First All Grain BIAB Brewday water treatment worries!

[Hengoedbrewer]

Hi Hengoedbrewer. My grandparents originally from Merthyr and Caersws. I'm a Utd fan too. Lots in common!

Hard going being a Utd fan these days but that's football for you. Hard to believe my first Old Trafford game was over 30 yrs ago this year. I am Caerphilly now, but my mum and dad still live about 9 miles from Merthyr!

 

[Brewista]

Admin: Please delete this and the next post. I screwed up adding images and have started from scratch as just editing alone wouldn't allow me to add the photos back!

 

[Brewista]

deleted

 

[Brewista]

Hi all,

Well Saturday was my first BIAB day and I think all went OK.

The 17L stock pot I had bought was the perfect size for 2.5 kilo grain bill and 6 litres of mash liquor. It fitted into my pre-warmed oven which maintained the mash temp to within a couple of degrees over the 90 minutes, even with removing it and stirring every 15 minutes or so. When the time came I drained the bag over the stock pot and rinsed the grains with 8 litres cooled boiled water. Gave the bad a good squeeze then started the boil. That went OK and it only took about 20 minutes to cool in the sink with 4-5 refills of cold tap water. I tried to syphon the wort into my FV but that got blocked by hop crud even though there was a mesh bag on the syphon. Ended up pouring what was left straight into FV through a strainer. Unfortunately I'd lost a lot more wort to the grain/boil than anticipated and I only ended up with 8 litres. I'll know to add an additional 1.5 litres of sparge water next time. I suppose I could have added more water to the FV but it didn't occur to me at the time. As a result the expected OG of 1058 was 1064 so the ABV could end up being 6.4%. I guess that's good though as my efficiency must have been OK? Hopefully I'll get 15-16 500ml bottles from it which will be ready for Christmas. Below are a few photos I took on the day for my reference. Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Brian, you could have boiled some water and cooled it to add to the brew to bring the abv down to 1058 I don't know how much you would need, there will be a calculator some were for doing it that wort looks nice considering you poured a lot in

 

[Brewista]

Hi Rod.

Yes, next time if I come up short I'll definitely be ready to add some water. Wort looked OK once it had settled. It seemed cloudy originally from the grains and hops but it did clear. Have just been out to the shed to check on it actually. It had been bubbling away at 18 degrees for a couple of days but last night I think the RCD the shed is wired up to tripped and the brewfridge temp was 15 degrees and there were no bubbles. Argghhh! Have reset. Hopefully fermentation will restart and no permanent damage has been done???

 

[Brewista]

Hi,

Just thought I'd post an update to let you know how everything went.

After adding a whole sachet of S-04 yeast (perhaps half would have done) the FV went into the brew fridge and fermentation started almost straight away. Four days later everything seemed to have stopped so I took a gravity reading. It was already down to 1016! I left it for two weeks anyway (including a cold crash) then bottled after racking to a clean FV as there was a lot of trub. Nine days later I couldn't wait any longer and decided to try a bottle. I didn't have high hopes what with this being my first BIAB so I really just wanted to check something hadn't gone badly wrong. It hadn't. It had carbed up nicely, was crystal clear (no fining) and tasted just like Old Peculier! I couldn't be happier. Thanks for all the advice given above. Going to try and let the remaining bottles condition now and open at Christmas.

 

[Cwrw666]

Glad it turned out well for you. Having done nearly a hundred BIAB brews since abandoning kits I've only had one that was unpleasant - nasty fruity aftertaste because I wasn't keeping my eye on fermentation temperature and it got up to 28c.
Most of the rest have been better than most of the beers in our local pubs. Hope you find the same with your future brewing journey.

 

[Brewista]

Yep, this first batch better than most the beers on offer in my local. Bought enough grain for two brews so am doing the remainder this week. Should be OK for New Year. Am going to start looking for another recipe now, probably a stout. Any recipes you'd recommend? I'll drink most styles. Not a Wheat Beer fan tho.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Glad it turned out fine enjoy

 

[Justin Dean]

I use Brewfather for my water calculations and it simplifies what is steep learning curve especially if you start with Ashbeck or water

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I dont think Brewista uses the forum the thread was posted in November 2019
.

 

[Justin Dean]

Yes though it is a discussion for anyone.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Yes though it is a discussion for anyone.

No worries i just thought it strange you answered a thread with no new posts in 3.5 years.