Just made my first BIAB

[marcarm]

Tonight I've done my first BIAB. I followed the guide on the biabbrewer site which, instead of calculating for maxi BIAB, suggests you use a full batch recipe and dilute to your required og at the end, giving a variable brew length each time but that's good enough for me. I have a 21l pot.

I will admit I made a mistake, my recipe was for 15l and not 21l as I thought, so measured all the grains and cracked on with the mash. I noticed during the boil by which time my pot was nearly full. I sparged twice, but was unable to add all of the sprage to the boil.

I was expecting an og of 1049 @ 15l, instead I got 1046 @ 17l. I'm not experienced enough to know all the intricacies of brewing, but that's good yeah?

I tasted the wort before pitching, all good so far, will leave it alone for 2 weeks now. Fingers crossed it'll come out ok, will be a nice Xmas tipple if it does.

[killer]

Well done !

1046 @ 17l instead of 1049 @ 15l just means you have more beer to drink...

What did you make ?

[marcarm]

A chocolate orange stout, my first ever stout, not even done one from a kit before.
My brother in law is a huge fan of stout so even if I don't like it, it will all get drunk!

Got an old speckled hen clone to make at the weekend. Hopefully that brew day will go as well as last night.

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

Well done. What is the orange addition going to be?

[marcarm]

The recipe called for 20g of orange peel with 10mins left of the boil.

You can certainly taste it in the wort, but it was subtle and not overpowering which is what I would have preferred it to be, so looking good so far.

[alexlark]

Well done fella. I done my second BIAB last weekend. A sort of Way To Amarillo with the grain I had left. Let us know how your Speckled Hen goes, I wanna try that one myself.

[marcarm]

Will do. My stout has just started bubbling away, sounds like a machine gun in my spare room now

I made Way to Amarillo following the extract method from BrewUK. It's been in the garage for 3 weeks now and is not very clear at all. There is maybe an inch from the top of the bottle that is clear, and nothing else.

I've got a bottle in the fridge which has been in there for a few hours, no difference.

I'm thinking that because they are extract, they need longer to clear/condition than kits (I've only ever made kits before now).

I made an Irish Red ale at the same time as WTA, bottled 3/10/14, tried a cheeky sample tonight and that is also still cloudy. There is carbonation but the head on the beer vanishes as if it were soft drink. Hoping both of these improve as they are going to be my December drinks.

Hoping my grain brews are a lot better than my extract brews.

[alexlark]

Possibly the yeast that is causing it to clear slowly. Did you use Safale US-05 by any chance?

[marcarm]

Actually, it was. I didn't get the kit from BUK, rather I was ordering from another site so just ordered the recipe components from there, but the BUK recipe does state S05 so that is what I would have used.

I got the red ale kit from thehomebrewcompany.ie, and that just says 'ale yeast suitable', so not sure what that was.

[alexlark]

From what I have read Safale US-05 is a good yeast to use with the Amarillo. Although it's a yeast that takes a while to clear.

I used it for my Amarillo too, I will be barrelling it on Sat.

[marcarm]

Just checked the stout as airlock activity has virtually stopped, it is down to 1.012 already, giving 4.5%. Never had anything ferment so quickly, still going to leave it a few more days before doing anything to it.

Beersmith gives an estimated FG of 1.011 so not far off that at all.

Brewing the speckled hen tonight, looking forwards to that.

[marcarm]

Speckled hen all done

Managed 21l @ 1.056, recipe called for 1.057 so pretty happy with that.

The variable brew length technique is so much easier than working out everything on biabacus. I'm happy to get anything from 18-23l of beer, and got 18l out of my 21l pot, topped up to give me my OG.

Would recommend this technique of brewing to anyone, so much cheaper and more fulfilling than kits. I got a 25kg bag of Maris otter for £24, made 2 brews and still got 17kg left, enough for another 4 or so. Less than £10 of ingredients for each 35-40 bottle batch of beer, I think I can live with that!

[Dave-Leeds]

So dint u use biabacus this time?

[marcarm]

Both times using the variable brew length method posted on biabbrewer.
Happy with the results each time so see no real reason to change.

[Dave-Leeds]

Have to have a look an biabrewer havnt used it for ages. Have beer smith but not done a biab for a while now so am a bit rusty

and need some practice