Myqul's Super Concentrate Brewdays (Maxi-BIAB)

I don't have the facilities to do a 23l AG brew but I'm on the verge of running out of beer after doing several 10l batches. It wouldn't be feasible for me to invest in larger equipment at this point.

However, I'm sure I've read on here that Myqul does a super concentrate brewing technique, which I would appreciate a breakdown of the method.

I think I understand the principle...use the quantities of grain and hops that you would for a full size batch but only use the quantity of water that suits your equipment...then top up in the FV after the boil.

If Myqul or anyone else who uses this method could point me in the right direction, I would be grateful.

I can't remeber the site where I first learned to brew the way I do but it you google Maxi-Biab then you should come up with something. Anyway here's what I do

My pot is 18.5L and I use my biggest gas ring on the cooker which is 10cm

* I fill my pot to 13.5L with water. Heat to strike temp then dough in and mash in the pot.
*I then sparge once using 1.34L/per Kg. I fill a bucket with the sparge water. Pull the grain bag and put it in the bucket. Then *** the mash for two mins to agitate the grain then leave it for a further 8 mins. I then lauter and pour the sparge runnings into the main pot. I also squeeze the hell out of the bag.Whilst I'm sparging and lautering I have turned the heat on under the main pot start to heat it up
*Once I've finished sparging I put 5L of 'top up' water on another gas ring to heat up to boiling. Somtimes I just use my domestic kettle though as this is faster but I have to do it a couple of times.
The reason for this top up water is that all the mash/sparge running dont usually fill the pot up. You get better hop utilisation in a less concentrated wort so I try to keep the wort as dilute as possible
*Once your wort is boiling add your hop additions as normal. However I dont have a wort chiller and no-chill so I add my flavour and aroma additions after the no chill seperateley I can go into this further if you no-chill too but if you use a wort chiller just do your additions as normal.
*Once your wort comes to the end of the boil chill it however you do it. Then transfer to your FV.
*Take a gravity reading then use this dilution calc (the first calculator) to work out how much dilution water you need
http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/
*Dilute your wort.
*Pitch your yeast.
Thats how I roll :thumb:

-Based on my pot size etc, it seems you can do about a 20% bigger brew length than your actual pot size. If 20% isnt enough for you perhaps you might want to consider a partial mash plus extract that way you can do about 50% extra
- For a full 23L brew length I can do a maximum of about 5.2%ABV beer. I can of course do a bigger beer but the brew length will be shorter

I'm sure you've got lots of questions so ask away

MyQul said:

I can't remeber the site where I first learned to brew the way I do but it you google Maxi-Biab then you should come up with something. Anyway here's what I do

My pot is 18.5L and I use my biggest gas ring on the cooker which is 10cm

* I fill my pot to 13.5L with water. Heat to strike temp then dough in and mash in the pot.
*I then sparge once using 1.34L/per Kg. I fill a bucket with the sparge water. Pull the grain bag and put it in the bucket. Then *** the mash for two mins to agitate the grain then leave it for a further 8 mins. I then lauter and pour the sparge runnings into the main pot. I also squeeze the hell out of the bag.Whilst I'm sparging and lautering I have turned the heat on under the main pot start to heat it up
*Once I've finished sparging I put 5L of 'top up' water on another gas ring to heat up to boiling. Somtimes I just use my domestic kettle though as this is faster but I have to do it a couple of times.
The reason for this top up water is that all the mash/sparge running dont usually fill the pot up. You get better hop utilisation in a less concentrated wort so I try to keep the wort as dilute as possible
*Once your wort is boiling add your hop additions as normal. However I dont have a wort chiller and no-chill so I add my flavour and aroma additions after the no chill seperateley I can go into this further if you no-chill too but if you use a wort chiller just do your additions as normal.
*Once your wort comes to the end of the boil chill it however you do it. Then transfer to your FV.
*Take a gravity reading then use this dilution calc (the first calculator) to work out how much dilution water you need
http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/
*Dilute your wort.
*Pitch your yeast.
Thats how I roll :thumb:

-Based on my pot size etc, it seems you can do about a 20% bigger brew length than your actual pot size
- For a full 23L brew length I can do a maximum of about 5.2%ABV beer. I can of course do a bigger beer but the brew length will be shorter

I'm sure you've got lots of questions so ask away

Click to expand...

Thank you sir, you're a gentleman and a scholar.

MyQuil
I added my hops as per instructions on my AG kit but i dont have a chiller either, therefore all hops (200g of them) ended up im my FV for 24 hrs.
Will this be ok?,im sure it should as most people reckon a lot of hops are lost in initial fermentation but i may of course be totally wrong, dont want a bitter,bitter IPA.

pms67 said:

MyQuil
I added my hops as per instructions on my AG kit but i dont have a chiller either, therefore all hops (200g of them) ended up im my FV for 24 hrs.
Will this be ok?,im sure it should as most people reckon a lot of hops are lost in initial fermentation but i may of course be totally wrong, dont want a bitter,bitter IPA.

Click to expand...

If you just chucked the boiling wort, hops and all into the FV then closed it up to cool, then you will get a more bitter beer as the hops will continue to isomerise. If when you first try your first bottle it's too bitter just give it more conditioning time and it should mellow the bitternes out. Worse case scenario you can blend it with a sweeter beer.

Not every no-chiller would agree with me but I find that no-chilling cause the flavour aroma hops to be much dulled as a lot of the essential oils will have disapeared with the steam as the wort cools. What I do is what call a mini boil. I only add the 60min addition to the main boil then:
After the wort has naturally coolled the following 24-48 hours. I take out 3L and boil it for 15 mins in a 5L pot. I then add my late additions (15m, 10min, 0min, whattever my hop shedule is) to this 'mini boil' then cool it in the kitchen sink then add this mini boil to the main body of the wort (having strained the hops out through a seive). Before pitching the yeast

Great idea, i will apply that to the next biab i do,cheers 👍

Just to update this thread, I no longer do the 'mini boils' as I've found little to no difference taste-wise between mini boil vs non mini boil

I started out brewing using the maxi-biab method just like you're doing, got a 19L Burco from work for free that was about to be dumped then bought a mashing and sparging bag and a grain kit and that was it. Such a simple method of getting into all grain brewing without the expense/inconvenience of a 3 vessel set up.