Planning First BIAB

[Cornish Knocker]

I am planning to move onto doing my very first BIAB and would be grateful of some tips.

I have a lot more research to do, but would be grateful of any simple, tasty, tried and tested recipes to try. I have the Graham Wheeler 'Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home' book, so any pointers would be great.

As has been mentioned on another BIAB post, the Landlord clone sounds fairly simple and I do enjoy a pint of Landlord.

Thanks all from a very wet Italian town. :-(

 

[Tean Buns]

I put the Wheeler Clone of Timothy Taylor through this weekend, I suspect it won't taste anything like the original but it'll be nice anyway.

I brew here in France, I have to get all of my ingredients delivered, I can't just pop down to the LHBS ... so my answer to that is SMaSH ...

The Wheeler book seems to be about the best thing about at the moment for recipes, I don't think you can go far wrong with that one. And the recipes are all pretty simple too. :

 

[thomascrabs]

I'm planning on doing a biab very soon and my main approach is to go small and simple.

Doing a 15ltr boil using single malt single hop recipe. Might not be a real recipe as such but should still hopefully taste good.

For me the first few times is more about getting a process working and seeing what my efficiency is like.

I have bought enough stuff to do a few brews so will hopefully get something working before thinking about a clone type recipe.

 

[Tean Buns]

Wait till you get your first SMaSH out ... you'll be saying 'wow, so that is what beer really tastes like !' it will be a proper recipe :drink:

Sounds like you have the approach sussed to me, go for it, there'll be no looking back !

 

[Strongarm]

I'm going to try a BIAB soon, or may just mash in an FV then strain into a stockpot, not sure which one yet.

As above going to keep it simple and just do a single malt and single hop, I'm thinking Maris Otter and Citra with Mangrove Jacks Workhorse yeast.

At the start of the year I'd never brewed a thing and I'm now 5 extract brews in, with them all being recipes made up myself by typing numbers into brewing software. They've all tasted great so the main thing I've learnt from this is brewing is pretty forgiving, either that or I've got some serious beginners luck with my recipe invention. So the moral of that story is just go for it.

 

[Cornish Knocker]

Thanks for the replies, appreciate it. The reason I am looking at a Landlord clone to do, is that I have the recipe and it looks fairly straight forward with a minimum of ingredients. Even if it turns out 100% like Landlord I wouldn't know as it is years since I had a pint of that. All I really want is a tasty ale.

In order to give me some more info about the whole process am thinking about buying this book from amazon, brew in a bag Only £2.00 on the Kindle. I know a lot of the info can be found on line, but handy that it will be all in one place so to speak.

 

[Edindie]

There was a fantastic How To for brew in a bag when I started by a guy called Calumscott, I can't find it any more. If you google brewing your first BIAB beer followed by his name you might find the thread I was talking about. It must still be on here somewhere.

 

[Edindie]

That how to really explained everything I needed to know (as I recall) with pictures and common downfalls. It must have been good as I didn't know much but my first beer was a great success!

 

[Cornish Knocker]

There was a fantastic How To for brew in a bag when I started by a guy called Calumscott, I can't find it any more. If you google brewing your first BIAB beer followed by his name you might find the thread I was talking about. It must still be on here somewhere.

Thanks. Found the 'How To BIAB' guide by Calumscott. It hasn't been made a sticky so has dropped down a little.

Funnily enough I remember reading this a month or so ago, thinking how good it was, but then couldn't remember where I read it. :clap:

I've decided to buy some of the more common grains and experiment, but based loosely on one or two of the recipes in Graham Wheelers book. Can't find a supplier of Pipkin pale malt though, so will substitute this with something near. Having recently lived near Exeter wanted to try and give the Exe Valley Bitter a go, being one of my many favourite brewers, so will substitute Pipkin malt for something else.

I suppose that's the good thing about homebrew, if you haven't got the right ingredients, the chances are you will still make a quaffable ale. :pray:

 

[balli1990]

You should check out http://www.biabrewer.info/ if your planning on moving into full volume brewing. They have a great brew calculator too.

 

[alymere]

Have a listen to this if you can

http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr04-24-14biablegacy.mp3

also try and find the "biabacus" spreadsheet rather the one called "the calculator on the biabrewer.info site.

 

[Tean Buns]

There's Tucker's Maltings down in Newton Abbot ... go down and fill up the car

 

[Cornish Knocker]

There's Tucker's Maltings down in Newton Abbot ... go down and fill up the car

Thanks all for the info, will look further into it.

Tean Buns - I've been to Tucker's Maltings in the past, and definitely worth a visit, bit too far for me now though. I am planning on being in Devon during the summer, but think the car will be filled with other family essentials, i.e tea bags, Cadburys chocolate, etc., you know what it's like as an expat. :hmm:

 

[Tean Buns]

... about the only thing I miss these days is real Cheddar cheese, a proper Chinese take-out and being able to pop down to the pub for a decent pint of ale. The Indian cooking I can now do for myself, the fish & chips no problems and a pot of Marmite lasts a very long time. :drink:

 

[rodwha]

I use 2 thermometers and place one in the center near the bottom of the pot, and the other to a side and about midway. I see up to a 20*F difference in temps brewing on an electric stove. I have to stir often to keep the temps within range. I also use my thermometer to do the stirring so that it doesn't cool down too much.

 

[Cornish Knocker]

... about the only thing I miss these days is real Cheddar cheese, a proper Chinese take-out and being able to pop down to the pub for a decent pint of ale. The Indian cooking I can now do for myself, the fish & chips no problems and a pot of Marmite lasts a very long time. :drink:

Although popping out for a Chinese or an Indian would be good the only thing I really do still miss is the English pub, roaring fire, good selection of ales and drunken chat! However there is a brewpub being built just near me by a Swedish guy who has some great plans for it. He plans to have open days so you can learn how to brew commercially, take you own brewed beer to have it sampled and gain 'constructive comments', there will also be a tap room, a games room, reading room (??) and a beer garden. He already has a brewery a little further away, but no pub attached, so I can't wait. Just hope he continues to do the free beer sessions on a Saturday between 4.30pm and 7.30pm, can't see it though. :sad: