BIAB Brew Day

Ok that went well. Everything went to plan, start volume of 15.5L was exactly bang on for my target of 10L into the fermenter. Only hiccup was when I read gravity at the end of my boil it was only 1.055 so I boiled an extra 5/7 minutes and then I read OG at 1.065-1.066 versus my target 1.062. What I suspect happened is my pipette had a touch of sanitizer in it which diluted my first test, hindsight I should have tested a couple times back to back. Anyways it’s definitely 1.065~now, pitched a full smack pack of yeast, so hope all is good. Only on the fly deviation I made to my plan was I poured wort through a brew sock into the fermenter, then gently squeezed the ball of hop schhmeg of it’s green goodness. Other than that everything went exactly to plan, smoothest brew process yet. Now for the patient wait......


Thanks for the guidance all!
 
The final gravity and ABV versus the original gravity.....is that something I can predict or is it all up to time yeast and temperature at this point ?
 
BrainYYC said:
The final gravity and ABV versus the original gravity.....is that something I can predict or is it all up to time yeast and temperature at this point ?
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Usually the editor gives you an estimate I'll go 1.010 fg for you there sir:).

Oh on that OG thing it's up to you how critical you are but a few points either way I'm happy to leave as is and just adjust next time through.
 
Been three weeks, bottle day tomorrow. Couple quick questions about priming.

So Im going to carefully rack from my fermentor that's been cold crashing for about 10 hours, to my sanitized brew kettle which I've gone ahead and scribed with volume markers internally so I know exactly how much I have to bottle, Ill then use the priming sugar calculator for the amount of sugar needed to carb her up.

Im assuming the process of racking off, measuring sugar, adding to boiled water, letting it cool and mixing into my "bottling bucket" will be 20 mins or so......anything special I need to be doing to minimize O2 in the beer?

For carbonation volumes, I'm really not sure what to target......is 2.2 a decent target for this style of ipa beer (recipe at top of post), what would a "typical" craft ipa be?

As I plan on cold crashing, Im confused on the priming sugar calculator, do I use the "current temp" of the beer which will obviously be cool having come out of the fridge. Or do I use the temp where the bottles will be sitting for the next two weeks?

Thanks again, all.
 
BrainYYC said:
Been three weeks, bottle day tomorrow. Couple quick questions about priming.

So Im going to carefully rack from my fermentor that's been cold crashing for about 10 hours, to my sanitized brew kettle which I've gone ahead and scribed with volume markers internally so I know exactly how much I have to bottle, Ill then use the priming sugar calculator for the amount of sugar needed to carb her up.

Im assuming the process of racking off, measuring sugar, adding to boiled water, letting it cool and mixing into my "bottling bucket" will be 20 mins or so......anything special I need to be doing to minimize O2 in the beer?

For carbonation volumes, I'm really not sure what to target......is 2.2 a decent target for this style of ipa beer (recipe at top of post), what would a "typical" craft ipa be?

As I plan on cold crashing, Im confused on the priming sugar calculator, do I use the "current temp" of the beer which will obviously be cool having come out of the fridge. Or do I use the temp where the bottles will be sitting for the next two weeks?

Thanks again, all.
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What did your beer end up at there Brian just curious if I guessed right? You use either the warmest or coolest temp the beer got in fermentation. I can't remember @Nosybear will know.
There might be a bit of info in the priming sugar tool section of site as well.
 
BrainYYC said:
Been three weeks, bottle day tomorrow. Couple quick questions about priming.

So Im going to carefully rack from my fermentor that's been cold crashing for about 10 hours, to my sanitized brew kettle which I've gone ahead and scribed with volume markers internally so I know exactly how much I have to bottle, Ill then use the priming sugar calculator for the amount of sugar needed to carb her up.

Im assuming the process of racking off, measuring sugar, adding to boiled water, letting it cool and mixing into my "bottling bucket" will be 20 mins or so......anything special I need to be doing to minimize O2 in the beer?

For carbonation volumes, I'm really not sure what to target......is 2.2 a decent target for this style of ipa beer (recipe at top of post), what would a "typical" craft ipa be?

As I plan on cold crashing, Im confused on the priming sugar calculator, do I use the "current temp" of the beer which will obviously be cool having come out of the fridge. Or do I use the temp where the bottles will be sitting for the next two weeks?

Thanks again, all.
Click to expand...

The “current temp” is the temp of the beer you will be bottling. So, the temp out of the fridge.
 
I’m not even sure of the final gravity. I know I’ve had no action in the airlock for at least 6 days. I believe my refractometer is not accurate once the beer has alcohol, is there a way to measure/adjust for alcohol with a typical (cheap) refractometer??

SS- that surprises me as the “current” temp is changing the minute it comes out of the fridge, stabilizing to room temps over the following hour or two. Glad I asked man!
 
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@Brain, let me elaborate on what I stated. Since I don’t cold crash, I don’t want to steer you wrong. There is an inverse relationship between the solubility of CO2 and the temperature of liquid. Therefore, the colder your beer the more CO2 it will retain. This could potentially cause a problem in the case of bottle conditioning in the form of bottle bombs. I believe the ideal temp for priming is 65 - 75 and I don’t know if the priming calculator adjusts for low temps, or how accurate it is, given I don’t enter such low values. Plus, as you stated, the temp starts to rise immediately after removing from the fridge. So, one more thing to think about.
 
I never cold crashed when bottling partly for that reason. I always cold crashed once it was in the bottle and had carbonated for a couple weeks.
 
OK team, well been 2.5 weeks since bottling, cracked one last night, carb'd up perfect, colour is great, aroma is deelish, initial taste is pretty good but I get a crazy strong alcohol bite / finish. Like pure rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer.

So confused first time I've experienced in my vast home brewing career (4th batch).

This is the first beer opened since moving to my new larger 2.5 gallon system and I felt everything went pretty well through the brewing process.

Maybe I got StarSan into the beer somehow? Thoughts..?
 
BrainYYC said:
OK team, well been 2.5 weeks since bottling, cracked one last night, carb'd up perfect, colour is great, aroma is deelish, initial taste is pretty good but I get a crazy strong alcohol bite / finish. Like pure rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer.

So confused first time I've experienced in my vast home brewing career (4th batch).

This is the first beer opened since moving to my new larger 2.5 gallon system and I felt everything went pretty well through the brewing process.

Maybe I got StarSan into the beer somehow? Thoughts..?
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Nope, Starsan is flavorless. What was the beer's ABV? Unless the ABV was very high, that strong of an alcohol flavor means either high fusel alcohol levels or isoamyl acetate, think nail polish remover.
 
Hi Nosybear, I dont know the final grav or ABV as I have a cheap refractometer that I dont think is accurate once alcohol is present, I followed recipe at the top of this thread above to a T, fermented for 3 weeks, currently in bottles for 2.5.

Nail polish remover is a good descriptor, it honestly reminds me of when you get some hand sanitizer in your mouth....not sure if I should try another bottle, wait, smash all remaining bottles in a fit of unbridled rage.

Sadness.....:(
 
Unhealthy or stressed yeast is the most likely cause. Using old yeast (not enough viable yeast cells) would lead to under pitching. Too warm a fermentation would stress the yeast.
 
BrainYYC said:
Nail polish remover is a good descriptor,
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I was going to to assume underpitch... But I did a bit of research....

https://beersmith.com/blog/2018/09/19/solvent-flavors-in-beer-off-flavors-in-homebrewed-beer/#:~:text=Fortunately it is fairly rare,esterfication” of alcohol during fermentation.

What do you all think?

(Recently, I felt I was very careful with a Belgian yeast (probe to the outside of fermenter was reading 66) but I ended up with more esters than expected... Pear was the number 1 flavor I could taste)

- I wonder if it would have been easier for you to try a dry yeast strain like Windsor Ale yeast or Nottingham? (I am partial to dry yeast strains these days)
 
I used dry with my first 3 batches with great results, Ill try cracking another couple bottles and if its all f'd then down the drain she goes and Ill try try again.

I think fermenter got as warm as 74-75 f
 
BrainYYC said:
I used dry with my first 3 batches with great results, Ill try cracking another couple bottles and if its all f'd then down the drain she goes and Ill try try again.

I think fermenter got as warm as 74-75 f
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That sucks big binocchi's
 
Well, sometimes the beer gods must look down on us pathetic mortals and decide to grant mercy.

After another couple of weeks, cracked another bottle and it was good. So I cracked a few more and they are also good. Thinking I had one funky bottle or the beer just wasn’t ready and I lack the experience to recognize green beer.

Very happy with how this batch turned out. Great flavour, carbonated up perfect, ibu seems higher than I was shooting for but still totally within my thumbs up zone.
 
YYC, you must be in Calgary?
 
BrainYYC said:
Well, sometimes the beer gods must look down on us pathetic mortals and decide to grant mercy.

After another couple of weeks, cracked another bottle and it was good. So I cracked a few more and they are also good. Thinking I had one funky bottle or the beer just wasn’t ready and I lack the experience to recognize green beer.

Very happy with how this batch turned out. Great flavour, carbonated up perfect, ibu seems higher than I was shooting for but still totally within my thumbs up zone.
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Keep throwing darts at the board your bound to hit the bullseye eventually sometimes brewing can be like that:D.
 
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