ghack
Well-Known Member
I just gave a simplified brew-in-a-bag method a go. 5.5# of grain with a standard grind for a 3 gallon batch of steam beer. I used a paint stainer bag and my trusty old 5 gallon canning pot, which was just big enough for this trial.
I heated up the full 4.2 gallons of water necessary, and set a vegetable steamer in the bottom of the pot. I managed to stretch the paint bag completely around the mouth of the pot and mashed in hitting the 155 target temp. As this was done outside (a good 90 degree day) with nothing but a big towel for insulation, so I had to add heat once when it dropped to 153. I gave it a full 60 minuets for the mash.
I heated it up to 168 over about five or ten minuets and held it for about ten, stirring frequently, before pulling the bag out. I let it drain pretty well and dunked back in and let it get saturated and pulled it out gently compacting (but not squeezing) the grains. I set it aside in a pot and jostled the bag around and added back the cup or two of liquid that oozed out.
Okay, pre-boil gravity indicated a 75-76% efficiency. I usually get around 80%+ with the fly sparging I usually do, but from what I've read I was expecting something less than 75%.
Boil was carried out as usual with a lot of whole cascade hops.
Up side was it shaved a good hour or two off the process. Down side was the enormous amount of gunk that passed on to the boil and fermenter. I would consider getting a proper bag and doing it again for some of the small to medium simple infusion mashes without any unusual mashing schedule.
And I had a nice call to my mom during the boil.
I heated up the full 4.2 gallons of water necessary, and set a vegetable steamer in the bottom of the pot. I managed to stretch the paint bag completely around the mouth of the pot and mashed in hitting the 155 target temp. As this was done outside (a good 90 degree day) with nothing but a big towel for insulation, so I had to add heat once when it dropped to 153. I gave it a full 60 minuets for the mash.
I heated it up to 168 over about five or ten minuets and held it for about ten, stirring frequently, before pulling the bag out. I let it drain pretty well and dunked back in and let it get saturated and pulled it out gently compacting (but not squeezing) the grains. I set it aside in a pot and jostled the bag around and added back the cup or two of liquid that oozed out.
Okay, pre-boil gravity indicated a 75-76% efficiency. I usually get around 80%+ with the fly sparging I usually do, but from what I've read I was expecting something less than 75%.
Boil was carried out as usual with a lot of whole cascade hops.
Up side was it shaved a good hour or two off the process. Down side was the enormous amount of gunk that passed on to the boil and fermenter. I would consider getting a proper bag and doing it again for some of the small to medium simple infusion mashes without any unusual mashing schedule.
And I had a nice call to my mom during the boil.
