The Weary Pilgrim Brewery's Inaugural BIAB Brew Day

[Pilgrim]

After several month's planning and research brewday finally arrived on Saturday 18th July. The Grain Mill is finished (well usable, so it's finished), the Grain Bag sewn up and all of the ingredients gathered so I couldn't put it off any longer.

The 56 litre mash tun/lauter tun/brew-pot all ready to go.

The grill in place to keep the BIAB bag off the base of the vessel.

All fired up and rearing to go.

Ready for the weigh in.

Whilst the Mill waits patiently.

Until it's job is done. Not a bad looking crush, if I do say so myself.

A watched kettle never boils.

The Mash.

Boy those Nelson Sauvin hop pellets smell sweet. The bed of Cascade hasn't got a chance.

Unfortunately the wind got up so I had to move everything inside.

Spot on.

Almost at the boil.

Time for a glass of my 'Instant Cider' (but that's another story).

Temperature's falling, almost finished.

I extracted 120ml of Wort prior to the boil to get a pre-boil S.G. and to use as a starter for the US-05. After around 90 minutes it's already champing at the bit to get it's teeth into the full brew.

All that's left now is the clean-up. What a day. Luckily (apart from the wind) everything went like clockwork and I can't wait to taste the results. My thanks to Steve Plowman for recipe pointers and to Reviled for BIAB tips.

[Pilgrim]

Well it went into the keg tonight and I drank the trial jar after measuring a final gravity of 1.008. Boy did it taste good. Can't wait to get it on tap. But I will, for a few weeks anyway. 4.29ABV which is a bit low but it's a start. Beersmith reckons 58.2 IBUs with a colour of 12.6SRM.
What would I do differently? Well next time I will leave the lid partly on during the boil. It boiled down from 26.5 litres to 19 litres into the fermenter. The result of a 56 litre pot I guess. I made it up to 23 litres but in retrospect i think I would have been better to just top it up to 20 litres for 19 litres into the keg. That would have raised the ABV a bit, but I think I need a bit more grain. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[James P]

Hey Pilgrim, what did you dial in for your efficiency on beersmith? When I did BIAB i had it set to 70% and sorted my grain bill based on that. The 56litre pot gives you more surface area, try changing your boil off rate on beersmith, as loosing 7.5 litres from 26.5 is a boil off rate of 26%, way too high. Looks like you have a 3 ring burner, maybe you can drop it back to one or two rings to reduce the vigour of the boil to reduce the boil off? Putting the lid on can increase DMS production.

[Pilgrim]

Hi James, I originally left it at 75%, the default. After the brewday was over I let BeerSmith re-calculate it for me and the Brewhouse Efficiency came to 68.4%. With an efficiency into the boiler of 84.9%. Not bad. Once the pot was up to the boil I knocked it back to the middle burner but obviously it was still too high. A good rolling boil for the full hour rather than a simmer.

[James P]

Those are some good numbers for BIAB in my opinion if you are not adding a sparge step!. That's still a large boil off. If you are getting a rolling boil only on the middle ring you have a kick arse burner! I'm jealous.... Maybe that you need to increase your pre boil volume to compensate as you have noted. Although you did take it inside, which would have cut out any temp loss from wind etc.

[John Christie]

Great pics I see you have a three burner wish I had the same I'm a bit like a ducks bottom and got the two burner

[Pilgrim]

I'm lucky. My wife works for the local Gas Company so I get really good price :-)

[Tom Innes]

Looks great! I see those pots on TradeMe. With 56 litres there should be plenty of room for a bigger grain bill. Assume you have fitted the tap yourself. What fabric did you use for your bag? Are you happy with the gas burner you have? Where did you get that one? I am keen to give BIAB a go myself, hence all the questions about plant. Thanks

[Reviled]

Tom check out my blog, there are answers to all of your questions!

[Tom Innes]

Sweet. Thanks.