1st All Grain Brew Day (BIAB) HBC American Double IPA Mash Kit

[BrewzLee]

1st All Grain Brew Day (BIAB) - HBC American Double IPA Mash Kit

11/01/16

I got the HBC BIAB starter kit for Christmas and have been keen to make the move from kits to AG. I had a free day yesterday so decided to make up the American Double IPA mash kit that came supplied with the starter kit.

The kit comes with:

- Grain - according to the site this is a mix of Maris Otter and Crystal Malt. There was over 6 kg of grain unfortunately I didn’t note down the weight before brewing.
- Hops - listed on the website as being Nugget, Zeus and Centennial. These were supplied as 60 minute, 10 minute, 0 minute and dry hop additions.
- Yeast - Safale US-05
- Whirlfloc tablet

Start Time: 11:45

I set up equipment with mash bag fitted in the boiler and added 26 litres of water as per the BIAB instructions on the HBC website.

Turned on boiler at 12:15 and raised the water temperature to 70ºC at which point I switched off the boiler and added the supplied pre measured grain.

The grain was added gradually stirring to prevent dough balls. After all of the grain had been added I checked the temperature (at the centre of the boiler) and the temperature had dropped to 64 ºC. I fired the boiler up again, ensuring the bag was not touching the element, to get the temperature back up to 67 ºC as directed.
At 13:22 I insulated the boiler with towels and a sleeping bag and set a timer for 90 minutes.
With this being my first BIAB I wanted to ensure I achieved a reasonable efficiency so opted for a 90 minute mash.

At 13:50 the temp had dropped to 65 ºC so I took the opportunity to stir the mash and fired the boiler back up, within 2 minutes the temperature had returned to 67 ºC. I added additional towels and used clamps to keep the sleeping bag in better contact with the boiler to prevent heat loss. Mash temperature remained at 67 ºC until the end of the 90 minutes at 14:52.

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The instructions from the HBC site said to heat 6 litres of water to 80 ºC ready to sparge the grains after the mash.

Once the mash was complete I tightened the draw string and lifted it from the boiler, not easy! I used a cake rack sat on top of the boiler to support the mash bag whilst I squeezed it. The instructions advise you to pour over a portion of the 80 ºC water to bring the volume in the boiler up to 27 litres, in my case this was only 2 litres.

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I switched the boiler back on at 15:20, to control the hot break I sprayed the surface with cold water. The boiler achieved a rolling boil at 16:00 when I added the 60 minute hop addition in a muslin bag (Nugget - approx. 33g).

At 16:45 I added the chiller to sanitise it and the Whirlfloc tablet.

At 16:50 I added the 10 minute hop addition in a muslin bag (Zeus - approx. 55g).

At 5:00 I switched off the boiler and added the 0 minute addition loose as I was concerned that after flame out a muslin bag may not be adequately sanitised? I also read that the hops form a layer over the hop strainer and help to filter the beer. (Zeus - approx. 55g)

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I left the 0 minute hops to steep for 20 minutes before cooling down to 22 ºC using the chiller. This took around 45 minutes.

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I took a gravity reading at this point and was surprised to see that it was at approximately 1.070 which was much higher than the estimated OG of 1.060 for the recipe. At this point I decided to top up the volume in the boiler to lower the OG. I added water gradually taking gravity readings at intervals until I reached 1.062 having added an additional 4 litres of water.

I then began transferring the wort to the FV but the hop strainer quickly blocked and reduced the flow to a tiny trickle. I left this for about 30 mins before growing concerned about the vulnerability of the wort to infection. I tried to remove the hops blocking the strainer out of the way using the mash paddle but this lasted seconds before blocking again. I ended up having to continually remove the blockages until the boiler had drained but this meant stirring up the hops and trub which resulted in cloudy wort being transferred which was a shame as after the initial cooling the wort was pretty clear.

The wort was well aerated during the transfer to the FV and I pitched the yeast dry. I ended up with approx. 22.5l according to the scale on my Young’s 25l FV but I haven’t calibrated it so I am not certain how accurate it is.

Overall it was an enjoyable day although it was a little longer than I had anticipated given the problems I ran into. I tasted one of the samples from the trial jar and I must say it was nicer than any of those that I have tried whilst kit brewing so fingers crossed. I was really pleased with both the equipment and recipe pack supplied with the HBC BIAB Starter Kit and I am looking forward to my next brew.

I do have a couple of questions if anyone is able to assist?

- Are there likely to be any off-flavours as a result of transferring cloudy wort?
- Are the Brupaks hop strainers (that fit into the back of the tap) prone to blocking? Is there anything I can do to prevent this for my next brew?
- The recipe sheet says to add the dry hop pack (Centennial - approx. 28g in packet) on day 10 whereas the pack itself says to add on day 5? Which would be more appropriate?

Thanks

 

[Covrich]

NO it should be fine, you will have sediment in and what not which will coagulate and fall out into the bottom of the FV, at least on your first brew you shouldn't worry too much about that.

Assuming it is a hop strainer, I cannot answer much on that one mine on my SS pot works fine its big though and if leaf hops block it using a spoon can help get teh flow going again

I dry hop 5 days before bottling and After fermentation..

 

[BrewzLee]

Thanks Covrich, I did notice that the sample in the trial jar cleared during the time it took me to do the rest of the cleanup so hopefully I'll end up with a reasonable brew :)

The hop strainer was bought in addition to the HBC BIAB Kit and is a copper pipe (maybe 15mm) with drilled holes along its length, it has a couple of elbows that allow it to slot into the back of the tap and sit on the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Demig]

Great post and very timely as I have this kit to make very soon. I also have the same kit and same kind of strainer but have not tried the strainer yet. I'll try it and see what happens and let you know.

 

[Leon103]

Great post. I have the same HBC kit and hop strainer. Be careful with longer masher than the recipes states. Likely to alter the outcome of the brew.

- Are there likely to be any off-flavours as a result of transferring cloudy wort? - No it will be fine, on my last brew I knocked mine off and the brew is very clear and no off flavours
- Are the Brupaks hop strainers (that fit into the back of the tap) prone to blocking? Is there anything I can do to prevent this for my next brew? - Mine doesn't block. Not sure what you can do.
- The recipe sheet says to add the dry hop pack (Centennial - approx. 28g in packet) on day 10 whereas the pack itself says to add on day 5? Which would be more appropriate? I would ferment for 14 days and put the hops in on day 10.

 

[junior1]

Well described would like to know where you got your brew kit from

 

[BrewzLee]

The HBC American Double IPA Mash Kit is a recipe kit supplied by The Homebrew Company. If you buy the BIAB Starter Kit it includes an all grain mash kit of your choice.

 

[Leon103]

And members get 5% discount

 

[Tony1951]

Sounds like a mighty beer that. Love centennial too. Been using it myself.

If that blocking strainer is the bazooka, mesh type about six inches long like mine is, I had that trouble loads, and made a huge improvement by bending the beggar upwards from the attachment to the tap. It sounds brutal, and of course you crimp it down a little bit in the bend, but last brew after I did this, mine emptied great with big flow right to the last inch and a hlf. I did the paddle stroke thing then to get the last few litres out. The trub was much smaller this time. I used to have to scrape the filter every second or so from the boiler being nearly full before, and by doing that, I think I was pushing floury trub through the grid of the mesh. If you mash in a bag in the boiler this solution might be a problem because the up pointing filter will foul up onn the bag, but if you are mashing loose in your boiler or in a mash tun, you could try it next time.

 

[junior1]

Cheers for information guys

 

[Leon103]

Sounds like a mighty beer that. Love centennial too. Been using it myself.

If that blocking strainer is the bazooka, mesh type about six inches long like mine is, I had that trouble loads, and made a huge improvement by bending the beggar upwards from the attachment to the tap. It sounds brutal, and of course you crimp it down a little bit in the bend, but last brew after I did this, mine emptied great with big flow right to the last inch and a hlf. I did the paddle stroke thing then to get the last few litres out. The trub was much smaller this time. I used to have to scrape the filter every second or so from the boiler being nearly full before, and by doing that, I think I was pushing floury trub through the grid of the mesh. If you mash in a bag in the boiler this solution might be a problem because the up pointing filter will foul up onn the bag, but if you are mashing loose in your boiler or in a mash tun, you could try it next time.

Its not a bazooka

 

[BrewzLee]

Hi, thanks for your suggestions. No, my hop strainer is not a Bazooka.

Here are some pics of it.

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[Leon103]

Same as mine.

 

[Tony1951]

Not so easy to bend that, but it could be done. My problem was that the filter was lying in the bottom inch of the boiler in a sludge of coagulated trub and hops. By bending my mesh filter upwards at a sort of 45 (ish) degree angle, it was poking up above that layer of muck and passed most of the boiled wort easily and cleanly. I'm not sure that last inch and a half (that my filter was buried in) is worth that much in the fermenter or the bottle. My latest brew in the FV is MUCH cleaner. Maybe half an inch of trub in the FV rather than 2 inches which was typical previously when I stroked the filter to let stuff through.

 

[Leon103]

You can twist that filter so it's either laying close to the bottom or couple of inches above

 

[BrewzLee]

Right OK thanks, I'll try rotating the elbow around then so that the strainer sits an inch or so off the bottom of the boiler on my next brew.

 

[BrewzLee]

Update:

I added the dry hop/ hop tea addition on day 10 as directed and bottled on day 14 on Monday (25/01/16).

The smell from the FV was fantastic and the FG was down to 1.011 from 1.062 (estimated FG was 1.012) so after priming it will end up about 6.7%.

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I have bottled the batch into mostly 500ml bottles and a few 330/350ml and have started labelling them.

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I'll post an update after they have had a few weeks to condition but I tasted the sample from the trial jar and it was great, full of citrus, so I'm really looking forward to trying this.

:

 

[Spapro]

Right OK thanks, I'll try rotating the elbow around then so that the strainer sits an inch or so off the bottom of the boiler on my next brew.

Sounds like you did well with your first brew. I have a similar strainer and have never had an issue but I got mine off Ebay and mine arrived with a screw collar and I had to DIY fashion a push fit copper pipe to push into the back of the tap and I drilled some more holes in the bit of pipe I used - same size as the holes in the rest of the strainer.

I use leaf hops (not pellets) but never have problems with it blocking.

Definately worth drilling some smalll holes in the S bend of yours which should greatly improve the flow as sitting not low of the tap.

Here is mine with the addtional drilled holes shown

 

[BrewzLee]

Thanks Spapro,
I'll try drilling holes in the two connectors then to try and increase the flow. I have since completed my second all grain brew, which I will try and post a write up on when I get a chance, and I followed Leon's suggestion of twisting the filter round so that it was a couple of inches from the bottom and this worked a lot better than my first attempt with the flow only slowing as I reached the last few dregs above the trub.

 

[Spapro]

Thanks Spapro,
I'll try drilling holes in the two connectors then to try and increase the flow. I have since completed my second all grain brew, which I will try and post a write up on when I get a chance, and I followed Leon's suggestion of twisting the filter round so that it was a couple of inches from the bottom and this worked a lot better than my first attempt with the flow only slowing as I reached the last few dregs above the trub.

Good luck with it, sure you will sort it, very nice labels on your bottles by the way, very impressive.