First time beer attempt. BIAB

[Baabaad00]

Made my first attempt at brewing beer. Went bold and did all grain outright (BIAB) after a bunch of reading. Just did a basic beer. Strangebrew's smores stout i got as a Christmas gift. Did 3 quarts/pound. Obviously a thinner mash. Was supposed to be 1.055. I got 1.060, which is ~85% efficiency (w00t). The grain was a coarser crush so i just blended it further in a electric blender (bullet like thing) for a bit to get it finer. Ended up being a bit lower on the water going into the boil than expected so I did a fly sparge of 3 quarts to bring it up. I still need a chiller so i just tossed it outside until it was ~80f then pitched yeast after rehydrating according to package instructions. Now it's bubbling away!

I'm quite happy with my yield. Next time, I think I'll leave the water volume a bit higher to account for the volume loss due to trub so I can get closer to an actual 5gallon final yield of bottled beer.

All in all YAY! success. Not using my basic set up before, I wasn't sure what the yield would be. Just went with what was most common and made sense. Hopefully my attenuation will be as expected.

 

[JohnSand]

Sounds great, let us know how it works out.

 

[Morrey]

Good job! Are you hooked on brewing yet?

 

[C-Rider]

How big is your fermenter? When doing BIAB we usually go full volume water to grain.

 

[Baabaad00]

I enjoy it. I've made hard cider and mead before. I've been working my way through most of the popular areas of home brewing. Mead being my focus mainly. I have a ~7.5-8gallon bayou classic kettle. I know it's normally full water. I didn't know what my loss would be so I just went with 6 bcuz it was a nice number and the mash was 3q/lb which sounded nice to me. I've read that plenty of people sparge with BIAB. I'm not doing anything special. Just fly sparge to bring the water up since I don't wanna push the boundaries of my kettle like some people do.

 

[soccerdad]

when do we taste?

 

[shoengine]

3qts /lb? What is your ABV you are shooting for?

 

[Baabaad00]

1.055 was my target OG. I got 1.060. Target abv is 5.5%

 

[applescrap]

Sounds awesome, congrats

 

[Morrey]

I have a ~7.5-8gallon bayou classic kettle. I know it's normally full water. I didn't know what my loss would be so I just went with 6 bcuz it was a nice number and the mash was 3q/lb which sounded nice to me. I've read that plenty of people sparge with BIAB. I'm not doing anything special. Just fly sparge to bring the water up since I don't wanna push the boundaries of my kettle like some people do.

You did a great job adjusting to your limitations. One technique I have adopted from my friend Mongoose33 is rinsing the grain bed with 1/2G (your vol may vary) of distilled water after mashing to wash off any residual sugars. If your kettle size limits the volume of your strike water to accommodate your grain bill, this rinse accomplishes bringing your volume up plus you get residual sugars as a second benefit. This rinse is real quick, real easy and works well especially as a pre-boil volume adjustment.

 

[Baabaad00]

Wow. Thank you. My thoughts exactly on the practicality of it.

 

[Baabaad00]

Just checked it. Sitting at 1.036. Why so high? Temp says 60f so I took it upstairs into a warmer environment. That shouldn't be too cold should it? Why is the gravity still so high.

 

[myelo]

2 days? Too early to get worried.

What yeast? What was your mash temperature?

 

[Baabaad00]

Started on the 30th. I guess I'm eager

Winsor yeast. Dry. 156

 

[myelo]

60F is on the cool side of the range for this yeast. So it's probably just not finished yet. Windsor is a fairly low attenuator, meaning it will leave some residual sugar, which is OK for a stout. But I bet it will finish lower than 1.036. I would give it 2 weeks at least. And I usually ferment stouts around 4 weeks.

 

[Baabaad00]

k. I put it in a warmer environment. Being a mead/wine brewer mostly, i'm used to seeing the gravity drop like a rock until near dry. I'll wait and see what it does.

 

[Baabaad00]

I've been waiting almost 2 weeks now. Checked again. 1.034 after moving to a warmer environment. Pitching Nottingham to see if it'll drop more.

 

[parrothead64]

80 is hot for pitching yeast. I would try mid to high 60’s on the next batch. Congratulations on your new hobby/obsession.

 

[Baabaad00]

Upon research,it appears my yeast Windsor has low attenuation . Hopefully notty will push it down another 8-10 posted. It said mash at 156f. Others say when using this yeast to mash lower to counter it's low attenuation.

 

[Baabaad00]

Just checked again. Gravity hasn't moved. Help please. Should I just bottle?

8lbs 2 row, 1 lb each chocolate and black malt. OG should have been 1.055. FG should have been 1.014.

 

[PADave]

Sounds like the same problems I was having brewing dark beers. FG always finished high, although never that high. Did you do anything with water chemistry? With the thin mash and dark grains you have to watch your mash pH. Combine that with the higher mash temps, (you checked your thermometer, right?) and the Windsor yeast, and you can end up with high FG.

 

[Jimbodaman]

A few things, first off congrats on the first brew, BIAB is what I recommend to new brewers, I'll say 80 degrees F is too high to pitch. I made that mistake when I was new and had some unpleasant off flavors, try to get below 70F at least.

Possible reasons for it not attenuating properly, are you checking final gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer? A refractometer is inaccurate because the alcohol distorts it. Also whenever I've had problems with attenuation it was directly linked to how well I oxygenated the chilled wort, make sure you're at least shaking vigorously for a few minutes. The last thing I can think of is an inaccurate thermometer, where you think you're mashing at 156, but you're actually mashing at say 160+ that would definitely affect attenuation. Cheers, good luck, welcome to the addiction, I mean hobby.

 

[BrianK3721]

I'm going to attempt my first Biab and I'm wondering is there any base malt that is easier to mash than the others

 

[PADave]

I'm going to attempt my first Biab and I'm wondering is there any base malt that is easier to mash than the others

What do you mean by easier to mash? I've noticed that some grains form more dough balls than others, but other than that it's a matter of dumping grains in and stirring them. With BIAB your crush is what's important.

 

[Baabaad00]

Ill chill lower. Im just starting and haven't messed with water. Want to see what I can do with what I have first. I use a hydrometer. The temp dropped quicker than anticipated so I put a tiny bit of heat. I won't do that next time and just let it drop.

For oxygenation,I just racked to my bottling bucket and then into my brew bucket from a height. Waterfall oxygenation style.

I know what I would like to do going forward. Is it safe to assume that toss batch is stuck being bottled as is?

 

[BrianK3721]

What do you mean by easier to mash? I've noticed that some grains form more dough balls than others, but other than that it's a matter of dumping grains in and stirring them. With BIAB your crush is what's important.

Easier conversion, is there any two row that converts easier than another two row, I have been looking at getting a 50lb bag of grain and they mention (Fullly modified, high extract, low protein) does the high extract mean it's easier to convert?

 

[PADave]

All modern day malts are going to convert.