3-in-1 "Boil Kettle, Jacketed Chiller, Conical Fermenter" by Brewha

[JB_Brewing2]

Yeah, we've all been too busy brewing on our BIAC's. Do you have a particular style of interest? It seems we have some variations in equipment (e.g., sans rigid colander, etc.) and methodology. I primarily brew ales so my recipes might be pretty boring, but happy to share.

 

[limulus]

My BIAC is about to become a pilot brew system. I have teamed up with a winery and will lease a space from them and install a brewery. I'll be ordering all the equipment by August. I will use a traditional 3 vessel brew house though for that project.

 

[bhchrist]

So sad to see that this thread is dying, because I know ya'll are making amazing beer in the BIAC. Anybody interested in posting the recipes they love because brewing in the BIAC is different than the way most people brew?

hgearle, despite my long hiatus from HBT, I have been brewing shared batches almost exclusively on my best friend's medium BIAC for the past 2+ years. For me personally, very little changed in my process, as I had been doing no sparge, full volume MIAB (mash in a bag) in my cooler. I personally do not find it any different from a recipe formulation than any other method. With all methods, it comes down to figuring out your system. For efficiency, we have found 60% for high malt bill beers and upper 67-70% for moderate malt bills seems to be close.

The other critical factor, IMO, is mash pH. This is particularly important for light beers, given you are using such a high water to grist ratio. For instance, I used 100mL of 10% Phosphoric in addition to the brewing salts in my Kolsch to get it into appropriate pH range (RO Water). Bru'n Water has been invaluable in recipe formulation.

As for recipes, we are rebrewing the Kolsch on Friday (Recipe HERE). Perfect time of year for it and the first batch kicked extremely quickly. Given it is around 4.5% ABV, it also allow us to squeeze 12 or so gallons out of it to fill a mini keg along with two corneys. The big things for me with the Kolsch is a large yeast pitch of WLP-029 (Pro Brewer 1.5M cells/ml (Lager)) and fermented at 58F the first 4 days. Target pH is 5.3. I varied from the recipe by using mostly Czech/Bohemian Pils, as I ran out of German. Will try all Bo Pils this Friday, as we liked it so much. Use the hops as you will. This was the second of a 3 style experiment with Triple Pearl Hops (Session IPA and Saison being the other two). Liked the Kolsch so much we are brewing it again and saving the Saison for next time.

 

[Willee]

This sounds like a very nice and well built system.
I really like my GrainFather for 5 or 6 gal batches.
Simple and easy to use.

 

[hgearle]

Three months and no replies on this forum....I know y'all love your BIAC's and keep track of this forum.

In July, I asked if anybody was interested in sharing recipes, but there was no posts. I posted 4 IPA/IIPA recipes on the Brewha forum (brewhaequipment.com) and Nathan has them posted under "Sumptin Like Pliny IPA 11G Large BIAC recipe", so if you like IPA"s then check-em out. I would love to see others from this site post their favorite recipes (anywhere) as it is somewhat different brewing in the BIAC. The brewing knowledge on this forum is ridiculous and I would like to see more sharing of the corporate knowledge so we can all brew better beer.

 

[K_tile]

Three months and no replies on this forum....I know y'all love your BIAC's and keep track of this forum.

In July, I asked if anybody was interested in sharing recipes, but there was no posts. I posted 4 IPA/IIPA recipes on the Brewha forum (brewhaequipment.com) and Nathan has them posted under "Sumptin Like Pliny IPA 11G Large BIAC recipe", so if you like IPA"s then check-em out. I would love to see others from this site post their favorite recipes (anywhere) as it is somewhat different brewing in the BIAC. The brewing knowledge on this forum is ridiculous and I would like to see more sharing of the corporate knowledge so we can all brew better beer.

Anyone still brewing with their Brewha?

 

[jsmoon888]

Anyone still brewing with their Brewha?

Still brewing monthly on my medium Brewha. I love that it’s a lot less cleaning and sanitation than my old 3 kettle system. The temp control using the chiller is so much better than lifting car boys in and out of my chest freezer. Just finished a Mexican lager and my stand by IPA will be next followed by a cream ale.
Cheers[emoji482]

 

[K_tile]

Still brewing monthly on my medium Brewha. I love that it’s a lot less cleaning and sanitation than my old 3 kettle system. The temp control using the chiller is so much better than lifting car boys in and out of my chest freezer. Just finished a Mexican lager and my stand by IPA will be next followed by a cream ale.
Cheers[emoji482]

I just put a recipe together tonight for a mexican lager in Beersmith. Hope to brew in a few weeks when my chiller comes from Nathan. I have a hazy ipa on carb ready Friday.

 

[Solstice-Brewing]

I've been working on sours recently. I'm happy to share a recipe, but here, I think the process is more important. The BIAC is perfect for kettle souring in that everything the bacteria is touching in the souring process is going to be boiled - keeping everything clean. Here's my simplified process:

Mash as normal - perhaps leaving a bit more dextrines if I want to play with Brett later - I usually shoot for a 13G batch so I can put the extra 3 gallons in a better bottle for long term fermentation.

Give a quick boil to kill off all bugs - clean slate

Drop the temp to ~110F

Adjust the pH (lactic acid addition) to 4.5 or lower to inhibit unwanted bacteria (enterobacter - poo)

Blow CO2 back through my plate chiller/pump into the bottom of the conical to not only clear the lines, but blow off unwanted O2 and make a nice CO2 blanket on top (looking to discourage aerobic bacteria fermentation - acetobacter - vinegar).

Pitch bacteria (been mainly using L. Plantarum - Goodbelly or Simpson's - ~150B cells - use a starter or loads of SuperShots) seal and install a blow-off tube, set the temp control to 110F and let 'er rip for a day or two.

Once pH and taste are where I want them (~3.5-3.7 for my tastes - 24-48 hours - samples from the racking port), I'll rack off any live wort to a better bottle for Brett fermentations for more bugs for longer, funkier fermentation.

Bring back to a boil to kill everything, add hops, and proceed as with any other sacch. fermentation in your BIAC (I roll mine into a home made temp chamber). I haven't been brave enough to put Brett in the BIAC on the cold side yet. Anyone else try this?

I usually take down all my BIAC components every 5 brews (valves, pump, heating element, etc) and then run a cycle with PBW. After a kettle sour, though - unless I'm doing another sour next, I will break every everything down for a thorough clean. May not be necessary, but just a habit. Haven't soured a clean beer unintentionally ... yet.

This forum has been great and talked me into buying my BIAC back in 2015. I have about 60 batches through it so far, so yes, still brewing with the BIAC

Kent

ps. Nathan is awesome!

 

[limulus]

Hello All, I have not posted anything here in a while. I actually have been putting together a commercial brewery. However, I bought a small 60L jacketed fermenter that can hold pressure from China for $1150. It is an amazing little beast. I plan to use it with my BIAC for pilot or special batches. Here is a photo of the 60L and if interested a few of my new brewery which was just delivered on Wednesday.

 

[hgearle]

I used to love visiting this site every day to see what new things were going on in the BIAC world and now hope that this that this thread comes alive again. I know that there are lots of BIAC brewers out there and the ways to brew in it are vast. I'd like to say congratulations to Limulus for turning his hobby and something he loves to do into a thing most people call work...nice.

Marshall Schott of the Brulosophy website said on a recent podcast that the biggest thing he has done to improve his IPA's is to limit the amount of oxygen that touches his beer post fermentation. I think I would have to agree with him on that. Up until recently, I would rack my beer into corny's and then add dry hops in a bag adding dry hops twice to enhance hop flavor. Brulosophy xbeeriments showed that using bags or no bags was minimal so I used bags as I did not want to transfer to another corny. In doing the dry hop routine (even though I purged my kegs with CO2) I introduced oxygen into my beer even though I purged the keg about a dozen times thru the relief valve after filling the keg. I made some excellent beers, but since I tried a different routine, my beers have gotten noticeably better.

Rather than dry hop in the corny, I just do all my dry hopping in the primary (one or two separate dry hops about 2-3 days apart). The pictures show how I do the dry hop to minimize any oxygen into the BIAC. Two days after the last dry hop is added, I drop the temperature of the BIAC to 38F to cold crash and will (sometimes) add gelatin to fine. I will then transfer the beer to purged corney's. By doing this, my beer no longer is exposed to any oxygen and I can taste the difference. No more opening the corny to expose the beer to oxygen. I was leery that this short opening and dryhopping could affect the taste...but it does...I think.

The pics show that (after I place the flask in the in the oven at 250F for 15 minutes to sterilize), I place the hops in the flask (once cooled) and then purge with CO2 two to three times to make sure no oxygen is in the flask. This is a big change from putting hops in a bag....(or not using a bag)...and putting it into the keg which most likely has some oxygen in them. I have a thin piece of plastic I cut from a lid, I sterilize the lid, the top of the flask, the opening of the BIAC lid opening, and previously the hop bags and scissors with 70% alcohol and a cotton ball (like they do when giving you a shot in the arm...it's cheap, effective and better than StarSan (for this)).

As the pictures show, I open the BIAC from the pressure relief valve, flip the flask over with the plastic cover in place, then slowly remove the plastic cover and let the CO2 purged hops flow into the BIAC. As an aside, from Scott Janish's new book, New IPA, A Scientific Guide to Hop Aroma and Flavor, I just started dropping the temperature for dry hopping to 58F to prevent off flavors.

This home-brewed Pliny I'm drinking is amazing.....

 

[augiedoggy]

Hello All, I have not posted anything here in a while. I actually have been putting together a commercial brewery. However, I bought a small 60L jacketed fermenter that can hold pressure from China for $1150. It is an amazing little beast. I plan to use it with my BIAC for pilot or special batches. Here is a photo of the 60L and if interested a few of my new brewery which was just delivered on Wednesday.

Nice! hope you found a source for your electric control panel?

 

[limulus]

Nice! hope you found a source for your electric control panel?

I sure did. I got Tim Moore at Colorado Brewing Systems to build me a panel. I still need to get it connected. It looks like next week everything gets finished and I can get my inspection. I guess my 5bbl brewery qualifies as a nano system. Either that or the CBS control panels all have the nano brewer sticker on them. It is a very nice panel from what I can tell. My electrician looked at it today and said it was well built.

 

[limulus]

hgearle, very nice technique. I always dry hopped in the BIAC fermenter but did not do much purging of my corny kegs. I'm sure I introduced too much O2. But now, I'll be working with totally purged sixtel kegs.

 

[hgearle]

I love IPA's and drink them all over the US as I travel every week for business. Absolutely, the best IPA's I drink are the brews I make at home. NOT dry hopping in the keg, but using the purged method I described above to dry hop in the BIAC (multiple times), and purging the kegs before transferring the beer from the BIAC to kegs, has made a significant difference.

The seemingly small thing of not introducing ANY (or as little as possible) O2 is key. Since I like crystal clear beer, I like to fine with gelatin and also use the Clear Beer Draught System to siphon from the top of the keg.

So what I do is to purge my kegs with CO2 two to three times placing the plastic pieces over the lid to contain the CO2 and keep out O2. When I'm ready to fill the keg from the BIAC, I place the sanitized hose into the keg and open the valve. I have about 1-2 psi pressure to push the beer into the keg. After it is filled, I purge the head space with CO2, then pressurize to 30 psi to ensure the keg is sealed.

 

[K_tile]

Interesting. Why dont you just transfer through the outpost instead of taping the lid?

 

[JB_Brewing2]

I love IPA's and drink them all over the US as I travel every week for business. Absolutely, the best IPA's I drink are the brews I make at home. NOT dry hopping in the keg, but using the purged method I described above to dry hop in the BIAC (multiple times), and purging the kegs before transferring the beer from the BIAC to kegs, has made a significant difference.

The seemingly small thing of not introducing ANY (or as little as possible) O2 is key. Since I like crystal clear beer, I like to fine with gelatin and also use the Clear Beer Draught System to siphon from the top of the keg.

So what I do is to purge my kegs with CO2 two to three times placing the plastic pieces over the lid to contain the CO2 and keep out O2. When I'm ready to fill the keg from the BIAC, I place the sanitized hose into the keg and open the valve. I have about 1-2 psi pressure to push the beer into the keg. After it is filled, I purge the head space with CO2, then pressurize to 30 psi to ensure the keg is sealed.
View attachment 638552

I, too, gave up on using the out post for the closed transfer; too slow and had to watch the scale to determine when the keg was full. Since CO2 is heavier than air, I just fill the kegs with CO2 and transfer using the same port in your photo with the exception of using a pump between the port and filling hose. I make sure the out end of the hose is fully seated on the bottom of the keg with a tri-clover fitting and everything is sanitized. My IPA's are the best tasting beer I can find, IMNSHO. Clear Beer Draught System is intriguing and might soon be in my kegs.

 

[K_tile]

This is how I dry hop. I can fit 4 oz of hops in the reducer. Purge with co2 then open butterfly valve.

I also purchased a 15" sparge arm from Glacier Tanks, it works like a dream.

Just a couple things to pimp my BIAC!

 

[hgearle]

This is how I dry hop. I can fit 4 oz of hops in the reducer. Purge with co2 then open butterfly valve.

I also purchased a 15" sparge arm from Glacier Tanks, it works like a dream.

Just a couple things to pimp my BIAC!View attachment 641786View attachment 641787

Very nice....just ordered the sparge arm.

K_Tile....you said above...Why don't you just transfer through the outpost instead of taping the lid?
I don't know what you mean about tape but....what you are probably seeing is the pipe thread seal tape that I use on the dry hop bags to suspend them in the corny. I tend to dry hop mostly in the BIAC, but will hop in the corny if doing a third dry hop.

Is that a 5 gallon batch you are doing in the sparge arm pic?

 

[OneManBrewery]

Question for fellow BIAC users, what are you using to heat during fermentation?
My cooler died so I can’t use an ambient temperature warmer, now I’ll have to directly heat the BIAC.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

Question for fellow BIAC users, what are you using to heat during fermentation?
My cooler died so I can’t use an ambient temperature warmer, now I’ll have to directly heat the BIAC.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but, I pretty consistently use the internal heating element with the reostat turned down to "3".

 

[OneManBrewery]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but, I pretty consistently use the internal heating element with the reostat turned down to "3".

Interesting, I was hoping there would be a way to use the element but was unsure how harmful it would be to the fermenting wort. So what are you using to control the element?

 

[hgearle]

Interesting, I was hoping there would be a way to use the element but was unsure how harmful it would be to the fermenting wort. So what are you using to control the element?

Like JB, I set my power controller to 2% power and it will hold fermentation temperature with the heating element.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

Interesting, I was hoping there would be a way to use the element but was unsure how harmful it would be to the fermenting wort. So what are you using to control the element?

Like hgearle, I'm using the power controller's digital readout set at 3%. Through approximately 40+ different brews have not had an issue with the quality of the beer.

 

[K_tile]

+1 for 3% output

 

[K_tile]

What is your procedure to maintain mash temp?

For example, Beersmith says to have strike water at 168F for a 154F mash. Do you mash in and then turn down the temp controller to 156F for 60 min. Or do you keep temp higher and recirculate the wort? I'm starting to question the location and accuracy of the temp sensor. I have tried 3 different scientific thermometers in the mash and all are giving different readings.

Kevin

 

[JB_Brewing2]

What is your procedure to maintain mash temp?

For example, Beersmith says to have strike water at 168F for a 154F mash. Do you mash in and then turn down the temp controller to 156F for 60 min. Or do you keep temp higher and recirculate the wort? I'm starting to question the location and accuracy of the temp sensor. I have tried 3 different scientific thermometers in the mash and all are giving different readings.

Kevin

I just set the temp controller to the desired temp; never questioned the accuracy or position of the sensor. I do turn the power off when raising the colander in case the mash is stuck; just trying to avoid element burn out. Beer's been great. I don't think beersmith works very well with the BIAC especially volumes or at least that's been my experience.

 

[kh54s10]

I just set the temp controller to the desired temp; never questioned the accuracy or position of the sensor. I do turn the power off when raising the colander in case the mash is stuck; just trying to avoid element burn out. Beer's been great. I don't think beersmith works very well with the BIAC especially volumes or at least that's been my experience.

Beersmith should work well if you adjust your equipment profile. It may take some tweaking over a few brew sessions to dial it in correctly.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

Beersmith should work well if you adjust your equipment profile. It may take some tweaking over a few brew sessions to dial it in correctly.

Equipment profile adjusted over dozens of brews ago, still doesn't calculate correct mash or boil volumes. Are you using a BIAC?

 

[K_tile]

Beersmith overall is great. I use BS3 and it gets pretty close with volumes and even mash ph. Sometimes I mash a little longer or boil a few extra minutes to get with OG numbers.

My situation is the temp sensor reads 154 but when I probe the mash with other thermometers it's lower by 8-10 degrees on a 14lb mash. Just wondering if the sensor is actually reading the mash or just reading water temp underneath the mash tun.

 

[kh54s10]

Equipment profile adjusted over dozens of brews ago, still doesn't calculate correct mash or boil volumes. Are you using a BIAC?

No, but I set profiles for 2 versions of my 3 vessel rig, BIAB 3 gallon and no for my Unibrau. I get very close. I still have some tweaking to do on the Unibrau profile.

Did your profile adjustment done dozens of brews ago work? If not it is not set correctly.

 

[cuda6pak]

Been a long time since I posted in this thread, but had a question for everyone and how they handle heavily hopped beers (pre-fermenatation).

Originally I just chucked them in loose, which created the normal issue of plugging the bottom port. Switched over to a butterfly valve and still had the same issue. While doing this for a few years I'd sometimes try and clear a bit of trub/hops from the bottom pre-fermentation, but mostly just left everything there throughout fermentation and didn't worry about it.

Fast forward to doing some hopstands and whirlpools. Added a stainless hop spider, and a dip tube to the outlet port to rack above the trub/hop after fermentation, but also to recirculate hops for whirlpool, from the bottom port and back out the racking port aimed at the hop spider. This has worked OK, but I think utilization suffers with lack of movement due to a single point of heat from the electric element during the boil, and general lack of movement of the hops restricted to being within the spider.

Did a no-boil NEIPA a few months back and due to all the proteins that don't precipitate out, it clogged the entire spider with 6oz of pellet hops in it for the whirlpool.

So trying to change up the setup again I opted for the long tri clamp whirlpool arm from NorCal that I mount to one of the ports on the lid, and recirculate from the racking port dip tube up through the lid and whirlpool arm and threw all my hops in loose. Anecdotally felt like way more aroma and utilization from those WP hops than any setup I've done before using anything but cryo.

Thus bringing me back to the very beginning of using the BIAC - how to dump the spent hops/trub prior to fermentation. For my last two test batched, both plugged up the bottom ports of my fermentors (BIAC and BH 15gal conical). The BH conical even having a 2" bottom port. So I let them settle after cooling for about 30min and hit them with a little CO2 pressure and remembered the nice cleanup of that shooting out the bottom at a few PSI at a small bucket held up around the valve, still splattering everywhere in sight. Right now I have the valves connected directly to the bottom of the fermentors, no 90 or anything.

So that brings me to my original question - for those of you that have been using this for a few years, what process have you settled on? Obviously if I'm transferring to my other conical I can let the WP settle, and then rack above the trub line as best I can which should be good enough, similar to any flat bottomed kettle, but no such option when fermenting in the BIAC.

I keep looking at the Brewer's Hardware Wort Strainer as a viable option to use during the WP. Obviously with a slightly looser mesh screen so as to not clog as easily, but I have a feeling it will clog anyways and I'll be out a few hundred bucks, as it seems to be more for a single use through the wort on the way to a plate chiller, rather than for constant re-circulation through the filter.

 

[hgearle]

Hello cuda6pak...I tried the just throwemin' hop method, but decided that I don't want all that hop material in for the duration of fermentation. I now use two 300 micron hop spiders to contain the hop material from the boil through the whirlpool (usually about 15 ounces of hops total for an 11 gallon batch).

To ensure the hops are getting circulated in the hop spiders, I stir the spiders twice during both the boil and whirlpool to make sure they are wet and working. I make sure the spoon is sanitized before stirring. At the end of the whirlpool (usually about an hour total), I use a pulley to raise the spiders as they are heavy and let them drain (about 15 minutes). I dump about a half gallon or so of trub about an hour after reaching pitching temperature and another half gallon or so before pitching yeast (after about another hour or so). I have found that if I don't do this, the valve can become clogged and most or the trub is gone so as not to create off-flavors).

Once fermentation is done and beer is kegged, I now use a plastic garbage bag that I hold over the bottom port. Open the valve and let all the liquid and trub flow into the bag. I started to do this after a few very messy dumps into various containers. No splash, and all goes into the bag that then goes into the garbage can (another plastic liner of course).

Brulosophy website has debunked so many things about the way we brew. Whirlpool with or without a spider. Multiple dry hops versus one for home-brewers. I use the spider to keep trub out of my all-in-one system during fermentation. I no longer multiple dry-hop as it is not necessary for a small batch like we do at the home-brew level.

And as an aside, I never use a stir plate any more as it is not necessary. Simply and lazily...(11 gallon batch) I put 2 cans of Propper pre-canned wort into a 5L Erlenmeyer flask, add 2 cans of sterilized water (makes a 1.040 wort), hit it with one minute of 100% O2 (or you could shake the hell out of it), pitch 2 vials of yeast (for a 1.072 brew). I then pitch at high krausen which is about 14-18 hours later. I usually make the starter before I go to bed the night before. No shaking, nothing. Let it sit there, swirl it before pitching, and voila! Simple.

Brewing Hops R Rising tomorrow so I thought you'd like to see the recipe....delicious!!! (It is not Hop Rising from Utah which is a great brew).

 

[cuda6pak]

You're exactly who I was thinking of when I wrote that post! Thanks for the feedback.

I have the exact same hop spider as you, though only one, which gets pretty crowded once you go above 6oz as I see why you have two of them. The only thing about the spiders as I said before, I think they suffer from utilization on our setups strictly due to the design of the single heated element. All the movement tends to be right above the element, so putting the spider off to the side (in order to get it lower for more hops), you can see the lack of movement in/out of the spider itself. And I suppose I'm a bit lazy and don't want to keep prodding at the thing constantly with a spoon in order to make sure the hops are doing their thing.

I'd have to go back and look but I thought all of Brulosophy's experiments are done with propane fired setups which put even heat along the bottom and up through the sides causing a lot more wort movement in/around/within the spiders. I'll have to double check though. I suppose adding a halo style electric element could eliminate that concern of mine?

I heard back from BH on the wort strainer being used for recirculation and they did not recommend it as it unsurprisingly gets clogged up and should be more of a single pass use.

 

[hgearle]

The hop spider is pretty important with respect to the BIAC as it is an all in one system. I don't want loose hops, especially 12 plus ounces for a IIPA, sitting in the conical throughout fermentation. It has never been a concern for me about the heating element. When I brewed today, I had a raging whirlpool and the hops were submerged the entire time. For the boil, I give a stir when I put in another addition. For the whirlpool, I put the hops in, give a stir, and then again when a second whirlpool addition is put in. If there is only one whirlpool addition, then I will wait about 20 minutes and give it another stir to make sure there is no clumping and all is wet.

For dry hopping, I put them in as my post above shows to avoid oxygenation. I prefer to wait until fermentation is complete as I do not like the taste of the bio transformation of hops. If fermentation is say, 65F, I will wait until activity subsides, then raise the temp slowly to 69-70F. Once fermentation is complete, I lower the temp to about 63F and put in the dry hops, then lower the temp again the next morning to 58F. This is to prevent hop creep (google it) off flavors. At 63F CO2 activity increases after the dry hops are put in, and I want the yeast to swallow any remaining oxygen that made it into the BIAC. At 58F the activity subsides and fewer off flavors occur.

Had a fantastic brew day today. Hops R Rising is soooo good. Does this recipe look like the recipes you brew? Is there anything you do that is different for your IPA's (that is all I brew). I took a video, but could not upload it. So, here is a screen shot of the whirlpool.

Bottom line....the beers we make are delicious. If you feel you lose some hop flavor in the whirlpool, then dry hop more. Cheers!

 

[cuda6pak]

I typically brew Belgian/French farmhouse style beers, mixed ferm, and occasionally a hazy style IPA (with kveik of course!). So this is mostly an issue with the hazy type beers, but I do occasionally like big whirlpools in my saisons, and when doing one with noble low 2-3AA% hops, there can be a ton of hops by the time you're at the end.

I will probably end up going back to the hop spider and just making it a point to poke/prod/mash the hops in it every 20min or so. Was mostly hoping to get away from having to babysit the boil but if it makes life easier than so be it. I could also just use my second conical for my Hazies and run the wort through the Wort Strainer filter from Brewer's Hardware, but it's another thing to wash/clean.

Also, if you haven't had the pleasure of doing a raw (no-boil) beer with a big batch of WP hops, the proteins clog that hop spider up so literally nothing comes through it.

For dry hopping in the BIAC I always maintain at least 1psi of pressure, and then just pour the hops in through the top port. No O2 should make it's way in there with the pressure and constant flow of CO2. Would possibly build a little hop doser with a reducer like above and butterfly valve, which should make it even better. My BH conical has a 3" TC port so I'll generally do the same thing but try and use a nylon hop sack if I can just to make racking a bit easier.

For kegging IPA's I've generally had decent success with just purging the keg through the out post from the bottom up for a few minutes, and then just doing a quicker rack with a 1/2" silicon hose straight to the bottom of the keg, closing up and purging the headspace. That is my typical process for any beer really.

Last batch I finally decided to do a full 5gal starsan CO2 push out of both kegs to make sure it was 100% oxygen free. Then racking from a purged small silicon tube directly to the outpost to the bottom of the keg, and used a disconnect for the in side with a piece of hose into starsan. Only downside as discussed before in here is it takes a long time to fill. It is drinking very well right now though, interested to see how it holds up.

 

[hgearle]

I like the 1 PSI pressure technique for keeping O2 out while dry hopping. When I dry hop, the relief valve opening is only exposed for about 15 seconds max and after the hops are in, I see CO2 bubbles shortly thereafter.

My kegging routine is similar to yours where I purge with 100% O2 a few times, and use a 1/2 in. hose to transfer, then purge. I have done the Starsan keg transfer thing, but feel that it is not worth the effort considering I have no problems with oxygenation in my brews with my current routine.

I have never done less than a 10-11 gallon batch with the large BIAC. Have you ever done a 5 gallon batch? Seems that there wouldn't be enough liquid above the bottom of the colander to keep the grains wet. And you have a second BH conical...why? Do you brew so much that you need extra storage. I only brew for myself (and my thirsty sons) so once a month works. Just curious. Have you tried the Clear Beer Draught System instead of the keg dip tube? Once you do, you will never look back. Clear beer from the first pour until the last pour with nothing left in the keg.

 

[jcarraher]

I have the Unibrau 5 gallon system and I just open the 4 inch port on the lid and pop my hop cylinder in within a few seconds. I usually do this near the end of primary fermentation due to experienced hop creep if done later. So, it is still fermenting and will get any O2 out of there soon after doing this.

 

[cuda6pak]

I like the 1 PSI pressure technique for keeping O2 out while dry hopping. When I dry hop, the relief valve opening is only exposed for about 15 seconds max and after the hops are in, I see CO2 bubbles shortly thereafter.

My kegging routine is similar to yours where I purge with 100% O2 a few times, and use a 1/2 in. hose to transfer, then purge. I have done the Starsan keg transfer thing, but feel that it is not worth the effort considering I have no problems with oxygenation in my brews with my current routine.

I have never done less than a 10-11 gallon batch with the large BIAC. Have you ever done a 5 gallon batch? Seems that there wouldn't be enough liquid above the bottom of the colander to keep the grains wet. And you have a second BH conical...why? Do you brew so much that you need extra storage. I only brew for myself (and my thirsty sons) so once a month works. Just curious. Have you tried the Clear Beer Draught System instead of the keg dip tube? Once you do, you will never look back. Clear beer from the first pour until the last pour with nothing left in the keg.

Agreed, I haven't noticed really any oxidation with the quicker 1/2" hose technique. I think because the beer is racked so quickly that it's exposure to oxygen is fairly minimal. And in anything but a super heavy hopped hazy style beer you won't notice much. I did try once to do sort of a hybrid of the two. Instead of pushing 100% starsan completely out of the keg, I purged from the bottom for a few minutes before racking into the keg outpost completely sealed like above (disconnect on in-post into starsan). However, the 2nd keg of that was very noticeably oxidized in color. My thoughts are that the long time of racking into the keg through the outpost (15-20min) gave it way more exposure to even the low oxygen environment. Vs the higher oxygen environment with the lid off but quick racking (45sec-1min).

I have not done a 5gal batch, but I did switch my setup to be capable of it. Without a doubt the best thing I did for my setup was to ditch the stainless colander and go with a stainless brew hardware false bottom and a custom Brew Bag. This allows me to mill extremely fine and have great flow throughout the entire recirc/lauter. Also, cleanup is a breeze compared to the steel colander. My biggest issue with the BIAC system is the water/wort surrounding above the bottom of the colander and in between the colander and the conical. When you calculate it it can be several gallons. Unless you raise the colander above the wort line and continue to do a full recirc, that water/wort will not be mixed in with the rest of it. This is easily confirmed by taking a gravity reading out of the recirc hose while it's completely in the mash as normal, and then raising/draining the colander without any sort of sparge and checking gravity of the resulting wort, which will be lower because of the dilution of the "dead water" in between the colander wall and conical wall. Now, this can be fixed with a simple process of raising/holding and sparging as normal. But, the bag+false bottom has been a pleasure to work with and no need to worry about "dead water" between the bag and conical as the wort travels in/out perfectly which is confirmed with a gravity reading during recirc and after raising/draining without sparging. Not saying this is the route everyone should take but it definitely has made my brews even easier than before.

I have 3 of the clear draught systems because I have 3 13.2gal kegmenters in addition to my 2 conicals . Though, I haven't actually used them at all for serving kegs, just for pulling samples and packaging. All three are mixed culture solera style beers. So, to answer your quesiton it has been a snowball effect both for the love of homebrewing and wanting to try new things, but also the last few years has been working towards test batches for "going pro". Opening a really small 5bbl taproom hopefully by the end of summer

 

[hgearle]

So far, I haven't had any problems or issues with the colander. However, I have the older version bottom so use an aftermarket secondary bottom that works well. I have never had a stuck sparge. If you notice from my recipe post above, I always include 3 pounds of rice hulls in my IIPA batches (usually about 1.072 gravity using about 33 pounds of grain). I found that if I use less the circulation throughout the mash and final drain of the colander is slow. I usually mash for about an hour and twenty minutes for these higher gravity beers, then raise the temp to 159F for about 10 minutes, then raise the temp to 170F and mash out for 10 minutes. The colander is then raised above the wort, and I lauter rinsing the grain for an additional 20 minutes (If you add it up it is about 2 hours 20 minutes). Once I shut off the pump to let the wort drain into the kettle, I raise the temp on the controller to 190F so it is heating up as the wort is finishing draining. When brewing Hops R Rising (posted above) a few days ago, I hit all my numbers for gravity, PH and volume right on (so anybody with the 90L BIAC could replicate it using RO water). I pitched the yeast at 6:30pm and when I woke up the next morning, fermentation was rocking.

Try using the Clear Beer Draught in serving kegs...amazing. When you draw the last beer and you think of how delicious it is, then look in the keg and only see a small amount of sludge, you wonder how it sent you such a great last beer.

I would be very interested in seeing an image of the false bottom and bag system you use? Just because I have my ways of doing things, doesn't mean they are the best. Like you said...trying new things. Lastly, best of luck going pro...big step. Work is not work if you love what you are doing every day.