First ever All Grain Brewday - BIAB Hoegaarden clone (pics)

[subfaction]

Hi Guys,

First off thanks for all the information and advice that I've absorbed from this forum over the last year, this really is a great place to gain brewing knowledge.

Sooo after around 9 kit brews I thought it was time to upgrade to all-grain, with a 40L buffalo boiler, and a sheet of voile I got to work, here's how it went on Sunday, I was quite relaxed after studying the many threads on here, so much so that at the last minute I threw together a IC the day before... even so it didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked, lots to improve I think.

I choose the Hoegaarden clone that's been talked about on these forums a lot:

23l brewlength
2000g lager malt
2000g flaked (unmalted) wheat
1000g wheat malt
500g porridge oats

30g Saaz - full boil
x5 Sainsburys unwaxed organic orange zest (82g) - 15 minutes - (That’s all the zest from x5 oranges, as didn't want to put the whole fruit in, I wanted to eat them!
11g crushed coriander seeds - 15 minutes
20g Bobek - flameout steep
Safbrew WB-06 Yeast


My brew-day notes as I figure some of this will be of interest to those who are getting into this for the first time:

Timings:
--------
10:45 Fill boiler from cold tap via a FV, up to 30cm, added 1/2 crushed campden, set thermo to 70c
11:30 - 52c
11:45 - 70c
11:50 - mash in @ 70c, dropped to 68c, added boiler insulation (wicks boiler lagging £3 bargain), lid on
12:20 - Stirred, temp 67.5c
01:00 - Stirred, temp 65c
01:20 - (90 min mash), temp 64c start mashout raise heat to 75c, set thermo to 80c, keep stirring
01:30 - 75c, mashout hold for 10mins, stirring all time, lots of grain into wort as bag slipped
01:40 - Mashout done, bag out, SG @ 75 is 1.000
02:10 - Boil started, bag in bucket wort added, 29cm depth pre-boil, (spot on the biabbrewer excel calc), hop bag of saaz added
03:25 - 15min mark - 11.5cm from top. IC in, cori & oranges added in hop bags
03:40 - boiler off, added Bobek in hop bag, IC started, 13cm from top without chiller
pre-boil sample now at 20c =1.038
03:50 - chiller off (into town to pickup SWMBO)
04:15 - chiller back on
04:45 - 28c
05:25 - Into Fv through sieve, nice froth, SG @ 22c 1046
06:45 - Clean up complete - boiled water to clean buffalo.


Pictures:
--------
Cori:


Oranges:




It took, the buffalo 1 hour to get from cold tap water temp upto 70c, I used time to prep ingredients.





very close to top for mash - around 1cm

temp dropped 2c when doughing-in, room temp grain.



(I'm waiting from my proper BIAB bag to arrive, so I used a sheet of voile pegged to the top with clothes pegs, although this meant I could brew, I couldn't properly close the lid, there was a 3cm gap, I covered it with insulation, but I think this caused 4c drop over the 90mins, next time, a properly closed lid should improve things

First FAIL - The pegged sheet slipped as i was stirring whilst mashing out, causing lots of grain to spill into wort, I used a seive to fish this out as wort came up to boiling, I think I got most of it...



It took 10mins to get from 64c to 75c for mash out
and then 30mins to get from 75c to boiling


Bag draining, tied to door handle:


Scumy:


Nice rolling boil, the buffalo performed perfectly:




40mins chilling to get to 28c, maybe 1hour to get to 20c hard to tell as dinner interfered.


My cheapo IC worked quite well, (10m of 10mm copper and jubilee clips from wicks + old hosepipe) I need to add quick disconnects though as storing the copper and 20m of hose isn't great!

I emptied using the standard tap, no filter yet, dropped through a sieve to get lots of air into it, lots of break came through, although on the plus side I collected almost 6 gallons:



Final gravity from post boil sample:


More pictures here: http://imageshack.us/g/98/img9956preboilat20oc.jpg/

All in all I was fairly pleased with how it went, my notes to improve things next time:
Use hot water to fill the boiler/or set on timer
using clothes pegs mean gaps at top - means looses heat when mashing.
Over squeezing single sheet voile caused some small rip holes - glad I found that out before doing it with my proper bag.
IC - the coil was too short i height- cold at bottom hot at top of wort, when cooling, I've since stretched it upwards more.
The wet bag is heavy/I'm a weakling - thinking a pully is the way to go.
Lots of break material, I think I NEED a hop-stopper, hoping to fashion something I can jam over the internal plastic thread, as I don't want to shell out for the tools and parts for a tap replacement, any super-cheap suggestions?

[Lugsy]

Welcome to all grain subfaction!

I've been BIABing for most of this year and it's a great way of moving to AG - minimum expense but with great results

A couple of tips for you then. Firstly, instead of clothes pegs use a bungee cord to hold the sheet of voile around the mash tun/boiler, you should reduce the heat loss considerably. I use a standard bungee cord and it fits around my 20 litre stockpot with enough tension to secure it against any stirring throughout the mash. Secondly, I use another piece of sanitised voile (again, secured in place with a bungee cord) to strain the wort into the fermenter after cooling, this is a really simple way of straining out the hops and break with minimum expense but you have to make sure the voile is well sanitised (I use peracetic acid but Starsan would work just as well). I just pour from the pot into the fermenter so I don't have to worry about blocking up taps, it's a bit of a slow process as the voile clogs up with break material (I use a sanitised serving spoon to scoop out the clogging material) but it's super cheap!

Good luck with your first brew,

cheers,

L

[subfaction]

Thanks Lugsy
I like the secondry voile idea, to be honest I was amazed at the amount of gunk that was in the lowest bit of the boiler, I wasn't expecting that, I only got a few grains in the sieve when I emptied it, all the gunk got through, the FV looks like mud! Hopefully this will clear out once the yeast sits back... I know it's meant to be hazy, but it's taking the pi$$ at the moment.

[simco999]

This all looks great - I use bungee cords - that makes for a sure fit - good lookin brew.

[Lugsy]

I was amazed at the amount of gunk that was in the lowest bit of the boiler, I wasn't expecting that, I only got a few grains in the sieve when I emptied it, all the gunk got through, the FV looks like mud!

I did an attempt at the Wit recipe last weekend but I was short on some ingredients, made some substitutions, did a decoction mash to try and get a better conversion, got interrupted, had to finish the mash and boil the following day. To be honest it was pretty much the worst brewday(s) I've had and it looked like a complete disaster to start with but I've got what looks like a decent beer in the fermenter which is ready for bottling now, so don't be put off by the "mud" in your fermenter - you've made beer from base ingredients (and you haven't chosen the easiest beginners recipe to be honest) which in my books is alchemy of the highest order

[Yeasty Rob]

Thanks Lugsy
I like the secondry voile idea, to be honest I was amazed at the amount of gunk that was in the lowest bit of the boiler, I wasn't expecting that, I only got a few grains in the sieve when I emptied it, all the gunk got through, the FV looks like mud! Hopefully this will clear out once the yeast sits back... I know it's meant to be hazy, but it's taking the pi$$ at the moment.

Yeah I get a fair amount of break with BIAB method, but in my experience it pretty much all settles into the yeast cake and with some settling you end up with a clear beer after primary.

[subfaction]

Thanks guys that's great to hear
I was going to leave it in primary for two weeks as I have done with kits, any problem in doing so with this system?

[jimp2003]

NIce brewday report subfaction.

As others have said I also use the bungee cords to secure the bag. The break material getting through to the FV is not a problem as it will drop out with the yeast and all my beers have dropped bright during conditioning and like you I just pour the wort through a sieve. As a Hoegaarden clone you won't be looking for a crystal clear beer so I am sure it will turn out well.

Keep us up to date with how the brew progresses.

Cheers

Jim

[subfaction]

NIce brewday report subfaction.

Thanks! I wanted to include as many details as possible, both to help newbies and to let you chaps spot anything that didn't seem right

[jaquiss2005]

I find the best way to remove wort into a fermenting vessel is to put another voile / hop bag over a large sieve like a sock and pour through there - really does leave a clear liquid in the fermenter

[subfaction]

I find the best way to remove wort into a fermenting vessel is to put another voile / hop bag over a large sieve like a sock and pour through there - really does leave a clear liquid in the fermenter

I really like the simplicity of that method. I think I'll continue to use hop-socks, and try this to filter the gunk before fermenting, should be easy enouhg to boil a hop sock to clean it when the wort's cooling.
Also from a bit more reading it sounds like it's standard practise to remove the IC then swirl the wort to create a whirlpool, leaving a cone of trub in the center, leave it for 30mins then empty through the tap... I guess you need to fish out the hop-socks as well as the IC when doing this.

Activity has slowed right down, and I'm going to be bottling on sunday, so after 14days in FV.
I'll have a sneaky taste and report back.

[subfaction]

Hi guys, I bottled this yesterday, after 13 days in the FV. Final Gravity spot on at 1.010, so around 4.8%
Had a cheeky sample, it's nice, but does taste a bit grainy, I'm wondering if the grain bag fail might have caused this... I'll have to give it a week to carbonate and then try a pint and see, the last wit I did was really nice young, so fingers crossed

[jimp2003]

Did it clear up a bit? I wouldn't read too much into the taste at the bottling stage. Give it a month or so (if you can wait that long) and it will be very different.

[subfaction]

Did it clear up a bit?

yes, looks as it should I guess, certainly no longer mud-like
one thing that I did notice as being different from the kits I've done...
The yeast/trub layer at the bottom of the fv was much looser, and was more easily disturbed, mabye a biab thing? Or due to letting gunk through from the boiler?

[subfaction]

Hey Guys,
a quick update on this brew, tried a bottle after 6 days carbonation, early I know, couldn't resist a try.

Well perfect colour, I'd say a slightly more yellow version of Hoe.
I batch primed with 200g brewing sugar... spot on carbonation.
taste wise...
Well so far not too impressed I've got to say, fairly rough 'grainy' taste, not smooth like my kit adaptations, can clearly taste the alcohol, not getting much in the way of nice Belgian esters... or even orange... I'm hoping it needs more time, but so far doesn't compare favourably to my previous Hoe-esk kit experiments -which were fermented when it was high 20's, as opposed to 18-20's...

Fingers crossed this improves with age.