Looking for BIAB Tips

[OkanaganMike]

Gotta love Google. Is there anything not on there?

 

[chickypad]

Nevermind - should have done a quick Google search - problem solved: http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

Many folks find in practice that the conversions don't work too well much over 80-90* (one reason a refractometer is nice on brew day). If you put the sample cup in a bowl of cold water it will cool off faster than putting it in the freezer, especially if you stir it.

 

[MattyIce]

Many folks find in practice that the conversions don't work too well much over 80-90* (one reason a refractometer is nice on brew day). If you put the sample cup in a bowl of cold water it will cool off faster than putting it in the freezer, especially if you stir it.

Smart idea. I also do not like the idea of dropping a hydrometer into hot wort. They are probably pretty resistant to breaking due to sudden temp changes, but do not want to roll the dice.

Refractometers are handy for this purpose. Sample size is just a few drops that also cools to a reasonable temperature very quickly.

 

[eadavis80]

Thanks for the tips on cooling my sample to 90 or below. A refractometer might be nice, but I'd rather spend that $ on more ingredients. It's not like a 4-6 oz sample of wort is going to be missed over 5 gallons, at least not to me.

 

[youngdh]

Nevermind - should have done a quick Google search - problem solved: http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

Thanks for the tips on cooling my sample to 90 or below. A refractometer might be nice, but I'd rather spend that $ on more ingredients. It's not like a 4-6 oz sample of wort is going to be missed over 5 gallons, at least not to me.

A refractometer has been one of the biggest time savers for me on brew day. Cooling my hydrometer jar of mash liquor in a pitcher of cold water from 170 to near 60 was taking 5-10 min for each sample. With a refractometer, by the time I can read the scale the couple of drops of the sample have cooled. I've also found it accurate for SG measurements post ferment (alcohol present) when using the refractometer conversion tools when compared against my precision hydrometer. SG measurements are very quick.

 

[eadavis80]

I must be missing something because I don't see using a hydrometer as taking much time. 5-10 minutes, to me, is not a big deal on a brew day. Glad it works well for you, but I don't know how much BIAB brewing I'll be doing. I just did this on a whim for a fun Brew Fest, but all of my other kits are extract based, so I just use the hydrometer to measure OG prior to the yeast pitch. Glad you like your refractometer.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

After you get used to your system I don't see a need to take pre-boil samples. At least for me, I know I can get a general idea of what my efficiency will be just based purely on my grain bill.

7-8# of grain = 90%+ I almost always hit above 85% when I have a small grain bill under 8lbs.
8-10# of grain = 80%ish
10-13# of grain = 73% most of my beers for 5 gallons are between 10-11.5lbs so I have the most amount of data on this weight, 13lbs being the max I can safely do on my system.

Yes, these are all post boil measurements, I guess I could never understand the difference between brewhouse efficiency and, uh, whatever the other one is. If I changed systems to a true all-grain system or got a bigger kettle and upgraded to 10 gallon batches and such, I would take some pre-boil readings for the first couple batches on the new system then after I know about what the system does and work out the initial tweeks, all post boil samples for me.

Disclaimer: Yes, I had a lot of batches originally that I was getting bad efficiency on, some was due to being a bad brewer, but I never had LME/DME on hand to adjust my gravity so whatever I got, I got post-boil. Now that I have my own mill and have narrowed down the variables (confession, I use the same strike volume every single time no matter what the grain bill is and the same amount of sparge water). Whenever I write up a new recipe I work under the assumption I am only going to get 75%, if I get more, yay, if I get less, I havent gotten below 73% efficiency in over 15 batches.

 

[btbnl]

To me, the really useful thing about pre-boil gravity readings is that they provide a cross-check of your post-boil OG reading, provided you have the pre- and post-boil volumes too. By conservation of sugar,

pre-boil [volume x (gravity-1)] = post-boil [volume x (gravity -1)]

 

[eadavis80]

Well, the process itself was easy, but next time I do this I will start with a lot less than the recommended 5.5 gallons to yield 3 gallons of wort. I ended with 4+ gallons of wort and because there was so much liquid (less sugar/gallon) my OG was only 1.042, a far cry from the kit's suggested OG of 1.064. I guess next time I'll just start with only 4 gallons and if I need to top off, so be it. My buddy did the extract kit the same day and it was neat to see the sharp contrast in the darknesses of our respective worts. Mine was much, much lighter. I'm sure some of that was because it was "diluted" but I also know all-grain beers are lighter than their extract counterparts. As long as it makes good tasting beer, that's fine. It won't be the IPA ABV I was hoping for, but as long as it makes good tasting, carbonated beer, I'll be happy. Now, I bought a 3-gallon fermenter to rack this beer (and other BIAB kits as well). Yes, yes, I know many dry hop in the primary, but since I bought this 3-gallon carboy for this reason, I'd like to use it. So, I'll have another gallon of Dead Ringer left over to siphon off into a 1-gallon jug. I have some left over Simcoe and Cluster. Would you dry hop either of those as a 1-gallon experiment?

 

[MattyIce]

I probably would have just lengthened the boil to end up with three gallons. 4.25 gallons of 1.042 wort boiled down to 3 gallons yields 1.060 wort...much closer to your goal OG. All grain is not necessarily lighter than any extract counterpart except that attenuation is sometimes better with all grain. You can add sugar/DME to your primary to raise the gravity if you like. I like your dry hop experiment idea. Do it!

 

[oljimmy]

FWIW, I've had no problems using my hydrometer on 140F wort. Not sure why, since so many seem to report bad readings, but when I plug my results into the Brewer's Friend temperature adjustment calculator, the hydrometer agrees with the refractometer reading taken at 80 F (I've calibrated the two).

And I don't think anyone should worry about 140F being too hot for a hydrometer, since that's the temperature you're using when you rinse/wash it with hot water from your faucet. Mine certainly isn't *that* fragile, and if you were really worried about the glass breaking, you could have the hydrometer sitting in mostly-hot water beforehand.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I probably would have just lengthened the boil to end up with three gallons. 4.25 gallons of 1.042 wort boiled down to 3 gallons yields 1.060 wort...much closer to your goal OG. All grain is not necessarily lighter than any extract counterpart except that attenuation is sometimes better with all grain. You can add sugar/DME to your primary to raise the gravity if you like. I like your dry hop experiment idea. Do it!

I would like to parrot this, lengthen the boil if it looks like you are through the roof on target volumes. I generally tailor my boil length to my target batch size instead of trying to play with my strike/sparge volumes. Generally with high OG beers I am going to sparge a little more on my system to hit the 73-75% and most higher OG beers a longer boil doesn't hurt the beer.

 

[eadavis80]

Okay - thanks. I guess the first time through I was just set on boiling for an hour, but now I know I can just boil longer to end at X volume - duh... why I didn't think of that, I don't know. But, between doing that and/or starting with less water, I'm sure my next BIAB will come out closer to what I target - experiment and learn is the name of the game

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I would recommend doing two boils with plain water for an hour, and measure the heights of it at start and finish. The difference of these two (divided by 1.044 if you measured when it was boiling, to compensate for thermal expansion) will be the boil off rate. If you end up ABOVE your pre boil volume after the mash, then boil for a bit until you're there.

Otherwise, boil a bit longer if before you add any non 60 minute hop additions if you want to keep the same hop profile.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would recommend doing two boils with plain water for an hour.....

This is great advice if you want to be very exact, however I would prefer spending 3 hours and 5 lbs of propane making beer....just a matter of personal preference and how precise you want to be....unlike Priceless, I tend to be precise less.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

This is great advice if you want to be very exact, however I would prefer spending 3 hours and 5 lbs of propane making beer....just a matter of personal preference and how precise you want to be....unlike Priceless, I tend to be precise less.

I hope you don't use that much propane! Totally legit though, take a guess based on this brew, and take careful notes next time for your pre boil and post boil volumes. After a couple brews you'll get it nailed down well.

 

[eadavis80]

Since I got over 4 gallons of wort (even if it was lower OG than I anticipated) with the ingredients (7.625 pounds of grain) from NB's Dead Ringer BIAB kit, I was curious if I could do a regular all-grain 5 gallon kit (10-11 pounds of grain) in my setup (an 8-gallon Tall Boy). I wasn't close to boiling over last weekend when I brewed the Dead Ringer batch, so I'm curious if it's crazy to think I can get close to OG with a 5-gallon all-grain kit in an 8-gallon Tall Boy kettle? I could top off if need be.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Since I got over 4 gallons of wort (even if it was lower OG than I anticipated) with the ingredients (7.625 pounds of grain) from NB's Dead Ringer BIAB kit, I was curious if I could do a regular all-grain 5 gallon kit (10-11 pounds of grain) in my setup (an 8-gallon Tall Boy). I wasn't close to boiling over last weekend when I brewed the Dead Ringer batch, so I'm curious if it's crazy to think I can get close to OG with a 5-gallon all-grain kit in an 8-gallon Tall Boy kettle? I could top off if need be.

You should be able to pull that off just fine without having to do top off. I do 10-11lbs of grain in 5 gallon batches in my 6.5 gallon kettle all the time (its 95% of my batches are between 10-11lbs of grain in a 5 gallon batch). I have to do a sparge like a regular all-grain system to get my efficiency and volumes right, but you shouldn't have to do either if you have an 8 gallon kettle.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

How can you know if your better than a Chimp? :fro:
Have you ever seen those guys brew?
They can use their feet and their hands at the same time, and let me tell you, they are fast! I saw a chimp brew 3 straight BIAB batches in 2 hours.
Hands and feet darting this way and that, they were a blur.

He made:
Banana Blonde Ale
Banana Stout
Banana Double IPA





(PS - I too googled knot tying - Millers Knot)

Lol.