First BIAB... Many hiccups.. Advice?

[Javaslinger]

2nd Brew Day in the Books. Went all grain modified BIAB in my 4 gal pot. Pot wasn't quite big enough for full volume so I started with 2.5 gallons with the intention of adding a dunk sparge at Mash Out with another gallon. Was going for a Mexican Mole Sweet Stout by modifying the recipe with the addition of 1lb lactose. Had a few hiccups if anyone would like to comment on them...

http://beerandwinejournal.com/mole-stout-recipe/

1) The acidity of my Mash was a bit low at pH 5.0 rather than 5.2-5.4. I figured it might be due to my low volume so I added about another 1/2 gal in the mash, but it didn't seem to bring up the pH. No idea if this will have much impact. Not sure if there is a way to bring the pH up as most of what I've seen is additions of acid to bring it down.... [I have found out that pH mush be adjusted if taken at mash temps. Seems it will read about 0.3 lower than at RT meaning I may have been spot on!]
2) My koozy for my kettle to maintain the Mash build out of Reflectix was a big bust. It didn't seem to do any better than without so in the end I just bumped the temp periodically throughout the Mash. The result being that instead of a steady 152 I was cycling between 160 and 148 over the course of the 90 min Mash.
3) Gravity after the Mash was much higher than predicted by Beersmith. Final Gravity after boil was 1.10. Quite higher than expected, but I seem to get much more boil off in this kettle than anticipated. I suspect that the addition of lactose is at least partially at fault for bumping the gravity since I didn't reduce the grain bill do compensate.
4) Used Beersmith to calculate water adjustments based on my water report from Ward Labs. My kitchen scale is not good down at the 1-2 gram level... Need to find another way to measure this..
5) Since Russian Imperial Stouts can begin with a OG as high or higher than 1.10, I decided not to dilute the batch to bring the gravity down. Certainly not typical for a milk stout, but perhaps there is such a thing as a Russian Imperial Sweet Stout?? We shall see how the WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast holds up.
6) The first use of my counterflow chiller was a success! Wort went in around 208 and came out the other end at 70. I'm going to need to filter the wort, however, as it clogged with debris toward the end when I begin tipped the kettle.

 

[bradleypariah]

About the koozy:
I don't personally brew all-grain (I'm considering switching soon), but my friend does. He does his mash in an ice chest like this one:

He took the cap off the side and added a screened spigot from the hardware store. Ice chests and picnic coolers are designed specifically to hold a temperature. If you already own one, you're not ruining it by any means. It's still a working ice chest.

About your OG- how much of the WLP004 yeast did you pitch? Most of those White Labs packets are supposed to be doubled up when you're going to be over 1.06 I think (or you could make a starter of it). The suggested pitch amount is on the package.

 

[Draken]

I set my oven to warm and leave my pot in it during mashing. I think you have a small enough pot to make it work. Anyway check temp occasionally and open the door, or turn up the temp a bit as needed. I maintained 154 for 60 min, plus or minus a degree at max.

 

[Soyben]

I second the oven recommendation when I brewed in a 20 qt pot that is what I used. You just want the oven warm, it is such a small space you aren't going to lose much heat at all.

I would probable iron out the kinks in my system before I would worry about water chemistry as long as you water is decent. I brewed for quite a while without treating water. I just used filtered water from the grocery store.

If you really want to treat you water you can google the weight of a teaspoon of your addition and go from there. 1 teaspoon of gypsum weighs about 4 grams, a set of cooking measuring spoons should have 1, 1/2 and 1/4 teaspoons sizes.

I would also recommend when starting out to buy a known recipe and stick to it. That will help iron out the kinks of your system and make your brews more consistent.

 

[bleme]

The smaller your batch, the harder it is to maintain a temperature. That said, I don't think you are going to have any problems with body on a 1.10 OG beer with a whole pound of lactose.

My usual method of maintaining temp is to preheat my oven to 170F, put the kettle in and turn it off. I leave run a temperature probe in the mash, but near the wall of the kettle and if it drops a degree, the alarm goes off and I just turn the oven on for a minute. It takes a little practice because if you are aiming at 152F and you turn the oven off when the probe gets to 152F, you might end up at 155F. Once you get a feel for your oven, you will be able to time the 'on' time down to the second for a given batch size.

 

[jan_b19]

2nd Brew Day in the Books. Went all grain modified BIAB in my 4 gal pot. Pot wasn't quite big enough for full volume so I started with 2.5 gallons with the intention of adding a dunk sparge at Mash Out with another gallon. Was going for a Mexican Mole Sweet Stout by modifying the recipe with the addition of 1lb lactose. Had a few hiccups if anyone would like to comment on them...

http://beerandwinejournal.com/mole-stout-recipe/

1) The acidity of my Mash was a bit low at pH 5.0 rather than 5.2-5.4. I figured it might be due to my low volume so I added about another 1/2 gal in the mash, but it didn't seem to bring up the pH. No idea if this will have much impact. Not sure if there is a way to bring the pH up as most of what I've seen is additions of acid to bring it down.... [I have found out that pH mush be adjusted if taken at mash temps. Seems it will read about 0.3 lower than at RT meaning I may have been spot on!]
2) My koozy for my kettle to maintain the Mash build out of Reflectix was a big bust. It didn't seem to do any better than without so in the end I just bumped the temp periodically throughout the Mash. The result being that instead of a steady 152 I was cycling between 160 and 148 over the course of the 90 min Mash.
3) Gravity after the Mash was much higher than predicted by Beersmith. Final Gravity after boil was 1.10. Quite higher than expected, but I seem to get much more boil off in this kettle than anticipated. I suspect that the addition of lactose is at least partially at fault for bumping the gravity since I didn't reduce the grain bill do compensate.
4) Used Beersmith to calculate water adjustments based on my water report from Ward Labs. My kitchen scale is not good down at the 1-2 gram level... Need to find another way to measure this..
5) Since Russian Imperial Stouts can begin with a OG as high or higher than 1.10, I decided not to dilute the batch to bring the gravity down. Certainly not typical for a milk stout, but perhaps there is such a thing as a Russian Imperial Sweet Stout?? We shall see how the WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast holds up.
6) The first use of my counterflow chiller was a success! Wort went in around 208 and came out the other end at 70. I'm going to need to filter the wort, however, as it clogged with debris toward the end when I begin tipped the kettle.

1 use baking soda or chalk to increase pH adding acids will indeed lower your pH
2 As long as you're sure that the bag is not touching the bottom of your kettle you can heat the mash, keep stirring tho because the temperature at the bottom and the top of the kettle can be totally different.
As long as you're between 148 and 160 you'll still have decent beer (my first beer was a total disaster temperature wise and it was one of the best beers I've made even with bad temperatures). It will be hard to say if you'll have a dry beer or a beer with some body tho.
3. If you feel you have to much boil off lower the heat a bit
4. Buy a letter scale they usually measure accurate up to 0.1 gram and they're pretty cheap.

 

[bleme]

This is the scale I use: http://a.co/dIcCI4R