better ways... that's just my preferred method.

My beer has improved so much since starting with distilled and building the water profile, it really makes a huge difference.

 

[Immocles]

I bet that your efficiency will increase with a double crush or using your own mill. I had very similar results (on similar batch sizes) with buying crushed grain before I purchased a cheapy corona style mill. That bumped me into the high 70s with regularity. I do, however, do a dunk sparge on most brews as well, mostly for volume reasons.

 

[shetc]

Welcome to BIAB! I do not double crush, have my own mill, yada yada yada but regularly reach efficiency around 84%. I highly recommend the BIABacus at biabrewer.info.

 

[mongoose33]

As far as water: if you have a clear grain bill and amount of water, any of a number of people here could give you advice on how to treat your RO water. In fact, at some level, it makes sense to do that because then you can use the water calculators to figure out why it worked.

Some of it is making sure your mash pH is good, some is making sure the balance of minerals is good, but it's not a ton of things to add.

Maybe some calcium chloride, maybe some epsom salts, possibly a little gypsum, maybe some lactic acid, all of which your LHBS will sell, and none of which is expensive.

 

[Dustin_J]

The first post in this thread provides a very general set of functional recommendations for treating "soft" water, such as RO for various types of beers. It's not nearly as comprehensive as what you'll see elsewhere, but it should help get you in the ballpark.

 

[Kenmoron]

This is probably one of the most simple to use water calculators out there:

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

I usually end up anywhere from right at the predicted pH to 0.2 below. So when using this calculator I anticipate being around 0.1 below what it calculates. If you don't plan on checking pHs it's at least a good start for getting familiar with how much of what to add and how it effects your final profile.

 

[wallyLOZ]

Thanks for the link. Looks like a pretty straight forward calculator. Will use it next brew day. Cheers.