No, I didn't just randomly type letters. BIAB stands for brew in a bag, an all grain brewing method that has its roots Down Under. What it boils down to (harhar), is that you use one vessel for mashing and boiling as opposed to mashing the grains (steeping in hot water) in one vessel (previously my 10-gallon cooler) and then transferring the wort to a boil kettle. Once the water reaches the right temperature (generally speaking around 152-154F or 66.5-68 C), you add the grains in a bag. I'm using 2 nested, nylon bags just in case one breaks.
During Amazon's Prime sale we also bought an Anova Sous Vide cooker, which allows you to control the temperature of the water perfectly. The Anova will circulate the water in the pot, making sure that it's warmed up homogeneously. My initial hope was that this would increase my brewing efficiency. Because I've been brewing small batches (1 gallon), it's been a lot harder to keep the temperature stable during mashing. This led to an efficiency of around 60%, not exactly stellar. The lower your efficiency, the more grains you need to brew a beer. Higher efficiencies result in less waste (less grain) and thus also reduce the cost (even though buying grains for 1 gallon batches is pretty cheap). My first brew today with the Anova turned this upside down: I've reached a 92.6% efficiency! Some of this is the result of my slightly higher grainbill than what I wanted. My local homebrew supply store (LHBS) only has a scale which measures in certain fractions of a pound. Most of the adjunct grains I require are in the range of 1-4 ounces and they can't quite measure that out. So I always end up with more grains than I've asked for. The solution for this will be to buy my own grains, measure them out on our scale and then mill them (will need a mill with a hopper for that) or take them to the LHBS. That's for later!
During Amazon's Prime sale we also bought an Anova Sous Vide cooker, which allows you to control the temperature of the water perfectly. The Anova will circulate the water in the pot, making sure that it's warmed up homogeneously. My initial hope was that this would increase my brewing efficiency. Because I've been brewing small batches (1 gallon), it's been a lot harder to keep the temperature stable during mashing. This led to an efficiency of around 60%, not exactly stellar. The lower your efficiency, the more grains you need to brew a beer. Higher efficiencies result in less waste (less grain) and thus also reduce the cost (even though buying grains for 1 gallon batches is pretty cheap). My first brew today with the Anova turned this upside down: I've reached a 92.6% efficiency! Some of this is the result of my slightly higher grainbill than what I wanted. My local homebrew supply store (LHBS) only has a scale which measures in certain fractions of a pound. Most of the adjunct grains I require are in the range of 1-4 ounces and they can't quite measure that out. So I always end up with more grains than I've asked for. The solution for this will be to buy my own grains, measure them out on our scale and then mill them (will need a mill with a hopper for that) or take them to the LHBS. That's for later!
As can be seen in the short video I've set the mashing temperature to 152.5 F for the Blackberry Red Ale. This is an Irish red ale with (quantities for 1 gallon):
Maris Otter Pale Malt 1.45 lbs
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 0.35 lbs
Aromatic Malt 0.13 lbs
East Kent Golding 0.13 oz - boil for 60 mins
East Kent Golding 0.13 oz - boil for 30 mins
Cascade 0.13 oz - boil for 5 mins
1 cup of fresh blackberries w/ 1/4 cup of sugar - flame out
Nottingham yeast
The blackberries get mixed with the sugar in a saucepan and heated on low heat until it becomes liquid (I'm showing this at the end of the video). This gets added to the boiling wort at flame out. For beersmith users, the mash is BIAB, Medium Body, 60 min boil, OG 1.050, FG 1.012.
Maris Otter Pale Malt 1.45 lbs
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 0.35 lbs
Aromatic Malt 0.13 lbs
East Kent Golding 0.13 oz - boil for 60 mins
East Kent Golding 0.13 oz - boil for 30 mins
Cascade 0.13 oz - boil for 5 mins
1 cup of fresh blackberries w/ 1/4 cup of sugar - flame out
Nottingham yeast
The blackberries get mixed with the sugar in a saucepan and heated on low heat until it becomes liquid (I'm showing this at the end of the video). This gets added to the boiling wort at flame out. For beersmith users, the mash is BIAB, Medium Body, 60 min boil, OG 1.050, FG 1.012.
The next brew is a smoked cherry ale, which can be categorized as a fruit beer. As the name implies it has fresh, pitted cherries in it and Cherrywood Smoked Malt. This malt smells like a campfire burning cherrywood logs. It's one of the most delicious malts I've ever smelled and it's filling up the entire house right now.
Here's the recipe (Smoked Cherry Ale):
Maris Otter Pale Malt 1.60 lbs
Cherrywood Smoked Malt 0.60 lbs
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 0.10 lbs
Victory Malt 0.10 lbs
Bramling Cross 0.20 oz - boil for 60 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - boil for 15 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - boil for 5 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - flame out
1 cup of pitted, fresh cherries - flame out
Safale American US-05 yeast
The cherries also go into the fermenter, so I'm adding them to the kettle in a nylon bag for easy retrieval. This is again a mash with BIAB, Medium Body, an OG of 1.063 and FG of 1.014. The LHBS didn't have the hops for this recipe and I substituted all of them with East Kent Golding.
The efficiency on this beer was 78%, not quite as high as the first brew, but still nothing to sneeze at. Once bottled, it'll sit for about 6 months so that the cherry flavors and components can evolve into a brandy-tasting beer.
Finally we also bottled the one fermenting beer from the basement: S'more beer, which also has some smoked malts to evoke a nice campfire feel. The green beer definitely had a nice hint of smokiness without being overbearing. This one will be ready in 2 weeks.
Here's the recipe (Smoked Cherry Ale):
Maris Otter Pale Malt 1.60 lbs
Cherrywood Smoked Malt 0.60 lbs
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 0.10 lbs
Victory Malt 0.10 lbs
Bramling Cross 0.20 oz - boil for 60 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - boil for 15 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - boil for 5 mins
Whitbread Golding Variety 0.05 oz - flame out
1 cup of pitted, fresh cherries - flame out
Safale American US-05 yeast
The cherries also go into the fermenter, so I'm adding them to the kettle in a nylon bag for easy retrieval. This is again a mash with BIAB, Medium Body, an OG of 1.063 and FG of 1.014. The LHBS didn't have the hops for this recipe and I substituted all of them with East Kent Golding.
The efficiency on this beer was 78%, not quite as high as the first brew, but still nothing to sneeze at. Once bottled, it'll sit for about 6 months so that the cherry flavors and components can evolve into a brandy-tasting beer.
Finally we also bottled the one fermenting beer from the basement: S'more beer, which also has some smoked malts to evoke a nice campfire feel. The green beer definitely had a nice hint of smokiness without being overbearing. This one will be ready in 2 weeks.