Decided to put my experience with the first huge beer and biab into a separate post so here goes.
The recipe is American barley wine from Brewing Classic Styles. Roughly the grain bill is 25.5 lbs and 6.5 oz of hops. I'm using a 48qt square Igloo cooler with a custom Wilser bag for my MT. I have spare kettle for heating water and I have a Polarware 8g pot for the BK. Using the Priceless biab calculator I decided to go with a 4g sparge and 5.5g strike.
While heating the strike water I run into an issue with my mill which just quits. I had empty it and clean it but that didn't fix it. So I decide to widen the gap. Not happy with the crush I then put the gap down one step (I have a tool from the auto supply store to measure the gap) and crush again. So all is well but this took a bunch of time.
I was supposed to mash with 167 degree water but I decided to go with 176. My cooler hasn't been keeping heat well and I'd rather over shoot. I'm still not sure what my mash temp was because the Thermapen showed values ranging from 140 to 149. The mash thickness was just too much. Looking back I think it's more important to get a thinner mash and cut down on the sparge. Lesson learned.
I decided to stick with the thick mash and not worry about the temp but check the gravity readings with my refractometer. I was predicting 1.1130 for first runnings (27 brix) and it was close after 90 minutes. I waited another 10 and it showed 27. Looking back the 90 was probably fine since that was non-squeezed. Lesson learned.
Drained to the BK. Things got really messy here. Tried a few things to squeeze and drain more but ended up with a big mess. But I think I got 3.3g at 27.4 brix or 1.115. Added 4g sparge, stirred, then let sit for 10 min. Put BK on the burner. Moved the MT above the BK so I can drain to BK.
Took a reading on the second runnings and it showed 17 brix or 1068 while I was estimating 1051. Here is where I felt cocky and really screwed things up. The squeeze was again a really bad experience. My previous equipment and procedures was not suitable for this grain bill. But I fought through and got around 7.5g into the BK which I think was 22 brix or 1090. Again I'm cocky thinking I'm well above 10796.
The rest is normal stuff. Bring to boil and add hops. I have noticed the wort is more cloudy that normal. My guess is the double crush.
This is where fatigue and frustration got the better of me and I didn't pay attention to the boil strength or the gravity readings. I have issues with measuring my boil off rate so I tend to ignore what I see in the remaining volume. But because I was tired I failed to take some more gravity readings and just went right to cooling after 60 minutes.
I used my new sump pump cooling system with good results and drained to the primary. I took readings for the refractometer and I took a full sample for the hydrometer. The fact I had more wort than normal should have clued me in. Final readings were 24.4 or 1012 instead of the desired target of 1127. Dang. What a terrible finish.
It's been a long brew day. The good news I have an idea of what a 10g batch might look like. Since I'm in the market to upgrade to a 10g system this was a useful experience. But I can't believe how stupid I am for getting lazy at the end and not checking the numbers. I almost think I should buy some automated software that NAGS me with each step so I don't forget to take the readings I should.
One thing is for sure - I won't do this again with my current setup. I can see doing this recipe with a 10g system but that grain bill is too big to do without the proper equipment.
I hope this is useful in some way to others. I've read so many other posts from here that I wanted to try and give back a tiny bit. I will see if I can post pictures from my phone for amusement. I'm exhausted. Where's my beer?
The recipe is American barley wine from Brewing Classic Styles. Roughly the grain bill is 25.5 lbs and 6.5 oz of hops. I'm using a 48qt square Igloo cooler with a custom Wilser bag for my MT. I have spare kettle for heating water and I have a Polarware 8g pot for the BK. Using the Priceless biab calculator I decided to go with a 4g sparge and 5.5g strike.
While heating the strike water I run into an issue with my mill which just quits. I had empty it and clean it but that didn't fix it. So I decide to widen the gap. Not happy with the crush I then put the gap down one step (I have a tool from the auto supply store to measure the gap) and crush again. So all is well but this took a bunch of time.
I was supposed to mash with 167 degree water but I decided to go with 176. My cooler hasn't been keeping heat well and I'd rather over shoot. I'm still not sure what my mash temp was because the Thermapen showed values ranging from 140 to 149. The mash thickness was just too much. Looking back I think it's more important to get a thinner mash and cut down on the sparge. Lesson learned.
I decided to stick with the thick mash and not worry about the temp but check the gravity readings with my refractometer. I was predicting 1.1130 for first runnings (27 brix) and it was close after 90 minutes. I waited another 10 and it showed 27. Looking back the 90 was probably fine since that was non-squeezed. Lesson learned.
Drained to the BK. Things got really messy here. Tried a few things to squeeze and drain more but ended up with a big mess. But I think I got 3.3g at 27.4 brix or 1.115. Added 4g sparge, stirred, then let sit for 10 min. Put BK on the burner. Moved the MT above the BK so I can drain to BK.
Took a reading on the second runnings and it showed 17 brix or 1068 while I was estimating 1051. Here is where I felt cocky and really screwed things up. The squeeze was again a really bad experience. My previous equipment and procedures was not suitable for this grain bill. But I fought through and got around 7.5g into the BK which I think was 22 brix or 1090. Again I'm cocky thinking I'm well above 10796.
The rest is normal stuff. Bring to boil and add hops. I have noticed the wort is more cloudy that normal. My guess is the double crush.
This is where fatigue and frustration got the better of me and I didn't pay attention to the boil strength or the gravity readings. I have issues with measuring my boil off rate so I tend to ignore what I see in the remaining volume. But because I was tired I failed to take some more gravity readings and just went right to cooling after 60 minutes.
I used my new sump pump cooling system with good results and drained to the primary. I took readings for the refractometer and I took a full sample for the hydrometer. The fact I had more wort than normal should have clued me in. Final readings were 24.4 or 1012 instead of the desired target of 1127. Dang. What a terrible finish.
It's been a long brew day. The good news I have an idea of what a 10g batch might look like. Since I'm in the market to upgrade to a 10g system this was a useful experience. But I can't believe how stupid I am for getting lazy at the end and not checking the numbers. I almost think I should buy some automated software that NAGS me with each step so I don't forget to take the readings I should.
One thing is for sure - I won't do this again with my current setup. I can see doing this recipe with a 10g system but that grain bill is too big to do without the proper equipment.
I hope this is useful in some way to others. I've read so many other posts from here that I wanted to try and give back a tiny bit. I will see if I can post pictures from my phone for amusement. I'm exhausted. Where's my beer?
