BIAB - Run of Bad Luck

[injac]

I thought I would summarise my experience of the past few months, get them off my chest, re-evaluate and regroup. I sure as hell ain't going down without a fight on this all grain brewing malarkey!

January 2015 - after many years of kit brews and kit adapting took advantage of GetErBrewed's BIAB starter pack including a 33l Electrim boiler, 33 litre fermenting bin, bag, chiller and ingredient box - in this case the Hoppy APA. For my first attempt I didn't have many hopes of it turning out 100% perfect. I managed to burn the elements through not stirring the mash enough pre boil. Resultant beer was very nice at first...but slowly turned into an ashtray taste.

February - attempt the Caragold recipe. All seemed to go well this time but due to not insulating the boiler enough spent ages waiting for it to reach the boil. Stirred the hell out of this one to avoid burning the element but didn't insulate the boiler enough pre boil so took ages to reach the boil. Note for next brew - camping matt and lots of towels! Also used BrewSafe sanitizer after only ever using Miltons.

March - Brew a blonde ale for a LHBS competition. All seemed to go well. Did about 10 bottles and rest went into a pressure barrel. Again used the BrewSafe sanitizer.

May - Caragold still not tasting right but thought it might need longer conditioning. The bottled blonde ales I get reports of being infected. Same with the Caragold. I sample the pressure barrel. The barrel is spot on - something in my bottling process is unclean. I ditch the bottling wand and get rid of 2 fermenters which I suspect are past their best. I brew a clone of Bank's Bitter - hit most of my numbers and use VWP for the first time. This eventually goes in a pressure barrel where it will stay until late July - I'm still hopeful this is a 'good' batch.

Last week - brew a Summer Lightning clone. But do so whilst trying to run 12 other chores. Hit all my numbers bang on....but low and behold their is a burnt element at the bottom of my boiler. I proceed anyway and get it into the FV and intend to pitch the next day one it is cooler. The next day instead of pitching I get far too distracted with my stag do - the next day I am unable to clamber out of bed so on day 3 go to pitch and cannot get over the smell coming from the FV. Been brewing 6 years and never smelt anything like it - horrible grey film on the top too. Either this FV is the culprit of infections or more likely the wort chilled too much before I was able to pitch. I've now gone out and bought a no chill cube as read an FV isn't an ideal environment for a non-chilled wort prepitching and on my day off tomorrow I intend to scrub away at all my equipment.

So plan of action for next brew which isn't likely to be until August after my wedding:

.Nice easy receipe - probably Summer Lightning again.
. Stir like a b*****d between mash and boil.
. No Chill in 'cube'.
. Pitch within 24 hours of brewing!
. New FV's!

[Goulders]

I'm sure there is nothing wrong with your FVs, it is probably your process. How do you clean your FVs? I use oxiclean and then rinse thoroughly and sanitise with a no rinse sanitiser as well. Never had a problem, and I've had one of my FVs for nearly 10 years. I also ensure the lid and tap are cleaned and sanitised.
If you are throwing your bottling wand away and blaming that and your FVs, it probably is your cleaning process and I would look there first.

[Jocky]

I don't quite understand what you're burning on the element?

The element should only be on when you're heating the water you're mashing with, or after you've mashed and you're boiling.

The process for BIAB should be:

- Put water in boiler.
- Heat water up to strike temperature.
- Turn boiler off and drop in mashing bag full of grain.
- (Optionally) Adjust mash temperature with boiling/cold water as necessary (don't use the element)
- Insulate boiler, and leave for 90 minutes.
- Pull bag with grain out, let it drain.
- (Optionally) pour 75C water over bag to sparge grain.
- Turn on boiler
- Boil for however long you want.

For insulation a sleeping bag or cheap duvet is ideal (I found a double duvet in Sainsburys for £5 a few months ago), but potentially you also want to put some cork mats underneath to avoid losing heat there.

Finally, on your infection problems, VWP is a good cleaner and sanitiser, but you have to be utterly anal about making sure everything is squeaky clean (every nook and cranny should be checked). Once you have sanitised something, you need to try and avoid it coming in contact with anything else that isn't sanitary, like a kitchen surface.

I highly recommend getting a no rinse sanitiser like StarSan, and on brew days keeping a large tupperware/plastic biscuit tub with an inch of StarSan solution in it, to dump equipment in before/between uses. I also suggest putting some solution in a trigger spray bottle (it keeps for several months while not cloudy), that you can use to spray anything that doesn't fit in the tub.

[Redimpz]

+1 to everything that Jocky has suggested.

[injac]

Thanks Guys.

I think I'll invest in some StarSan before the next brew.