First BIAB (No Sparge) Cascading Falls

[Stigy]

After brewing 6-7 extract beers I decided I wanted to try my hand at a BIAB recipe and based on a suggestion from a friend I decided to do a very simple almost "SMaSH" recipe with a different hop each time I brew it so that Icould see what each hop does to the same base beer. I am definitely excited to try this, so here is my recipe below and what we have come up with.

Recipe Specs
------------------------
Recipe Size: 2.5 Gallons
Estimated OG: 1.051
Estimated Color: 7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.9 IBU
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Ingredient List
------------------------
4.5lbs 2-Row
4oz CaraPils
4oz Crystal 60L

0.5oz Cascade @60 minutes
0.5oz Cascade @20 minutes
0.5oz Cascade @7 minutes

Safale US-05 Yeast

hopville.com/recipe/1684354


I decided the first go at this concept to do a no-sparge method, so these are my water calculations for my water volume in the pot.

Final Volume: 2.5 Gallons
Evap Rate: +1 Gallon / Hour
Absorption: 0.125 gallons / lb (5 lbs)
Total Water: 4.125 Gallons (16.5 Quarts)

Thank you in advance!

 

[mb82]

Looks good. I have a similar recipe and it is a favorite of my friends.

 

[Stigy]

Looks good. I have a similar recipe and it is a favorite of my friends.

Oh awesome - I'm hoping to brew this tomorrow. Pretty excited.

 

[Stigy]

The hour long mash at 153 starts now!

Here are some pictures I took this morning.

 

[Stigy]

OG measured at 1.043 (missed by .008) -- not horrible. Not sure what caused the miss, but I am curious to see what happens when I brew this again. Anyone know what might cause the OG to be off by that much?

It was a really fun experience though. Everything went really well. Mash temperature stayed put for the hour with the pot wrapped in blankets and mashed out to 168 and let the bag hang there for 5-10 minutes. Tried to squeeze some extra wort out, but the bag and grain was really hot.

Thanks again to everyone for all their help and wisdom with this brew! It was a blast and I am definitely going to do all grain going forward unless I am feeling lazy, hah.

 

[whiskeyjack]

Couple things I could suggest next batch (if they weren't done this time)

1. Fine crush, double milled
2. Stir your mash every 15 minutes or so, one thing I do to maintain heat is put the pot in my oven that was warmed to 170, then let cool a few minutes (the oven) and turn it back on if it needs, it has a thermometer on the inside I check to make sure it keeps temp
3. Squeeze your bag fairly well and let it drip into another vessel to get as much sugar out as possible

Don't know if any of these will help but good luck next round

 

[Stigy]

Couple things I could suggest next batch (if they weren't done this time)

1. Fine crush, double milled
2. Stir your mash every 15 minutes or so, one thing I do to maintain heat is put the pot in my oven that was warmed to 170, then let cool a few minutes (the oven) and turn it back on if it needs, it has a thermometer on the inside I check to make sure it keeps temp
3. Squeeze your bag fairly well and let it drip into another vessel to get as much sugar out as possible

Don't know if any of these will help but good luck next round

Thanks for the quick response!

1. Will make sure to be double milled next time.

2. I stirred the mash every 15 minutes when I checked the temperature. It stayed at 153 for the entire hour (left it covered and wrapped in two towels to prevent as much heat loss as possible).

3. Is there a good way to squeeze the bag without burning yourself? After the mash out the bag was pretty hot and when I tried to squeeze it, the wort that came out was pretty high temp. Also you mention squeezing into another vessel - is there a reason you don't squeeze back into the main pot?

Thanks again!

 

[sherma]

Agree on the fine crush. If you are not going to sparge, it needs to be really milled down. Almost to powder, maybe.

 

[Stigy]

Agree on the fine crush. If you are not going to sparge, it needs to be really milled down. Almost to powder, maybe.

So the sparge process will pull more of those sugars out of the grain and get me back up to my target OG?

If so I should probably just read up on the sparge process and then figure out how much water I need for mash vs sparge.

I think I will do that this week.

 

[dhoyt714]

How hot did you heat the water to make sure it was 168 during mahout?

 

[zacster]

Thanks for the quick response!


3. Is there a good way to squeeze the bag without burning yourself? After the mash out the bag was pretty hot and when I tried to squeeze it, the wort that came out was pretty high temp. Also you mention squeezing into another vessel - is there a reason you don't squeeze back into the main pot?

Thanks again!

Use kitchen gloves. I don't find the 168 intolerable myself bare handed as long as I don't have my hands directly in the liquid. I use another vessel so I can squeeze against the bottom.

 

[Stigy]

Checked the beer this morning - definitely some nice action, but I noticed the temp has gone up to 74° eek!

I put some icepacks around it before I went to work, hoping to drop the temperature down some in that closet as well, but no fan to turn on. When I get home I am going to try to surround it in ice cold water bottles (frozen) to see if I can get the temperature down to mid-60s. I guess the fermentation heated up the wort a bit more than I was expecting.

Hopefully it doesn't get too bad - I really want to taste this one. But I shall relax for now.

Use kitchen gloves. I don't find the 168 intolerable myself bare handed as long as I don't have my hands directly in the liquid. I use another vessel so I can squeeze against the bottom.

Makes sense - someone else also recommended putting the bag in a strainer / colander on top of the pot and squeezing (or sparging in the future) that way.

 

[brewbobaggins]

Been doing BIAB for a few years. Here's my process to avoid getting burner, but to also get a very efficient mash:

For mash, fill up kettle with full boil volume. After mash, put grains in a large colander w/in a large bowl (or bucket) and strain grains (usually with potato masher). Begun raising temp of kettle to boil while doing this. Empty runnings back into brew kettle. Repeat 5-6 times, or until bag is more or less dry. Then fill kettle back up to desired boil volume (w/ tap water) to replace lost and evaporated water.

Have gotten above 80% efficiency consistently with this method--along with double milling. No astringent taste either.

Good luck and happy brewing...in a bag!

 

[whiskeyjack]

You can do like baggins said and put them on a colander and press on them with a plate. What I do is have them strung up on a ladder and squish with two plates while letting them drip in the pot

 

[brewbobaggins]

you can do like baggins said and put them on a colander and press on them with a plate. What i do is have them strung up on a ladder and squish with two plates while letting them drip in the pot

+1

 

[Stigy]

Beer is down to 68° as of last night - now in the mid range of the yeast. Would like to get it down to 64 or 66, but don't want too much temperature fluctuation.

Thanks for all your great suggestions!

 

[Stigy]

Bottled this yesterday. Got a 3L bottle (for my Tap A Draft), and 14 12oz bottles.

FG came in at 1.006 which is much lower than expected but I need to check my hydrometer to see what it's at in water to confirm calibration.

Sample tasted delicious too. Gonna be a long 4 weeks now.

 

[Stigy]

Here she is in all her glory and its amazing. Honestly its exactly what I hoped it would be -- a nice pale ale with a finish of citrus / grapefruit from the Cascade hops. I am really excited to tap the 3L bottle in a few days and have this beer "on tap" with the tap-a-draft head.

Thanks again to everyone for all their help and suggestions!

 

[isleofman]

Too bad you have to drink it through a straw with that helmet on...