First BIAB, Dry Stout!

[fatcop]

Ok, tommorow I plan on brewing this up. 3 gallon batch.

Equipment:
(2) 5 gallon paint strainer bags
(1) 5 gallon pot

Ingredients:
4lbs Marris Otter (UK of course)
1lbs Roasted Barley (UK)
1lbs Flaked Barley (US)
1oz East Kent Goldings (UK, Leaf)
1 packet Danstar Nottingham Yeast

I plan on Mashing at 150, checking the temperature halfway through, I don't know if I have anything to insulate. I also grabbed an ounce of Nugget which I decided not to use as I am getting more then enough IBU's. I have concerns of how much water I can fit in the small pot with the grain, so the full 3 gallons will not be used for the mash.

I am excited to do my first all grain! Please guys, shoot me some advice, do you see any holes in my strategy?

 

[RM-MN]

You should be able to fit about 3 1/2 US gallons of water and the grains into your 5 gallon pot although you might want to cut the roasted barley amount in half. That stuff is pretty potent. Make sure to get your grains milled fine. Your LHBS may have a mill but have it set to coarse for BIAB. In that case, run the grains through twice.

If you decide to only use 3 gallons for the mash (UK gallons or US gallons, it makes quite a difference) you can use a dunk or pour through sparge to bring your wort up to the desired pre boil amount.

 

[OswaldvW]

hey, my first BIAB was a stout, too! Here is what I learned from my first BIAB:

1.) You may consider sparging your grains with 170ºF water after you take them out of your kettle. If you have another kettle (see #2 below), you can do a "sparge" and try to get as many sugars out of the grain as possible. Then, simply add the extra wort to your large kettle.

2.) Use an oven rack (or large cookie cooling rack) to place on top of your kettle, place the bag on top, to allow rinsing/draining. You will probably lose about .75 gallons water per one hour boil, so you want to begin your boil with 3.75 or 4 gallons wort. Rinse/Sparge with enough water to get the total amount you need.

3.) Have some DME handy in case you don't hit your numbers the first time.

4.) You don't have to mash for 1 hour. I like to mash for 90 minutes - this is especially beneficial for BIAB as longer mashes raise my efficiency. Your 150ºF may be a bit low, especially if you don't have any insulation. You may consider 154ºF (it will lose 2-3º if you have some good blankets, or consider goosing/adding heat to the kettle on the stove every 20 minutes to maintain a good temperature).

 

[RM-MN]

Sparging with cold water gets nearly the same amount of sugars out of the grains as the hot water and it make it easier to squeeze out the last bit of wort with your hands as the bag of grains is cooler then.

I agree that you don't have to mash for an hour. I get about 85% efficiency mashing for an hour and about 85% efficiency mashing for 20 minutes. YMMV To be able to get that efficiency with a short mash you need the grains milled fine, but for BIAB you should get them milled fine anyway because you have a bag for a filter so the finer milled grains won't give you problems with getting the wort out of the grains like it would in a conventional tun and finer milling raises the efficiency.

 

[fatcop]

Eh, unfortunately the roasted barley was crushed all in to the same bag at the lhbs. Hopefully I can tolerate it lol. I just used 2.75 gallons and that was all it would hold. I heated water up to 159 and after adding grains it dropped to 147! I raised it back up to 151. I'll check it again a little later.

 

[fatcop]

Well, today I checked the OG and pitched the yeast (no chill method). It was right at 1.053, which is exactly what Brewer's Friend calculated at the default 75% efficiency. Now I can only hope it actually converted, lol. The wort was still at 70 so I guess I should have checked the temperature before re-hydrating the Notty. I pitched it and stuck the whole bucket in the refridgerator.

Now, I was thinking... if the roasted character is too much due to essentially double the roasted malts, I can use this beer for black and tans! Perseverance is good for this hobby, don't you think?