First BIAB Brew Day

[photek1000]

I have moved through kits, partial extract and stove top 1 Gallon All Grain brewing but hadn't brewed anything for a while, but Christmas brought me 2 x full All Grain recipe kits.

This will be a bit of a record for me, so quite a basic write up :thumb:

Today was Brew day after buying my boiler and chiller, I had planned and planned, scheduled and planned a bit more in my head, all seemed to go well, maybe the planning, but definitely a written schedule to follow was well worth it, by the end of the day I was 20 minutes out and I'll put that down to a sub zero outdoor temperature.

Todays recipe was a Timothy Taylor Landlord Clone, aiming for 23 litres and OG of 1.048 following the notes.

Day started after the school run, bringing 22 litres up to Mashing temp, the insulation on the Peco seemed to help well in the freezing temperatures.



Grain and Hops for the day, 5.3KG of Marris Otter, 47g of Bobek & 20g of East Kent Goldings



Adding the grain was easy enough, plenty of space in the boiler even with the false bottom fitted, didn't seem to get any dough balls, sealed it up and watched the temperature, it dropped to around 68-69c and seemed to hold nicely, didn't need to re-apply any heat over the 90 minute mash.



Towards the end of the mash, heated 10 litres in my old stove top kettle to sparge with, moving the grain bag to my bottling bucket to rinse the grains.



Topped up the boiler with the sparged liquid and brought it to the boil.



Rolling boil was good with the Peco, plenty of head space for the break and held a good vigorous boil, had a funny on off type flow to the boil at the end but it never cut to a level that made a difference.

Hops added at 60 and 15, with a protofloc tablet in the last 10, plus my shiny new chiller.



All chilled down in about 25 minutes and in the FV, with some issues, but done, at temp and pre-rehydrated yeast pitched, then all cosied up in the garage with insulation then my brew belt, then my brewing curtain, lol.



So that was brew day, things I learnt was,

1. The PECO is big enough for a 23l brew
2. The false bottom isn't worth it and clogs, ruining tap flow
3. The PECO tap is utter rubbish
4. I need to work out all my dead space, I ended up with a 20 litre FV

So in the end I have 20 litres at an OG of 1.044 so I am pretty happy for my first proper BIAB session, hopefully it will taste alright as well.

A question though about the protofloc, does it need to be crushed and is one tablet too much for 20 - 23litres.

I'm sure many more question will arise on my way deeper into AG brewing.

 

[Chrissparky]

Sounds good, I have only done kits and then biab the difference between them is night and day. My biab have been drinkable after a couple of weeks conditioning. In my opinion better than most available beers from the supermarket.

 

[IainM]

Sounds like it went well!

 

[photek1000]

It did seem to go well, for me good planning was key for a smooth day leaving me free for any issues that may have occurred.

The only major issue was the clogged false bottom meaning I had to resort to the jug and sieve after only 7 litres had made it through the tap.

Although all a good learning experience for what I need to change or upgrade for the next one, I still have one grain kit from Christmas (Hobgoblin clone) and one that I got with the boiler to go (English style IPA).

Can't wait to taste it to see what it turns out like.

 

[Chrissparky]

Clean you're bag and use that for the hops too, you won't get clogged up then

 

[photek1000]

Clean you're bag and use that for the hops too, you won't get clogged up then

I have been considering getting some hop bags for the next one.

 

[IainM]

I have been considering getting some hop bags for the next one.

I use these ones from Amazon. Cheap and work a treat with the peco.

 

[photek1000]

I use these ones from Amazon. Cheap and work a treat with the peco.

Thanks, something to consider for the next brew, think most of the clogging came from the pellets not the leaf.

 

[photek1000]

Well it's 9 days in the FV now, looks like primary has completed, will take another reading on Sunday, but it's sat at 1.010 at the moment, reasonably clear and tastes very nice indeed.

Just mulling over a cold crash before transfer to secondary in a PB or just transfer, I've done both in the past, so the jury is still out as to whether it's worth it or not.

 

[photek1000]

Well it's been conditioning for just a week in the PB so it was time for a cheeky taste to see how we're progressing.

Poured it early in to a 1 Litre bottle as my garage is bloody cold at the moment and I wanted it to be a bit warmer than garage ambient.

It seemed to survive the process and the two glasses I had were marvelous, I shall look forward to seeing how the flavours develop.

With a busy house and work the next brewday is scheduled for Tuesday week, bring it on ������