What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Mark Weusten]

It didnt say anything about 2 I'm assuming one, which is ginormous. I tasted my  big american IPA last night which had slightly less hops in it but did have 2 additions of 25g each amarillo/simcoe/citra/mosaic. Massive apricot flavours...

[Richard Rice]

It is big, but you know, it's how Hallertau work...small early charge for a small amount of bitterness, big late hop additions and bigger dry hop additions.  It's all for the big aroma...that's all...

Halve it, if you're worried about it, but I have a 100g bag of Nelson Sauvin that I was considering dry hopping with for my next brew!

[Crusader-Rob]

All those hops in one go, you get get the extraction you want from them. its 225g of hops all at once, I'd split it, mainly because if I'm doing one dryhop charge, once I get to 150g or more, I'd split the addition anyways. but thats just me.

[Matthew Vincent]

I've only done about 7 BIAB's and I'm now wondering if I'm mashing in too much water.

I generally mash around 6 - 7 kg of grain (which has been double crushed) and I generally mash in around 30 - 33 litres of water.

Should I be mashing in only about 18 - 20 litres and then adding another 10 - 12 litres at the end?

[Des Ross]

Hi Mathew. I take it that at your present dilution rate you are not sparging( washing grains with extra hot water at mash out ) This practice will produce an excellent quality wort but at the expense of slightly lower efficiency. The only other disadvantage might be increased difficulty in maintaining a stable mash temperature for 60 minutes due to reduced thermal mass. A thin dilution like this is an ideal practice for BIAB as sparging can introduce a messy complication and increased chance of tannin extraction due to reduced ph of sparge water ( meaning possible increased astringency of finished beer)
The standard recommended dilution range of a mash at the high end is about 3L / kg grain but there would be sparging on top of this at mash out. Generally a thinner mash will increase the ammount of fermentable sugars, whereas a thicker mash slightly increases unfermentable dextrins. 3L / kg is at the thinner end of the range.
So as long as you are happy with no sparge, can hold a stable mashing temperature for 60 minutes,your efficiencies are acceptable and your beers are of good quality, then keep doing what you are doing. By the same token it is good to experiment with your process and find out for yourself how changes can affect the final beer. The principles of brewing are simple but there are many variables!

[Crusader-Rob]

the process your using is No Sparge BIAB, works well, produces a good beer, just less efficiency, like des said. you can choose to reduce your water and run a sparge, but for me this is a faff unless you have a separate vessel to sparge in.

I typically get 65-67% efficiency doing what your doing. 

[Richard Rice]

When I did BIAB, the top of the keg was cut off for our keggle and my brother-in-law drilled holes in the top piece that got taken off.  So, once the mash was complete, lifted the bag out of the keggle, place the tray on top and placed the bag on the tray then just rinsed the grain.  Nothing fancy, but actually found an improvement in the efficiency by a few points.

[Andrew Graham]

I have done about 15 BIAB brews, usually with 33 litres and enough grains to fit the beer.

With good water profile, steady and accurate temperature and stirring every 10-15 minutes, I consistently get 78-80% mash conversion efficiency. Apparently this is just as good as a batch sparge.

I keep thinking about doing a sparge step but haven't found any info that says I will gain enough to justify the extra effort.

[Richard Rice]

Brewing my Red IPL today.  Well, like some other discussions, a "faux-lager" - fermenting with US 05 at 15C.  Haven't got final gravity yet, but pre-boil was on the mark!

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           20.0
Total Grain (kg):         6.045
Total Hops (g):           220.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.066  (°P): 16.1
Final Gravity (FG):       1.016  (°P): 4.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  6.55 %
Colour (SRM):             13.5   (EBC): 26.6
Bitterness (IBU):         68.1   (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 69
Boil Time (Minutes):      60

Grain Bill
----------------
5.500 kg Pale Ale Malt (90.98%)
0.250 kg Redback (4.14%)
0.120 kg Sour Grapes (1.99%)
0.100 kg Dextrose (1.65%)
0.075 kg Roasted Barley (1.24%)

Hop Bill
----------------
10.0 g Warrior Pellet (15.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (First Wort) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Warrior Pellet (15.8% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
25.0 g Nelson Sauvin Pellet (11.5% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)
20.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
25.0 g Nelson Sauvin Pellet (11.5% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)
60.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (3 g/L)
50.0 g Nelson Sauvin Pellet (11.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (2.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
5.0 g Irish Moss @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 65°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 15°C with Safale US-05

[Mark Meyburg]

How did this come out??

[David R]

First brew in a long time today (yay nightshift!), just an easy summer pale ale with Riwaka and Amarillo.

Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.5 %
Bitterness: 24.8 IBUs
Est Color: 5.6 SRM

3.90 kg	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	1	81.2 %
0.50 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)	Grain	2	10.4 %
0.40 kg	Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)	Grain	3	8.4 %
7.00 g	Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	4	12.9 IBUs
10.00 g	Amarillo [8.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	5	3.7 IBUs
10.00 g	Riwaka [6.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	6	2.6 IBUs
20.00 g	Amarillo [8.40 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min	Hop	7	3.7 IBUs
15.00 g	Riwaka [6.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min	Hop	8	2.0 IBUs
1.7 pkg	Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]	Yeast	9	-

[Cain Harland]

Yakima Monster from clone group  http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/group/clone-brews/forum/topics/yaki... but raised the simcoe in 10 and 0 min additions a tad and dropped nugget to compensate