Hoppy Wheat overnight mash BIAB

Time for the 4th solo batch of my homebrewing career... in an effort to split the brew day up for time management purposes (SWMBO), I will be doing a BIAB overnight mash on this batch.

I have a 7.5 gal kettle that I'll be using for the primary vessel and will sparge into a 4 gal kettle to get to a boil volume of 6.5 gal.

How does my recipe look thus far (loosely based on Lil sumpin')?

6 lb White Wheat
5 lb 2-row
1 lb Caramel/crystal 40L


OG = 1.060
FG = 1.009
ABV = ~6.7%
Est IBU = 50ish


.5 oz Columbus @ 60 mins - 15% AA = 26 ibu
1 oz Centennial @ 30 mins - 9% AA = 24 ibu
.5 oz Columbus flame-out addition
.5 oz Centennial flame-out addition
.5 oz Cascade flame-out addition
1 packet rehydrated Nottingham pitch @ 62°
1 oz Citra dry hop - 5 days
1 oz Mosaic dry hop - 5 days
.5 oz Simcoe dry hop - 5 days

Re: Mashing
15 qt strike water @ 169°

Mash @ 152° for at least 1 hr, leave covered overnight

Dunk Sparge/pour over sparge @ 120° to volume

UPDATE: This a fruit-BOMB, ever-so-slightly piney, slightly sweet quaffer.

This thread will serve as my journal for this brew, thanks for any and all input.

***Page 7 contains final tasting/brew notes https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/hoppy-wheat-overnight-mash-biab-515150/index7.html ***

I haven't brewed with that much wheat before but I think rice hulls would be a god idea.

I plan on doing overnight mashes as well so will be watching this thread for advice/results.

Damoxemus said:

I haven't brewed with that much wheat before but I think rice hulls would be a god idea.

I plan on doing overnight mashes as well so will be watching this thread for advice/results.

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Well... this is going to be BIAB so I don't have to worry about a stuck sparge.

Wow that's almost a half pound of hops in a 5 gallon (?) batch! You're a true hop head

aprichman said:

Wow that's almost a half pound of hops in a 5 gallon (?) batch! You're a true hop head

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Most of it it comes in at whirlpool/flameout... I think the thought behind this is to assault the smell-receptors with a massive hop aroma to impart a perceived flavor with minimal bitterness and let the malt shine through at the end of the drink.

I've hop-bursted with 3 oz before and found the results very pleasing, but the beer was a bit dry, so it came off cider-y. I think this'll be a good balance.

Like I said, it's loosely based on Lagunitas Lil' Sumpin Sumpin, and their hop timing looks similar.

Well it just so happens that I have tried this, not intentionally. We had a brewday interrupted by a medical emergency once. Made some of the best wheat beer ever.

Wheat can get pretty gummy when it sits overnight. So rice hulls are a good idea. I would do a hybrid sparge. I would batch (dunk)sparge, and then vorloff the heck out of it. Sugars are poly-scopic by nature, they will adhere to anything that they can. So, for the sparge I would (batch) then use part of the 2nd runnings almost like a fly sparge to try to drive those gelatin-ized sugars down into solution.

Also there is a risk of souring. There is plenty of lacto bacillus on the 2 row. Conditions will be near perfect for it to kick into action. If your sparge is hot enough, the risk is minimal. You may find some pelicle in the morning. NBD, use a slotted spoon and remove. again risk is small, and if it happens... who cares. A little twang would be awesome in that recipe.

lazarwolf said:

Well it just so happens that I have tried this, not intentionally. We had a brewday interrupted by a medical emergency once. Made some of the best wheat beer ever.

Wheat can get pretty gummy when it sits overnight. So rice hulls are a good idea. I would do a hybrid sparge. I would batch (dunk)sparge, and then vorloff the heck out of it. Sugars are poly-scopic by nature, they will adhere to anything that they can. So, for the sparge I would (batch) then use part of the 2nd runnings almost like a fly sparge to try to drive those gelatin-ized sugars down into solution.

Also there is a risk of souring. There is plenty of lacto bacillus on the 2 row. Conditions will be near perfect for it to kick into action. If your sparge is hot enough, the risk is minimal. You may find some pelicle in the morning. NBD, use a slotted spoon and remove. again risk is small, and if it happens... who cares. A little twang would be awesome in that recipe.

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Hey, thanks for the input.

So... what's the quantity of rice hulls I should be adding?

I won't be sparging the same night (if I can help it...). The idea is to split this up into manageable little chunks of an AG brew day.

From what I've heard, the risk of souring is minimal, but if it drops under 130°, then it could be an issue. However, if I'm only 8-9 hrs from boiling, is that enough time for that stuff to get started?

I agree with you that a little tart/twang wouldn't be bad at all, but would prefer to keep it out if at all possible. My personal tastes don't exactly match up with my buddy's.

id say around a pound. re circulate like crazy in the morning. one question, wouldnt it be easier to just get up 2 hours earlier?

Psylocide said:

Well... this is going to be BIAB so I don't have to worry about a stuck sparge.

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Yeah, musta missed that part. Carry on then!

lazarwolf said:

id say around a pound. re circulate like crazy in the morning. one question, wouldnt it be easier to just get up 2 hours earlier?

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It may. But I have to try it, 'because it's there' sort of thing.

Ok... I'm already liking AG more than extract, solely based on price difference at this point.

Got most of the ingredients (besides dry hop sched) for $40 even. I'll have enough grain for 2 shots at this recipe.





However, I'm already off to a rocky start... cleaned my BK in the bathtub and when I took it out there was soot all over the floor of the tub. Wife is going to freak out, but I'll get it cleaned up.

Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Psylocide said:

However, I'm already off to a rocky start... cleaned my BK in the bathtub and when I took it out there was soot all over the floor of the tub. Wife is going to freak out, but I'll get it cleaned up.

Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

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Soot? Are you sure it is not just some metal color transfer onto the tub porcelain? Either way some Bar Keepers Friend should clean it right up.

Good luck and have fun.

fuzzy2133 said:

Soot? Are you sure it is not just some metal color transfer onto the tub porcelain? Either way some Bar Keepers Friend should clean it right up.

Good luck and have fun.

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Yeah, def soot from my propane burner. I had a boilover once and that crap is still burning off... nice black soot on the bottom of the kettle.

But yes, I'll get it out.

I really wish I had a Go-Pro right now, because this is going to be a funny brew day. I'd love to document it for noobs (like myself) who are intimidated by the process.

Who wants to watch me crush 12 lbs of grain in a blender? Sounds like a great time.

Grain crushing the right way. When you don't have a mill. And, totally the wrong way. It was a slog.






Heating strike water.

Mashed in... 1.25:1, 152°. Actually hit mash temp pretty dead on, had to heat it slightly but the paint strainer bags kept it off the bottom. Quick blast on high while stirring and i was there.

What an experience... stirred the crap out of it for 5 min. Secured it for the night and I'm pretty excited to see what i find in the morning.










4 towels later...

Oh man... dunk sparging and vorlaufing is not a one man job with 2 smallish vessels. So I got no pictures.

Heated sparge water to 120°, just because... and dunked into separate kettle. Squeezed like my life depended on it and got pretty darn good efficiency I would say. Poured wort over grain bed several times. No pellicle in the morning, just nice, sweet tasting wort.

Corrected for temp (if it can be trusted), pre-boil gravity should be right around 1.058! Crazy... I'll check the reading again in a few hours.

awesome. I remember when I did my overnight unintentional mash, when I got home I just kinda went for it. i took no readings or anything. You may be onto something here. Not sure Im brave enough to try it with a wheat again. But I may give this a go.

Awesome Psylocide I thought you would find your mash went a little sour over night.

fuzzy2133 said:

Awesome Psylocide I thought you would find your mash went a little sour over night.

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I thought I might too... but it sat for 10 hrs and only dropped 22° in that time period, never went below 130°.

On a slightly less positive note, I didn't calculate boil off rate correctly, so my post-boil OG ended up @ 1.060. A few points off, but I'm not going to sweat it.

Rehydrated Notty took off at 8 hrs, and has a nice little krausen at 31 hrs.

Fermenting away at 64°.

Krausen peaked at about 6:00 last night, temp creeped up to 67°, so I wrapped a wet towel around it and dropped it back down to 64° overnight.

As of this morning, the krausen has almost fully receded and airlock activity has decreased significantly. I'll check it in ~10 days and dry hop.

I've changed the dry hop schedule after I thought about it for awhile. Here is the updated recipe. How's it look? Want a juicy/fruity fresh flavor/aroma with a tad bit of pine.

6 lb White Wheat
5 lb 2-row
1 lb Caramel/crystal 40L

OG - 1.060
Est IBU = 50ish

.5 oz Columbus @ 60 mins - 15% AA = 26 ibu
1 oz Centennial @ 30 mins - 9% AA = 24 ibu
.5 oz Columbus flame-out addition
.5 oz Centennial flame-out addition
.5 oz Cascade flame-out addition
1 packet rehydrated Nottingham pitch @ 62°
1 oz Citra dry hop - 5 days
1 oz Mosaic dry hop - 5 days
.5 oz Simcoe dry hop - 5 days

EDIT: I'm going to back off the Citra to a 1 oz for dry hopping, I know those are pretty potent and I don't want to overdo it and have it come off cider-y if it is dryish. I'll be checking the Hydro sample before I dry hop so this plan may change again.

Psylocide...I'm definitely interested in hearing how this turns out when all is said and done. My little lady isn't thrilled with how long my brewday takes (I'm a BIABer, too), so lopping off a chunk of time by doing an overnight mash might go a long way to keeping her on the good side!

Brew_G said:

Psylocide...I'm definitely interested in hearing how this turns out when all is said and done. My little lady isn't thrilled with how long my brewday takes (I'm a BIABer, too), so lopping off a chunk of time by doing an overnight mash might go a long way to keeping her on the good side!

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Happy to share, I've seen a lot of threads on the subject and heard from quite a few people that it's definitely a method that works, but haven't seen a journal-style thread like this. I think I'm proving that it most-probably works just fine, but the brew has a way to go.

If I were to do it again, I would just go ahead a crush grains a few days ahead of time (carve out an hour somewhere). Then on mash night, just heat the water, stir the grains in really good, insulate and go on with your night.

My wife already appreciates this method, because I was done boiling by 9 am and it was the first brew day where I wasn't annihilated by the time I was done.

Psylocide said:

Happy to share, I've seen a lot of threads on the subject and heard from quite a few people that it's definitely a method that works, but haven't seen a journal-style thread like this. I think I'm proving that it most-probably works just fine, but the brew has a way to go.

If I were to do it again, I would just go ahead a crush grains a few days ahead of time (carve out an hour somewhere). Then on mash night, just heat the water, stir the grains in really good, insulate and go on with your night.

My wife already appreciates this method, because I was done boiling by 9 am and it was the first brew day where I wasn't annihilated by the time I was done.

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I'm with you on getting the boiling done early. I brew indoors, and given my various responsibilities on weekend mornings (between young daughter and dog...not to mention my wife), I usually don't finish my boil until at least 11:00. Add that to using an ice bath for chilling, and it's a good 5-6 hour slog - from heating strike water to finishing up cleaning. I don't mind it, but it's not all about me, is it? :cross:

Brew_G said:

I'm with you on getting the boiling done early. I brew indoors, and given my various responsibilities on weekend mornings (between young daughter and dog...not to mention my wife), I usually don't finish my boil until at least 11:00. Add that to using an ice bath for chilling, and it's a good 5-6 hour slog - from heating strike water to finishing up cleaning. I don't mind it, but it's not all about me, is it? :cross:

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Same situation (except I boil outside), my daughter is 2 yrs old on 3/11 (Yes, we will play 311 at her parties until she's out of the house). I have a 4 yr old Border Collie that needs at least an hour walk/day, and a wife (ugh... haha).

I did a no-chill on this one. Sat it outside @ ~35° for about six hours, cleaned everything up right after the boil. Transferred to fermenter, waited another couple of hours to get down to 62° and pitched that night. All cleanup was done.

The idea is cutting the brew day down into manageable chunks of time that don't interfere with my normal duties as awesome-dad/super-husband.

Not buying it. That sample was definitely taken from your cup of morning orange juice.

Psylocide said:

Same situation (except I boil outside), my daughter is 2 yrs old on 3/11 (Yes, we will play 311 at her parties until she's out of the house). I have a 4 yr old Border Collie that needs at least an hour walk/day, and a wife (ugh... haha).

I did a no-chill on this one. Sat it outside @ ~35° for about six hours, cleaned everything up right after the boil. Transferred to fermenter, waited another couple of hours to get down to 62° and pitched that night. All cleanup was done.

The idea is cutting the brew day down into manageable chunks of time that don't interfere with my normal duties as awesome-dad/super-husband.

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Hah! Mine turned 2 at the beginning of January and we have an active pit mix who'll be 7 (or so) in a few months. I hear ya!

I BIAB so depending on what is cooking for dinner I'll mash in as we cook or right after eating, clean up dinner, put kids to bed then start the boil. Only need a few moments to check the temp and make adjustments to keep it in range for 60-75min then I don't care if the mash looses temp before the boil. Just need to pause at mash out to help the wort flow out of the bag.

Got some cold weather here and since initial fermentation was complete, i went ahead and moved the fermenter off the cement floor. Temp was at 62°... I'll gain 3°- 5° by moving it.

Everything looks good though. Lots of yeast rafts in this brew, not sure if that is specific to AG or if I just haven't experienced it. Definitely the grossest looking brew pre-dry hop that I've done...which probably means it will be delicious.

How big was the hot break?

lazarwolf said:

How big was the hot break?

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Great hot break... didn't measure how large it was. Lol.

Definitely had to be right there with the spray bottle of san when it started. Probably sprayed around 40 times in quick succession to thwart the boilover.

That would explain your yeast rafts. You got great extraction and pulled extra protein. Nbd should all settle out.

lazarwolf said:

That would explain your yeast rafts. You got great extraction and pulled extra protein. Nbd should all settle out.

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Yeah, wasn't worried about it... just an observation. Seems like quite a bit did drop out overnight though. Got my temp back up to 64°… smooth sailing.

xghxft said:

I haven't brewed with that much wheat before but I think rice hulls would be a god idea.

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No, **** you spamming ****.

xghxft said:

I haven't brewed with that much wheat before but I think rice hulls would be a god idea.

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That's the beauty of BIAB. With the mash contained in bag, that entire bag becomes the filter bed and no rice hulls are necessary. If the wort doesn't want to drain out on its own, you squeeze the bag until it does.

RM-MN said:

That's the beauty of BIAB. With the mash contained in bag, that entire bag becomes the filter bed and no rice hulls are necessary. If the wort doesn't want to drain out on its own, you squeeze the bag until it does.

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Thanks for the response, but that's a spammer... this dude originally posted it, typo and all.

Damoxemus said:

I haven't brewed with that much wheat before but I think rice hulls would be a god idea.

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He/she/it's been reported.

No rice hulls were harmed in the making of this brew.

man, this is gonna be an epic wheat... that looks awesome. single fermentation or are you breaking it up?

lazarwolf said:

man, this is gonna be an epic wheat... that looks awesome. single fermentation or are you breaking it up?

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Yeah I hope it turns out somewhat like I'm expecting.

I'll just be doing primary on this... I'll dry hop, cold crash and keg.

So a hoppy wheat beer. Cool. 80 acre by Boulevard is one of my favorites.

lazarwolf said:

So a hoppy wheat beer. Cool. 80 acre by Boulevard is one of my favorites.

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That's the plan... I've never really been a huge fan of wheat beers myself, but I do enjoy some farmhouse ales and the like.

However, I love Lagunitas Lil' Sumpin' Sumpin', and this recipe is loosely inspired by that.

This is a beer for a friend's party in June, but this is my first shot at it. I'll tweak it some and brew it again depending on how it turns out. Or, I'll just brew it as is if it turns out great.

Really going for the big fruity/slightly piney flavor/aroma on this, but beings that I did almost no hop flavoring additions in the boil, I'm relying on a big punch from the aroma to add some perceived flavor.

This is the first experimental batch that I'm feeling really confident about, so we'll see.

You can adjust bitterness anytime before kegging or bottling. if it is out of balance just make a hop tea. Woodlandbrew has some great articles on this topic. Unless one of my batches is infected, or just terrible. I always try to save them with adjustments. Hop tea, grain tea, etc. I've even taken a less than stellar batch and added a 2ndary sour fermentation to it, and created an award winner.... Never let a batch go down in flames! Thats my philosophy.