Brewing Beer with the Small BIAC (Abridged)—American Blonde Ale

This video provides a brief introduction to brewing in the BREWHA Small BIAC (click here for a more detailed brewing video that follows the BIAC manual). It provides an overview of the BIAC system and provides a condensed step by step guide to brewing. The BIAC is a simplified stainless steel brewing method that provides full control while making brew days more enjoyable and giving easy to achieve, perfect sanitation every time.

In this video, we were brewing an American Blonde Ale.
Ingredients used:
9lb Organic US 2 row
8oz Crystal 15
1.25 oz Willamette (90 minute boil)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Pre boil volume 22L
Post boil volume 20L/5 gallon
Post boil gravity 1.048
Fermentation temperature 21C/70F

Video transcript (with additions for clarity)

Hi, and welcome to another BREWHA video. In this video we will be looking at the BREWHA Small BIAC, it’s a newly released version of the BIAC and we are going to be looking at how to brew with it and going through the steps in the process of making an American Blonde Ale.

So, what we have done today is taken cold water out of the tap and we use the ETC temperature sensor and controller to warm up the water to our strike temperature (74C/165F). We are going add our grist and mash in. We have put 22L/6gal of water into the 3-in-1 and then inserted our Mash Colander into it. Then we add the grain, stir the mash and adjust our ETC to 67C/152F which is our mashing temperature. We have programmed the ETC so that the element will be turned on if ever the water surrounding the Mash Colander drops to 66C/151F and it will warm it back up.

After 75 minutes of mashing, we are going to raise the Mash Colander out and rest it on the lower handles and allow all the wort to drain into the boil kettle.

(We take a few liters of water out of the bottom of the fermenter and transfer it up into the top of the Mash Colander to ‘vorlauf’ (clear the wort by using the grain bed to filter out the small particles). After we vorlauf, we are going ‘sparge’ or rinse the grain with the water that has been heated in the jacket of the fermenter (water warmed on the stove can also be used or cold water from a hose can even be used although cold water is less efficient at getting residual sugar out of the grain).

Once the wort has drained, we pull the Mash Colander out, dump the grain and rinse the Colander out for next brew day.

Now the boil has started—1500W provides a good level of boil for up to 5 gallons, it provides a good rolling boil and you can see the hot break. We might have to unplug it once, however, it seems to be stabilizing (and will not boil over). We have a 22L/6gal pre-boil volume, which does not spill over, and there will be sufficient headspace for fermentation as well. We measured the original gravity at 1.048 (amount of sugar which directly relates to how much alcohol will be present once fermentation is complete) which gives a mash efficiency of about 80%.

The fermenter is moved closer to the hood fan during the boil so the fan can remove any of the humidity and put it outside.

The hot break has subsided and there is good protein coagulation, which will help the proteins settle out after the boil. Now we are going to add the boil hops—1.5oz of Willamette hops.

The boil has completed, the element has been unplugged and the fan been turned off. (The lid should be sprayed with Star San or heat sanitized in an oven and placed on top of the fermenter before chilling begins.) We are down to about 21L/5.5gal post boil and are going to program the ETC to let cold water into the jacket to chill the wort down. The TCV water solenoid garden hose fitting is connected to the tap and the exit hose from the jacket runs into the sink.

Cold water is starting to go into the jacket and is picking up heat from the wort through the walls of the fermenter. The warm water then leaves the fermenter jacket and goes down the drain.

All that remains now is to remove the protein that has settled to the bottom of the fermenter—we put a bit of Irish Moss (carrageenan) into the fermenter for the last 10 minutes of boil to help the proteins clump and settle out. (This will help prevent chill haze or protein cloudiness in the beer.)

Now we rock the fermenter back and forth to oxygenate the wort (if there is ANY risk of the fermenter tipping, a Wort Aeration stone should be used—see details on the Wort Aeration Stone product page.)

The lid is then opened up and yeast is poured into the wort (always sanitize the yeast bag and scissors before opening it). Then we attach a blow of hose to a port on the lid of the fermenter (to let gas escape as it is produced during fermentation). A longer blow off hose with the ‘cup’ or a bucket on the floor can be a good idea to help prevent the water being sucked back into the fermenter. (It is not necessary to put a ball valve on the lid, although it can be handy when kegging or bottling the beer as the valve can be closed and 1-2psi of CO2 can be added to help push the beer out.)

Temperature will be regulated throughout fermentation by using the ETC to control chilling water going into the jacket with the TCV valve. This will create the best environment for yeast to happily ‘do their thing’.

Thank you for watching the video. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us using a form on the ‘About Us’ page of the website.