First ALL grain/BIAB - some questions....

[cdunn1221]

Going to make my first BIAB batch tomorrow. Going to do an Irish Red Ale with the following :

10lbs 2 row
8oz Crystal 40L
4oz Roasted Barley(500 SRM)
0.5oz EKG 60 mins
1oz EKG 30 mins
Yeast: WLP004 - Irish Ale.

I am trying to get my approach down before I brew tomorrow but I have a few concerns.
I bought a 10 gallon megapot dual weld from NB which I believe is enough room to no spare (I think it really holds about 11 gallons total). Should I sparge? I have seen so many opinions just trying to make a decision...

Water Concern:
I have well water that is very hard, but do not have a water report. I know it creates lime residue and buffers the pH around 8.2. I have a RODI system.
Should I mix half RO DI water. I know I should get water tested, but I am determined to brew tomorrow.

Any help would be appreciated or general advice for someone nervous to do his first BIAB batch.

Thanks :rockin:

 

[theseeker4]

Going to make my first BIAB batch tomorrow. Going to do an Irish Red Ale with the following :

10lbs 2 row
8oz Crystal 40L
4oz Roasted Barley(500 SRM)
0.5oz EKG 60 mins
1oz EKG 30 mins
Yeast: WLP004 - Irish Ale.

I am trying to get my approach down before I brew tomorrow but I have a few concerns.
I bought a 10 gallon megapot dual weld from NB which I believe is enough room to no spare (I think it really holds about 11 gallons total). Should I sparge? I have seen so many opinions just trying to make a decision...

Water Concern:
I have well water that is very hard, but do not have a water report. I know it creates lime residue and buffers the pH around 8.2. I have a RODI system.
Should I mix half RO DI water. I know I should get water tested, but I am determined to brew tomorrow.

Any help would be appreciated or general advice for someone nervous to do his first BIAB batch.

Thanks :rockin:

If I were you, I would use as much RO di water as I could, and limit the pure well water to under a gallon, if at all. If you need to, go get RO di or distiller water from a store.

Have you done partial mashes in the past? Any astringency in your beers that used partial mash or steeping grains?

 

[DaNewf]

In this video they use a 33litre (8.75 gallon) boiler to do a 20litre (5.25 gallon) batch with a 5kg (11lb) grain bill. They do a full volume mash with no sparging, just a little squeezing. With an 11 gallon pot you could do a larger batch using the exact same method (edit: assuming your boil off rate isn't a hell of a lot higher than theirs).

Should you sparge? That's up to you. Do you have to? No!

I personally use a DIY plastic boiler similar to the one in the video but mine is not quite 30 litres. Without a sparge I'd be limited to about a 4.5 gallon batch size so I do perform a dunk sparge in a second pot to get a boil volume that will result in about a 5.5 gallon batch size.

 

[theheroguy]

No need to sparge just do full volume with a fine crush. How fine? If you don't have to beat the sh*t out of your grain to stop the doughballs the crush isn't fine enough. I would use a lot of DI water your profile sounds like a**.

 

[cdunn1221]

If I were you, I would use as much RO di water as I could, and limit the pure well water to under a gallon, if at all. If you need to, go get RO di or distiller water from a store.

Have you done partial mashes in the past? Any astringency in your beers that used partial mash or steeping grains?

Done plenty of batches with steeping grains and never had any astringency problems. Why all RO DI? Don't I want some calcium and other minerals in my brew water? I figured if I was doing a pilsner etc. I would want very little mineral content, but thought I could get away with more here. I can make as much RODI as needed but want to make sure the isn't deficient;

Thanks again

 

[DaNewf]

No need to sparge just do full volume with a fine crush. How fine? If you don't have to beat the sh*t out of your grain to stop the doughballs the crush isn't fine enough.

Second this.

I get the guy at my LHBS to run my grain through the mill twice. I generally meet or exceed the target OG of the recipes I use. I rain the grain in slowly a couple cups at a time stirring like a mofo the whole while.

 

[cdunn1221]

Second this.

I get the guy at my LHBS to run my grain through the mill twice. I generally meet or exceed the target OG of the recipes I use. I rain the grain in slowly a couple cups at a time stirring like a mofo the whole while.

Yeah my grains were milled twice and ready to go. Sounds like I'll do no sparge tomorrow

 

[cdunn1221]

Going to start making DI water. Just not sure how much I need. Beersmith is saying 8.46 gallons of water, but it is also saying loss of 1 gallon due to trub? Will I really lose that much?

 

[TexasWine]

Going to start making DI water. Just not sure how much I need. Beersmith is saying 8.46 gallons of water, but it is also saying loss of 1 gallon due to trub? Will I really lose that much?

Trub in the fermenter or dead space in the kettle? I usually allow for about a gallon of loss due to trub in the fermenter, but that is because I'm one of those crazy folks that dump everything from the kettle into the fermenter.

Before you brew tomorrow I'd make sure that I understood every single variable you use as input to define your system in your brewing software of choice (sounds like you've selected Beersmith). I can't tell you how many times I've seen folks miss their volumes and/or gravity due to bad input into the software. GIGO. You don't have to have exact values for every variable, but you should at least know that what you're using as input is a good guess for your system.

Concerning your water, I'd recommend wandering over to the brewing science forum and reading the introductory water chemistry sticky. Use all RO and add salts per the recommendations in that thread (linked below).

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

 

[RM-MN]

Does your well water taste good for drinking? If so, use it. You can make this recipe again later if you don't like the taste but most well water works pretty good for brewing. No sparge is a good idea for your first BIAB as it is just one less thing to think about. Keep good records on the amount of grains and water. Make sure to use your hydrometer to measure the OG as I suspect that you will have a higher OG than planned. When the boil is done and the wort cooled, pour everything into your fermenter leaving nothing behind except for perhaps a bit of hop sludge. I sometimes leave half a cup of sludge behind, sometimes I just dump it all into the fermenter. Any liquid left behind is beer that is lost. Anything that isn't liquid settles out in the fermenter when the yeast are done.

 

[cdunn1221]

I drink the water everyday and it tastes fine. Just worried about mash not going down to proper ph. I'm going to use at least 5 gallons DI maybe more

 

[UndeadFred]

I have 300 PPM on the TDS meter and 7.3 pH well water that tastes awesome. For $1.85 for 5 gallons I can get store RO. That and about ten cents worth of chemicals from the LHBS and then I don't worry about water. On dark beers like stouts I cheat and don't worry about chemistry.. Do 2/3 RO to 1/3 well.. But on light colored beers I just use RO. I could pay $40 turning around a water report, but that's a lot of water at 37 cents a gallon to probably figure out I will need to use 37 cent a gallon water for all but dark beers...

 

[theseeker4]

Done plenty of batches with steeping grains and never had any astringency problems. Why all RO DI? Don't I want some calcium and other minerals in my brew water? I figured if I was doing a pilsner etc. I would want very little mineral content, but thought I could get away with more here. I can make as much RODI as needed but want to make sure the isn't deficient;

Thanks again

Not that you don't want any, but if you don't know your water parameters, your mash pH could be too high, which could result in tannin extraction. Some hardness is perfectly fine, but since you don't know how much you have, you might waste a batch of beer if you simply brew with the well water.

 

[cdunn1221]

Not that you don't want any, but if you don't know your water parameters, your mash pH could be too high, which could result in tannin extraction. Some hardness is perfectly fine, but since you don't know how much you have, you might waste a batch of beer if you simply brew with the well water.

Ok got it. I'm doing 5 gallons DI water to almost 3 gallons of well water. I have a feeling it'll be ok. I took a ph from tap earlier and it was 7.4. Used to higher in the past not sure what changed.

Thanks

 

[RM-MN]

Ok got it. I'm doing 5 gallons DI water to almost 3 gallons of well water. I have a feeling it'll be ok. I took a ph from tap earlier and it was 7.4. Used to higher in the past not sure what changed.

Thanks

The pH of your well water doesn't mean too much. It's the mash pH that counts. Unless your well water has high alkalinity, the addition of the grains will bring the pH down into a reasonable range.

 

[cdunn1221]

I was reheating mash and messed up with new burner. Temp hit 170 is the mash ruined? Still 20 minutes left in mash in??? Ahhhh

 

[cdunn1221]

My pre boil gravity was dead on so I'm hoping it's good still

 

[cdunn1221]

Would I notice astringency yet or would that not show up till after fermentation?

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Going to start making DI water. Just not sure how much I need. Beersmith is saying 8.46 gallons of water, but it is also saying loss of 1 gallon due to trub? Will I really lose that much?

You do not want to use DI water for brewing beer, or drinking for that matter. DI water is not to be mistaken for Distilled water, in case that wasn't obvious. Use RO water but before that, get good at using a water profile calculator, or you may find yourself stumbling around in the dark without a light.

Guestimating is not the same as knowing what your water properties are.

 

[RM-MN]

I was reheating mash and messed up with new burner. Temp hit 170 is the mash ruined? Still 20 minutes left in mash in??? Ahhhh

I quite often only mash for 20 to 30 minutes and sometimes even shorter. I'll bet that the conversion was done before you even thought of messing with the burner.

Why are you worrying about astringency. It's pretty unlikely. Take a taste of the wort. Does it remind you of sucking on a tea bag? That's astringency.

 

[cdunn1221]

Tastes pretty good! numbers were pretty damn close for OG. I was worried about astringency because of my hard water and the possibility it went above 170 in spots. I also ripped my bag pulling it out of kettle on therm probe. Crazy first BIAB day but I guess it's good to make the mistakes now and improve my process.. If the beer tastes good I'll be happy. I will be keggin for the first time as well when it's ready. Hopefully that goes a little smoother.


Thanks everyone for the help. Hope to have this kegged for Xmas.