BIAB #3 for me - a Best Bitter in the Masham style

[john_drummer]

Last weekend I did my third BIAB, this time a Best Bitter from Masham, and not the ovine one From the recipe in the Graham Wheeler book

Mash 90 minutes, boil 90 minutes, strike water 26 litres, a bit of a sparge (two kettles full) into a clean FV & added to the boil, final volume 20 litres. OG was 1038, yeast (Safale 04) pitched saturday night, most of the fermenting done by Wednesday, so I checked the gravity again. 1010 and pretty clear, tasted pretty good too. I'll give it a few more days then rack it off the trub.

Should be a nicely drinkable session beer

[leedsbrew]

You can't beat a good Yorkshire session bitter! Having grown up in the Richmond, Masham, Bedale area I think I was spoiled with all the great cask ale in ever pub! It wasn't till I moved away that I started to apreciate how important a good pub with a good cellar man who knows how to keep beer is!

I don't have the GW book. Can you give us a kind of hint recipe, maybe % rather than exact weights! I don't think you get in bother with the mods doing it that way!

[john_drummer]

sure, no problem. I brew to 19L batches, so the recipe is as follows (apologies to GW or the original brewery if I'm treading on toes):

3040g Pale malt
175g Crystal malt
mash 90 mins at 66degC

start of boil: 17g Challenger, 8g Fuggles
last 10mins: 8g Fuggles, 3g Irish Moss.
Boil 90mins

dry hop with a few cones of Styrian Goldings. It doesn't specify which variety so I used Bobek

I fed this into Brewmate & it suggested 26 litres of water at a strike temperature of 69deg for BIAB

OG 1038, FG 1009, bitterness 24 EBU, colour 15 (EBC), 3.8% ABV. Mine is (was the other day) at 1010 so it's very near the projected FG already

I really do recommend getting his book, it's only £15 and it has dozens of recipes for mild, pale ale, bitter, stout & porters. Doesn't touch lager though, so if that's your brew you'll have to look elsewhere. Examples include Old Speckled Hen, Pendle Witches Brew, Landlord, London Pride, Directors, Old Peculier (which is VERY good!) and many more...

[art.b]

great informative post there john...
do you only lose 6 litres of water on the boil..?
do you do a 90 min boil,ive read of 60m boils turning out just as well

id like to do a 40 litre batch, i have a 70l pot, and two 20l cubes for no chilling,

and was wondering if you would just need twice the amount of everything,

[jonnyt]

I'd question whether 40L BIAB is doable without a pulley.

I did a 30L with 6KG of grain earlier this week and I personally think that's around the limit

[john_drummer]

I keep the lid on in 98% closed mode so I don't lose too much. The recipe called for 90 minute boil so that's what I did. BIAB no2 was a 60 minute mash and 60 minute boil as that was what the rec said. I might start tinkering when I have a few more brews under my Belt

[Bribie]

I'd question whether 40L BIAB is doable without a pulley.

I did a 30L with 6KG of grain earlier this week and I personally think that's around the limit

Yours truly at the Queensland Home Brewing Conference "Systems War day" where 4 systems went head to head with the same recipe. BIAB won, incidentally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qixIkPm74I8

As you can see, it's just about doable without a skyhook but a bit of a shlamozzle
And that was for a 22L brew so you'd have to be a gorilla to do a double batch.

[john_drummer]

and here it is, bottled. 8 days from mashing.

[art.b]

I'd question whether 40L BIAB is doable without a pulley.

I did a 30L with 6KG of grain earlier this week and I personally think that's around the limit

i have just done my 1st biab and i had 6kg in the bag,
it didnt seem at all heavy,

it sort of floats when lifting , then drains so its not to bad,..
i satrted with 34 litres of water,
i ended up with 26l of wort,

i did sparge the bag, in an fv, with 6l of water,which i added,

[Klaus]

My AG#2 was very ambitious, an RIS with about 12 kg dry weight of grain - and I wasn't prepared for the weight !!!
5-6 kgs is quite easy to lift and drain. I want to repeat the RIS brew but I think I will scoop out half first before lifiting the bag or have another bag for splitting the grain.