Prospective new BIABer Questions

[Baabaadoo]

My story:
Hello,

I've inherited the equipment needed for BIAB for nothin. I'm a beer drinker, but I have started recently completely new home-brewer off the bat brewing mead. I got Ed's apfelwein goin too. I have extract brewing friends and I know of the ease of extract brewing. I don't want to do extract brewing. Having a biochemistry background and being a capable guy, I'd like to jump straight to BIAB all grain. I just have some questions about some concerns/ideas buzzing around in my head. I'm looking for a simple method that is mostly efficient and not overly time consuming.

Chilling:
I didn't inherit a chiller. I know I could DIY rig one easily, but I was thinking of going for no chill method brewing, let it chill for 24 hrs and use a quart or so of wort for a RWS in the mean time. Thoughts?

Water/gravity concerns:
Do you need to start with boiling all the water you plan on using through the entire fermentation process? For example, if I want a typical 5gal volume, I need to start with ~6.5-7gal to compensate for loss? I'm tempted to sparge about 1gal above my brew kettle using an extendable sink colander. What is the most efficient way to compensate for that volume? Is that a good idea or should I just focus on getting a effective no-sparge method down first?

Recipe questions/recommendations:
I'm all for starting simple regarding recipes. I'll be focused enough getting all the technique down, but I'd like something lower IBU's, but poppular. I'm not a hop head so I'm considering doing Beirmuncher's cream ale or Ed's Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen. The hefeweizen says to ferment for 10 days, cold crash, and keg. I'm a bottler and I don't really cold crash. What's a bottler's way through that predicament (to avoid bottle bombs). Is that a concern?


Thank you for your comments and ideas.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I think you are on the right track and know what you want. Yes, you should start with more wort at the beginning of the boil so that you will have a little over 5 gallons at the end. It makes sense to get a brew kettle around twice the volume of what you want to finish with. If you have a pot that size you can do no sparge or sparge if you find that better, but either way you'll need the room especially for bigger beers. If you go 5 gallon a 6.5 gallon fermentor makes sense. If you are going to bottle, either take hydrometer readings until stable or wait a lot longer than 10 days, like 21 or 28 days. Good luck.

 

[Baabaadoo]

Will the hefeweizen settle clear if I wait that long?

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I haven't made a Hefeweizen, so I can't really say for sure. I believe the agents that make a hefeweizen cloudy would take a great while to clear if ever.

 

[madscientist451]

If you got the brewing gear for nothing, why not buy an immersion chiller?
Look on your local craigslist, you may find one cheap. But they aren't all that expensive anyway.
I'd also invest in a kegging setup ASAP. Bottling is a hassle. Again, look around on craigslist, you may find some deals.
I also skipped extract and started out directly with BIAB. But I quickly got a round cooler and put the BIAB bag in that, its just easier for me that way.
For recipes, I'd recommend the book "Brewing classic styles" by Jamil Zainasheff. The recipes have been tweaked for competitions so you'll come out with good beer. Starting out, I'd say stay with styles you already know and like. Many of the recipes in the above book are available on line if you search around.
There are also many proven recipes with lots of comments to try here on HBT. Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[balrog]

Water Volume: I recommend a story stick or etching markings in the kettle for volume, and first do a boil off test to find what your boil off rate is, then you can use something like Priceless Brewing Calc to get an idea of how much water with which to start. The sparge/no-sparge discussions run long and deep--you'll have to decide whether you want to do that, then factor in the water volumes appropriately.

Recipes: +1 agree with @madscientist451, look in the HBT recipes for things you think you'll like to make.

Cooling: Again, you'll find lots of discussion here on no chill, std chill, build your own glycol chill---just about as many methods as there are folks that use 'em, including as many sub-methods of each cooling method as there are stars in the sky; counterflow, plate, recirculate with pond pumps, etc

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[tofuguy]

Will the hefeweizen settle clear if I wait that long?

I brew Hefes a couple time a year. I usually let them ferment 14 days then cold crash and keg. Or bottle and wait 3 weeks to condition and carb. It will take months for the Hefe to clear up a cold temps. I was sick of Hefes a couple years back after 3 brews in a row and this happened to me with a keg. I think it was in the keg for over 4 months.

 

[Epos7]

Will the hefeweizen settle clear if I wait that long?

I brewed that recipe and it poured clear after 4-5 weeks in the bottle. I did cold crash and fine with gelatin, however. It made for a nice option - pour it off the yeast for a crystal Hefe, or mix the yeast in for a cloudy beer.

 

[SanPancho]

when you say you dont like hoppy beers- do you mean hoppy as in bitter, or hoppy as in pine/floral/citrus/fruity flavors? both are from hops.

i ask because no chill will leave your hop presence flat and muted compared to chilling. not a huge deal, but neither is buying a chiller. there'll be 4th of july sales soon at all the online brewshops, and you could likely find one on ebay or craigslist used for good price.

 

[tgolanos]

The chill-vs-no-chill debate is rather fun. Ultimately, I think it depends on where you are and your situation. For me, utilities are expensive so I couldn't justify wasting another 30+ liters of water just on cooling. I'm also the only one in my family who really drinks, so I don't need to do more than one batch at a time. I jumped to the no-chill method rather quickly as a result.

I chill all my beers this way - Hefes, lagers and pilsners - and have not noticed any ill-effects as a result. The only down-side is no-chill is harder cool in summer, but still doable.

 

[SanPancho]

I chill all my beers this way - Hefes, lagers and pilsners - and have not noticed any ill-effects as a result. .

i've done the split batch tests, no chill vs chill. all lagers. definite and noticeable difference between them. the no chills tasted muted, a bit old, and "generically hoppy" which is a quote from a Russian River brewer. by contrast the chilled versions all seemed brighter, crisper and distinct. the words and terms used by folks who tasted may mix and change, but the idea was the same. lack of chilling had a blunting affect on the hop profile.

im not saying you cant get hop flavor and aroma to come through, but i'd guess it take stupid amounts of hops to carry forward, especially in lagers.

 

[tgolanos]

i've done the split batch tests, no chill vs chill. all lagers. definite and noticeable difference between them. the no chills tasted muted, a bit old, and "generically hoppy" which is a quote from a Russian River brewer. by contrast the chilled versions all seemed brighter, crisper and distinct. the words and terms used by folks who tasted may mix and change, but the idea was the same. lack of chilling had a blunting affect on the hop profile.

im not saying you cant get hop flavor and aroma to come through, but i'd guess it take stupid amounts of hops to carry forward, especially in lagers.

Ultimately, it depends on your tastes. I hate hoppy beers, so I don't mind if my hop profile suffers. And like I mentioned in my original post, I just can't justify using another vast amount of water given how much I already pay Sydney Water per quarter. So if my hop flavor suffers a bit, I'm OK with that. I use less water and have beer I like- it's a win-win.

That being said, I really would like to do a chil/no-chill test like you have. I'll have to do a small split batch during the next school break when I have more time.

 

[SanPancho]

we're not as bad you guys after the crazy winter we just had, but CA is still drought country. and i grew up in LA, where we had some pretty strict drought measures, so i sympathize with the cause. i actually dont use that much water since i utilize an ice bath.

i'd guess its a total of maybe 3 gallons to cool a 1.5 gal batch. half a gallon is water, the rest is ice. i just recirc the ice water through the chiller, easily down to 50F if i let it go that long.

if you really wanted to conserve the water you could simply re-freeze the water in ice cube trays or plastic soda bottles for the next brewday. that assumes you have the freezer space necessary. but i dont, so i end up watering plants or using it to wash stuff.

basically you're using electricity to provide alot of cooling power to a little bit of water, as opposed to using a lot of water that only provides a little bit of cooling power.

 

[goblueram]

I can provide my perspective as I got into BIAB right off the bat about 1.5 years ago. I like to have the simplest process when at all possible.

Chilling: I just recently started using a wort chiller. For probably 15 batches prior I did no-chill after I got tired of lugging the pot (went from 3 up to 5 gallon batch) to a bathtub filled with ice. I literally left the pot on the stove with the lid on overnight, then came back in the morning and poured into the carboy and threw dry yeast in. Never had an issue.

Water/gravity concerns: I don't understand why you would boil the water before? My process has been - get a big pot of water to 165* or whatever temp, add the bag to the pot, dump in the grains, stir to get it about 152* (or target) then cover in a blanket for 1 hr. A lot of times, I couldn't fit the full volume. I would have a friend hold up the grain bag and pour tap water through to rinse the grains. That's the extent of a "sparge". You could also use a 2nd pot but that takes time and I like simplicity.

Hope this helps!