Getting started

[beerfactory]

Hello,
My reason for posting here is to get some wisdom, including but not limited to what equipment I will need for my first BIAB session. I drink a lot of beer and want to start brewing what I want to drink while being as economical as conveniently possible.

Looking to brew BIAB after Christmas, 5 gallons initially and then hopefully in 10 gallon batches. My first step has been to take an inventory and figure out what I need moving forward. Maybe this time next year, I will be working on a draft tower setup.

As a bit of background, I have mixed up and dispensed quite a few batches of apfelwein, but have limited experience with brewing beer. My first batch will be Edwort's Haus Pale Ale

Inventory
1 Turkey fryer
1 basket
1 7.5 gallon kettle
1 thermometer
4 ball lock kegs
1 co2 bottle
1 regulator
2 glass carboys
1 plastic fermenter
star san
1 bottling bucket
1 fermenting bucket
2 glass carboy
1 hydrometer

Things I need to order
15.5 gallon kettle (one weld)
2 piece ball valve 1/2" stainless
airlock/bung (need a couple spares)
auto siphon 3/8"
siphon hose 3/8"
ball lock o-ring replacement
beer dispensing unit (picnic tap)
25' 1/2" wort chiller
carboy brush
powdered brewery wash
keg o ring lube
siphon hose 3/8"
paint strainer
hose/fitting/drain wort into carboy

 

[physics911]

If you are speaking economically, and doing a biab, I say skip the big brew pot and stick to 5 gallon batches in the turkey fryer. I hear you saying you want to do 10 gallon batches, but nothing says you can't do two five gallon batches in a day, or stagger them so you always have some working. Also, add a cooler setup for your mashing.

Keep it simple for a while and you will find what works best for you.

 

[Happywanderer]

If you plan to upscale later - get the bigger pot now. Just do it. Save yourself the heartache later. Get aluminum. See below for a 15-gal pot setup that only costs $130. Well - $145 if you don't have a step-bit.

Pot - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PZ7K7A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't forget the lid.

Pot+lid = $100

Bulkhead (weldless) - http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=46&product_id=178

$30 for 3-peice valve, bulkhead, & outlet 1/2" nipple to attach hose to.

Auto-siphons are nice - get the 1/2" auto siphon... trust me. Or a 1/2" racking cane. http://www.morebeer.com/products/easysiphon-12.html?site_id=9 ... comes in SS too!!

For wort cooling - how cold is your tap water in the summer? Mine is about 70-75*F. ... Which sucks for cooling. My solution was to get a $20 submersible pond pump and run chilled water from my 80-qt cooler. I put ice in the cooler to get the water temp down to about 40-45*F. When the water gets low, I add more. When the temp coming out of the immersion chiller is about 75* I run the outlet into the cooler creating a recirculating system to save water. If you have excess freezer space, you can pre-freeze blocks of ice in large tuperware containers. Saves about $10 in ice cost on brew day.

Wine thief for taking gravity samples.

2000ml flask for making yeast starters (or gallon pickle jar from costco)

A way to keep the fermenting beer cool (don't rely on ambient temps... that will lead you astray... Again, I use my 80-qt cooler filled with water. Set fermenter in cooler and add ice to water as needed to keep desired temps).

Blow-off tube (for really active ferments). You will want one on your fermenter ALL the time... Really.

I take it you intend to use the paint strainer as your BIAB bag - better...get some of the voile cloth from JoAnn's (about 3 yards will do). Make your own bag... it doesn't even have to be bag shaped. Drape the fabric in your pot, gather up excess in your hand above the pot and cut ABOVE your hand. You want to leave enough to drape over the edge of the pot all around about 6-12 inches. Hem the rough cut edges with a sewing machine (or take it to an alterations place, they'll do it in like 5 minutes). Look for a coupon online to get the best deal on the fabric from JoAnns...

Basically you want a big circular shape for a pot (I mash in square cooler, so my shape is square). There is probably a really cool mathy way of figuring out the size you would need based on the dimensions of the pot... But I sucked at geometry in school.

Get a mesh strainer like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/double-mesh-stainless-strainer

Run the wort from the boil kettle thru the strainer into the fermenter. It is the bee's knees. It keeps hop material/break material out of the fermenter AND aerates your wort for you. TADA!

Large wire whisk ... http://www.northernbrewer.com/french-whip-balloon-whisk-22

You can get them on amazon cheaper and bigger. This will be a HUGE time saver in mixing the grains. Trust me - so much better than a mash paddle or a spoon.

A few fermometers...

A few reuseable hop bags (worth their weight in gold for keeping hop material out of your fermenter!)

EXTRA HYDROMETERS! Trust me on this - you will need them.

A subscription to Brewer's Friend website (awesome brewing log site - try it for free). www.brewersfriend.com

I'm sure I'll think of more tips/stuff....

 

[Happywanderer]

http://www.joann.com/voile-white/1584473.html#q=voile&start=4

That's the voile fabric. It comes in 45" width by multiples of 36" ... The dimensions of the 15-gallon pot I linked are 17.5" ID by 15.5" tall.

3 yards at $6/yd = $18.

Or you can have a BIAB custom made.

I recommended against the paint strainer because you want as big a "bag" as possible to allow for maximum free-flow of grain/water. Basically you want to just line your pot with fabric so the grains float free.

This site has custom-made bags that are awesome and only about $30...
http://www.brewinabag.com/

Worth it if you don't have a sewing machine.

Oh yeah - and make sure you don't have the bag on the bottom of the kettle - use large binder clips to keep it about an inch or 2 off the bottom of the kettle while boiling. (The REALLY large binder clips... clip bag to top of kettle. Use 3 or 4).

http://www.officedepot.com/a/browse...685&cbxRefine=635691&lowerBound=&upperBound=/

 

[Happywanderer]

Oh - another tip...

Since you are doing BIAB, always ask that your grains be double milled. (Unless you can confirm that your grain source has a properly adjusted grain crusher).

With BIAB you never have to worry about stuck sparges. So crush till it hurts.

 

[RM-MN]

Buy a pair of paint strainer bags (That's easy, they come two to a package where I get them) and a grain mill. With some care you can learn to do a 5 gallon batch in your turkey fryer. With practice you can do a 5 gallon batch in less than 3 hours(maybe less if you chill the wort in the fermenter bucket so your pot is ready for the second batch). That means you can do 2 batches in less than a day and it cost you less than $30 to get started (assuming you bought a cheap Corona mill which will work great for BIAB).

 

[beerfactory]

thank you very much for the great advice!

 

[msa8967]

If you know someone that can sew a simple pillow case pattern then you can make 2 BIAB for one large voile cloth white panel (56 x 84 in) from Walmart for $5-6. The problem with 10 gallon BIAB batches is that the bag gets very heavy to lift and drain for just one person like me. I use a hybrid system of a BIAB liner inside a larger rectangular cooler to provide optimum grain filtration. Never had a stuck sparge and never have to recirculate the first runnings to get clear runnings w/o grain pieces in the wort.

 

[Happywanderer]

If you know someone that can sew a simple pillow case pattern then you can make 2 BIAB for one large voile cloth white panel (56 x 84 in) from Walmart for $5-6. The problem with 10 gallon BIAB batches is that the bag gets very heavy to lift and drain for just one person like me. I use a hybrid system of a BIAB liner inside a larger rectangular cooler to provide optimum grain filtration. Never had a stuck sparge and never have to recirculate the first runnings to get clear runnings w/o grain pieces in the wort.

I do the cooler BIAB as well - great setup.

And honestly - the cooler only costs $30... so... a good investment IMO.

 

[brewprint]

Lots of good tips here.

I didn't see an upgrade do the turkey fryer. I'm guessing that thing kicks out around 60,000 btus? I upgraded to a 220,000 btu burner when I started doing full volume 5 gallon batches. I can have it boiling in 10-15 minutes.

I currently have a 12.5 gallon pot and I may upgrade to a 20 gallon to do 10 gallon batches. I think that doing greater than 1.060 a 15 is pushing it if you don't want to do a sparge.

 

[beerfactory]

I am really sad, just made a pale ale and followed along step for step with these directions. My OG is 1.015 @ room temperature, 70 degrees. **edit, just checked it again (30 min later) and it is now floating @ 1.048. this is my first time with a hydrometer and I apparently need to give it more time***

I ended up with at least 6 gallons in my fermenter. The problem, I think, was a very light boil which did not burn off a lot of volume. I took a gravity reading preboil, but I do not think I read it correctly and it was at a high temperature. Looking back, I am not confident in the preboil hydrometer reading. My brew notes are as follows:
1/1/2016
7.5 gallons water
heated to 160 degrees and added grains
mashed for 60 minutes
heated to 170 and held for 10 minutes
drained grain
took gravity reading 1.03 @ 170 degrees temp adjusted is 1.055 http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/hydrometer.html?18059545
added 1 oz grain@ boil & started 60" timer
added .5oz @ 30"
added .25oz @ 15" put chiller in kettle
added .25oz @ 5"
chilled to 70 degrees
racked to fermenter
gravity sample @ 1.015
pitched yeast

 

[physics911]

Beerfactory,
Unless I am misreading your process, it seems pretty clear you have an anomalous hydrometer reading. Unless you somehow diluted your sample, there is no reasonable way in which your post boil reading could be lower than your pre-boil reading. And at a given temp, your hydrometer reading is basically instant; there is no reason to wait 30 minutes.

A hydrometer essentially measures the density of a liquid; in our case, we are looking for how much sugar is in the liquid. As you boil the wort, water is lost, but the sugar remains, so your gravity reading will go higher and higher. You could actually boil and boil and boil until you are left with nothing but a thick sugary caramel substance in your kettle. (I wonder how that would taste on ribs?)

Your 1.055 reading seems reasonable. There are some calculators out there where you can estimate how much water you lost in boil, and therefore allow you to calculate your final wort gravity.

Just ride it out and see what you end up with; I'm pretty sure it will be beer. Maybe you won't know the exact ABV, but if you drink two, I bet you will know whether or not the ABV is greater than zero .

 

[beerfactory]

Brewed the same recipe again today. OG ended up @ 1.047. Still missing my target by 4 points. Upgraded my burner and ended up with 5 gallons into the fermenter.

I am absolutely going to buy a mill to crush finer and make a bag out of voile. Have been using a turkey fryer basket and I think it would be better if I had more room for stirring with the custom bag. Also, really considering a batch sparge at mash out temperature.

notes from this session:
-7.5 gallons water
-heated to 160 degrees and added grains spilled some grain into kettle and on floor. start putting the grains in slowly, with a measuring cup/dip.
-mashed for 60 minutes racked into a turkey fryer kettle and then back into brew kettle to remove grain
-heated to 170 and held for 10 minutes
-drained grain ***need to squeeze grain!!!!!!!!!
-added 1 oz hops @ boil & started 60" timer
-added .5oz @ 30"
-added .25oz @ 15" put chiller in kettle
-added .25oz @ 5"
-chilled check fitting on chiller as it is leaking *************
-racked to fermenter 5 gallons volume
-gravity sample @ 1.047
-pitched yeast