ericbw
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Feeling ready to give up on BIAB.
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Glad you're seeing improvement! 66% is about what I was being before buying my own mill, so I think you're sitting right where you want to be.
For insulation here are a couple suggestions:
Reflectix, basically bubble wrap covered in foil. 4 layers wrapped around your kettle will really help you. Put a pad of 4 layers under the kettle, and on the lid too. Then put a blanket over the whole top of the kettle for good measure.
Put a layer of aluminum foil inside your kettle directly on top of the wort as a barrier between the wort and the headspace in your kettle. It helps reduce the contact with air driven by convection inside the headspace that could be stealing your heat. I learned that trick courtesy of Inkleg here on HBT.
bucfan1234
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Glad to hear it went well!
Why do you keep using so much water? That's your problem. You are making 6+ gallons of beer with ingredients for 5 gallons. Work backwards. Say you want 5.5 gallon in the fermenter, have a 1 gal/hr boil off rate, and .5 gal for grain absorption/kettle loss. That gives you 7 gallons to start.
chickypad
lupulin shift victim
Nice job! I agree with MadKing, 67% with the LHBS crush is pretty good as long as you can reproduce it.
If I am reading things right you mashed 12.5 lb in 8 gals of water for a mash thickness of 2.56 qt/lb. If doug is still following he can probably give you more accurate numbers, but you can do a quick estimate of your conversion efficiency with the simple formula and table from Kai's article (about halfway down the page). So if your gravity was 1.042 that'd be about 84% conversion efficiency, and you want that up in the mid 90's. Again, not to sound like a broken record but I'd suspect crush first rather than mash temp unless you were really low, like low 140's.
If I am reading things right you mashed 12.5 lb in 8 gals of water for a mash thickness of 2.56 qt/lb. If doug is still following he can probably give you more accurate numbers, but you can do a quick estimate of your conversion efficiency with the simple formula and table from Kai's article (about halfway down the page). So if your gravity was 1.042 that'd be about 84% conversion efficiency, and you want that up in the mid 90's. Again, not to sound like a broken record but I'd suspect crush first rather than mash temp unless you were really low, like low 140's.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
ericbw
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Yeah me too, never had an IPA I liked yet.
Just following Priceless' and beersmiths recommendations.
Thats a good place to start, and I don't mean to be redundant, but you have to measure your volumes and inputs for the calculators to refine your batches.
And it doesn't really matter how you do it. For example of your batches are ending up 0.5 gallons too large, you can decrease your trub loss or kettle loss or boil off rate by an equivalent amount. As long as beersmith's batch size agrees with your actual measured batch size you're good to go.
Which are good to a point, but garbage in, garbage out. Obviously if the end result is not where you want it, ie too much volume, something went wrong somewhere and you need to adjust. I've never use more than 7.5 gal for a batch, and usually end up with 6 gal in the fermenter.
I mean, was just about what was expected. My gravity was a tad low, but that was probably because I had a hard time maintaining mash temperatures. I had to extend my boil, but I also had to keep relighting my burner so my boil off late was probably less than usual.
pricelessbrewing
Brewer's Friend Software Manager
I'm not as active on here as I used to be, but if you're still having issues or if anyone has any questions or issues at all, you can always tag me with @pricelessbrewing send me a message here, or report an issue on the git hub page.
If your preboil is routinely higher than intended, you should adjust either the grain absorption, or mashtun losses, or double check your water volume measurements (taking thermal expansion into consideration)
If your preboil is routinely higher than intended, you should adjust either the grain absorption, or mashtun losses, or double check your water volume measurements (taking thermal expansion into consideration)
I don't think the temperature loss was an important factor. Unless you have a coarse crush and also let the temperature fall below 145 during the mash the conversion would continue. If your grains are milled fine such as you can have for BIAB the conversion would be done before you could chill the mash enough to stop the conversion. Look hard at your grains and how they are milled and also your water volumes. Low gravity because of excess water is not a problem in conversion in the mash, only an error on your part.:rockin:
Here's a picture of my most recent crush: http://imgur.com/a/ti1Lx
wilserbrewer
BIAB Expert Tailor
From what I can see in the photo, I would crush more, a fair bit more.
Maybe I'll try and get the owner to adjust the crush... that was with his standard crush and double killing. Do you have a picture of yours?
Here's a picture of my grains as they are crushed. https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/6/5/8/0/3/p1070971-62856.jpg
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My crush is similar to RM-MN. I think we both hand crank a Corona type mill.
NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
Glad to read things are getting better. While I appreciate that BIAB is supposed to be about KISS, if holding mash temperature is impeding on the "having fun and keeping simple" aspect, think about using a cooler to do the mash.
I stopped using the burner to hold mash temps when I started to get the thermometer down low in the pot (I do mini-BIAB). If it's hot enough to scorch the bag, it's hot enough to melt enzyme chains. Luckily for me my kettle fits inside a warm oven.
Tip: use two thermometers, I use a long probe analog dial thermometer in the kettle and use a ProTemp PT 1000 digital instant read to spot check. I also verify the pro-temp using ice water and boiling water. Thermometers can be misleading. Many are off out of the box and others need to be calibrated over time.
apl_seed
apl_seed
I went from pot mashing to cooler mashing with a bag and it's way easier to hold temps. The degree drop is minimal, about 2-3 degrees. Wish I would've thought about the oven bit like NSMikeD though before I spent money on a cooler. Still the cooler works great, especially with a false bottom.
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NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
fwiw, a cooler is a better at holding temp than an oven. Since my oven only will go down to 170, I need to turn it off then check on it. For a small batch of 1 gallon and a 90 minute mash, I usually have to reheat midway to keep from falling too much.
If the idea of BIAB is to make it easier, then a winning argument can be made for the additional piece equipment in eh form of a cooler, especially for small batches.
Have you checked to see that you really need a 90 minute mash with BIAB? I've been doing 30 minute mashes with good success with efficiency over 85%. You don't get that kind of efficiency unless you have nearly 100% conversion.
NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
yeah, I know. Good point. I am not looking to brew dry beers, so I know a 30 minute mash should be sufficient. I'm likely to go with 60 minutes my next brew day.
I've upped to 2.5 gallon batches and that has made holding mash temp proportionality easier.
