First BIAB batch. How does my plan look?

[moldmaker]

I brewed extract/partial grain for around 10 years with just okay results. My first AG batch 5 years ago was a failure. I'm trying BIAB now.

I've got a trial of Brewfather going right now and I think I've designed a recipe. It's a Maris Otter/Mosaic SMaSH, 21A American IPA.

11.5 lbs Maris Otter
1oz Mosaic at 60min
.5oz at 30
.5oz at 5

1 package US-05 yeast

Now this is where I need this explained to me like I'm 5. I adjusted the values of the ingredients until all the sliders were roughly in the middle of their ranges except color (5.4 on a scale of 6-14). Then it gives 14 days fermentation at 68F, which is fine, because that's my basement. It gives 149F mash at 60 minutes and 5.73pH and 7.35 gal total water. Under my equipment profile, I checked 'no sparge'. Do I need to change mash, water, or fermentation profiles? Or are they output as a result of my grain, hops, yeast, and style? Do I need to ensure a certain water chemistry or is my tap water fine as long as I input the values?

In general, it's been overwhelming. My goal is tasty beer and better recognition of ingredients. How does this look so far?

 

[tracer bullet]

Honestly, water is a big deal but if it's your 2nd time ever and the first didn't go well, I'd just go ahead and use your tap water and not worry about it. Get your feet under you so to speak with the general steps and don't worry about it. Maybe after you've brewed a few times and have the general idea down you can add more prep work.

The recipe should make a tasty beer. You might decide to change the recipe and try new things, but it'll work. One step at a time.

 

[MaxStout]

In general, it's been overwhelming. My goal is tasty beer and better recognition of ingredients. How does this look so far?

Don't let it overwhelm you. When starting out, do the basics, see how your local water works out. Then you can delve into the water chem, and that doesn't even need to be overly complex. Some calcium chloride and gypsum for a few bucks from the brew store, maybe a pound or two of acid malt to keep on hand for adjustment of some of the paler beers.

Here's a good, basic primer on brewing water.

 

[Franz]

You should be fine. The ingredients look good, don't worry about the colour, SMaSHs are usually a bit on the low range for most styles.

Given that this is your first BIAB batch I assume you do not have instruments to check the pH of the mash, leave that alone too. Mash temp and time are ok too.

The main thing to decide is your water/grain ratio in the mash, try a full volume mash first (volume to fermenter + grain absorption + boiloff for 1 hour, the second and third value are probably already in the Brewfather settings). Measure them to check the default values, boiloff rate is determined by your equipment.

Fermentation profiles are used to estimate FG and track multiple brews of similar beers, don't worry about that now.

Regarding water, my two cents are leave it alone for the first 10 brews, it's really the last thing to figure out.

As most things worth doing, it has a bit of a learning curve, it's a step up that will give you much more freedom of choice in this awesome craft.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If one is willing to start with RO / distilled water, then Water Chemistry – How to Build Your Water – Bertus Brewery is a great starting point. It's the 'cliff notes' for A Brewing Water Chemistry Primer (mentioned earlier).

One can certainly try a batch without knowing the content of one's tap water. But if the beer comes out 'bad', how does one eliminate water as a source of the problem? The point: if one might need to know the water profile for troubleshooting a 'bad' beer, get the profile before brewing and make use of it to make good water adjustments.

With regard to "water chemistry being complicated", rather than thinking "chemistry", think "adjustments":

• What adjustments are needed to have a source of quality water?
• What adjustments are needed to ensure a proper mash?
• What adjustments are desirable for style-appropriate flavor?
• What adjustments are desirable for a yeast health?

 

[SMD]

I would be less worried about water chemistry (unless your water doesn’t taste good) and put that mental horsepower towards ensuring everything that your beer touches is sanitized diligently. If you hit your target gravities, stick to your plan and clean, clean, clean, then you will persevere.

 

[Bluekat]

Don't let it overwhelm you. When starting out, do the basics, see how your local water works out. Then you can delve into the water chem, and that doesn't even need to be overly complex. Some calcium chloride and gypsum for a few bucks from the brew store, maybe a pound or two of acid malt to keep on hand for adjustment of some of the paler beers.

Here's a good, basic primer on brewing water.

Completely agree with above. I've been brewing for 15 years and only recently have been adjusting water profiles. Stick with the basics and you'll be fine.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

What are "the basics" in this situation (brewing with tap water without mineral adjustments)?

If the beer comes out 'bad' what troubleshooting tips would be helpful?

FWIW: There's an old NHC presentation (2007-ish? I came across it from a brulosophy article) where the presenters brewed four beers: an IPA with "IPA water adjustments", a stout with "stout water adjustments", an IPA with "stout water adjustments", and a stout with "IPA adjustments". The presentation talks about the differences in the beers brewed with the wrong water adjustments.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Here's the link to the Brulosophy article that has the link to the NHC 2007 presentation.

The presentation should give one an idea as to the "off flavors" that may be encountered when brewing with unknown mineral content in water.

@moldmaker : it may be that your tap water (like many other peoples tap water) has a relatively neutral content. Nothing wrong with "just brew with it" and see what happens - as long as one knows how to troubleshoot the problems and off flavors.

 

[Beermeister32]

Check your local municipal water authority and see if the are using chloramine in the water. Chloramine produces off flavors and can’t be easily removed like chlorine. Chlorine produces off flavors too but can usually be cleaned up with a charcoal filter. Chloramine not so easy.

If that is the case use bottled water. Around here you can use Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring water which usually works without adjustments for most beer types using all grain methods including BIAB.

Later on you can get into using distilled or reverse osmosis water and building up a specific water profile for the beer you are making.

 

[Steveruch]

If your water tastes good after removing the chlorine you're good to go. It may not exactly match the specific water of any particular region, but you'll still get good beer.

 

[Beermeister32]

One other thing - on your previous extract batches you should be brewing with RO or distilled water. The malt extract already is loaded with all the minerals needed from its production.

If you use tap water, you could in effect be making a mineral sharp beer, as you would have double the minerals needed.

So between Chlorine/Chloramine and mineral sharpness, it can produce boring or bummer beers....

 

[moldmaker]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I will consider picking up distilled water until I get more testing equipment and chemicals to address the water issue.

As far as water/grain ratio, Brewfather was giving 7.35 gallons total water for no sparge BIAB. That's 2.56 quarts per pound. This seems larger than for traditional AG brewing. Is there a reason to deviate from this number?

 

[Beermeister32]

Distilled on the extract batches. On the all grain/BIAB use the Crystal Geyser or similar bottled water (has some minerals).

 

[moldmaker]

Got it, thanks.

 

[marc1]

I used basic water adjustments to RO for my first all-grain brew, it's not too difficult and you can increase complexity as you get comfortable with it. Based off the Primer information linked above, you could probably try something like 1 tsp gypsum and 1/2 tsp calcium chloride per 5 gallons and be OK. Your pH shouldn't be too out of whack, you can worry about it later if you want.

If you don't have access to gypsum and calcium chloride, as mentioned above you could try spring water to start.

For an American IPA, I'd expect more late hops, and possibly a dry hop. I'd do 2oz or so more late hops or whirlpool, and then maybe 2oz dry hop.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I used basic water adjustments to RO for my first all-grain brew, it's not too difficult and you can increase complexity as you get comfortable with it. Based off the Primer information linked above, you could probably try something like 1 tsp gypsum and 1/2 tsp calcium chloride per 5 gallons and be OK. Your pH shouldn't be too out of whack, you can worry about it later if you want.

Agreed.

Starting with RO/distilled water, use either "Brewing Water Chemistry Primer" (link) or it's "cliff notes" companion (link).

It's not hard. It works.

 

[Bobby_M]

While I agree that you don't want to get too bogged down in details to the point where you're paralyzed and don't want to brew but going forward keep a few things in mind.

At an SRM of under 5 (using all light base malts), there is no water source that I'm aware of that doesn't need a small amount of acid added to the strike water or mash. If you use RO or Distilled, your mash pH will be a pretty high 5.7 (approximately). A relatively middle of the road bottled spring water or municipal water supply may get you to 5.6 if it's not too alkaline.

At the very least use water you know doesn't have chlorine or chloramine in it and add a teaspoon of lactic acid. Slightly better, use 100% RO or distilled water, add a 1/2 teaspoon each of Gypsum and Calcium Chloride, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and the same teaspoon of lactic acid.

 

[DarrellQ]

While I agree that you don't want to get too bogged down in details to the point where you're paralyzed and don't want to brew but going forward keep a few things in mind.

At an SRM of under 5 (using all light base malts), there is no water source that I'm aware of that doesn't need a small amount of acid added to the strike water or mash. If you use RO or Distilled, your mash pH will be a pretty high 5.7 (approximately). A relatively middle of the road bottled spring water or municipal water supply may get you to 5.6 if it's not too alkaline.

At the very least use water you know doesn't have chlorine or chloramine in it and add a teaspoon of lactic acid. Slightly better, use 100% RO or distilled water, add a 1/2 teaspoon each of Gypsum and Calcium Chloride, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and the same teaspoon of lactic acid.

I use well water and according the Bru N' Water, I usually have to add about 4 tsps of phosphoric acid (10%) and several grams of gypsum to get to a ph of ~5.3 for a 5 gallon batch. Does using this much phosphoric acid affect flavor at all?

 

[moldmaker]

If I really want to get serious about water, it sounds like I need a report from the city or my own testing supplies and chemicals.

I'll put some more hops into Brewfather and see what that does. Again, I'm only going by the sliders. This is the first recipe I've designed myself. When I was doing extract/specialty grain, I didn't pay that close attention to type and amount of hops.

 

[tracer bullet]

If I really want to get serious about water, it sounds like I need a report from the city or my own testing supplies and chemicals.

I'll put some more hops into Brewfather and see what that does. Again, I'm only going by the sliders. This is the first recipe I've designed myself. When I was doing extract/specialty grain, I didn't pay that close attention to type and amount of hops.

Yeah... clearly a few ways to do it and differing opinions.

* Skip it for now
* Get RO water and a few specific additions then follow some basic guidelines
* Use specific store-bought water known to be OK (but be careful since it's not all the same)
* Test your water and make additions appropriately (knowing that the water can seasonally change)
* Dive into a calculator and make it perfect including pH adjustments and all else
* Probably 50 more options

I'm of the opinion you should brew a time or two and get comfy with the process and take on the water subject next time or the time after that. But the suggestions above are indeed good ones and if you're up for a trip to get RO water and another to get the additions form a local shop (or online), that clearly works too. You could get overwhelmed but could also end up with even better beer. I guess we are all predicting how much work you're up for right now. You might have to tell us.

 

[marc1]

If I really want to get serious about water, it sounds like I need a report from the city or my own testing supplies and chemicals.

I'll put some more hops into Brewfather and see what that does. Again, I'm only going by the sliders. This is the first recipe I've designed myself. When I was doing extract/specialty grain, I didn't pay that close attention to type and amount of hops.

Can you find the recipes? Some places (like Northern Brewer) have them available.

This is why having good brewing notes is important - you can go back and look at what you did in the past to base future batches on. If there was something you didn't like, you could use them help to figure out what it was.

Have fun with it and don't stress out!

 

[SMD]

You should be able to find a city water report somewhere, that’s what I used for awhile but eventually I just had my water tested. It was really easy. I sent my water sample to Ward Labs, $21 and 3 days later I had a full water report.