New to All Grain

Howdy there. I started brewing just a couple months ago doing all grain and have two batches down. From those batches I've encountered two key issues. By the way, I do BIAB so hopefully that helps with the context of the questions:

1. My yields have been very low. I am starting with around 5.1 gallons in my steep and end up only transferring about 2-2.5 gallons into the fermenter. I noticed in my first batch how much grain/sediment ended up seeping through my steeping bag and as such had quite a bit of leftover grain in the boil kettle that I did not end up transferring into the carboy.

2. The beer has tasted quite good actually; however, they have had a bitter aftertaste. Not bitter, hops bitter but it's almost like the malts don't taste right and the hops didn't produce the desired affect to balance against the malt.

I believe these issues could be related and that possibly the boiling of the grain that has seeped through the bag is cause for this.

I don't believe it to be a caused during fermentation because I only had it fermenting for 3 weeks (no secondary, no dry hopping). Then went 3 weeks into bottles.

Any suggestions/tips for improving yields/reducing sediment and eliminating that bitter, over-malty aftertaste, that would be great! The bottom line is that I want more good beer to drink!

na zdravi!

 

Alot of variables.
For starters what is your gravity target?
Did you hit it?
What is your final gravity?
Did you use Irish Moss or Worlfloc in your boil?
If your gravity was high you could add water to hit your target.
Your grains are soaking up the extra water.
What size is your boil pot.

 

The water you're losing is to absorption. Grain absorbs between .1 and .16 gallons per pound of grain.

For keeping grain out of the kettle, a finer mesh bag?

 

Starting gravity was 1.079 which was in my range. Ending was a bit high but not by much. I used Irish Moss in my second batch which seemed to help the clarity quite a bit but not so much the yield or the bitter aftertaste. Those have only been in bottles for 8 days to probably too early to analyze the taste with any true accuracy as it just isn't ready yet.

Thanks for the tips. Happy brewing!

 

In order to get five or six gallons in the fermenter you would need to use close to 10 gallons of water for a typical batch. In that case your water to grist ratio would be something like four to one which to me is at the root of your problem even with your current setup. Do you think that the bitterness that you talked about being derived from the malt is astringency? If so, it is likely tannin extraction from the grist to water ratio. I rarely exceed a two to one water to grist ratio when brewing. That's in quarts per pound of grain. That being said I know a number of people that do brew in a bag the way you do and get good results.

 

normally i get exactly 5 gallons after boil becuase i sparge with 2.5-3 gallons in order to get a total of 6 gallons before i start boiling. i sparge into my bottling bucket which has a scale with gallon marks. If sparging is finished and i still dont have 6 gallons, i just heat up more water and continue sparging until i get the right amount. its either i do this or water it way down in the end by adding tap water to get 5 gallons in my fermentor, so i figure at least this way im getting as much sugar as possible as opposed to just water

Although i have never BIAB, so im not sure how you go about sparging unless you just lift the bag and pour 170 degree water on it...