Tomorrow's day 1, few questions

[Goolsbymd]

Tomorrow I'll be doing my first BIAB it is the lemon-lime hefe weiven by sd-slim
Grain bill is 11.25lbs. Using a paint strainer bag (going to double up until my wilser bag), wlp380 is on its stir plate already, beer smith is set up best i can and I am boiling 5 gallons of water to check boil off rate/hour to plug that into bs2. I'm shooting for 5 gallons, using a 15gallon SS concord kettle. According to beersmith I need to heat up initial water to 178, add grains (11.25lbs) for a target temp of 158 for 45 mins. Will secure fire, place lid on and wrap up to minimize thermal lose. After that's done mash out at 170 for 10 minutes. Is that 10 mins after the 45 mins or in my last 10 mins raise up to 170? Then proceed as usual for hop additions, cooling etc. everything look in order? No sparge, will squeeze. Looks like avg is .08/lbs for grain absorption so add an extra gallon.

I boil off approx 1.25gallons/hr.
So I'll start with 8.5g boil, -1.25 boil off, -.5 trub in ferm, -.5 from kettle hop trub, and -1 after squeezing grains.

 

[pablosbrewing]

According to beersmith I need to heat up initial water to 178, add grains (11.25lbs) for a target temp of 158 for 45 mins.

Mashout rest is after raising the temp, after the initial rest. Print the recipe - pretty much step by step including times and temps.

Check your temps - that seems way too hot. Make sure you select a BIAB profile in Beersmith, click the mash tab, adjust your mash temp (in this case 158F) and adjust grain temp.

It should come out more like 163-165F strike temp, I'm thinking.

 

[Goolsbymd]

Glad you caught that error thank you. It came out to 166.

 

[wilserbrewer]

First off, thanks for the order!

You have a 15 gallon kettle and a 5 gallon paint strainer, so just understand the basic need of all the water needing to rinse all of the grain. After the mash, and before removing the bag, I would suggest lifting and draining the bag several times to be sure to rinse the grains in the bag well with ALL the water (like a tea bag). This is not really an issue when your bag is sized to kettle.

I have never used a paint strainer, but if the 11 lbs of grain is a tight squeeze in one PS bag, I have read of people mashing in two seperate bags in the same pot...just an idea if your grain does not fit into one.

BIAB is very simple!
Also on hitting your temperature, be advised that it will take a few minutes and a lot of stirring for the temp to stabilize....I say this because if you stir in your grain and take a temp it will be a false high as it takes some time for the grain to heat and the strike water to cool as the mash stabilizes at an even temp...

Cheers!

 

[Goolsbymd]

LHBS had a finer mesh bag for cheap so ill use that instead of the PS bag which is a more coarse weave. Got cold here last night so all the grains we're outside in the garage so I upped the mash water to 170 and it fell perfectly after 10 mins into the target of 158. About half way through the mash/steep. Going to set up some kind of make shift pulley system. Hefeweizen wheat/grains were smelling like i was back on the farm.

 

[DonH]

glad someone caught the error on the strike water temp! That was the first error I made when brewing!

 

[DonH]

LHBS had a finer mesh bag for cheap so ill use that instead of the PS bag which is a more coarse weave. Got cold here last night so all the grains we're outside in the garage so I upped the mash water to 170 and it fell perfectly after 10 mins into the target of 158. About half way through the mash/steep. Going to set up some kind of make shift pulley system. Hefeweizen wheat/grains were smelling like i was back on the farm.

You can use a good ole ladder

 

[Goolsbymd]

You can use a good ole ladder

I pulled it out but the kettle was to high and wouldn't fit due to the cross braces. I have exposed beams with eye lets drilled/secured through them that I hang meat to cure on in the winter time so i just used them and ran rope.

Tying it was the biggest PITA. Grain bill barely let me get a good knot in it and rope was pushing the to thick to get a secure knot, but I let it drain for 20 mins and squeezed it real good. I spilled a good bit (.25g) struggling to get a knot in the grain bag. Very sticky so it worked good lol, tastes sweet. So I forgot to do the mash out at 170 for 10minsl but oh well I'll learn next time. Pre boil gravity was 1.030 using BS to convert gives me about 1.049 pre-boil. Will take another after.

 

[Goolsbymd]

All done and into fermentation chamber. Hit a gravity of 1.046 recipe called for a orginal gravity of 1.051. Not bad for my first biab batch.

 

[RM-MN]

I pulled it out but the kettle was to high and wouldn't fit due to the cross braces. I have exposed beams with eye lets drilled/secured through them that I hang meat to cure on in the winter time so i just used them and ran rope.

Tying it was the biggest PITA. Grain bill barely let me get a good knot in it and rope was pushing the to thick to get a secure knot, but I let it drain for 20 mins and squeezed it real good. I spilled a good bit (.25g) struggling to get a knot in the grain bag. Very sticky so it worked good lol, tastes sweet. So I forgot to do the mash out at 170 for 10minsl but oh well I'll learn next time. Pre boil gravity was 1.030 using BS to convert gives me about 1.049 pre-boil. Will take another after.

Mash out isn't needed unless you are fly sparging which you wouldn't be doing with BIAB. You didn't really forget anything.

 

[DonH]

awesome man! the brewing part is easy, learning your equipment is the hardest! once you do two to three more you will have the ins and outs of your equipment!

 

[zeptrey]

I do a saccharification rest for at least 70 mins but preferably 90 with BIAB. Really don't need to mash out but I do...I just kick on the burner while constantly stirring. Once temp hits 168 I pull the bag and squeeze like heck. The longer saccharification rest will help with your efficiency. People will say do a fine crush but I don't just because of all the extra trub. I don't like wasting beer. All in all, looks like you got a good grasp in it all and congrats on your brew.


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[judsonp]

Yeah, with BIAB, your "lauter / sparge" time should be tiny. So really your "mash out" happens after the lauter as your wort is on it way to the boil. (Once it gets up in the 160s, the enzymes start denaturing.) It's a waste of effort to heat the mash up to that temperature when you're going to do it anyway in a couple of minutes.