one - pot BIAB

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steve crawshaw
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one - pot BIAB

Post by steve crawshaw »

I've started using a simple method of brewing, just to experiment and try something new.

One pot BIAB. That is: mash, boil and ferment in one pot - a stainless steel 33L stock pot with no tap. I was inspired by Matt Smith's blog. You can see the elements of my process here.

I tend to do 16 litres in this pot (15L bottling volume), which is mainly because I brew a lot and can't get through my beer if I brew 20L batches. There are other advantages to a smaller volume: higher pitch rate from a dry yeast pack, easy to lift, quicker carbonation in a 19L keg etc.
I use a no - sparge process, and no chill, so it's really simple and needs no equipment other than the pot, the bag, a racking cane and silicone tube. I do use a temp controlled HLT as I have one set up, but you could do without it by heating the strike water in the pot.

In summary:
Mash in the stainless pot with the full volume
remove bag and squeeze wort from the grain
boil, hop etc
cool (no chill) with lid on
pitch yeast
control fermentation temps with water bath
rack into bottles \ keg

I seal the pot for fermentation with weights on the lid. Its not hermetically sealed but once fermenting the positive pressure prevents air ingress. I fine with gelatin and keg but obviously you could bottle direct from the pot.

I have brewed a saison and an APA with this method. The APA came out too bitter but that was due to my hopping schedule and trying to optimise the steep component of the bittering. I can't detect any other flaws like astringency, DMS etc that might arise from the BIAB, no - chill or one - pot aspects of the process. I bought it to BBC and people noticed Acetaldehyde. I seem to have a problem detecting this until someone else tastes it, then I can!

The saison had some crazy pear \ fruit esters that I ascribe to repitching (belle saison) and improper oxygenation. I ended up ditching it.

I am just sampling a belgian blonde which was done in 7 days and has come out really well.

What I like about this approach is its simplicity. Minimal cleaning on brewday and brewday can be done in 3 hours. Sanitation is less of a worry because you are fermenting in a pot that has been boiled for an hour.
A new brewer could start all - grain with very minimal outlay and within a few brews could be making very drinkable beer with this kit. I won't say it's perfect because I think hop forward beers are more difficult to get right, but it's definitely worth experimenting with especially if you are cash or time - poor..

cheers
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by I_used_to_brew »

The process sounds interesting, it's just a shame that you have not managed to produce a good beer from it so far!

I quite like BIAB as it's pretty much how we did HB back in the Dave Line days. I would like to brew at least 40 litres so the weight of grain in a bag worries me, I had thought about buying one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141106232018? ... EBIDX%3AIT to put the bag inside to prevent accidents. Finding time to brew is the real challenge at the moment, I've not brewed since June.
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steve crawshaw
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by steve crawshaw »

the belgian blonde was done this way and has turned out well. I'll bring it to a meeting.
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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Jeltz69
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by Jeltz69 »

IME not sparging tends to bring down the efficiency by about 10% although I'm thinkingof givig sparging with cold water a go with the Braumeister.
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steve crawshaw
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by steve crawshaw »

I hit about 77% mash efficiency with no sparge in this process. I use a 1hr 15min mash length, which is recommended in beersmith for BIAB
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
lsayer
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by lsayer »

With regard to hop additions obviously with a no chill method the hops stay in hot liquor for much longer than they would if you did a rapid cool. Have you found a good rule of thumb for adjusting recipes to account for this? I'm thinking of doing a single hop apa with galaxy hops but at 13.6% aa I don't want the late aroma additions to turn into bittering additions whilst the wort cools slowly.
angusb1
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by angusb1 »

If you know how long your kettle takes to go from boiling to 79°C once you turn off the heat, you could use that as the point from which you work back to get timings for any bittering calculations as no more isomerisation will occur below 79°C.

Interesting discussion of utilisation at different temperatures here. https://byo.com/mead/item/2808-hop-stands
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by I_used_to_brew »

I'm sure someone has thought about it. Most commercial brewers cannot cool the whole gyle as fast as a homebrewer can, so they already have the problem. You could easily not use kettle aroma hops and just dry hop. It's a different type of aroma, but actually very efficient on hop use.

BIAB/Single vessel brewing is a good idea and is capable of great beer. The methodology has to be different to 3V brewing though.
jeddere
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by jeddere »

lsayer wrote:With regard to hop additions obviously with a no chill method the hops stay in hot liquor for much longer than they would if you did a rapid cool. Have you found a good rule of thumb for adjusting recipes to account for this? I'm thinking of doing a single hop apa with galaxy hops but at 13.6% aa I don't want the late aroma additions to turn into bittering additions whilst the wort cools slowly.
See posts by micblair here:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/68163 ... peratures/

And the paper he refers to here:
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlu ... sequence=1

Only goes down to 90C but its possible to extrapolate.
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steve crawshaw
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Re: one - pot BIAB

Post by steve crawshaw »

I've actually modified my process somewhat with BIAB so that you don't need to consider the no - chill utilisation (bittering) of hops. In brief:

BIAB, no sparge.
Aim for 16 L batch into fermenter.
Squeeze the bag.
Boil, add hops as normal. I typically use a mesh filter so remove all plant material once steep is complete. drain kettle into a 20L "cube".
While hot, fill headspace in cube with CO2, cap. Dunk the whole cube into a bin full of cold water. Slosh it about periodically if you can be bothered. It will chill to ~30 within an hour or so. You could immerse in another cold bath after the initial chill to bring it to pitching temp quicker. I have actually used a frozen salt water sludge prepared in my freezer which works incredibly (too) fast.
Once at pitching temp I crack the lid , pitch my yeast and fill the headspace with Oxygen, then put the lid back on and shake it like it owes me money. With the cubes you can just balance it on a corner and rock it back and forth until it is full of froth without sustaining a lower back injury.
Put the cube into your water bath \ fermentation chamber, replace the lid with a 45mm silicone bung and airlock and ferment. Rack using cane.

The advantages are that you are chilling quickly and in an inert atmosphere in a vessel that is inherently sterile as it is filled with a boiling(ish) liquor. You are fermenting in the same vessel. Oxygenating by shaking with O2 in the headspace is as effective as using a sintered airstone (got a ref somewhere) and you don't have all the palaver of sterilising the airstone, hooking it up to cylinder etc. I have also oxygenated 24 hours into fermentation using the same method as above. This is recommended for beers with a high O2 demand (big beers). Cubes are about £6 each delivered.

The key to effective oxygenation is adequate headspace. I'm happy with brewing 16L batches as I brew too much and can't drink it all anyway. YMMV.

It is more difficult to clean the cube but I have found that soaking in hot PBW and shaking with cold beer line cleaner will get the insides perfectly clear as long as you clean the cube immediately after transfer. I store the cubes with a little peracetic inside to maintain sterility.

The brown IPA i bought to BCB used this approach. Fermenting a saison this way currently.

In my view this represents a really simple approach to BIAB and takes the uncertainty out of hop utilisation. I did a couple of good beers with the one - pot no chill method, but a couple also turned out a bit odd (estery, acetaldehyde), which I attribute to a combination of slow cooling with break material present and a lack of oxygenation.

cheers
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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