High OG for BIAB

Zambezi Special said:
You are getting good advice here.
One of them is what made a big difference for me.
Brew by SG, not by volume!
You can top up, you can boil longer ;)

I got quite a primitive set up.
To maintain mash temperature I put pot and bag in a coolerbox that is lined with a duvet.
You could just put duvets or sleeping bags all around your pot/kettle.. It maintains the temperature good enough.
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Can you explain? I try to brew by both volume and gravity! :)
 
I use 2.5 and one gallon jugs of water. Plus, the kettle has 1-15 gallons marks on the side.
Maintaining mash temperature is going to depend heavily on your climate. I can put the kettle lid on and place two towels on top of the lid after the heat is turned off. It maintains temps fairly well unless it is cold outside.
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Today is the day I bottle up this beer that I posted about lol. Due to my water losses and taking a taste of it a minute ago, it has occured to me that not only did I get a higher ABV than intended, but the IBU also sky rocketed BIG TIME. I am probably only going to bottle maybe 3-5 just for the sake of being able to compare my (hopefully) corrected batch.

Now, it's time to dump the rest of this sadly and try again. I am trying to make my recipe public if anyone wants to take a look. I'll post my results later on after brewday.
 
Sandy Feet said:
BIAB needs more water than you think. I brew 5 gallons. Through experience I know what my general boil off is for my climate.
My quantities for 5 gallons:
Strike water: 8 gallons. I lose about 1 gallon from grain absorption leaving me 7. I lose about 1 gallon from the boil, leaving me 6. I have a big kettle, and I lose close to another gallon from trub and/or what I can and can't fit into the fermenter.
I use spring water, and if desired, you can have some extra water on hand to top off if needed. If you don't want to screw around with water profiles, bottled spring water works well with a number of styles.
The grill grate should work well for smaller batches. As the bag gets heavier and you get older, pulleys are cheap and can be hooked to a ladder if your burner is low enough to the ground. I wonder how I know these things about a grill grate LOL. I made a pumpkin beer that made the bag heavier than hell..to the point I needed help from a neighbor. After that, I bought a pulley.
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I am hoping to get to make some pumpkin beers myself here soon! It's about that time.
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Today is the day I bottle up this beer that I posted about lol. Due to my water losses and taking a taste of it a minute ago, it has occured to me that not only did I get a higher ABV than intended, but the IBU also sky rocketed BIG TIME. I am probably only going to bottle maybe 3-5 just for the sake of being able to compare my (hopefully) corrected batch.

Now, it's time to dump the rest of this sadly and try again. I am trying to make my recipe public if anyone wants to take a look. I'll post my results later on after brewday.
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Bah, don't dump it unless it is really bad. You just made double ipa by mistake. ;)
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Today is the day I bottle up this beer that I posted about lol. Due to my water losses and taking a taste of it a minute ago, it has occured to me that not only did I get a higher ABV than intended, but the IBU also sky rocketed BIG TIME. I am probably only going to bottle maybe 3-5 just for the sake of being able to compare my (hopefully) corrected batch.

Now, it's time to dump the rest of this sadly and try again. I am trying to make my recipe public if anyone wants to take a look. I'll post my results later on after brewday.
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Nooooo.
Don't dump ot
Just bottle all
It will be beer and the higher SG, masks a bit of the bitterness
 
Megary said:
Can you explain? I try to brew by both volume and gravity! :)
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I do both, sort of.
But initially I just looked at volume and I ended up all over the place with gravity.
It's a lot better, more predictable, now though
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Today is the day I bottle up this beer that I posted about lol. Due to my water losses and taking a taste of it a minute ago, it has occured to me that not only did I get a higher ABV than intended, but the IBU also sky rocketed BIG TIME. I am probably only going to bottle maybe 3-5 just for the sake of being able to compare my (hopefully) corrected batch.

Now, it's time to dump the rest of this sadly and try again. I am trying to make my recipe public if anyone wants to take a look. I'll post my results later on after brewday.
Click to expand...

Don't dump it, age it! Heavier beers benefit from a few months aging. Plus hop aroma and bitterness will fade with time. So, what maybe too bitter now my be delicious in a few months. Sample one every couple of weeks to see it you like it. Sampling will also help you see if you over-carbonated. Gushers could be an indication that fermentation was still active at bottling, or too much priming sugar was added or possibly even an infection.
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
It was EXTREMELY bad. IBUs were out the roof. Currently steeping my grains. Decided to do a 1 gal batch so I had more wiggle room with water
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Uncarbonated and young beer will have a much higher perceived bitterness. I suspect it is too late now, but unless it tastes spoiled, keep it. Always. Over the years, many of the folks here brewed their best ever beer by letting what they intended to dump just age a while. Truth.
 
Since I’m doing a one gallon batch, should I pitch my whole pack of US-05???

by the way, my pre boil gravity came in at 1.014 (goal was 1.017)
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
Since I’m doing a one gallon batch, should I pitch my whole pack of US-05???

by the way, my pre boil gravity came in at 1.014 (goal was 1.017)
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A whole pack is a significant over pitch, and not necessary. You should be fine with 1/5 or 1/4 of the pack.

1.014 is not very high. Even if you boil off 25% of the water, it will be a fairly low abv. But, it will be beer!
 
The Heavy Hopper said:
Since I’m doing a one gallon batch, should I pitch my whole pack of US-05???

by the way, my pre boil gravity came in at 1.014 (goal was 1.017)
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Why so low? Even if it completely fermented, that will be REALLY light, prolly less than 1%abv
 
That's low!
Can you give us your recipe?
And do you use any brewing software?

As a rule of thumb: I use around 2 kg malted barley for a 9-10 litre batch of about 5% alcohol
(Roughly 4 pound for 2.5 gallon)
 
Zambezi Special said:
That's low!
Can you give us your recipe?
And do you use any brewing software?

As a rule of thumb: I use around 2 kg malted barley for a 9-10 litre batch of about 5% alcohol
(Roughly 4 pound for 2.5 gallon)
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the recipe is in my profile. It’s the 1 gallon batch recipe.
 
It took me a bit to find the recipe.
It's here ;)
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1401018/mosaic-smash-pale-1-gal

Grain amount looks fine for 1 gallon.
I see you need to boil off 2 gallon...
If you indeed do that, then you should come close to your OG
((3 x 17)/1) gives 1.051

It's a lot to boil off!

Your could change your 60 minute hop to first wort hop, then boil till you start getting closer to your required volume and do the 15 and 5 minute hop

Happy brewing and let us know how it goes
 
Zambezi Special said:
It took me a bit to find the recipe.
It's here ;)
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1401018/mosaic-smash-pale-1-gal

Grain amount looks fine for 1 gallon.
I see you need to boil off 2 gallon...
If you indeed do that, then you should come close to your OG
((3 x 17)/1) gives 1.051

It's a lot to boil off!

Your could change your 60 minute hop to first wort hop, then boil till you start getting closer to your required volume and do the 15 and 5 minute hop

Happy brewing and let us know how it goes
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I ended up only brewing one g off. Should I just do 2 gallons next time instead of 3? My first go had way too high of a gravity and this time it was too low
 
Yes, theoretically, you should now be at (3 x 17)/2, around 1.025 - 1.026 ;)
Depending on the yeast (I've never used S-05), you'll be getting around 2.2 - 2.8 % alcohol.
Happened to me with my first "own" biab. Still want to re-create that one as it ended up being a very tasty low alcohol IPA, a bit like Vedett 2.7
It was supposed to be a blonde though

So next time you'll be spot on :D
 
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