BBIAB Experiment.

[venquessa]

I'm tempted to try the following to see if it will work....

8 litres of water @ 65*C
Add 1.5Kg of Mavis Otter Crushed in 3 strainer bags (my bags only hold about 500g)
Add 500g of Crystal Malt in a strainer bag
Put the lid on and leave @ around 65*C for 40 minutes.
Remove bags and place in a smaller pot of water (2 litres) at 70*C to sparge
Boil main wort and add hops.
Add the 2 litres back in and boil the hops on schedule.

.... Is this likely to get conversion and make beer?

 

[brewit2it]

It will make beer but you could probably change things to make it more efficient. 25% crystal malt is very high, especially since it doesn't have much fermentables or diastatic power and could give you a overly sweet end product. I'd increase the base grains and decrease the crystal.

Also, to have 4 bags in one pot is a huge hassel since you will have to have them tied or your going to be spilling you grains into your wort. You should definitely find one large bag so you can put all the grains together since you want to be able to stir than to assist in getting better efficiency. Check out a large paint strainer bag or if you have a LHBS they should carry a cheap 24 x24 inch bag.

 

[venquessa]

Larger bag... I think I can find 5 gallon paint strainer bags on ebay.

500g cyrstal was a mistake. I normally use 500g in my standard irish ale recipe that I drink pretty much constantly. But... that's for 5 gallons. So 200g crystal should do for 2 gallons/10 litres.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Get a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from home depot. $5 for 2 bags...

 

[TopherM]

Get a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from home depot. $5 for 2 bags...

Not sure the OP is going to find many Home Depots in the UK, BUT I'm sure that the British do, in fact, use paint strainer bags.

Venquessa, it looks like there are plenty of large paint strainer bags on sale on Amazon UK.

 

[venquessa]

I just got 6 x 5 gallon paint strainer bags for £8.50 ($18 ish).

How long should I (or do I need to) keep the grains in the sparge water?

 

[neosapien]

10-15 minutes should be enough.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Not sure the OP is going to find many Home Depots in the UK, BUT I'm sure that the British do, in fact, use paint strainer bags.

Venquessa, it looks like there are plenty of large paint strainer bags on sale on Amazon UK.

Oops, location doesn't show up on the mobil app, but like you said, they must use them and be available somewhere...

 

[venquessa]

Well as I forgot to order my crystal malts and have to wait till Monday for them. I put a 6 litre batch with 1Kg of Mavis and 15g of Challenger/Williamette on to brew, just to see what it's like. I expect it might be quite boring and bland, but we'll see.

I can try the proper 10 litre recipe during the week.