First BIAB brew - a couple of questions

[jpb2716]

Hello all.

Well, after 10 extract batches or so I've decided to jump to all grain BIAB brewing.

Some background info, I'll be brewing outdoors. My equipment - 10 gallon Polar Ware pot, Edelmetall burner and a wilserbrewer bag.

Here's the recipe that I was going to do. Since this is my first go at not only BIAB, but all grain in general, I wanted to go with something easy. Also, as you'll see, I have an abundance of whole leaf Cascade hops so I figure that this is a good opportunity to use some of them. Is this an ok recipe to start with? Please let me know any critiques/criticisms.

Recipe size - 5 gallons
Estimated OG - 1.061
Estimated color - 7.01
Estimated IBU - 59.23
Boil Time - 60 minutes

12lb Pale 2-row
.5lb Carapils
.5lb Crystal 60L

1.5 oz Cascade @ 60 minutes
1.5 oz Cascade @ 15 minutes
2 oz Cascade @ 5 minutes

Mash @154F
WLP001 yeast

I used the priceless brew in a bag calculator (which by the way is awesome) and came up with 8.31 gallons of water to compensate for boiloff, trub loss and grain and hops absorption.

I typed the specs from my local water company's water report into brewersfriend's software. It says that my mash pH will be 5.74. Also, it says that my Ca +2 levels are low.

My main questions are, is my mash pH too high? If so, how do I lower it? How crucial is it that my Ca+2 is low?

Thanks so much everyone. Sorry for the rookie questions. I'm looking forward to stepping into the realm of BIAB brewing!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Hello all.

Well, after 10 extract batches or so I've decided to jump to all grain BIAB brewing.

Some background info, I'll be brewing outdoors. My equipment - 10 gallon Polar Ware pot, Edelmetall burner and a wilserbrewer bag.

Here's the recipe that I was going to do. Since this is my first go at not only BIAB, but all grain in general, I wanted to go with something easy. Also, as you'll see, I have an abundance of whole leaf Cascade hops so I figure that this is a good opportunity to use some of them. Is this an ok recipe to start with? Please let me know any critiques/criticisms.

Recipe size - 5 gallons
Estimated OG - 1.061
Estimated color - 7.01
Estimated IBU - 59.23
Boil Time - 60 minutes

12lb Pale 2-row
.5lb Carapils
.5lb Crystal 60L

1.5 oz Cascade @ 60 minutes
1.5 oz Cascade @ 15 minutes
2 oz Cascade @ 5 minutes

Mash @154F
WLP001 yeast

I used the priceless brew in a bag calculator (which by the way is awesome) and came up with 8.31 gallons of water to compensate for boiloff, trub loss and grain and hops absorption.

I typed the specs from my local water company's water report into brewersfriend's software. It says that my mash pH will be 5.74. Also, it says that my Ca +2 levels are low.

My main questions are, is my mash pH too high? If so, how do I lower it? How crucial is it that my Ca+2 is low?

Thanks so much everyone. Sorry for the rookie questions. I'm looking forward to stepping into the realm of BIAB brewing!

Thanks

I have a new page I'm still testing out some new variables and might help if you need to estimate your boil off rate. 8.32 seems a bit high to me, but your boil off might be more than I'm guessing or you might be leaving some wort behind in the kettle.

http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/TestingA

5.74 seems a little high to me, and I always use bru'n water for my mash chemistry stuffs.

 

[Subdivisions]

As far as mash PH, I've just recently been calculating my water (store bought spring water that I found the water report for) and realized that most of my previous beers had a mash Ph of around 6. They all came out pretty well. Not world class but very good.

As far as your calcium the recommended minimum is 40. At least 50 is considered ideal. You can use either gypsum or calcium chloride to increase the amount. Just make sure to check out how your sulfate and chloride is changed from those additions.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

As far as mash PH, I've just recently been calculating my water (store bought spring water that I found the water report for) and realized that most of my previous beers had a mash Ph of around 6. They all came out pretty well. Not world class but very good.

As far as your calcium the recommended minimum is 40. At least 50 is considered ideal. You can use either gypsum or calcium chloride to increase the amount. Just make sure to check out how your sulfate and chloride is changed from those additions.

I assume you mean 5.6 as a ph of 6 is going to have quite a noticeable amount of tannins.

 

[dmtaylor]

I agree with the advice above. Double check your water volumes -- might be correct actually but it wouldn't hurt to check. About 1 teaspoon of gypsum in the mash and a little more like 1/2 teaspoon in the sparge will fix the pH.

 

[noggins]

I remember my first biab I had a terrible time trying to maintain my mash temp for a variety of reasons. I'd say be sure you've got a handle on that with insulation of some kind, especially for an outdoor brew this time of year.

 

[jpb2716]

Thanks

I have a new page I'm still testing out some new variables and might help if you need to estimate your boil off rate. 8.32 seems a bit high to me, but your boil off might be more than I'm guessing or you might be leaving some wort behind in the kettle.

http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/TestingA

5.74 seems a little high to me, and I always use bru'n water for my mash chemistry stuffs.

Thanks for the reply priceless! Like i said above, I used your calculator and it's awesome. The only default variable that I was unsure of was the grain absorption. I read somewhere to calculate it at at 0.125 gallons per pound of grain so I changed it. If I keep it at the default setting of 0.08 then my total volume comes in at 7.72 gallons. If that still doesn't sound right please let me know. I want to make sure that I'm doing this right.

 

[dmtaylor]

I figure 0.12 gallons per pound absorption, seems about right. 0.08 seems way off but could be true if the grain is not as dry due to humidity or whatever.

 

[jpb2716]

As far as mash PH, I've just recently been calculating my water (store bought spring water that I found the water report for) and realized that most of my previous beers had a mash Ph of around 6. They all came out pretty well. Not world class but very good.

As far as your calcium the recommended minimum is 40. At least 50 is considered ideal. You can use either gypsum or calcium chloride to increase the amount. Just make sure to check out how your sulfate and chloride is changed from those additions.

Thanks for the reply! My local water company says "56 ppm Ca as CaCO3." But when I inputted that into the brewersfriend calculator that I was using it says that I'm only at 23 mg/l for Ca+2. Maybe I'm inputting things wrong or misunderstanding it.

 

[casualbrewer]

It depends on your boil off rate and whether or not you squeeze the bag. Some get less than .08 absorption when squeezing.

 

[jpb2716]

I agree with the advice above. Double check your water volumes -- might be correct actually but it wouldn't hurt to check. About 1 teaspoon of gypsum in the mash and a little more like 1/2 teaspoon in the sparge will fix the pH.

Thanks for the reply! I wasn't going to do a sparge. Since I'm going to mash in my total water volume, would there only be one gypsum addition at the time of the mash?

 

[theseeker4]

I assume you mean 5.6 as a ph of 6 is going to have quite a noticeable amount of tannins.

Doesn't significant tannin extraction require both high pH, AND higher temperatures? At least that is what is often quoted on this site. Curious if that is true, or one parameter alone can cause tannin problems.

 

[BowAholic]

welcome to my favorite method of brewing. My house beer has almost the same recipe, only less hops. Just my 2 cents- I use a 42 quart pot (10.5 gallon) and have had a boil over once or twice...add 10 drops of femcap pre-boil. I also always start with 7.5 gallons of water, drain/squeeze, and end up with 5.25~5.5 gallons in my fermenter after pouring wort through a strainer. My water is very similar as well and I lower my pH by adding .75 tsp of lactic acid, and .75 tsp of calcium chloride fixes the rest. These two additions really help with lighter colored beers. I end up with a mash pH around 5.2. I also add 1/2 of a campden tablet for the chlorimine. Add all of these things while waiting for the water to hit mash temp. I have also discovered that i loose very little water temp when adding my grain, so I turn the heat off once I hit about 155* as I usually mash about 152*. The small temp drop might be due to the fact that I have my bag inside a basket, which probably helps hold heat..? Everything you're doing sounds right. Have fun and make some beer!

 

[dmtaylor]

Thanks for the reply! I wasn't going to do a sparge. Since I'm going to mash in my total water volume, would there only be one gypsum addition at the time of the mash?

Doesn't matter too much. You can use software to calculate your salt additions, or you can wing it with a teaspoon of this and that and come out just fine. Reason I recommend gypsum in this case is that it's a hoppy beer, and sulfate accentuates hop bitterness. Calcium chloride is the other big fella and accentuates malt flavors instead of hop bitterness. You could use both if you wanted to. 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of one or the other or both is fine for about a 5 gallon batch, assuming your initial water source is "average" and not really crappy.

 

[enkamania]

To lower my ph, I use lactic acid.

 

[jpb2716]

I just entered my water company's info into the bru'n water spreadsheet. One question, what should I have entered if my water report lists Sulfate as a range? It's listed as 34-100 ppm SO4. Should i enter it as an average? I entered 70 ppm in the spreadsheet. If I was correct in doing that, I will need to add 7.8 grams of lactic acid which will give me a mash pH of 5.4. Also, I'd need to add 3.9 grams of CaCO3. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I would enter the minimum, the maximum and the average and see how the additions change. Without a good water report it's hard to say, ward labs is considered the standard.

 

[Subdivisions]

I assume you mean 5.6 as a ph of 6 is going to have quite a noticeable amount of tannins.

No, it showed it at 6. I haven't had any astringent taste from it either. From reading about it I'm pretty sure that 6 is ok but on the borderline of going into "excessive" tannin extraction. I'll just say that it has been alright for me. My efficiency was suffering a little though. I've since started using a little lactic acid in my mash water and also cutting it with distilled water to lower the bicarbonates.