2nd BIAB Brew - 86% efficiency

OK, that's the good news, but it put my OG at 1.07 instead of ~1.05. I used 1 pack of Safeale 05 dry yeast. Should I add another package. Worried about underpitching. Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

Did you aerate your wort? If you did, you'll be fine. Unless you're doing a 10 gallon batch.

 

Make sure to post back with finished results. I've read about BIAB and other methods where really high efficiency almost always correlates with tannin extraction as well. I'm not trying to poop in your cheerios... I'm just interested in hearing how this turns out.

 

I did aerate, it is just a five gallon batch, and it did take a bit longer to start to ferment, so I hope they were happy propagating yeasties.

As far as efficiency goes, my first BIAB was 79% and it was spectacular. (different grain bill, but I'm expecting this one to fine as well)

I will let you know in a few weeks.

Thanks for your responses.

 

Apparently I do BIAB too, I just didn't know it was called that. My efficiencies are usually in the high 80s, and I've never had major tannin issues, not that I'd notice a low-level tannin problem.

The main factors influencing tannin production are temp and pH: temps over 170 and pH over 6. That said, I regularly do decoction mashes where a portion of the grains get to about 200F without any noticeable astringency.

 

Exactly, BIAB gets a lot of misinformation attached to it.

 

Does it take an extended time over 170 to get tannins? I did a mashout and hit about 180 for 5 minutes or so. Is that long enough to get tannins or should it be fine?

 

There are a lot of bogeymen in the homebrew world. Yeast Autolysis, DMS, tannins, you name it. I've heard a lot of "don't do ____ or you'll ruin your beer." In practice, I've never found that to be true. Beer is incredibly plastic and it takes a lot of mess-ups to actually make something "bad."

I've made beers that weren't great, but I've only had one batch that was undrinkably bad. Most of the time you'll end up making something at least better than PBR.

My German great-grandparents made beer in their washbasin on their farm in Kansas. They probably didn't know or care about tannins.

 

"Beer is incredibly plastic"?? I do not know what kind of beer you make, but Plastic is definately not a flavor I am going for.

I do BIAB too, the only time I had astringency was when I was sparging too hot. I find that 165 is the sweet spot for me, I always get 80-86% with that sparge, and I only sparge/mashout for 10 mins.

And I do squeeze the grain bag like it contains the last drink of water on earth.

 

Get a dictionary, dude. Plastic means pliable. Beer will tolerate a lot of abuse and still come out decently.

 

I'm going to give this a shot, if nothing else cleanup should be easier, right?

A neighbor who is in his 80's was talking to me about homebrewing and said he had a fermentor I could have - I was thinking carboy - turns out it was a big open top crock. He said they used to ferment the beer in that, no cover, etc - Nateo is right in that it really isn't that hard to make good beer, I've been lucky that my beer has always been "great", but I may also be biased.

 

Sounds like the open fermenters they use in Deutschland for weizens.

 

Oh thanks for clarifying, that makes so much more sense. I will remember to use the word that way in the future, wow what did I learn in school. I really should have known. For example: My rugged pick-up truck is soooooo plastic! Man, since I started running my leg muscles have become really quite plastic. That Brock Lesnar, even though he lost that UFC fight, I must say he is soooo plastic. ROFL!!!

Sorry couldn't resist, even though everyone hates a grammar Nazi I find it quite entertaining. Just paying it forward, I get crap all the time and I laugh at myself plenty

Nevertheless, your actual point was true - beer WILL tolerate a lot of abuse and it is pretty hard to screw up terribly.

Gentlemen

 

I'll ignore the illiterate Canadian and add that I did my first BIAB two weeks ago, except it wasn't a BIAB it was a LIAB.

LIAB -- Lauter In A Bag.

I used direct heat on the stove top for a step mash in my 7.5 gal brew kettle. 10 lbs. Maris Otter with 4.5 gal. water. Constantly stirring the mash when adding heat.

I then lined my 6.5 gal HDPE bottling bucket/fermenting bucket with a 5 gal nylon paint straining bag from Ace Hardware. I made sure that the bottom of the mesh just touched the bottom of the bucket, but the sides of the parabola shaped mesh cleared the spigot. I lashed it in place and added my mash.

I gave it a stir, set the grain and volufed a couple of times and drained half way. Then I added 3 gal 170 deg sparge water, stirred and drained the whole batch as fast as the spigot would allow.

After boil it's gravity was 1.056, volume was 5.5 gal.

I'm doing it again this weekend, adding some steps. I will be putting the 'mash' kettle in the oven for the long rest to maintain heat.

 

LIAB sounds interesting. I may have to try that. Any issues with putting liquid that hot into a plastic bucket?

 

I didn't notice any issues with the HDPE bucket and it wasn't in there for very long.

It was my first all grain batch, a SMaSH, Marris Otter/US Goldings.

Fermentation went well, 1.056 - 1.011 in eight days. Gravity sample was delicious!

Many here are using insulated plastic MLT's made from water coolers, HDPE should be as stable.