Looking for BIAB Tips

[oljimmy]

FWIW, I've had no problems using my hydrometer on 140F wort. Not sure why, since so many seem to report bad readings, but when I plug my results into the Brewer's Friend temperature adjustment calculator, the hydrometer agrees with the refractometer reading taken at 80 F (I've calibrated the two).

And I don't think anyone should worry about 140F being too hot for a hydrometer, since that's the temperature you're using when you rinse/wash it with hot water from your faucet. Mine certainly isn't *that* fragile, and if you were really worried about the glass breaking, you could have the hydrometer sitting in mostly-hot water beforehand.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I probably would have just lengthened the boil to end up with three gallons. 4.25 gallons of 1.042 wort boiled down to 3 gallons yields 1.060 wort...much closer to your goal OG. All grain is not necessarily lighter than any extract counterpart except that attenuation is sometimes better with all grain. You can add sugar/DME to your primary to raise the gravity if you like. I like your dry hop experiment idea. Do it!

I would like to parrot this, lengthen the boil if it looks like you are through the roof on target volumes. I generally tailor my boil length to my target batch size instead of trying to play with my strike/sparge volumes. Generally with high OG beers I am going to sparge a little more on my system to hit the 73-75% and most higher OG beers a longer boil doesn't hurt the beer.

 

[eadavis80]

Okay - thanks. I guess the first time through I was just set on boiling for an hour, but now I know I can just boil longer to end at X volume - duh... why I didn't think of that, I don't know. But, between doing that and/or starting with less water, I'm sure my next BIAB will come out closer to what I target - experiment and learn is the name of the game

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I would recommend doing two boils with plain water for an hour, and measure the heights of it at start and finish. The difference of these two (divided by 1.044 if you measured when it was boiling, to compensate for thermal expansion) will be the boil off rate. If you end up ABOVE your pre boil volume after the mash, then boil for a bit until you're there.

Otherwise, boil a bit longer if before you add any non 60 minute hop additions if you want to keep the same hop profile.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would recommend doing two boils with plain water for an hour.....

This is great advice if you want to be very exact, however I would prefer spending 3 hours and 5 lbs of propane making beer....just a matter of personal preference and how precise you want to be....unlike Priceless, I tend to be precise less.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

This is great advice if you want to be very exact, however I would prefer spending 3 hours and 5 lbs of propane making beer....just a matter of personal preference and how precise you want to be....unlike Priceless, I tend to be precise less.

I hope you don't use that much propane! Totally legit though, take a guess based on this brew, and take careful notes next time for your pre boil and post boil volumes. After a couple brews you'll get it nailed down well.

 

[eadavis80]

Since I got over 4 gallons of wort (even if it was lower OG than I anticipated) with the ingredients (7.625 pounds of grain) from NB's Dead Ringer BIAB kit, I was curious if I could do a regular all-grain 5 gallon kit (10-11 pounds of grain) in my setup (an 8-gallon Tall Boy). I wasn't close to boiling over last weekend when I brewed the Dead Ringer batch, so I'm curious if it's crazy to think I can get close to OG with a 5-gallon all-grain kit in an 8-gallon Tall Boy kettle? I could top off if need be.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Since I got over 4 gallons of wort (even if it was lower OG than I anticipated) with the ingredients (7.625 pounds of grain) from NB's Dead Ringer BIAB kit, I was curious if I could do a regular all-grain 5 gallon kit (10-11 pounds of grain) in my setup (an 8-gallon Tall Boy). I wasn't close to boiling over last weekend when I brewed the Dead Ringer batch, so I'm curious if it's crazy to think I can get close to OG with a 5-gallon all-grain kit in an 8-gallon Tall Boy kettle? I could top off if need be.

You should be able to pull that off just fine without having to do top off. I do 10-11lbs of grain in 5 gallon batches in my 6.5 gallon kettle all the time (its 95% of my batches are between 10-11lbs of grain in a 5 gallon batch). I have to do a sparge like a regular all-grain system to get my efficiency and volumes right, but you shouldn't have to do either if you have an 8 gallon kettle.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

How can you know if your better than a Chimp? :fro:
Have you ever seen those guys brew?
They can use their feet and their hands at the same time, and let me tell you, they are fast! I saw a chimp brew 3 straight BIAB batches in 2 hours.
Hands and feet darting this way and that, they were a blur.

He made:
Banana Blonde Ale
Banana Stout
Banana Double IPA





(PS - I too googled knot tying - Millers Knot)

Lol.