Hole in Bag Cautionary Tale

[el_Palido]

So I was brewing a Maibock for the first time. Mash went fine, hit my OG.
Proceeded to the boil. Now, I was a bit congested that day. About 50 minutes into the boil I notice an off smell. Whatever, I proceeded to finish up and chill through my cfc. The color was darker than expected. So I decided on a taste. YUUCK! Imagine a stale nasty nuclear smoked Rauchbier. Nasty.

Painfully I decided to dump it. My first dump ever.

I noticed later that my bag had a few holes in it. So some hefty amount of grain dust made their way down below my false bottom which I use typically. I have seem a bit of dust buildup every brew day, but nothing like this. I had to scrape for 20 minutes after soaking for an hour to get that crap off. My hoses, pump and cfc all had that NASTY smell. Those took an overnight soak and two subsequent washes to rid them of that smell I will never forget.

Question: Anyone use 2 bags, one inside the other, as a precaution? I did the next day.
Additionally, After my mash within my single kettle, I drained into a bucket. Then, cleaned out any leftover grain dust in the kettle, dumped the wort back into the kettle and carried on with my brew day.

This is what I saw at the bottom of the kettle:

 

[1977Brewer]

Oh wow. That's ugly. I use 2 bags to keep the kettle trub to a minimum, never though about it being a failsafe too.

 

[ong]

Why do you use a false bottom plus the bag? It seems like that may have compounded the problem.

 

[monkeyman1000]

Is your bag made of voile?

 

[el_Palido]

Why do you use a false bottom plus the bag? It seems like that may have compounded the problem.

I agree that is the most likely possibility. Never had any burn issues before. Of course I haven't had this much solid material in the boil before. What I have noticed in the past is that the dust(correct word?) tends to stick to the false bottom (top and bottom) and not end up on the bottom of the kettle.

Is your bag made of voile?

Nylon bag.


How much solid grain material is acceptable in the boil? I'm shooting for none logically! Anyone notice any off flavors due to burned solids?

 

[TexasWine]

The only time I've seen this kind of issue (scorched wort) is with electric set ups.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Did you do a mashout with direct heat and burned holes in the bag?

Polyester voile material is likely a finer weave and better choice for a bag.

In the future, if you are adding heat, STIR constantly.

 

[el_Palido]

Did you do a mashout with direct heat and burned holes in the bag?

Polyester voile material is likely a finer weave and better choice for a bag.

In the future, if you are adding heat, STIR constantly.

I do stir often. As I noted before, the holes must be to blame!
So material wise, poly voile is a stronger material than nylon?
My first nylon bag I punctured my virgin BIAB run on my temp probe. Oops.
That's hasn't been the case since. So I'm guessing the bag just failed with age. (8 batches or so)

 

[ong]

Yeah, I recently fumbled the bag a bit while removing it and got a couple tablespoons of grain in the wort, but they just churned around during the boil and didn't scorch. I suspect keeping them trapped against the kettle bottom might have messed you up.

 

[PhinneyWoodBrews]

I, too, have had a bag rip on the kettle thermometer probe. I've since removed the thermometer and plugged the hole. I monitor mash temps with a thermoworks chef alarm with 12" probe.
Cheers!

 

[m00ps]

I use 2 bags for every brew I do. They come in 2 packs anyway (I use 5 gal paint strainer bags) works like a charm