First stovetop BIAB AG Brew - Lessons Learned

[Chemstudent]

Just completed my first full 5 gallon AG batch in my kitchen - it was the common room ESB recipe that is on the forum. Thought I could share my experience for anyone using a similar method. I'll start from the beginning onwards.

1. Having everything prepared, ready and in the same place before beginning was awesome (including the hops in the correct schedule). There was minimal worrying about misplacement or improper cleaning.

2. Used a 5 gallon aluminum pot for the mash and only dropped one degree for the duration of the mash.

3. The spent grain is extremely heavy and it's very hard to hold it over the pot for an extended amount of time. I lost way more of the wort than I should have.

4. Getting the wort up to a boil takes a really long time.

5. Cooling down the wort after boil also takes a really long time. And putting it into an ice bath in the sink is not a great way to cool it down! Seriously I need a better method of cooling that I can easily use in the kitchen.

6. Transferring the wort from the pot to the better bottle is also surprisingly difficult to do slowly and carefully without spilling (I did use a funnel).

7. Rehydrated the yeast before pitching but it seemed clumpy and I am worried that it will not do very well.

In all, the batch now seems to be fermenting relatively well albeit without a lot of Krausen. I lost a lot of wort to the grain and did not use enough sparge water, thus the bottle is only about 3/4 full.

Hope it turns out ok

 

[tooblue02]

Thanks for the info, I am going to do my first BIAB on Thursday, doing the yeast starter tomorrow. I will also be using my newly fabricated wort chiller for the first time as well so it should be an interesting day. Very excited! Going to be brewing a blue moon clone (or so I hope). I was planning on getting something to hold the spent grain over the pot to get the most out of it but haven't figure out exactly how yet.

 

[tmendick]

I use a wort chiller that I made to hook up to a cheap pond pump that I put in a cooler full of ice and recirculate it helps immensely. Invest in a autosiphon it will make your transfers soo much easier.
As far as water total I found this, Another HBT member made this unfortunately I don't remember who. http://www.copycalc.com/bob/BIAB Fixed Boil Off
It helps me get close to the water quantity I need

 

[MaxStout]

Just completed my first full 5 gallon AG batch in my kitchen - it was the common room ESB recipe that is on the forum. Thought I could share my experience for anyone using a similar method. I'll start from the beginning onwards.

1. Having everything prepared, ready and in the same place before beginning was awesome (including the hops in the correct schedule). There was minimal worrying about misplacement or improper cleaning.

2. Used a 5 gallon aluminum pot for the mash and only dropped one degree for the duration of the mash.

3. The spent grain is extremely heavy and it's very hard to hold it over the pot for an extended amount of time. I lost way more of the wort than I should have.

4. Getting the wort up to a boil takes a really long time.

5. Cooling down the wort after boil also takes a really long time. And putting it into an ice bath in the sink is not a great way to cool it down! Seriously I need a better method of cooling that I can easily use in the kitchen.

6. Transferring the wort from the pot to the better bottle is also surprisingly difficult to do slowly and carefully without spilling (I did use a funnel).

7. Rehydrated the yeast before pitching but it seemed clumpy and I am worried that it will not do very well.

In all, the batch now seems to be fermenting relatively well albeit without a lot of Krausen. I lost a lot of wort to the grain and did not use enough sparge water, thus the bottle is only about 3/4 full.

Hope it turns out ok

Before I switched to propane and a hoist, I did one BIAB batch on my stove. From your #3, set the grain bag atop another vessel and let it continue draining while you are bringing the main kettle to a boil. You said it took a long time to get to a boil, so in that time, you should have some more wort collected in that other vessel that you can add to your kettle.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

Just completed my first full 5 gallon AG batch in my kitchen - it was the common room ESB recipe that is on the forum. Thought I could share my experience for anyone using a similar method. I'll start from the beginning onwards.

1. Having everything prepared, ready and in the same place before beginning was awesome (including the hops in the correct schedule). There was minimal worrying about misplacement or improper cleaning.

2. Used a 5 gallon aluminum pot for the mash and only dropped one degree for the duration of the mash.

3. The spent grain is extremely heavy and it's very hard to hold it over the pot for an extended amount of time. I lost way more of the wort than I should have.

4. Getting the wort up to a boil takes a really long time.

5. Cooling down the wort after boil also takes a really long time. And putting it into an ice bath in the sink is not a great way to cool it down! Seriously I need a better method of cooling that I can easily use in the kitchen.

6. Transferring the wort from the pot to the better bottle is also surprisingly difficult to do slowly and carefully without spilling (I did use a funnel).

7. Rehydrated the yeast before pitching but it seemed clumpy and I am worried that it will not do very well.

In all, the batch now seems to be fermenting relatively well albeit without a lot of Krausen. I lost a lot of wort to the grain and did not use enough sparge water, thus the bottle is only about 3/4 full.

Hope it turns out ok

Having your hops sorted and labeled really helps! I use glass bowls and write on them with a marker. Reusable, and the marker washes right off.

I have been using an expandable mesh strainer, but broke it. I found a used stainless steel straining bowl at a restaurant supply store. It's really just a big bowl with holes drilled on the bottom and halfway up the side. Haven't used it yet.

Ugh, it took forever to boil on my glass top stove.

I bought an immersion chiller and had to hook it up to my bathroom faucet because it didn't work in the kitchen. Kinda sucked to carry the brew kettle, but it's much quicker to cool with the chiller.

An auto siphon is the way to go.

Sounds like you had a successful brew day!