AG#1 American Blonde Ale

[scrapsmac]

Hi all,

Doing my first All-Grain today by the BIAB method. It's an American Ale. Keeping it simple as it is my first so:

18 Litre Batch

3kg Maris Otter
0.2kg Carapils
0.2kg Crystal (30)

Safale US-05

Northern Brewer Hops


I honestly don't know how this is going to turn out but I have started to use Beersmith and although it is a low gravity 1.039, it hits the other boxes nicely.

My question is around water volumes. I have set up my 33 litre profile and selected 'full boil BIAB' for the mash (hopefully correctly) and it is telling me I need 27.65 litres in total. However it then says I should add 29qts for the mash which is 33 litres approx. Forgive my ignorance but is this just the total volume of my container?

My house is also too damn warm. I will be fermenting this at ambient temperate 20/21 degrees. Is this ok? I don't have a fermenting fridge nor anywhere cooler. I could put it in the outdoor garage but it can drop to 10 degrees and less at night...

Anyway hope it goes well!

 

[RobWalker]

I assume the amount you add is to compensate for grain absorption. If you struggle on efficiency, don't be afraid to bodge a sparge in, have a larger pre boil volume and boil longer to get the same post boil volume.

Good luck mate, looks good!

 

[scrapsmac]

Just waiting for this to cool to pitching temp.

Ended up with 19 litres of wort at 1.045 with temp correction. I had originally anticipated 18 litres at 1.039 with 65% efficiency however I added an extra 200g maris otter.

So I think my efficiency is actually 74% ish which I'm happy with for a first time!!

Perhaps I should have measured my volumes more accurately however I hope it turns out good. It smells great! Just the one hop addition, 20 grams at 60mins.

Can highly recommend the biab method