Help me zero in on BIAB brewday issues....

[Johow]

Today I brewed my 5th batch of beer. It was a "Fresh Squeeze" clone from the Homebrewers Association website here, http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/deschutes-fresh-squeezed-ipa-clone/
I'm brewing in a 10 gallon kettle and this recipe seems to push that quite close.
Now I didn't follow the recipe to a tee because what I really did was convert a grain bill that I already had that was very close. Same grains but I added a half pound of oats and up there was already an extra pound of the 2 row in the bag. With brewersfriend I calculated I'd need about 8.5 gallons of water but I would not be able to fit that in the kettle with my 15 lbs of grain. So I held about 2 gallons back for a pour over sparge. The grains had been milled at my LHBS but i decided to run them thru my el cheapo cast iron grain mill for a pretty fine grind.
Everything went fine until it was time to pull the bag and give it a squeeze. This grain bill is the largest I have done and it was quite a pain in the ass to control it. It would not fit in my colander and was flopping all around. I did the best I could and then poured enough 170 degree water over it to bring the volume to the 7 gallons called for to start the boil.
According to brewersfriend I should have have a preboil SG of 1.054 but I actually had 1.063...giving me about 90% efficiency. My post boil OG was supposed to be 1.066 but I ended up at 1.080.
So here are a few ideas that I have to try and get thing on track.
1) maybe get a bigger kettle and/or a colander that fits my kettle and bag for squeezing the bag a little more orderly.
2) adjust the efficiency in brewersfriend so that my grain bill is a little closer to my needs. I liked the way my grind turned out so I thinking I'll continue with that.
3) my bag is a home made bag that I think might be too big and I stressed it pretty good today as well so I think I may order a bag that fits my kettle a little better, maybe from Wilserbags, maybe this will help with the squeeze.

My boil off rate seems about right because my post boil volume was just right.
Thanks for your insights....

 

[Stillraining]

Seems to me like you have a pretty good handle on the things you need to do moving forward....IMHO you can never go to wrong with getting a bigger kettle so if it were me Id make that move straight away.

 

[Magnus314]

All of those are good ideas.

Until then, if you're over shooting gravities, you could just use a little less grain. Would help fit it all and make it easier to manage it.

 

[brewprint]

Heck do what did again and just account for that large efficiency!

 

[MaxStout]

Looks like you are on the right track.

I would seriously recommend getting a custom fit bag for any kettle, but especially if you plan to keep using your existing kettle. With such tight volumes, you don't want an ill-fitting bag making things messy when you lift it out.

Can you set up an improvised hoist where you brew? If you use a simple ratchet pulley (Wilser sells those too), you can more carefully lift out the bag, eliminating the need for a colander and reducing the chances of wort running over the sides. Hoist it up and the ratchet will hold it in position. Do your pourover sparge, and let it drain into the kettle while you fire up the heat.

If you plan to do high gravity beers, it might be wise to move up to a 15 gal. kettle. If you're on a budget the Concord stainless kettles are very robust and cost around $100 on Amazon.

 

[jschein]

Looks like you are on the right track.

I would seriously recommend getting a custom fit bag for any kettle, but especially if you plan to keep using your existing kettle. With such tight volumes, you don't want an ill-fitting bag making things messy when you lift it out.

Can you set up an improvised hoist where you brew? If you use a simple ratchet pulley (Wilser sells those too), you can more carefully lift out the bag, eliminating the need for a colander and reducing the chances of wort running over the sides. Hoist it up and the ratchet will hold it in position. Do your pourover sparge, and let it drain into the kettle while you fire up the heat.

If you plan to do high gravity beers, it might be wise to move up to a 15 gal. kettle. If you're on a budget the Concord stainless kettles are very robust and cost around $100 on Amazon.

All of this
Brew On

 

[madscientist451]

.
Everything went fine until it was time to pull the bag and give it a squeeze. This grain bill is the largest I have done and it was quite a pain in the ass to control it. It would not fit in my colander and was flopping all around.

Quick answer, get a 10 gallon round cooler, add a spigot and put the BIAB bag in that. No more temperature swings, no pulling the bag and squeezing 170 degree water out. Simply mash in the cooler, run the wort into a bucket, dump your sparge water from your kettle to the cooler, drain the sparge to the bucket put everything into the kettle and you are ready to boil.

 

[Cyclman]

Wilserbrewer bag, with pulley, will make a huge difference.

You got higher efficiency due to fine milling of the grain, a BIAB benefit.

I love the foodservice strainers, something like this: http://www.webstaurantstore.com/tablecraft-1024-14-heavy-duty-strainer/4079250.html

It makes sparging much easier.

BTW, you can add boiled water to compensate for high gravity, I have some 1G jugs for just this purpose (well, also for making experimental beers).

 

[Johow]

Thanks for all the advice, I hope to apply it to my next brewday. I think the Wilserbag and pulley is in order. I don't really want to add another piece of hardware so I'll probably not go the cooler route. I have very limited space to store this stuff so the less the better. Also I have increased my efficiency and the grain bill a bit to try and match the numbers in the recipe a little closer, though it may be a while before I do this recipe again but I'll try to apply these concepts to whatever is next.
Thanks again!!!

 

[wilserbrewer]

IMO, give up the bag squeezing, use a pulley and just be patient for the bag to drip drain with gravity. This can be done without spilling a drop and no sticky burnt hands. IME squeezing is highly overrated, it doesn't produce more wort overall, just wort faster. Patience is key.