Did my first BIAB/all-grain brew yesterday, my first brew of any kind in quite a while, actually, which probably explains all the screw-ups! Got a Barley Crusher for xmas (thanks, honey!) and was itching to try out BIAB. I put together a recipe for an ordinary bitter, crushed my grain and fired up the burner. Threw a quick 750ml starter on the stir plate (I only have a 1L beaker), measured my water and started to heat it up. I brew on the patio and it was about 40F out, so I didn't hang around outside, just set my chef alarm where I could keep an eye on it and hung out with the assistant brewer. Overshot my target temp by about ten degrees, so had to wait for that to come down. Mashed in at 163, wrapped the kettle in a blanket and started a timer. Of course, I didn't keep an eye on the temp, and it dropped to 150 over the course of the hour. Oh well, it was getting late, so I just rolled with it. Pot almost boiled over just before it started to boil, and had near-boilovers every time I added hops. Just as I shut the burner off, some friends dropped by and I wound up just leaving the kettle sitting on the burner until about 10. It was still over 100F, so I "decided" to go no-chill on this one. Dragged the kettle into the basement and left it overnight. In the morning I sanitized the fermenter and poured my wort in and noticed I only had 4 gallons of my 5-gallon batch. Topped off and stirred well to aerate. By now my starter looked pretty good, so I dumped it (and the stir bar) in. Still, even with all the screw-ups, I managed to hit my OG exactly, so I must have done something right. Hydrometer sample was a bit more bitter than I expected, but I'm sure it'll mellow out by the time it's bottled and carbonated. All in all, I'd call it a successful day (or two).
