ChiknNutz
Well-Known Member
Still consider myself a newbie, but have moved on from extracts to BIAB and am so far very happy with the process and the results. My first batch was an "Orange SMaSH Pale Ale" from Altantic Brew Supply (props to them for such great service). I used the Priceless Brew in a Bag calculator and started with 7.93G @161.2 degrees F for my strike water. Although this is meant to be a 5G batch, I decided I wanted to shoot for 5.5G in the fermenter, knowing my OG and ABV might suffer some based on a planned 75% efficiency. I can live with that. Moving on.
While not that exact, my initial temp was 162.3 and volume close enough to that...just a shade under 8G with my calibrated dipstick
I took several measurements as I went, not being too sure what all is important, but I figure more data is better than less. So after stirring in the 11.5# of Briess 2-row pale malt, my water dropped to 155.1. After a 60 minute mash, the water temp was 149.9. After lifting the bag and squeezing and draining, I still had 7.5G of water, which was too much based on the calcs which suggested it should be 7.13G for pre-boil. I went ahead and boiled off a little until I had an estimated 7.25G. In hindsight, maybe I should have just left it alone as I ultimately boiled off a bit more than expected, with a post-boil volume of 5.75G (which is 1/2G more than planned).
I forgot to take a post-boil OG reading, but did take a pre-boil gravity reading of 1.038 @ 119 degrees, which is a 1.049 temp corrected gravity. I had already cleaned up everything before realizing I had failed to take the OG. Oh well, it smelled like good wort to me. It's all now in the FC happily fermenting away already as evidence by the vigorous airlock bubbling.
After the brew, I went ahead and visited the Brewer's Friend calcs to see if I could calculate what my efficiency was and what the OG should be based on all this. Here's what I came up with.
Calculated efficiency: 86.84%
Calculated OG: 1.064 (plan was 1.058)
Calculated FG: 1.018 (plan was 1.013)
Estimated ABV: 6.04% (plan was 5.9%)
I don't know if this is correct for a brand new BIAB brewer or just go lucky, since the recipe planned for a 75% efficiency.
In the pix you will see I transferred from the brew kettle to a bucket, which is an unnecessary step, but the reason I did is so I can see how much wort I am actually getting into the fermenter. It also helps to aerate the wort as I don't do an O2 aerate step. So into the bucket I got just a touch under 5.5G, which is a little under my plan but good enough for now. I really just want to end up with a true 5G in the keg. Overall, really pleased with how little trub you get in the brew kettle with this process, which translates to less and less trub in each transfer. A large part of this was also due to using the hop boiling bag. I have floating dip tubes in my kegmenter and kegs, so should end up with really clear beer at the end of the day. Overall, this was a 5 hour brew day, though I wasn't striving for a short one, could have cut off maybe 1/2 hour or even an hour if I was more efficient with certain steps. But cleanup was better than even the extracts I've done since so little trub ends up in the kettle. The bags are much easier to clean than I expected, a nice surprise.
While not that exact, my initial temp was 162.3 and volume close enough to that...just a shade under 8G with my calibrated dipstick
I took several measurements as I went, not being too sure what all is important, but I figure more data is better than less. So after stirring in the 11.5# of Briess 2-row pale malt, my water dropped to 155.1. After a 60 minute mash, the water temp was 149.9. After lifting the bag and squeezing and draining, I still had 7.5G of water, which was too much based on the calcs which suggested it should be 7.13G for pre-boil. I went ahead and boiled off a little until I had an estimated 7.25G. In hindsight, maybe I should have just left it alone as I ultimately boiled off a bit more than expected, with a post-boil volume of 5.75G (which is 1/2G more than planned).I forgot to take a post-boil OG reading, but did take a pre-boil gravity reading of 1.038 @ 119 degrees, which is a 1.049 temp corrected gravity. I had already cleaned up everything before realizing I had failed to take the OG. Oh well, it smelled like good wort to me. It's all now in the FC happily fermenting away already as evidence by the vigorous airlock bubbling.
After the brew, I went ahead and visited the Brewer's Friend calcs to see if I could calculate what my efficiency was and what the OG should be based on all this. Here's what I came up with.
Calculated efficiency: 86.84%
Calculated OG: 1.064 (plan was 1.058)
Calculated FG: 1.018 (plan was 1.013)
Estimated ABV: 6.04% (plan was 5.9%)
I don't know if this is correct for a brand new BIAB brewer or just go lucky, since the recipe planned for a 75% efficiency.
In the pix you will see I transferred from the brew kettle to a bucket, which is an unnecessary step, but the reason I did is so I can see how much wort I am actually getting into the fermenter. It also helps to aerate the wort as I don't do an O2 aerate step. So into the bucket I got just a touch under 5.5G, which is a little under my plan but good enough for now. I really just want to end up with a true 5G in the keg. Overall, really pleased with how little trub you get in the brew kettle with this process, which translates to less and less trub in each transfer. A large part of this was also due to using the hop boiling bag. I have floating dip tubes in my kegmenter and kegs, so should end up with really clear beer at the end of the day. Overall, this was a 5 hour brew day, though I wasn't striving for a short one, could have cut off maybe 1/2 hour or even an hour if I was more efficient with certain steps. But cleanup was better than even the extracts I've done since so little trub ends up in the kettle. The bags are much easier to clean than I expected, a nice surprise.
