Up until now, I have about a dozen extract batches under my belt. At that point, my wife (who bought me the original kit) officially banned me from the kitchen. It ended up working out pretty well because that allowed me to look into options for brewing outdoors. I figured since I'm going to need a burner, I may as well get a couple extra presents and move up to biab and all grain.
The key items I added were:
- Bayou Classic SQ14 Single Burner
- Bayou Classic 4042 42-Quart All-Purpose Aluminum Stockpot with Steam and Boil Basket
- Homemade 40' immersion wort chiller
- Cheap pulley system
I printed a lot from Seven's BIAB Brewing thread. My recipe was a take off of NCBeernut's Deception Cream stout.
7 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.5 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Lactose (Boil 10 min)
0.75 oz Yakima Magnum [13.40 %] (60 min) - 27.0 IBU
After getting all cleaning/sanitizing done, I started by adding 7.5 gallons of water to the brew pot. Brought it up to ~162 and added my grains. I expected a bigger drop once the grains were added, but it only went to about 158. I was concerned (should I be????), so left the pot open for a while to help bring the temp down and added a bit of room temp water. Dropped relatively quickly to 152 (my target) and covered it up. About 10 minutes in, I checked and it had already dropped to just below 150..... concern #2... At this point I turned the burner on real low to stop the drop and try to bring it back up a couple of degrees. That worked for a bit, but it seemed like it suddenly jumped from 152 back to 158.. Long story short, I got through the 60 minute mash, but definately need to work on getting a more steady temp. From there, I took it to 170 to mash out and let rest for 10 minutes before draining the grain. Any concerns I should have? My pre-boil gravity was 1044. I think that means about 75% efficiancy, but still need to check.
From there I went on to boil which was basically the same process I had used previously for extract. No surprises there. Used the wort chiller and it worked great (kids enjoyed the science lesson). Transferring 5 gallons versus 3 for partial boils to the fermentor did take a bit more caution. I may want to add a spigot to my tank to make that easier (any issue adding spigot to an alumunum pot???)
All in all, I think it went pretty well. Definately a couple areas I'll be more prepared for next time. Also may need to cut back on the Stone and 60 Minute IPA that were accompanying the brewday....
Thanks to Seven for the great BIAB thread and NCB for the recipe. Smelled great, now let's just hope it turns out.
The key items I added were:
- Bayou Classic SQ14 Single Burner
- Bayou Classic 4042 42-Quart All-Purpose Aluminum Stockpot with Steam and Boil Basket
- Homemade 40' immersion wort chiller
- Cheap pulley system
I printed a lot from Seven's BIAB Brewing thread. My recipe was a take off of NCBeernut's Deception Cream stout.
7 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.5 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Lactose (Boil 10 min)
0.75 oz Yakima Magnum [13.40 %] (60 min) - 27.0 IBU
After getting all cleaning/sanitizing done, I started by adding 7.5 gallons of water to the brew pot. Brought it up to ~162 and added my grains. I expected a bigger drop once the grains were added, but it only went to about 158. I was concerned (should I be????), so left the pot open for a while to help bring the temp down and added a bit of room temp water. Dropped relatively quickly to 152 (my target) and covered it up. About 10 minutes in, I checked and it had already dropped to just below 150..... concern #2... At this point I turned the burner on real low to stop the drop and try to bring it back up a couple of degrees. That worked for a bit, but it seemed like it suddenly jumped from 152 back to 158.. Long story short, I got through the 60 minute mash, but definately need to work on getting a more steady temp. From there, I took it to 170 to mash out and let rest for 10 minutes before draining the grain. Any concerns I should have? My pre-boil gravity was 1044. I think that means about 75% efficiancy, but still need to check.
From there I went on to boil which was basically the same process I had used previously for extract. No surprises there. Used the wort chiller and it worked great (kids enjoyed the science lesson). Transferring 5 gallons versus 3 for partial boils to the fermentor did take a bit more caution. I may want to add a spigot to my tank to make that easier (any issue adding spigot to an alumunum pot???)
All in all, I think it went pretty well. Definately a couple areas I'll be more prepared for next time. Also may need to cut back on the Stone and 60 Minute IPA that were accompanying the brewday....
Thanks to Seven for the great BIAB thread and NCB for the recipe. Smelled great, now let's just hope it turns out.