I have no idea what I did (First BIAB)

[allynlyon]

I attempted my first all grain via BIAB today. This entire experience has been well an experience...starting when I forgot the DME from the LHBS and had to haphazard my way through trying to make a starter out of some of my grain and then just dumping the entire starter including my mini wort in. (This is a whole other issue that I'm curious to see how it all turns out).

Second oddity-
I ended up with more beer then I thought I would have to the tune of an extra gallon. I took into account the 2L starter I dumped in. (I've got no idea how I pulled that off, other then I never got the pot to a rolling boil but it was always at or above boiling temperature according to my digital thermometer.

Here is the recipe - (It's a Red Trolley Clone that I found on another site)

5.5 Gallon batch OG- 1.060 FG- 1.016

5.5 lb American Pale 2 row
3.25 lb Crystal 80L
2.25 lb crystal 60L
1 lb Belgian Biscuit
.5 lb Carapils

.87 oz Tettnager - 60 min
.5 oz Williamette - 15 min
.5 oz Williamette - 5 min

Yeast- White Labs California Ale V Yeast WLP 051

I didn't know at the time that apparently this is a crap ton of crystal. Who knows how this is going to turn out, but I digress. I kept my mash temperature pretty consistent. I ended up with 69% efficiency. I have no idea if this is good or bad for my first attempt. I know most people aim for 75% or higher.

My OG is 1.055.

I guess now all there is to do is wait.

 

[BlackGoat]

holy **** that's a lot of crystal, I'd say it will be a sugar bomb. 69% efficiency is great, you should be happy with that, most don't get very close to that on their first try. I'm thinking that you didn't hit your volumes because of the boil, whatever calculator you used probably assumed a boil off rate and without a good rolling boil I'm thinking that you didn't lose as much as was assumed. Congrats on the first go with this!

 

[cpl-america]

there are a lot of factors that effect your boil, even going as far as your geography and elevation. just curious, did you brew propane? outside?

 

[allynlyon]

there are a lot of factors that effect your boil, even going as far as your geography and elevation. just curious, did you brew propane? outside?

Propane outside but in the garage. It was cold today so I was worried about getting up to the right temperature.

 

[allynlyon]

holy **** that's a lot of crystal, I'd say it will be a sugar bomb. 69% efficiency is great, you should be happy with that, most don't get very close to that on their first try. I'm thinking that you didn't hit your volumes because of the boil, whatever calculator you used probably assumed a boil off rate and without a good rolling boil I'm thinking that you didn't lose as much as was assumed. Congrats on the first go with this!

That seem's to be the general consensus about the crystal. I'm too much of a newb to understand the effects of different grains. Hopefully it doesn't taste like I am licking a bag of sugar.

Thanks for the encouragement. When I first pulled the grain my efficiency was 59 or 61 so I stuck the grains back in and mashed out a second time to try and bring my efficiency up. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's done now.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Wow 44% crystal...that's exactly what the recipe show here as well...
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/15348/red-trolley-clone

Yet this extract recipe shows far less....
http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/red-trolley-clone

Anyways, good on you for persevering...cheers

 

[BlackGoat]

My first BIAB attempt got me around 50% efficiency, took some tinkering around with the process and a much finer crush to get up to roughly 70% where I'm usually at these days. Don't see anything really wrong with the second mash out, I suppose at some point you risk extracting tannins but I'm not really sure how much you really need to worry about that with BIAB.

For the record, the process that I use is the standard mash in the kettle thing. Then I have two homer buckets from home depot that nest into each other, one is drilled with a ton of holes, which functions as a ghetto false bottom. I take the grain bag out of the kettle, hold it over the kettle to drain as long as I feel like, then drop it into my two bucket setup. Once its in there it can drain freely. I'll take a lid to a kitchen stock pot and use that to push down on the grain bag to extract more of the good stuff, before pouring cold "sparge" water over the grains to get some more out. Once finished I'll add the contents of the bucket to my kettle along with the "first runnings" and away I go. Simple, effective, and avoids me having to stand there holding the bag until my forearms are burning.

 

[allynlyon]

My first BIAB attempt got me around 50% efficiency, took some tinkering around with the process and a much finer crush to get up to roughly 70% where I'm usually at these days. Don't see anything really wrong with the second mash out, I suppose at some point you risk extracting tannins but I'm not really sure how much you really need to worry about that with BIAB.

For the record, the process that I use is the standard mash in the kettle thing. Then I have two homer buckets from home depot that nest into each other, one is drilled with a ton of holes, which functions as a ghetto false bottom. I take the grain bag out of the kettle, hold it over the kettle to drain as long as I feel like, then drop it into my two bucket setup. Once its in there it can drain freely. I'll take a lid to a kitchen stock pot and use that to push down on the grain bag to extract more of the good stuff, before pouring cold "sparge" water over the grains to get some more out. Once finished I'll add the contents of the bucket to my kettle along with the "first runnings" and away I go. Simple, effective, and avoids me having to stand there holding the bag until my forearms are burning.

I did something similar with my grains. I got tired of holding them so I brought out my big colander and stuck it over a smaller stock pot I have and let it finish draining. I probably got another 2L from the grain. It was a nice lazy way to get the most from the bag.

 

[MaxStout]

I made a hoist with a pulley in my garage to lift the bag out. After the mash, I hoist it up and let it drip into the kettle while I bring it to a boil.