BIAB help

Make grain beers with the absolute minimum of equipment. Discuss here.
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coldfoot80

BIAB help

Post by coldfoot80 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:31 pm

Hi guys

Im looking for some help, Ive done a few BIAB and to be honest they didnt turn out the best. I was sick of forking out money for beer that I wasnt enjoying so I just went back to buying good IPA from my local beer shop.

I'm thinking of getting back into it but I just want to start small until I get some confidence. My kit is very basic and I am looking to do a 5 litre batch.

Can anyone send me a basic instruction list i.e , water start volume, grain volume etc....

I have a 20l pot & the other generic items i.e. bag, syphon, bucket etc...

any info is much appreciated.

Cheers

James

aamcle
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Re: BIAB help

Post by aamcle » Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:00 am

Have a look here http://www.biabrewer.info/viewforum.php ... cf4d4c5826

That will get you started but remember the fermentation step is critical and you need good yeast and the correct temperatures to produce the best results.

aamcle

robbym123
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Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:22 am

Re: BIAB help

Post by robbym123 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:20 am

When you previously biab'd what went wrong - what did you do and how did it turn out.

chefgage
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Re: BIAB help

Post by chefgage » Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:56 am

I have scaled my brewing down to small batches of 10l. So after work today I could post a couple of recipes that you could half to get your 5l. (I dont have access to beersmith at work - the software i use)

These are for BIAB, one thing to note though the volumes will based on my equipment so your boil off will be diffferent to mine.

coldfoot80

Re: BIAB help

Post by coldfoot80 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:50 pm

Hi guys

many thanks for the replies.

on previous brews it was a mixture of too much carbonation, foul taste, too flat, brew went off I never seemed to get the mix right. In all truth the yeast I was using was very poor quality so that could clear a big problem up. I did purchase a heat pad to control the temperature while fermenting but that didnt seem to work.

If you could post some 10l recipes to give me some pointers I'd appreciate that very much.

Thanks again guys

James

Fil
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Location: Cowley, Oxford

Re: BIAB help

Post by Fil » Sat Jan 21, 2017 2:10 am

my #1 tip would be to rely in insulation to maintain and retain the heat of the mash rather than trying to heat it in a pan from below as thats a very crude way of heating a grain mass and can easily do more damage by overheating some grain at the bottom of the bag and denaturing the enzymes(killing them).

have a box ready with packing beans perhaps or even just wrap it up in an old sleeping bag, some folk even use a preheated oven on a very low setting to keep a smaller volume pot warm tho i would test this out before committing to it ;)

when it comes to scalling down beer recipies its simple division so if you have a 5 gallon or 23l recipe and you want 10l quantities for grain and hops simply multiply the 23l quantities by (10/23) :)

so if its 4kg of MO, and 500g of crystal for 23l of a simple bitter for a 10l batch use 4 x (10/23) = 1.73kg of MO and 217g of crystal, and do the same for the hops.. use about 1/2 the amount of kettle finnings you needn't be so accurate with those, and there is no benefit from keeping 1/2 a pack of yeast behind ;)
..

edit For a winner of a beer i think everyone who has brewed the Graham Wheeler TTL (Timothy Taylor Landlord) Recipe will agree its a great pint, and a homage to the original.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=41529
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

drtablet
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Re: BIAB help

Post by drtablet » Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:54 am

Top common reasons ur beer turns out bad
1) Make sure you control ferment temp - I'd do 17-18C
2) Pitch a good quantity of healthy yeast. If you under pitch its will turn out with off flavors.
3) related to 2). make sure the wort is oxygenated. Either with /splashing/shaking or bubbling pure O2 through
4) Water chemistry should be correct. Specifically the salts like Calcium, Sulphates and Chlorides - wrong pH will result in bad efficiency but not so much bad flavours.
5) infection, everything clean and sanatised, but this is more obvious than beer that is just poor quality.

Do all that and you'll get great beer. - assuming you have a good recipe.

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