South East Queensland Brew Day

[Bribie]

Hi guys, Autumn settles over South East Queensland and before getting into the lager brewing season it's time to do an autumn ale, something along the lines of Cameron's Strongarm from Graham Wheeler's book. I'm posting this in one hit as while I'm working you guys are snoring

I use a couple of methods that are gaining popularity in Australia and have been developed here: Brew in a Bag (BIAB) and No-Chill using a plastic cube. More on the No-Chill later.

BIAB:

This is a one vessel system. The full volume of liquor (equivalent to the volume of liquor used in a three vessel brew: i.e. strike liquor plus sparge liquor) is heated to a strike temperature in a vessel lined with a purpose made bag. The grain bill is doughed in and held at mash temperature until 'done'. The bag is then hoisted and drained. The vessel is heated and the wort is boiled with hop additions. From then on fermentation etc proceeds exactly as in any other wort production system.
There are a few ways to do BIAB. In my own case the main equipment is:

A 40L Electric 2400w stainless steel urn.
A purpose made drawstring bag - a terylene or nylon strong mesh material called Swiss Voile in Australia and available from large material stores. I get mine made by a local ‘alterations and curtains’ lady who works from home. A 'skyhook' is handy but not essential

Other paraphernalia includes a sleeping bag, duvet, hop sock, plus all the normal items like mash paddle, thermometers, beer :drink: etc.


The grain bill is prepared

The urn is prepared with around 35L of liquor with salts additions and 3.2 pH buffer and heated to strike temperature.
Strike of 69 degrees will give around a 66 degree mash depending on the size and initial temperature of the grain bill.
The urn is now switched off. My urn has an exposed element and I don’t want to melt the bag at that spot.

The bag is fitted and the grain bill doughed in.

After a temp. check (I hit 66 spot on here) the urn is lidded then passively lagged by slipping a sleeping bag over it and the whole thing is wrapped in a cheap Chinese (of course) feather duvet then strapped.
I walk away for 90 minutes, I would normally get around a 2 degree drop.

The bag is hoisted and the urn switched on to begin heating to a rolling boil.

After a good squeeze the bag is removed and a hopsock suspended, with initial hop addition.

Rolling boil for at least 90 mins and later hop additions if required.

Whirlfloc is added and at end of boil, the hop sock is hoisted and drained, the urn switched off and the trub allowed to settle.

To recap: The entire volume of liquor is prepared and heated ‘up front’. The BIAB vessel starts as the HLT, becomes the mash tun, and finally the kettle. A lot of BIABers use a large pot and gas burner but the system is the same. The end result is a wort, just like the 3 vessel system and from there things proceed as ‘normal’.

In case you are wondering, there are certainly a few ‘tweaks’ that can be done to improve efficiency; for example in my case I do a sort of mashout by drawing a few litres of first runnings out of the urn into a stockpot then I pour an equal amount of boiling water into the urn, do a vigorous stir, hoist and drain the bag then pour the first runnings back in and just do a longer boil to get the volume back to what it would have been… BIAB is still a work in progress with an enthusiastic community trying new tweaks all the time … but even in its basic form it is a quick and easy way to get into all - grain.

Disadvantages are that it is not scaleable, it is effectively limited to ‘normal’ size batches, and it is best suited to mainstream strength brews; once you get much over 5.5% ABV you run into efficiency problems. Bag hoisting and squeezing gets you up close and personal with hot wort and there are some safety issues that must always be kept in mind. However within its limitations BIAB works very well indeed.

As a further note yes, I know that Bruheat type boilers are popular in the UK and I owned one for many years when I lived in Cardiff. Great bit of kit but only about 25 litres. Here we are talking about a vessel that can take the entire liquor requirement and needs to be at least 40 litres. Pot and gas BIABers here often opt for sixty litres to give them more leeway.

Now the choice is: how to cool the wort?

No-Chill

In the last few years an alternative to counterflow chillers, plate chillers etc has become popular with many home brewers in Australia, known generally as ‘No-chill’. Of course many three vessel brewers use No-Chill and many BIAB brewers use counter flow chillers. I just happen to use BIAB and No-chill personally.

The hot wort is carefully drawn off the trub into a well sanitised plastic food grade ‘cube’ of the sort used to carry water. The cube is sealed then allowed to cool in its own good time. Popular sizes are 20 L and 25 L available from large hardware and camping stores and must be sturdy food grade high density polyethylene HDPE. The nominally 20L size actually can fit up to 23 L which makes it ideal for a ‘standard’ brew. A skinny jerrycan shape as in the photo is good because of the surface to volume ratio that allows quicker cooling.

The two essentials in No-chill are thorough sanitisation and as far as possible the elimination of any head space in the cube. The hot wort further pasteurizes the container.

This method actually has a bit in common with jam and preserve making in that the cubed wort can keep for long periods and can be poured into the fermenter and pitched when convenient. I have kept worts from January till April and have heard of brewers keeping a cubed wort for up to a year. Here, No-Chill has advanced from being a somewhat experimental and controversial method to becoming quite ‘mainstream’ and regarded as dead reliable.

Advantages:
It saves on the cost of a chiller.
It ‘decouples’ the wort production from the need to pitch ASAP.
So it enables worts to be produced ahead of time. If you have a heap of free time to devote to brewing – for example on annual leave – can have a brew blitz and build up stocks to be fermented over the coming months when you may be more ‘time poor’.

It is a flexible method that enables the running of sociable brew days; recently the Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers Club held a brew day at the invitation of a local commercial craft brewery and at the end of the day 25 members took home a cube each of brewery produced wort to brew at home. Some brewers do ‘wort swap’ brew days.

Disadvantages:
Possibility of DMS (sweet corn, cabbage) taint in the enclosed hot wort (I believe this may be an issue with some USA malts)
Because the wort remains at above 80 degrees for a longer period there is some debate that alpha acid isomerisation continues with the flavouring and aroma hops leading to unwanted bitterness. Some No chillers adjust recipes and hop times accordingly or do late additions into the fermenter.

Some brewers have reported a decrease in hop aroma with some beer styles compared to quick-chilling but again this can be compensated for with late hopping during fermentation.

Personally I would recommend this as a brilliant way to cool wort in the UK especially in cooler areas and times of the year.

I hope this has given you some food for thought, anyway time for a couple more pints !! :

Cheers
Michael (Yorkshire Geordie crossbreed)
Queensland

 

[MEB]

Nice thread. :thumb: Some interesting methods I'd not heard of. :hmm:

 

[arturobandini]

Nice one Michael.

It was an Aussie on another forum that suggested BIAB method of all grain brewing back when I first wanted to to step up to the All Grain plate. I was thinking of using a Swiss Voile curtain in a cool box as a makeshift grain filter and then batch sparging through it as normal. He pointed me to this method but some copper pipe fell into my lap and I built a standard grain filter instead. By some freak of circumstance I got a brew on this weekend with the BIAB system and posted a Brewday here "Aurora May".

I found it fairly hassle free but not really for me as I think I get better efficiency and less chance of tannin extraction and grain bits by batch sparging. That said I think that using the grain bag as a grain filter and batch or fly sparging as normal would work very well (better than BIAB) and would eliminate the need for such a huge* vessel. You could suspend the grain bag in a fermenter with tap and recirc and sparge as normal before transferring your wort to the boiler.

The no chill method sounds interesting and wort swaps too! Excellent pictures, very jealous of that view...somehow the hills of Lancashire don't seem as grand in comparison.

*edit typo

 

[Wez]

Epic post :clap: a real insight into some methods i'd not heard of :thumb:

Regarding no chill...I chill as fast as possible using a copper IC when I do this I get a good cold break then all of this trub is filtered out by the hops and left in the bottom of the boiler (see pic) - does this just carried over and left in the cube in your method?

I'm interested in getting hold of a cube and trying it.

Hot & Cold Break Trub filtered by hop bed in boiler:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Great post and pictures Bribie :thumb:
A lot of new methods for us POMs to consider :hmm:

Other paraphernalia includes a sleeping bag, duvet, hop sock, plus all the normal items like mash paddle, thermometers, beer :drink: etc.

:lol:

 

[A T]

Very interesting and enjoyable read :thumb: and a method that could be a big hit over here as well

Im not sure i like the idea of squeezing my bag :lol:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Im not sure i like the idea of squeezing my bag :lol:

Isn't that a job for a "special" assistant brewer

 

[llannige]

Like it B.Nice pics too. :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Seems to go against some old rules, but it looks like this method has been tried and tested

 

[Vossy1]

Great post dennis :thumb: :clap:
I can see that method getting a lot more people to try AG.
BIAB was tried over here many years ago, but it seemed to fall out of favour for some reason. The main reason it was used was people tried to mash in urns and wanted to suspend the grain away from the element, whilst using the element to maintain the mash temp.
It's great to see AG brewing simplified so it can appeal to everyone

 

[Aleman]

I love this simple one pot approach. . . . personally I would Use whole hops and a hop strainer (In place throughout then whole process) and trap some of the hot break behind . . . . I've thought about doing this on a commercial basis, and have investigated all the practicalities . . . unfortunately the markets dived and the source of capital I had hasn't sold . . . So I've been delayed by a couple of years.

Hop aroma and 'flavour' can very easily be restored by10-15g of hop pellets added during the ferment

Great post :thumb:

 

[Bribie]

Hi, I'm relieved your'e not coming after me with pitchforks and flaming torches The hot break stays in the urn and I find that Whirlfloc does a brilliant job in coagulating it. The cold break forms in the cube but AFAIK it's harmless and may even be a good yeast nutrient. Coopers, on their website, state definitely that the cold break goes into their kits and brewers shouldn't be alarmed if they see the break when they dilute the can.. I've seen it myself a few times in my kit & kilo days.

The mountains in the view are the Glasshouse Mountains named by Capt. Cook on his cruise up the coast in 1770. There is a common misconception that they are named after greenhouses but in fact he named them after the conical brick glassmaking factory buildings common in the North of England - 'glasshouses'. There's still one left at Lemington West of Newcastle (down the road from where I grew up). Heritage listed now, of course.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

The mountains in the view are the Glasshouse Mountains named by Capt. Cook on his cruise up the coast in 1770. There is a common misconception that they are named after greenhouses but in fact he named them after the conical brick glassmaking factory buildings common in the North of England - 'glasshouses'. There's still one left at Lemington West of Newcastle (down the road from where I grew up). Heritage listed now, of course.

And of course he can't see them from his place .. bloody touristy photos Bribie !

That said, he lives in a spectacular part of the world which is picture perfect, give or take the odd cyclone, floods and the occasional oil spill !

Good summary & fine pics Michael.

 

[MEB]

Hi, I'm relieved your'e not coming after me with pitchforks and flaming torches

Why would we be doing that-It's not like you mentioned Cricket is it? :lol:
Mind you India gave you lot a bloody good seeing to quite recently. Oh how I laughed :rofl: Hadn't laughed as much as the Ashes 2005 series. :thumb:

Besides, it wouldn't be pitchforks and flaming torches. It'd be banishment back to POMland-which would be much, much worse. :P

Good to hear your input-we thought you lot just drank Fosters, 4ex and chased Roo's all day singing Waltzing Matilda. :lol:

 

[Paulanski]

Bribie,

I'm concerned that you are dumping hot wort into your cube like that. My understanding is that aeration of wort over 30C may cause oxidation. You could replace your tap with a ball-lock tap and attach some silicon hose so that when you run the wort off, it gently pools from the bottom of the cube and oxidation is lessened.

Or you could chill it like a real brewer. :whistle:

 

[Vossy1]

I'm concerned that you are dumping hot wort into your cube like that. My understanding is that aeration of wort over 30C may cause oxidation

Would that be HSA :shock: ..the stuff of myth here in the U.K.
B could be using 2 row pale....you never know...

You could replace your tap with a ball-lock tap and attach some silicon hose so that when you run the wort off, it gently pools from the bottom of the cube and oxidation is lessened

Never a bad idea, best practice and all that

Or you could chill it like a real brewer.

:lol:

 

[Paulanski]

I'm concerned that you are dumping hot wort into your cube like that. My understanding is that aeration of wort over 30C may cause oxidation

Would that be HSA :shock: ..the stuff of myth here in the U.K.

A bit like "bathing", then?

:P

 

[tubby_shaw]

I'm concerned that you are dumping hot wort into your cube like that. My understanding is that aeration of wort over 30C may cause oxidation

Would that be HSA :shock: ..the stuff of myth here in the U.K.

A bit like "bathing", then?

:P

Bathing :wha:
What is this of which you speak :shock:
Don't like the sound of that :nono:

 

[Bradsbrew]

Bribie,

I'm concerned that you are dumping hot wort into your cube like that. My understanding is that aeration of wort over 30C may cause oxidation. You could replace your tap with a ball-lock tap and attach some silicon hose so that when you run the wort off, it gently pools from the bottom of the cube and oxidation is lessened.

Or you could chill it like a real brewer. :whistle:

What exactly are the effects of this oxidisation or HSA. I have heard that splashing hot wort causes this but not what effect this has on the brew. when I am too lazy/****** to hook the silicon tube ont the valve I get it to shoot onto the side of the cube and run down the side and yes it does splash abit but I have not noticed any difference to the taste of the different methods.

Cheers Brad


Top post there Bribie.

 

[prodigal2]

Wow what a interesting post.

The no chill method I can really see the reason with the water situation in Aus why that has been adopted. Also with my fleeting visits to home I can see the advantage as I can have a brew day and then when I am at home long enough for the fermentation and racking to a secondry/bottling.. particulary when I make big beers.

Are there any types of plastic carriers to avoid? Its a shame that a cornie cannot cope with negitive pressure and you could use it like a giant kilner jar :hmm: