Be gentle.. It's my first time

[BruHaha Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BruHaha]

So planning the 1st brew in my newly acquired urn. I've read https://www.brewcabin.com/brew-in-a-bag/ for the process. Does that about sum it up?

I have no delusions of grandeur that this will be the perfect brew.... so what should I look out for and what notes should I be taking throughout the process to improve for the next one?

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Measure everything.

[Rikusj Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rikusj]

Measure everything.

Twice! And then write it down. And write everything down. Smell stuff, taste stuff... gather as much information as you can. Helps if you want to repeat something or troubleshoot if it doesn't go to plan... Speaking as a nooby with less than 10 brews under his belt, this helped me get to grips with the process much faster!!

[CaPunT Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CaPunT]

Do you have a mash tun, or are you mashing in your urn? Be sure that your grain isnt milled too fine. if it has a lot of "flour", then sift it first.
If too much of this flour gets through the bag and settles at the bottom, it will burn to the element and the batch will be ruined - trust me, it's not a fun lesson.

Put mug or metal cup in the freezer if you have one, this helps to get your pre-boil gravity sample chilled quickly so you can measure it(if wanting to make some potential corrections)

If you don't already have one, create a free Brewfather account, download the app and enter your recipe and steps to it. The app(or site) will help you along every step of your brew, along with reminders, etc.

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

Put mug or metal cup in the freezer if you have one, this helps to get your pre-boil gravity sample chilled quickly so you can measure it.

This is s good tip. I never even thought that far ahead


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[BackOffMyBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BackOffMyBrew]

Don't set your expectations too high, have fun doing it and learn from each success and mistake.

And yes, document EVERYTHING

[BruHaha Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BruHaha]

Thanks for the tips gents. Valuable advice @CaPunT.. appreciated.

I think I'm set, just need some squeezing gloves. Would something like this do? https://www.builders.co.za/Protectiv...00000000570173

[CaPunT Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CaPunT]

Thanks for the tips gents. Valuable advice @CaPunT.. appreciated.

I think I'm set, just need some squeezing gloves. Would something like this do? https://www.builders.co.za/Protectiv...00000000570173

No problem, and yep. I have a very similar red pair that I got for ~50 bucks at Makro.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Does those PVC gloves keep the heat out?

Screenshot_29.jpg

I'm looking for Silicone gloves to help with heat

[CaPunT Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CaPunT]

https://www.makro.co.za/hardware-aut...00000366165_EA

I have those and they work for me.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

https://www.makro.co.za/hardware-aut...00000366165_EA

I have those and they work for me.

Thanks.

[BruHaha Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BruHaha]

Righto.. so did the dirty today. Here's my account of how things happened. Please chime in and let me know what I did wrong so I can correct it in the next brew.

Sanitised everything.
Put the element cover and bag in the urn and got the water up to 72deg.
Slightly overshot it at 75 but thought it would be ok... maybe not
Stirred in the malts and temp only dropped 3 degs to 72. Thought it should go down to 65?!?
Proceeded to mash with lid off and stirred quite a bit to get temp down.
After 36 minutes it was down to 66 so put lid on and left it.
After 1 hour mash I squeezed bag out & turned element up to boil.
Initially I had the lid on, but took it off after about 20 mins after seeing some floaty white bits and doing some internet research (something about DMS).
Seeing as I'm doing nochill, I let it boil for an hour but only put bittering hops in after 20 mins.
Whirlpooled after boil and then let it drain into cube (lots of bubbles/aeration whilst doing this... is it ok?).
Flavouring hops went into cube.

According to brewfather I'm 6 points lower on both pre-boil and post-boil gravity. I'm assuming this is due to incorrect efficiency programmed into brewfather?

I'll pour it over to the bucket tomorrow and start fermentation but already thinking about the next one

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

Thats about as good as you can hope for on your first go man. Well done.
I brew biab in an urn and i no chill.
Im no expert but ive brewed like this a few times and so here goes.
In winter expect a 3 to 4C drop between strike and mash temp (from adding the room temp grain) in summer its more like 2 maybe 3. Especially up north. I strike at 67. Mash at 65. I dont use the element while mashing, just insulation and end at 60 after the hour.
This is supposed to give me low FG but i still end at 1010 using S05 yeast so im happy with this.
Only 3 reasons to boil and t.b.h. they've all been busted, yet we continue the practice
1) pasteurize. But this happens above 75C
2) DMS. But if you dont use pilsner malt or heritage malts there is very little present anyway
3) for hop bitterness. For most beers you can get high enough IBU with just a 30min boil or only whirlpool.

So boil 60m boil 30min and check what works for you. Or google raw beer and try that.

Anyway rhahb


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[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

Ok i forgot to add this. Its a bit of a mish mash from advice i received from Toxyc and Groenspook.

Especially in the beginning you dont know your sys and as such can mis the mark by a lot. ( like 6 points above)

So to fix this and improve efficiency. Hold back 2 to 4l of water. Then. Once youve squeezed the bag to your harts content check the mash SG. If its high sparge and squeeze and check again. Repeat till you have what you need. If its low still sparge ( to get the last sugar out) but with as little as possible water. Then increase your boil time to fix the sg if there is still an issue.

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[AlexBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AlexBrew]

Sanitised everything.

Sanitising everything before boiling is not nessecary - everything wil become sterile during the boil - well at least the items that are inside the boil mass. Just make sure stuff is clean. However after wort has been chilled and there on end - everything needs to be sanitised.

Slightly overshot it at 75 but thought it would be ok... maybe not
Stirred in the malts and temp only dropped 3 degs to 72. Thought it should go down to 65?!?
Proceeded to mash with lid off and stirred quite a bit to get temp down.
After 36 minutes it was down to 66 so put lid on and left it.

What would happen here is that with the higher temperatures you mashed in at Alpha A territory. I think (speaking under correction) the Aplha B enzimes might be deactivated or destroyed, so your 36minutes mashing too high and then coming back into Alpha B territory might not have metabolised the starches maximally. There was a usefull video posted a couple weeks back that explains this best..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PSvCRtVdZU
Also read John Palmers - How to Brew, the mashing section.

(something about DMS).

This used to be a bigger issue in the past with malts. With modern modified malts this is no longer much of a issue.

Seeing as I'm doing nochill, I let it boil for an hour but only put bittering hops in after 20 mins.

..or you can still add the hops at 60 - just add less to compensate bittering for the no-chill.

Whirlpooled after boil and then let it drain into cube (lots of bubbles/aeration whilst doing this... is it ok?).

Yes. Lots of aeration is good at this stage.

According to brewfather I'm 6 points lower on both pre-boil and post-boil gravity. I'm assuming this is due to incorrect efficiency programmed into brewfather?

What is your efficiency set to currently - 75% is a good conservative benchmark. Then once you get used to your brewing setup - you can adjust your efficiency to suit. Another thing to considder - how accurate where you in weighing your grains?

I'll pour it over to the bucket tomorrow and start fermentation but already thinking about the next one
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Don't worry too much - your beer will be fine. Did you take Pre boil SGs and OGs ?