Efficiency Help (Update)

[celtic_man81]

Hello there!

About a month ago I had trouble brewing all-grain. Long story short, a few of you suggested BIAB. At the time, I only had maybe a 15 L pot -- so it would've been tricky to pull off. Recently I aquired a 32 L pot, so this was definately do-able. I did a sort of BIAB (basically a hybrid of BIAB and a regular mash schedule). I tried to do BIAB in the pot, but it was too wide for the bag, so I had to end up dumping the grains into the pot and then when it came to doing the sparging, I did it in the bag (which made things so much easier).

The results were great! I got around 80% efficiency, but I think I can do better next time by loosening the grains up in the sparge more and letting it sit longer.

All in all, I was done in under 8 hours!

For those of you who are curious about what I'm cooking, I'm making an absinthe lager. So far, it looks like it'll turn out. I just need to let it sit for a few more weeks; then add in the rest of the ingredients and let it sit some more.

Next on the brewing schedule will be 60 min IPA.

 

[Lazarous]

Curious about this absinthe lager ... Where is it getting it's name?

 

[celtic_man81]

I am using the herbs you would use to make absinthe. I am also using light grain, so it doesn't negatively affect the flavour. Likewise with the yeast.

Checked the flavour, and it seems ok so far. Seemed a little creamy, but I checked this during the krausen. I will wait in another week or so, when I check the S.G to taste test.

 

[kable]

Why did it take almost 8hrs? You should be looking at about 3-4 with BIAB?

 

[celtic_man81]

Well, at one point I wasn't paying close enough attention and the brew boiled over a bit, leaving me a mess to clean up. This happened twice (the second time wasn't as bad). So that added a bit of time onto it. I also am including regular cleanup time as well. Otherwise, things went pretty well -- the actual brewing didn't take that long.