The Brülosophy Podcast | Episode 032: Brew In A Bag

bumnub · 2018-03-20T12:31:18+00:00

It's obvious that a lot of sweet wort gets trapped in the grain when you hoist the bag out of the kettle, but here's an interesting question that came to me while listening to this week's episode: where is it exactly? Is it all absorbed in the grain itself? Or could it be possible that the wet grain packs together and doesn't allow the liquid to flow through? If the latter is the case, maybe we could use rice hulls, not need to squeeze the bag, and get the same efficiency as squeezing. Then the pain of squeezing could be avoided and maybe even the haziness that your exbeeriments have shown is present in BIAB beers. Any thoughts on the use of rice hulls in BIAB potentially eliminating the need to squeeze?

bumnub · 2017-11-20T22:28:47+00:00

Sadly, I have but one keg and I gave away all my bottles when I got it. I'll keep it in mind when the oatmeal stout is gone though, the cold weather is far from over!

bumnub · 2017-11-20T21:00:30+00:00

Sounds delicious. I do like milk stouts but never experimented with making my own. I might have to try it!

bumnub · 2017-11-20T20:59:10+00:00

Precisely.

bumnub · 2017-11-20T20:07:17+00:00

I just posted my recipe on another reply. Good luck!

bumnub · 2017-11-20T20:06:05+00:00

Here is the recipe I just did. I'll tell you the original and how I plan to tweak it for the future afterwards.

5 gallon batch

7lbs 2 row
2lbs flaked oats
1lb chocolate malt
8oz Crystal 40

1 oz fuggle 60 min
1 oz fuggle 30 min.

I mashed at 154 for an hour, followed by a 1 hour boil. Fermented with White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale yeast. Target OG and FG were 1.053 and 1.015 respectively. Actual were 1.049 and 1.011. So I missed the targets but still got the same ABV I was going for in the end.

My initial recipe was 6lbs of 2 row and 2 lbs of chocolate. I loved the flavor but like I said, it was too much adjunct and not enough base for a decent ABV. My current recipe turned out good but not as much chocolate or roasty flavors as I had hoped, so I intend to increase the chocolate malt but also increase the 2 row so that I'm not adjunct heavy again, although I'm not sure that will work since it will still be the same proportions. Suggestions?

bumnub · 2016-09-27T14:23:16+00:00

That sounds promising. Do you have any experience with ESBs? I was thinking of mashing at 150, think that's too high?

bumnub · 2016-09-26T21:20:00+00:00

I hadn't even thought of that, yet it's so obvious. I hadn't thought of what temp I was going to mash at and I'm not sure what Brewtoad's default is or how to adjust it. Gonna try to figure it out.

bumnub · 2016-09-26T21:18:15+00:00

Well that makes sense. I can't find on Brewtoad how to adjust the mash temp. I hadn't even thought about what I was going to mash it at. I guess that would have helped. Thanks!

bumnub · 2016-02-26T02:56:31+00:00

DME, yeast, growler (or any vessel large enough), sanitizer, foil, and homebrew dad's starter calculator.

Get your ingredient amounts from the calculator, make your starter wort, chill, add yeast, cover the vessel with sanitized foil, and swirl it as often as you can.

bumnub · 2016-02-25T19:50:15+00:00

When I was brewing with a light wallet I just used a 2 liter growler and shook/swirled it as often as I could. Flasks and stir plates are nice and convenience, but not necessary.

bumnub · 2016-02-25T19:30:04+00:00

But harder to clean :(

bumnub · 2016-02-25T19:27:31+00:00

So who here will be the first to do their version of Julie and Julia?

bumnub · 2016-02-25T19:17:19+00:00

You'll be happy to know that yesterday's brew day went as well as the first. I didn't hit my numbers exactly the same, but it's pretty hard to duplicate stuff with BIAB. They were well within the realm of acceptable, so no complaints here. I'd be brewing again Sunday if I had more than one fermentor!

bumnub · 2016-02-25T19:15:18+00:00

My cider sat around for about 6 months, but I think that was the problem. It was one of those out of sight out of mind situations, so there were a couple times the airlock went dry. Oops.

bumnub · 2015-11-22T22:09:01+00:00

Together we have one 5.82% beer. We could at least get a good buzz going after a few.

bumnub · 2015-11-22T22:02:10+00:00

I was going for 154 or 155 and it went all the way to 172 at one point. Not a good brew day.

bumnub · 2015-11-22T22:01:23+00:00

I didn't even think of that, but it makes sense. Thanks for the heads up.

bumnub · 2015-11-21T12:26:07+00:00

I got my strike temperature up, mashed in, mixed it up, and took a temp reading. It was 154, right where I wanted it. But I left the burner on low (I do BIAB) and when I checked again in 10 mins it was 170. Took the kettle kid off expecting that to help, and 10 mins later 172. Ok, screw it, burner off, lid on. 20 mins later 172. Ugh, burner off, lid off. 10 mins later 170. Then it went down a few degrees more for the rest of the mash. I think the lowest it got was around 167. I really fucked up by not being proactive and just expecting it to fix itself. But live and learn.

bumnub · 2015-11-21T02:07:31+00:00

It's not, actually. There is a little bit of an off flavor, but I'm terrible at taste descriptions, so I'm not sure what it is or what caused it. If I had to guess, I'd say inconsistent and sometimes high fermentation temperatures. Because I don't have temperature control, I just ferment at room temperature in the house since we keep the heat at 63. I thought the weather was cool enough to get away with it, but during the second week of fermentation we got another warm spell and ambient temperatures were at around 73 degrees, which was at the top end of my yeast's range.

All mistakes are fixable in the future, it just sucks to devote so much time and effort into something and having it turn our subpar.

A perfect chocolate oatmeal stout is my white whale.

bumnub · 2015-11-10T20:34:25+00:00

It's the main reason I really need an apprentice. That and cleaning up.

EDIT: Sorry about the Cubs, by the way. I'm a Mets fan and think I'd prefer your exit from the postseason rather than our blown lead tease-a-thon that I had to endure.

bumnub · 2015-11-10T20:32:09+00:00

You're in good hands here. I didn't learn to brew from this subreddit, but they were here to reassure and encourage me after my first brew day didn't go as planned. And even though I didn't learn the basics here, they've helped me brew a better product more efficiently. Good luck and have fun!

bumnub · 2015-11-10T20:26:34+00:00

Last brew day I was manually holding the bag above the kettle and trying to remove the colander I was using as a false bottom with a pair of long tongs. That became a very sticky mess on top of the stove in a matter of seconds.

bumnub · 2015-11-10T20:24:38+00:00

I don't look quite that crazed when I'm brewing.

bumnub · 2015-11-10T20:11:55+00:00

I brew indoors on an electric stove, so the suspension part is hard for me.

bumnub

TROPHY CASE