I'm nervous

[derek1225]

Hey all so I'm currently doing my first all grain biab. I'm doing a cream ale style. Build
5# pale malt 2 row
2#pilsen
1.5#corn
.5#barley flaked
.5#caramel 20L
.5#munich malt
And attached is a pic of what it looks like 20 mins into steeping...looks really watery too me but maybe I'm just nervous. 10 gal pot starting with 9 gallons of water and shooting for about 5 or 5.5 gallons to bottle.

View attachment 1434768497657.jpg

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Looks ok to me. 9 gallons sounds a bit high for. 5.5gallon to bottle though. I usually boil off a gallon an hour average. How long are you planning to boil this?

That aside though you really can't discern how a beer will be by looking at your wort compared to finished product. Let alone not even completing your "steep"(and while I'm on a roll since you are using base Malts you're Mashing not steeping.) functionally the same but technically different.

Looks good aside from what I perceive to be too much mash liquor

 

[TexasWine]

You'll be fine. Just take a gravity and volume reading before you boil. If it's in the range you expected, proceed as planned. If you find that you've got too much volume, and your gravity is correspondingly low, boil off enough water to get you at your planned volume and OG for the start of the boil and then proceed as planned. If you find that your gravity is low but volume is good, you can either take the hit in ABV or boil longer to hit the OG you want.

Keep us updated!

 

[Gavin C]

Next time you could use one of the great online volume calculators. @pricelessbrewing has a great one in his signature.

I usually strike with about 7.5 gallons for that sort of grain bill assuming a 60 minute boil and 0.5 gallons lost to absorption. I think you have too much water by about 1-1.5 gallons depending on your boil-off rate.

Probably too late in the day but 120min boil at least on this one. Delay your first hop addition accordingly

Should work out well with the longer boil

 

[derek1225]

Thanks for all the responses. Ya I gotta a little ballsy and am trying my first all grain at night PLUS I bought a nuwave induction cook top....long story short they suck and couldn't even get to like 120 degrees. That's why its taking so long but I shall push on lol

 

[derek1225]

OG before boil is 1.010 so I'm hoping for around 1.046 OG so after about a 90 minute boil it might be close. Just check after the 90 minute boil? And if its in range after 90 minutes then do I got to add hops then and boil for 60 minutes? Or should I add hops now?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Just quick checking the evaporation/dilution calculator or my brewing app says 9 gallons at 1.010 boiled down to 5.5gallons would only be 1.016. I cannot verify the accuracy on this as I haven't checked it against any brews I've done to see how accurate it is. But the calculators I have used were accurate. So I'm thinking either boil to a smaller batch or add some extract to boost your gravity reading. According to my calculator you'd have to boil down to 2 gallons to reach 1.045 from 9 gallons of 1.010 wort. Hope the calculator is wrong on this one for your sake report back and let us know how everything works out for you. You will either wind up weaker in ABV than intended with wanted volume. Or less volume of the ABV beer you wanted. Keep in mind if you go for longer boil less volume. Push all hop additions until your done boiling the extra volume off first. I.e. If you boil off a gallon in an hour. And want 5.5 gallons don't start your 60 minute addition till you have 6.5gallons of liquid boiling. Otherwise your hop profile will be totally out of balance.

 

[Gavin C]

Preboil that low equates to near zero efficiency.

Did you crush your grains?

Did you carry out a mash. (not a steep)?

Something is seriously amiss. How did you take the gravity reading. Did you cool the sample to the calibration temperature of the hydrometer?

 

[derek1225]

Well first all grain I'm not sure of I'm doing it all correctly but what I've read and seen it seems I am. The homebrew store in my town,the owner was gone today when I went to get my grains, so I crushed them myself and found/measured them out not knowing what I was doing really but after boiling and adding hops and cooling wort to 70° my of is right around 1.034...Ill take it haha. Its a cream ale so I guess low alcohol with a thrust quench is the goal?

 

[derek1225]

Finally product. Looks good to me! Ha

View attachment 1434784697529.jpg

 

[wilserbrewer]

1.034 not so bad. Your first gravity of 1.010 was likely incorrect. How did you crush the grain? I'm guessing your crush was inadequate. I would suggest a corona mill if you plan on crushing your own, less than 30 bucks delivered. Of course, more expensive mills are also available. You need a pretty thorough complete crush to extract the malt sugar from the grain.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

1.034 not so bad. Your first gravity of 1.010 was likely incorrect. How did you crush the grain? I'm guessing your crush was inadequate.

I agree. Especially BIAB grind it finer than you would for a standard mash/lauter system. I came up with 9 gallons around 1.021 to reach 5.5gallons at 1.034 so I'd say your original reading was off. Did you adjust for temp or did you chill the sample to calibrated temp first? If not adjusted AND your hydrometer was calibrated at 60F to get reading of 1.010 you'd probably have a sample temp around 120F to give you 1.021 that would've boiled down to the 1.034

 

[derek1225]

I didn't even think about the temp when taking my first reading..oops. And the local homebrew store had a grinder where I dropped the grains in the a metal funnel looking thing and had to metal rollers at the bottom with not much space between each other and a electric drill attached to one roller so the drill turned the roller. Grind seemed pretty fine too me.

 

[C-Rider]

I use a blender to turn the grain into almost flour. I can do 7 lbs of grain in 10 min. You only have 10 lbs there. BIAB you can grind as fine as possible. Things will improve next time.

 

[Firewalker11]

I use a blender to turn the grain into almost flour. I can do 7 lbs of grain in 10 min. You only have 10 lbs there. BIAB you can grind as fine as possible. Things will improve next time.

It's your beer but I would never flour my grain bill, lots of off flavors. The bran layer needs to stay intact but the endosperm has to be crushed to allow the conversion.

Flouring the grain bill will also increase dough balls, stuck conversions and lower effencicy due to lower dilutions.

Yeah, don't do that.

 

[derek1225]

Well it siphoned out of the secondary into my keg(first time kegging!!!) And force carbonated it and poured a glass since I was so excited. Besides it being flat still and really green tasting, it tasted awesome with good color! Has not yesty/extracty taste that the last beers I've brewed have since I used kits which almost discouraged me from brewing since they all tasted that same with that twang. But this first all grain batch is pretty tasty.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Awesome. Glad it worked out. Welcome to the addiction!!!
Cheers.

 

[derek1225]

Indeed an addiction, but the good kind lol

 

[Psylocide]

It's your beer but I would never flour my grain bill, lots of off flavors. The bran layer needs to stay intact but the endosperm has to be crushed to allow the conversion.

Flouring the grain bill will also increase dough balls, stuck conversions and lower effencicy due to lower dilutions.

Yeah, don't do that.

Why does the bran layer need to stay intact?

I've experienced no off flavors from going to a much, much finer crush than most recommend (outside of the BIABers).

I actually had 2 brews side-by-side, one with a more "standard" crush and one with a floury crush. The malt flavor/mouthfeel was almost identical... have you personally experienced off-flavors from this method?