First BIAB

[Khannie]

Well, I'll be kicking off my first BIAB on Saturday. I've done extract brews before.

Any pro tips?

I'll be grinding the malt myself. Does anyone have a reference picture for correct coarseness?

Lastly, roughly how much extra grain versus a recipe would you add for BIAB to achieve the same OG as a full mash / sparge cycle?

[molc]

Interested in following this post, as I'll be doing my first BIAB later on this year as well, once I drink down the stock levels a bit.
Right now I have an Amber Ale, Russian Imperial Stout, Spiced Ale and a belgian Triple to drink through, so it may take a while...

[Khannie]

Interested in following this post

I'll try and document it a bit, so. I'm just going to be doing small batches (probably 12-15 litres). Initially probably sticking to single hops so that I get a flavour for the various ones. Hoping to do a brew a week to get expertise levels up quickly. I just about have enough small FV's to achieve a rolling brew a week with brews that size.

[molc]

Yeah I think in future I'm going to start doing 10 litre brews, as I'm going through the beers very slowly. Which means less brewing. Even a 5 litre brew could be a great way of testing ideas, but I think the kettle is too big to do that and cover the element sufficiently.

[olale]

I've read online you should be able to pass a bank card through your rollers. I've been using crushed grain so don't have any real experience.

I have been using AG recipes directly for BIAB and have been hitting the numbers spot on.

[cronan]

I use a corona mill and just make sure it is not coming out too floury.

My efficiency for BIAB is about 70% - lowest 65%  highest 75% it depends on the o.g. of the beer.

[baphomite51]

coarser grain gives you better effeciency but causes a bit of a mess, i use regular milled grain from The homebrew company and get 70% effeciency atleast, if you want best effeciency do full volume mash, mash for 90 minutes, stirring every now and again and squeeze the hell out of the bag, maybe even hold back a litre or two in your water volume and throw it over the grain, i done this last time and got a lot more sugar out of the grains. good luck anyway BIAB is great and produces great beer

[RichC]

Well, I'll be kicking off my first BIAB on Saturday. I've done extract brews before.

Any pro tips?

I'll be grinding the malt myself. Does anyone have a reference picture for correct coarseness?

Lastly, roughly how much extra grain versus a recipe would you add for BIAB to achieve the same OG as a full mash / sparge cycle?

1. No extra grain required. If your water is OK you should get efficiency at least as good as 3V brewing.
2. DONT sparge, its not true BIAB(but some seem to do it) and its not neccesary. Full volume at beginning.
3. I dont dump the grain bag into the hot water as I think some do. I line the pot with the bag, and pour in grain while stirring. No doughballs.
4. W.r.t. coarsness of crush I just use my Crankandstein at the standard width setting so not sure what that is.
5. Drink slowly or start drinking late on brew day. brewing spannered just adds to screwups(for me).
6. I do a 90min mash and 90min boil usually as recommended on BIABrewer.info

enjoy!

[Khannie]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Some great tips in there.

5. Drink slowly or start drinking late on brew day. brewing spannered just adds to screwups(for me).

Had a good laugh at this one.

[Covey]

I find batch sparge best for my biab set up

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

1. No extra grain required. If your water is OK you should get efficiency at least as good as 3V brewing.
2. DONT sparge, its not true BIAB(but some seem to do it) and its not neccesary. Full volume at beginning.
3. I dont dump the grain bag into the hot water as I think some do. I line the pot with the bag, and pour in grain while stirring. No doughballs.
4. W.r.t. coarsness of crush I just use my Crankandstein at the standard width setting so not sure what that is.
5. Drink slowly or start drinking late on brew day. brewing spannered just adds to screwups(for me).
6. I do a 90min mash and 90min boil usually as recommended on BIABrewer.info

Agree with most points. I find for high gravity  beers some kind of sparge is useful. Dunk sparge being the best.

However fine crush, then crush again, squeezing the hell out of the bag, gets you really good "default" efficiency. Only sparge after you have done all that.

90 min mash with stirs every 30 mins or so. Agree with point 3 above, no dough balls

[Khannie]

Well....it was a learning experience. 

I reckoned beforehand I could get to pitching within 3.5 hours and it took 5. Not sure if that was because of my lack of experience or that it just takes that long. My OG ended up lower than expected but that's my own fault (I was eyeballing the wort amount and added in some that I shouldn't have at the end).

I also ground a bit too fine so there was a good bit of fine grain left behind (grist?). I passed the wort through a sanitised gold filter on its way into the fermenting bucket and that got rid of most of it.

Still it should make a very tasty IPA that rolls in at the 5.5% mark which I think is about spot on for an IPA.

It's fermenting away there. The recipe calls for 14 days dry hopping. Think I'll be going with 7.

[Covey]

Welcome to the AG, its never easy always a day of drama

[brenmurph]

Khannie were u based. Brewday dis saturday at best brewer 2014's base wher u can significantly improve ur brewing

[Khannie]

Welcome to the AG, its never easy always a day of drama

That was the other thing I learned.

Khannie were u based. Brewday dis saturday at best brewer 2014's base wher u can significantly improve ur brewing

I'm in North County Dublin. Where is this on?