Ready to attempt our first BIAB session!

Reebman1

Reebman1

Member
Trial Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
42
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Hey all! My brother and I are ready to try our hands at BIAB! We have completed two extract brews thus far and are ready to 'move on' :p

I have chosen to try a Sierra Nevada IPA clone...nnnnnn I don't know! Oh well, what's the worst that can happen? It ends up tasting like crap and we flush it :eek:

Surely it won't come to that :roll:
 
Good luck!

If your extract beers turned out good, then you should be fine.

Mash temps are a bit forgiving, if you're in the ballpark you'll be fine. The beer may not have turned out exactly how you wanted, but it'll be beer.
 
Use a good mash calculator, have a decent thermometer, make sure you have enough capacity in your mash pot, make sure you can hold temp long enough, don't stir too much when your adding water because the temp can drop pretty quickly. Those are just things that I've worked through in figuring out the process. It's really easy and accurate if you think about the details and plan ahead a little. Step mash temps are a little harder to nail, but single infusion really works well and you'll make great beer.
I found that more sparging and making sure you're getting full volume pre-boil really helps efficiency. I was doing some smaller volume, higher gravity boils and topping up in the fermenter because I didn't have a big enough boil pot. That works okay, but once I got enough boiling capacity and was able to sparge a lot more, it was a lot better.
Good luck!! ;)
 
You didn't ask for any tips or advice, so I'll spare you. Have fun!
 
LOL! Thanks guys for the kind words, I would WELCOME any tips BTW :)

We're gonna start this in a couple hours...and will likely be checking in here from time to time...!
 
It would be useful to have a step-by-step printout for the process if somebody has a link or PDF I could use - it would be most appreciated! :mrgreen:
 
There's a lot of tips you could be told, but I bet you already know most of them. Mash your grains for an hour at about 152°. Wrap your kettle with some insulation to help hold the heat in. Use a lid. Stir every 15 or 20 minutes, and check your temp. Keep it +/- 1°. You won't need flame the whole time. Count on losing a gallon in the grains when you pull them. Let them drain in a bucket and dump it back in your kettle. Rinse the grains with 170° water to build your preboil volume to what you desire, helping to maximize efficiency of getting the sugars. From that point, it's like extract brewing.
 
Thanks for the 'encouragement'!

Well, first off, I think we brought the strike temp up higher than needed! Went to 165* F thinking the grain bill addition would bring it down into range of 150-155*. So we waited several mins for some cooling but started timer when it reached ~156*. Not sure how that's gonna play out but hey, it's our first gig! :mrgreen:

So, waiting now for the timer to go off and start the mash-out process....

Wheeeeeeeeeee....!
 
You did good trying to compensate, you'll figure it out as you get used to your equipment
 
It went well I think! We got finished up and cooled down the wort in the bathtub with couple large bags of ice and cold water of course (really need to make the wort cooler!). Cooled down to ~80*F then poured into fermenter bucket, gave a good aeration, pitched the yeast, sealed up and sent to the basement for a while. Now it's time for bed!

I'll let ya all know how it progresses :cool:

Thanks for the support!
 
probably should have let it set in the basement overnight before pitching the yeast, not all the time but most 80 is too warm
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
probably should have let it set in the basement overnight before pitching the yeast, not all the time but most 80 is too warm
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback! What should I watch for that would indicate this? Also, what IS the best range of temps to pitch yeast? I didn't read anything on the package so I'm curious where that info is found. Thanks again :)
 
The yeast package itself should have temperatures listed. If not, you might find information by looking it up on the web. What yeast is it?
 
jeffpn said:
The yeast package itself should have temperatures listed. If not, you might find information by looking it up on the web. What yeast is it?
Click to expand...

Crap! I knew I should have written it down or snapped a pic...but I don't recall :( I'll see if the package is still around somewhere and get back!
 
You sound like me when I started brewing. Here's another question I bet you don't know the answer. What was your starting gravity? :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2024 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top