BIAB Brewing (with pics)

[robcj]

Any idea what would contribute to a "grain" aftertaste??

I have brewed 4 BIAB batches now, and my last 2 (EdWorts Bavarian Hefe, and a Belgian Blonde). Both have a "grain" aftertaste. The beer tastes great, but its almost like a very prominent grain flavor in the finish that seems to last quite a long time. I dont get this in any of the commercial beers I have tried. Not sure what would make this. All my beers have finished under 1.020, around 1.014 or so, and I have been getting low 70% eff.. So, I dont really know what it would be.

Is it due to the Wheat used in the recipes? My Pale Ale using the same BIAB method doesnt have the flavor. Unless its just covered up by the hops in it.

Any idea what would cause this??

I had this happen to a light blonde ale when I left a direct fired mash unattended and the temperature actually creeped above 180F for a short time. Resulted in an awful grainy, husky aftertaste. Upfront the beer was clean and clear but there was an unpleasant residual grainy flavour with some astringency.

Could your aftertaste be caused by a similar but less obvious temperature issue? If you apply heat to your mash to maintain your temperature, the bottom of the mash can be significantly hotter than the top, depending on how much you stir. I find keeping a consistent and uniform mash temperature is the trickiest part of BIAB. A faulty thermometer could also be to blame.

 

[Stauffbier]

I had this happen to a light blonde ale when I left a direct fired mash unattended and the temperature actually creeped above 180F for a short time. Resulted in an awful grainy, husky aftertaste. Upfront the beer was clean and clear but there was an unpleasant residual grainy flavour with some astringency.

Could your aftertaste be caused by a similar but less obvious temperature issue? If you apply heat to your mash to maintain your temperature, the bottom of the mash can be significantly hotter than the top, depending on how much you stir. I find keeping a consistent and uniform mash temperature is the trickiest part of BIAB. A faulty thermometer could also be to blame.

This is why I don't direct fire when I BIAB. I just cover the pot in blankets and let it ride. I don't sweat a little temp loss over the coarse of an hour mash. I start with a high(ish) mash temp and let it drop, and I usually end up with medium body. That's what I usually prefer, so no harm-no foul.

 

[ChrisL_]

This is why I don't direct fire when I BIAB. I just cover the pot in blankets and let it ride. I don't sweat a little temp loss over the coarse of an hour mash. I start with a high(ish) mash temp and let it drop, and I usually end up with medium body. That's what I usually prefer, so no harm-no foul.

I recently did my first BIAB and I was concerned about temp loss but like you I wrapped the pot in a couple of blankets and started my mash 1 degree over my target and it slowly dropped to 1 degree under by the 55 minute mark before going 2 under. It is still fermenting now, but I am guessing that close on the temps will be just fine.

When putting my fermentor away I found some extra of the refletix wrap I used to wrap our water heater. So i am going to use some stick on Velcro and make a "mash cozy" for it to try on my next batch.

 

[hiphopperforever]

hiphopperforever: My Old Rasputin clone has an OG of about 1.090 which I hit without much problem. I do a 90 minute boil so start out with extra volume and my efficiency is about 70%. I find a drop in efficiency at these high OGs. Nevertheless, I'm sure you can get to 1.1 without losing too much.

Yes, I had a brewhouse efficiency of 68% on my last boil which was an Arrogant Bastard Clone with an OG of 1.066. Is it possible to get better efficiency with high gravity BIAB, or do you just need to beef up your quantities to compensate?

 

[trainwreck]

where do most of you get your supplies for grains / etc?

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

where do most of you get your supplies for grains / etc?

I would assume most are getting it at their Local homebrew store (LHBS). There a plenty of online places to get them if you do not have a local store. Brewmasters warehouse, austin homebrew, midwestern supply, morebeer, and plenty more. Everything you need online.

 

[hiphopperforever]

Oh boy. Had the day off today and was looking forward to doing a BIAB batch of Stone Ruination. Things started off ok, but while raising the temp to 170 for mash out, I smelled something funny. Sure enough burned a big hole in my viole bag. What a mess. Scooped out and strained out maybe 7 pounds of the 15 pounds of grain that managed to exit the hole when removing the bag from the keggle. By the time I was done, my wort was down to 130 degrees F and I was worried that I would run out of propane bringing it back up to boil temp. We have had a lot of snow as of late, and apparently most places haven't shoveled out to the propane tank or exchange. Finally found propane and by the time I got back, sure enough it had run out.

I made beer, but it sure ain't right. Not sure how the melted viole will effect the beer. The boil smelled bad and almost gave me a bit of a headache.

Will be looking into a way to keep the bag off the bottom, and or going to electric brewing. I seem to be able to do about 4 batches on a 20 gallon propane tank (brewing temps in the 20s in the garage.)

 

[HopSong]

Since it seems many are using either full boils.. or close to it.. is there ANY reason why I should be concerned with pH as with in going a tier system and a mash tun? I haven't read thru all the notes here.. just about 75 pages.. so, wondering what you all think. My house water is right at a pH of 7-7.1.. but I read that the grains... at least in a MT drop the wort down into the low to high 5's.

Also.. using voile for the bags.. does voile come in different meshes? I saw one person took a picture of his/her's with a penny on the material.. that looked VERY fine. Is that about what the Bed Bath or WalMart curtain material is like?

I'm anxious to get started in this. I just started assembling a tiered system and found this thread and it looks SOOOO much simpler. (yah, I know there will be a learning curve )

 

[Mysticmead]

Oh boy. Had the day off today and was looking forward to doing a BIAB batch of Stone Ruination. Things started off ok, but while raising the temp to 170 for mash out, I smelled something funny. Sure enough burned a big hole in my viole bag. What a mess. Scooped out and strained out maybe 7 pounds of the 15 pounds of grain that managed to exit the hole when removing the bag from the keggle. By the time I was done, my wort was down to 130 degrees F and I was worried that I would run out of propane bringing it back up to boil temp. We have had a lot of snow as of late, and apparently most places haven't shoveled out to the propane tank or exchange. Finally found propane and by the time I got back, sure enough it had run out.

I made beer, but it sure ain't right. Not sure how the melted viole will effect the beer. The boil smelled bad and almost gave me a bit of a headache.

Will be looking into a way to keep the bag off the bottom, and or going to electric brewing. I seem to be able to do about 4 batches on a 20 gallon propane tank (brewing temps in the 20s in the garage.)

lets hope it turns out OK... me, I would have probably dumped it if there were melted voile floating around in it and it smelled bad.

 

[Mysticmead]

Since it seems many are using either full boils.. or close to it.. is there ANY reason why I should be concerned with pH as with in going a tier system and a mash tun? I haven't read thru all the notes here.. just about 75 pages.. so, wondering what you all think. My house water is right at a pH of 7-7.1.. but I read that the grains... at least in a MT drop the wort down into the low to high 5's.

Also.. using voile for the bags.. does voile come in different meshes? I saw one person took a picture of his/her's with a penny on the material.. that looked VERY fine. Is that about what the Bed Bath or WalMart curtain material is like?

I'm anxious to get started in this. I just started assembling a tiered system and found this thread and it looks SOOOO much simpler. (yah, I know there will be a learning curve )

As long as your PH is in the 5's you'll be fine. I never bothered to check my PH and have had no problems or off flavors. Maybe my PH from my well is just made for brewing beer

Voile, yep it's real fine. the curtain material should be the same stuff. if in doubt, go to a fabric store (like Joann's) and buy a yard or 2 of the fabric. its cheap

 

[trainwreck]

i placea stainless steel collander in the bottom of my pot to keep it from the base and from melting... works great.. i have a 20 gallon pot and a pretty big bag for grains.

 

[Stauffbier]

I made beer, but it sure ain't right. Not sure how the melted viole will effect the beer. The boil smelled bad and almost gave me a bit of a headache.

Dude! Seriously?!?! I mean... if you made a homemade chocolate cake and burned the heck out of it would you actually still eat it? Of coarse you wouldn't! Throw that batch out on the lawn and start over!

 

[hiphopperforever]

Nope. Didn't toss it. The sample I took for an OG reading tasted like beer with no detectable off flavors. Its not like nylon stays in liquid form at cold beer temps, and I think anything else will settle out in the trub layer if there is anything in there (the burned spot is a little bigger than a quarter and appears to be sticking to the keggle bottom). If it doesn't taste right at the end of fermentation I'll toss it then.

 

[mirogster]

"Listen very carefully, I will say this only once" ...... you're pushing your luck too far. Please, at least drink it yourself.

 

[jdd12364]

I have a full two tiered system but want to try a BIAB .

Do you folks use the paint strainer bags ?

I have a 1/4 keg (7.5 gallon ) with the top cut out , would that work for a 5 gallon BIAB kettle ?

 

[Dr. Francois]

I have a 1/4 keg (7.5 gallon ) with the top cut out , would that work for a 5 gallon BIAB kettle ?

For a full-volume mash, I recommend a 10 gallon kettle. If you're going to do a half-volume mash, 7.5g should work very well. Then sparge with remaining water to get to boil volume. At that point, though, a lot of the ease benefits of BIAB versus batch sparging disappear.

 

[HBngNOK]

I have a full two tiered system but want to try a BIAB .

Do you folks use the paint strainer bags ?

I have a 1/4 keg (7.5 gallon ) with the top cut out , would that work for a 5 gallon BIAB kettle ?

I tried a five gallon paint strainer bag, and thought it crowded the grains, and I was only making a 2.5 gallon batch.

Counting grain absorption, boil-off, trub loss, etc, a five gallon batch will take ~ 7 gallons of water, so I don't think the quarter keg would work - for a 5 gallon batch. I just made a 5 gallon batch in a 10 gallon kettle. With 11.5 pounds of grain, and 7.4 gallons of water, and had 4~6 inches left in the kettle.

 

[mirogster]

I'll second to above. All about BIAB is KISS. But it also depends of your OG. You can also do Maxi-BIAB for bigger beers(another smaller kettle/pot is needed).

 

[wilserbrewer]

Do you folks use the paint strainer bags ?

I have a 1/4 keg (7.5 gallon ) with the top cut out , would that work for a 5 gallon BIAB kettle ?

1. Polyester voile material will make a better, larger, finer weave, and more durable bag than a paint strainer.

2. A 7.5 gallon pot will work for 5 gallon batches but you will need to do a dunk sparge in another vessel, the pot is too small for a full volume mash BIAB.

 

[241]

1. Polyester voile material will make a better, larger, finer weave, and more durable bag than a paint strainer.

2. A 7.5 gallon pot will work for 5 gallon batches but you will need to do a dunk sparge in another vessel, the pot is too small for a full volume mash BIAB.

^ yeah that. Even with a 40 qt (10 gal) I'm right to the top with 8 gal strike water

 

[user 143549]

Here's a BIAB process problem I would love assistance on:

I have a 15 gal kettle paired with 1 burner.
I plan on making 5.25 gal BIAB batches.
I understand the basics about calculating grain absorption and boil-off, but I'm unclear one thing.

My question is - with one burner - what's the best way to prep my hot sparge water to rinse the grain/get to my pre-boil volume?

Is it advisable to get an Igloo cooler and heat a few gallons of sparge water - ahead of the BIAB mash?

I really want to avoid moving my brew kettle off the burner once I have 7-8 gallons of wort in there.

 

[mirogster]

15 gal is more than enough for 5 gal full (no sparge per se) BIAB batches I'd recommend to try it, that way first
But if you'd like to sparge, do it with max 2-3 gal water. So you can heat it up with some kitchen electric kettle. Prepare it just before mashout & pour it to the other bucket/pot etc. --->bag with grains=dunk sparge. But yeah, some running with hot water is involved = caution!

 

[user 143549]

15 gal is more than enough for 5 gal full (no sparge per se) BIAB batches I'd recommend to try it, that way first

Yeah, I opted to go 15 rather 10 for the occasional big brew...

 

[czarsketch]

I do BIAB in a 15 gal pot. I don't sparge. I take the bag out after the mash is done and place it (quickly) in a strainer that's suspended over my plastic bucket primary. Let it drip dry, then take a binder clip or something similar and twist the bag and clip it to pull more liquid out. You can be gentle and only do it once or twice, and it's mostly waiting so you can prep your boil while you're doing it.

 

[Euphist]

Yep, I no need to sparge. Just be sure to do a mash-out.

 

[user 143549]

I do BIAB in a 15 gal pot. I don't sparge. I take the bag out after the mash is done and place it (quickly) in a strainer that's suspended over my plastic bucket primary. Let it drip dry, then take a binder clip or something similar and twist the bag and clip it to pull more liquid out. You can be gentle and only do it once or twice, and it's mostly waiting so you can prep your boil while you're doing it.

And then you use that to add back into your kettle to hit your pre-boil volume?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Keep it simple for your first batch...since you have plenty of room in the keggle, add your grains to 7-8 gallons of strike water at 160 degrees and wrap in a few blankets for an hour, pull the bag and boil to get a 5 gallon batch...simple and done....cheers!

Mashout IMHO is optional.

 

[Mysticmead]

And then you use that to add back into your kettle to hit your pre-boil volume?

exactly..

with the 15 gallon kettle you should rally be doing full volume BIAB.. you have the room for it. I started with a 10 gallon doing full volume, now I use a keggle and can do 10 gallon normal gravity or low gravity beers. Or HUGE 5 gallon beers with no problem. You can either stick the grain bag in a second pot to drain as mentioned before or if you have a pulley setup just hang the bag over the kettle and let it drain. If you are doing a beer that calls for FWH (first wort hopping) this would be a perfect time to add those while waiting for the bag to drain (its how I do it, works great).

 

[MikeyLXT]

It is all about the crush!

MY 1st 2 batches were from Austin Homebrew and i requested a "double crush" on my grains. I am not sure that was every done or if they just didn't have the mill set fine enough. Either way the grains just did not look like the were milled finely enough but what did I know? This was my first All-Grain order after all. I got around 55% efficiency both times and was becoming rather disappointed about making the switch from extract.

I finally decided to get my grain from the local homebrew store. After they milled the grains once I asked to take a look at them and they were NOTICEABLE better crushed then my previous orders. Well on this brew day I got 83% efficiency and am confident moving forward.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

It is all about the crush!

MY 1st 2 batches were from Austin Homebrew and i requested a "double crush" on my grains. I am not sure that was every done or if they just didn't have the mill set fine enough. Either way the grains just did not look like the were milled finely enough but what did I know? This was my first All-Grain order after all. I got around 55% efficiency both times and was becoming rather disappointed about making the switch from extract.

I finally decided to get my grain from the local homebrew store. After they milled the grains once I asked to take a look at them and they were NOTICEABLE better crushed then my previous orders. Well on this brew day I got 83% efficiency and am confident moving forward.

I've found crush is a major factor. I used to double crush but at a fairly wide gap and got efficiencies in the low 60's. Finally got a feeler gauge and dropped my gap to .030". I only single crush because its so fine I'm afraid I'd make a huge mess trying to pass it through again. With the single pass though I'm always in the high 70's.