First BIAB - A few questions

[Chris17]

I brewed my first BIAB batch at the weekend and I'm not too sure how it went and have a few questions.

I bought a Brooklyn Brew Shop recipe kit to make an Elvis Juice (BrewDog) clone. The instructions were for full all grain brewing so I tried to adapt the process to brew in a bag. I added in a sparge step using my fermenting vesssel (cleaned and sanitized it after!).

My main concern was the amount of sediment in the wort. I transferred it into the fermenter through a strainer which got blocked multiple times due to the amount of sediment. I did squeeze the bag fairly hard after both the mash and sparge. Could this be why?

Another concern I had was with the mash to sparge water ratio. I found an equation online somewhere, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it didn't work out to be too different to the ratio in the recipe, so I just used that. This was 2.4 liters for the mash and 4.75 liters for the sparge. Does this sound correct? I did finish up with the correct amount of wort. Also do you guys think its worth sparging with BIAB?

Anyway, I ended with an OG of 1.056, which I thought seemed about right?

Finally, I'm hoping to get started with my next batch as soon as this one is bottled and conditioning. Any tips or recommended recipes would be greatly appreciated, was hoping to make a Porter but I'm open to any styles!!

Thanks for the help!!

 

[steveinUS]

My concept of BIAB brewing is a no-sparge process, where all of the water is in up front. You squeeze the bag somewhat after lifting it out of the wort to get most of the free liquid out, then toss the grains. It is less efficient because of the sugars left behind, but it’s a simpler process and for the batch sizes we work with it is inexpensive enough to compensate for the loss of efficiency with either a bit more grain, or a smaller batch size.

I suppose you might have extracted more sediment from the grains by squeezing it twice.

 

[foxy]

As above, full volume mash, no sparge, instead of squeezing the bag maybe make a set up to hang the bag over a bowl and let the wort drain into that, if you are talking of sediment after the boil, that is the break material and hop debris, try and keep all that out of the fermenter, a clear wort going in equals a clearer wort coming out. Extra grain 15 to 20 % of the base malt would make up for the short fall in efficiency, although if you are using a brewing program, Beer Smith, Brewers Friend or Brewfather they may have already calculated that for you.

 

[matt76]

I've been brewing for about a year now, I do 10L-ish BIAB batches.

I used to sparge but I've recently switched to doing 30min full volume/no-sparge mash+ 30min boil.

To answer your question, no I don't think it's worth sparging. Extra faff for little gain!

Regarding the sediment you mention - yup, that's exactly what i used to have! Everything from the kettle used to go in the FV - sometimes the beer came out clear but usually a bit cloudy, especially chill haze. I never found it hurt the beer, but all that crud affects your yield - mainly it's a cosmetic thing.

Now i let the crud settle a few hours in the brew kettle before syphoning off the crystal clear wort.

Your OG of 1.056 sounds tip top to me. Only advice is get another FV so you can get your next brew on sooner!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I’m on my 7th BIAB this weekend. I don’t sparge as such but I only have a 33l Peco boiler so I do run some 80 degree or so water through the bag into the boiler if I need to make the volume back up to the calculated Pre boil amount. I always squeeze the bag out. The first couple had a lot of trud after cooling which made its way into the FV but it did just settle at the bottom before bottling. However, I now leave it in the boiler with the lid on for about half an hour after it’s cooled and the trud settles in there so very little now gets to the FV. My beers have all come out very well. Funny enough, my favorite one by far was this porter: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/ace-of-spades-london-porter/
I’d highly recommend you give this one a go.

 

[Chris17]

I think I'll definitely give the sparge a miss next time then!

Now i let the crud settle a few hours in the brew kettle before syphoning off the crystal clear wort.

Your OG of 1.056 sounds tip top to me. Only advice is get another FV so you can get your next brew on sooner!

Letting it settle before siphoning into the fermenter definitely sounds like a good plan, thanks for the tip! Yeh, another FV is definitely on my list of things to purchase!!

Funny enough, my favorite one by far was this porter: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/ace-of-spades-london-porter/

I’d highly recommend you give this one a go.

That does sound good, although I only have a 21l boiling pot so I'm sticking to smaller batches at the moment. I could always just do it in two separate batched I suppose.

 

[TonyCall]

I normally transfer my bag, once the mash time has finished, to a bucket and then pour 75º water over the bag to extract as much sugar as I can from the grain and make the water back up to boil volume after absorption. I wring and squeeze the bag and pour the water from the bucket back in to the boiler.

 

[Dexter101]

Just to offer another opinion, I just put the whole content of the boil into the FV. My beer comes out pretty clear, I don't use any finings. Brulosophy also did some tests on this and there is a theory that the trub actually can help provide nutrients for the yeast and doesn't directly effect clarity. Makes my life easier not having to filter it off too.

 

[matt76]

Just to offer another opinion, I just put the whole content of the boil into the FV. My beer comes out pretty clear, I don't use any finings. Brulosophy also did some tests on this and there is a theory that the trub actually can help provide nutrients for the yeast and doesn't directly effect clarity. Makes my life easier not having to filter it off too.

Yeah, that's what I used to do - the reason I stopped is I almost always got chill haze, possibly due to transferring all the cold break material into the FV. I know chill haze is only cosmetic, but it was annoying nonetheless.

(Though now I come to think of it, another change I made simultaneously was from bottled water (barely any calcium) to tap water (loads of calcium in my neck of the woods) - I'm sure I read something somewhere about more calcium helping to avoid chill haze)

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

I've just finished my second BIAB and I sparged both. First time I did so by popping the bag into a spare FV, second time I had invested in one of those big extendable colander things from IKEA and just popped the mash bag into that and poured water over the top, which then drained into my brew kettle. Easy enough though if it actually has little benefit I'd think about cutting it out in future, though it works for me as I only have a 15L pot as my brew kettle and it's not hard to do.

I really like BIAB. I'm going to pinch @matt76 's Podium IPA hop burst recipe for the next one and do a Citra-Galaxy IPA (with Magnum for 10 mins to bitter).

 

[Dexter101]

Yeah, that's what I used to do - the reason I stopped is I almost always got chill haze, possibly due to transferring all the cold break material into the FV. I know chill haze is only cosmetic, but it was annoying nonetheless.

(Though now I come to think of it, another change I made simultaneously was from bottled water (barely any calcium) to tap water (loads of calcium in my neck of the woods) - I'm sure I read something somewhere about more calcium helping to avoid chill haze)

Thats an interesting point. I also no chill so the wort cools down slowly over night. I havent had any chill haze yet however also dont chill my beers for that long and they stay at (cool) room temperature.

Would say i will check out my next bstch and see but its a wheat beer...

 

[matt76]

Thats an interesting point. I also no chill so the wort cools down slowly over night. I havent had any chill haze yet however also dont chill my beers for that long and they stay at (cool) room temperature.

Would say i will check out my next bstch and see but its a wheat beer...

Ah - you misunderstand, I DO chill after the boil. Home made immersion chiller brings out down to 20degC in about 8 minutes

Leaving it to stand is purely to let the crud settle out.

Since you mention it, I have had a few beers where there was no chill haze - and I kid you not, they are all ones like Belgian Witbier that are supposed to be cloudy!!!

 

[Dexter101]

Ah - you misunderstand, I DO chill after the boil. Home made immersion chiller brings out down to 20degC in about 8 minutes

Leaving it to stand is purely to let the crud settle out.

Since you mention it, I have had a few beers where there was no chill haze - and I kid you not, they are all ones like Belgian Witbier that are supposed to be cloudy!!!

Will let you know how this turns out. I will laugh if its crystal!

 

[foxy]

Just to offer another opinion, I just put the whole content of the boil into the FV. My beer comes out pretty clear, I don't use any finings. Brulosophy also did some tests on this and there is a theory that the trub actually can help provide nutrients for the yeast and doesn't directly effect clarity. Makes my life easier not having to filter it off too.

Cold break does help yeast but dumping the whole lot of break material and hops into the fermenter doesn't. Don't take Brulosphy with any serious regard, lots of good information about brewing from far more learned men.
http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/brewing-methods/trub-seperation-why-and-how/

 

[Dexter101]

Cold break does help yeast but dumping the whole lot of break material and hops into the fermenter doesn't. Don't take Brulosphy with any serious regard, lots of good information about brewing from far more learned men.
http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/brewing-methods/trub-seperation-why-and-how/

Thanks for the link, if i start struggling with head retention or hop flavour, will certainly try out limiting out the break