First BIAB brew in the fermenter

[rgreenberg2000]

Lots of new stuff going on today. First time BIAB. New Bayou Classic "kettle" (will be my HLT, but was my mash/boil pot today.) New-to-me recipe.

About 2 years ago, I bought a Wilser bag with the intent of playing around with BIAB. Well, life (and laziness) got in the way, and I didn't get around to using the bag until today. I wanted to brew up a small (2.5g) batch of a new-to-me recipe (clone of Cigar City Maduro that I assembled from the thread here on HBT.)

All in all, the brew day went well. My old turkey fryer has succumbed to the elements, so I ended up mashing and boiling on the top tier of my 3-tier stand. This meant I had to stand on a chair to see what was going on in there, but not too much trouble. Mashed in at 153.5, and after an hour, had only lost a degree (lots of towels wrapping the pot!) My pot is new, so I don't have a calibrated volume measurement stick for it yet, so I eyeballed about 3.5g of collected wort. I was a little low on my pre-boil gravity, but close enough.

Boiled, chilled, and ended up with 2.5g in the fermenter @ 1.055 (target was 1.059.) Beersmith says I ended up at 72% vs. the estimated 79%. I'm happy with that for my first BIAB.

Here's the recipe I used, and some pics:

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 2.5 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Temp: 154
Mash Time: 60 min
Est OG: 1.060

3lbs 6oz Maris Otter
12oz Crystal 60
8oz Victory
7oz Brown Malt
7oz Oats, Flaked
5oz Chocolate Malt
.75oz Fuggles, 60 min
.75oz Fuggles, 10 min
Yeast = WLP002, English Ale

Mashed in and thermal control in place:

Draining the wort (squeeze the bejeezus out of it after this!):

...and 2.5g in the fermenter:

Hope everyone who was brewing today had a good one!

Rich

 

[carloscede2]

Thats some nice weather and setup. Ill be brewing my first biab tomorrow, 3.5 gallons batch

 

[dad23ds]

Looks good. Doing my 2nd BIAB today. Nailed my pre-boil Gravity, life is good.

 

[Tedyfinger]

Pretty cool, let us know how it turns out!

 

[rgreenberg2000]

Well, it seems that I have made beer!

No visible signs of fermentation since this am (though I'm sure the yeasties are busy cleaning up), so I took a gravity reading. I'm at 1.020, which is a bit below the minimum attenuation for this yeast, but I expect I'll drop another 2-4 points as it fully finishes. Expecting to let this sit in the primary for the full 14 days, then I'll rack to a keg for cold conditioning and carbing.

The hydrometer sample tasted great! Can't wait to get it in my glass a bit colder and carbonated!

More to come....

Rich

 

[LostHopper]

Your beer sounds good and your photos remind me why I like brewing with 3 gallon carboys. Everything is so easy to handle.

 

[kombat]

I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt your gravity will drop much lower. By my math, a whopping 34% of your grain bill are unfermentables. In addition, WLP002 is a fairly low-attenuating strain. Finally, you mashed at a temperature consistent with a sweeter, fuller-bodied beer. That said, all that really matters is whether or not you like the taste when it's done.

 

[rgreenberg2000]

Kombat, I hope you're wrong too! The range of attenuation on that yeast is supposedly 63-70. With 55 points OG, I'm thinking that I'm either done at the low end of that range ((1-.63)*55=20.4), or I might get a couple more points.... I'm going to swirl things around in the fermenter once a day for the next 2-3 days, then I'll let it do it's thing.

The hydrometer sample didn't taste sweet. Really, it tasted like a very nice, uncarbonated brown ale. I've never had an actual Cigar City Maduro, but just liked how the recipe looked on the long clone thread here.

One thing I know for certain is that it is beer! One reason I brewed this as a 2.5 gal batch is because it was new to me, and I wanted to make sure I had something that I would want to drink 5 gallons of before brewing a full size (for me) batch. So far, so good. If it ends up too sweet when it's all packaged up and conditioned, I'll tweak the grain bill and/or mash schedule to get a more fermentable wort next time.

Exactly why I love this hobby! We get to play around to get what we want, and (virtually) every time we get to drink good beer as a result.

Rich

 

[kombat]

Kombat, I hope you're wrong too! The range of attenuation on that yeast is supposedly 63-70. With 55 points OG, I'm thinking that I'm either done at the low end of that range ((1-.63)*55=20.4), or I might get a couple more points.

Be careful - that calculation assumes that all 55 points of gravity are fermentable sugars. They're not. Only about 2/3 of your sugars are fermentable, based on the grain bill you posted. By my calculations, your gravity is already lower than it should be. I can't see it going much lower.

But again, I could be wrong.

 

[rgreenberg2000]

But again, I could be wrong.

Let's hope!!

 

[rgreenberg2000]

I got this one into the keg today. Transferred about 2.5 gallons of very clear, brown beer to my 3 gallon keg. I'll hide it in the back of the kegerator on 12 psi while I'm traveling for business.

FG measured at 1.018, so I got a couple of extra points after my first SG check, and am happy with where that finished out with the combination of my grain bill and the WLP002.

My hydrometer sample tasted clean, and mildly malty sweet. I think this will come out nicely once it is carbed up. I'll update again once I've got some in a glass and can deliver some tasting notes (wish I had a bottle of the really thing to compare it to.....)

Rich

 

[Tedyfinger]

I live in Texas so no Cigar City around either, but I had one last year when taking the kids to Disney World, I remember a very nice brown ale with a strong malt backbone with a nutty taste. Please post pics of the final result, it seems like a good base brown ale recipe to play with.

 

[rgreenberg2000]

Just had my first taste of this one, and, while it still needs about 4-5 days to finish carbonating completely, it is wonderful!!! Dark, silky body, balanced sweet/malt/nutty. Note that I have never had the original, but this is my style of brown ale for certain. I can guarantee that this will be in the permanent, repeating rotation (fighting for tap space with my house brown, The Nutter.)

I remembered to snap a pic halfway through the pint.....head retention is low, but I expect that to improve as the carbonation level comes up.....

All I can add is, BREW THIS BEER, if you like brown ales!!!

Rich

 

[pricelessbrewing]

If it's anything like cigar citys, then I"m sure it's wonderful.

Also your pic isn't loading.

 

[rgreenberg2000]

Also your pic isn't loading.

Thanks for the head's up on the pic. With the recent (forced) move to Google Photos, I'm having issues getting things to link. Oddly, though, I did the same thing with this pic that I've done with others that worked just fine.

R