First Brew Boss brew

[Borneogoat]

Next week I'm going to whip up my first beer with a 15gal Brew Boss with COFI. Not only is this my first with a BB system, it's my first home brew in 17yrs. Yes, I probably should have got a simpler system as a Born Again Brewer, but in my other hobbies I suffer from a severe case of Upgraditis and wanted to avoid that here.

I'm intending on brewing a Maris Otter & Cascade SMaSH (recipe below). At least I kept that simple! First question: anyone see anything wrong with the basic recipe? Just aiming for a pale ale'ish tipple with simple flavors.

Second question relates to calculating water volumes using Beersmith for a 15gal BB. Aiming for 5.5gal in the fermenter. BS calculates 7.76gal for the boil size and that is what assume I add to the BB a mash start. It appears that takes into account about a 1gal for trub loss and 1gal boil-off which sound reasonable from what I remember & recently read. However, I believe 11# grain absorbs about 1.3gal water. 7.76 initial - 1 trub -1 boil -1.3 grain = 4.46gal in the fermenter. What am I doing wrong here?

BS also mentions 3.72gal for sparging, but I don't believe I need to worry about that with a BB + COFI system.


Maris Otter & Cascade SMaSH
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 16 Oct 2015
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.76 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew-Boss 15 Gallon Kettle 5 Gallon Batch
End of Boil Volume 6.76 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal Est Mash Efficiency 87.5 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0

Ingredients

Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU
11 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 100.0 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 2 16.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 3 10.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 4 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 3.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 6 -


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 29.7 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 4.5 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
Sparge Water: 3.72 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 13.75 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 7.70 qt of water at 206.8 F 170.0 F 10 min


Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 3.72 gal water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 5.44 oz Carbonation Used: Bottle with 5.44 oz Dry Malt Extract
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes


Created with BeerSmith

 

[MerlinWerks]

From the looks of it you need to change/tweak your equipment profile in BS. It shouldn't be calling for a sparge volume with BIAB.

There are some generic BIAB profiles already there or if you click on the add-ons button you should be able to download a selection of Brew-Boss profiles that should get you closer. However those profiles have you leaving about a gallon in the kettle after racking to your fermenter, which would be true if you don't tip the kettle, I do and leave very little behind, so my "loss to trub and chiller" is only .25 gal

As far as your question about volume, the boil size would be what is left after the mash and pulling /draining the bag. So boil size + grain absorbtion = initial strike volume.

 

[Borneogoat]

Merlin, thanks for clearing that up (strike vs boil volumes). So, I should add about 1.3gal for the mash to account for grain absorption. 7.76gal boil + 1.3gal absorb = approx 9gal strike.

One more gentle nudge for me: 7.76gal - 1gal trub - 1gal boil = 5.76gal. I suspect that I'll probably have less than 1gal trub, but I'll leave that conservative for now. What do you think BS is calculating that last 0.26gal (5.76-5.5=0.26gal)?

Regarding the BS equipment profile, I previously found and applied the BB 15gal kettle for 5gal batch profile to this recipe. I realize everybody's system is a bit different, but I should be in the ballpark. When I setup the recipe in BS, I avoided touching anything I didn't understand and left at default. I've attached some captures of the setup, maybe you or somebody can see something obvious...

 

[Borneogoat]

Found the "volumes" tab and answered my own question about the extra 0.26gal. Cooling shrinkage. Kinda like jumping in a cold lake I suppose!

I admit to not understanding what some of the data on the vol tab is though: tot mash water, water avail from mash, and the spare vol.

But I think the end answer is: when I start the mash use 9.08 gal, ignore sparge calculations, and I should end up with about 5.5gal in the fermenter...

 

[Bobby_M]

On the mash tab, set the profile to Biab. The absorption loss is too high on other profiles.

9 gallons to start is too much. You may lose 1 gallon to the grain. It would be more like .75 with a bag but the COFI doesn't squeeze as much. So, boil off is about 1.5 gallons. That's now just under 6.5g post boil.

Start with 8.25 and see.

 

[MerlinWerks]

I agree 9 gal seems a little high for the initial strike as well as your absorption is too high.

I set my loss to trub/chiller to .25 gal and loss to fermenter to .5 gal. As mentioned I tip the kettle and almost everything goes in the fermenter.

Double check your BB controller parameters to ensure you have the 5 gal profile loaded in, I believe it comes with the 10 gal as default. Not a big deal, just changes the mash temp parameters a bit, they are a little more aggressive for the 10 gal due to the larger vol/mass.

With the default PwrB (boil power) setting of 50% you will probably come very close to 1 gal/hr boil off, it is a very tame boil. I have mine set to 55% and come close to 1.25 gal/hr. These will vary a bit depending on your ambient temp/humidity.

Since this is your first brew in a while you may want to consider adjusting your brewhouse efficiency down a bit to 70% or even 67% until you dial in your system.

Here are a couple of links that I found helpful when setting up BS:

Link 1
Link 2

And another that will eventually be useful:

Link 3

 

[Borneogoat]

Thank you for the well explained answers. So if I put together everybody's suggestions, I get:

5.5gal (target fermenter vol) + 1.25gal (strong 1hr boil) + 1gal (grain absorb) + 0.25gal (trub) + 0.5gal (fermenter loss) = 8.5gal strike.

If I have a little extra, that's ok. The chances are high of me spilling a bit somewhere on my first try with a new system.

I will also do my best to measure & log volumes where ever possible to make things easier next time.

Next battle: discovered I don't have easy ability to set up an overhead hoist for the COFI/grain drain. Drilling the beams is out for a while and the overhead is tight. Building a scary-looking frame out of pipe to hang the COFI from. Unless anyone's got a better idea....

 

[MerlinWerks]

FWIW, based on yesterday's brew session 52%- 53% on your boil power will be about 1.25 gal/hr.

By "tight overhead" did you mean physical or monetary? If the latter, just google "ladder biab" for some ideas...

 

[SeeMont]

Good Luck on your first brew with the BB. It gets easier. Good Luck.

 

[Borneogoat]

FWIW, based on yesterday's brew session 52%- 53% on your boil power will be about 1.25 gal/hr.

By "tight overhead" did you mean physical or monetary? If the latter, just google "ladder biab" for some ideas...

I'll use the 55% power as a starting point. I have the slightly lower power heater that is provided with the international version. I'll tweak as I go.

Tight overhead is literally a sloping ceiling over my brew bench. The internal ceiling follows the gabled roof's shape. But I think I've found a creative & nearly free solution to the problem. Pictures will follow, if it works out....