Mishap. I am OK, right?

[Alphadawg]

I was making a BIAB Blue Moon clone (for my wife) and realized i did not have a muslin bag for the grains. I just put them in the pot with some 170 degree water, thinking they would soak and I could just drain the water. Well, I made oatmeal instead. We took the soaked grains and put them in a collander, it took about 6 portions of grains as the collander was small. We then poured hot water over the grains and kept the wort. It looked OK. I added some extra Wheat LME to get the SG to 1.050 like the recipe called for. Its all good, right?

What should I have done , other than waited until the brew store was open?

 

[Rob2010SS]

170*F degree strike water seems a bit high for a blue moon clone. How many pounds of grain did you have and how much water was there?

In all honestly, you'll probably be ok...? The step you missed was really the BIAB bag and that kind of acts as a filter. I'm guessing your wort was super cloudy? Not sure if there are any downsides to that but I imagine you'll still have beer when it's done.

In the future, as you said, I'd probably have waited until the store was open...

 

[Alphadawg]

It was about 2 lbs of mixed grains. Started with 2.5 gallons of water (for a 2.5 gallon batch). All of that was soaked up by the grains. We kept pouring water over the grains until we had 2.5 gallons again. The wort was cloudy but I also know that is the nature of that type of beer. I expect most of it will drop out during fermentation and/or cold crashing

 

[3 Dawg Night]

We took the soaked grains and put them in a collander, it took about 6 portions of grains as the collander was small. We then poured hot water over the grains and kept the wort.

This is exactly how I did my first few 1-gallon batches before I scaled up. Worked like a champ.

 

[marc1]

What was your mix of grains? 2 lbs in 2.5 gallons is a really thin mash and should not have made paste.
Did you grind the grains?
That's also not much grain for the volume of planned beer - what OG did the recipe say?
Maybe you could post where you got the recipe from and the exact ingredients/ directions that it gives? Something doesn't seem right.
If it's going to be your first BIAB, next brew make sure that your bag is as big as your pot. You don't want constricted grains.

 

[Rob2010SS]

What was your mix of grains? 2 lbs in 2.5 gallons is a really thin mash and should not have made paste.
Did you grind the grains?
That's also not much grain for the volume of planned beer - what OG did the recipe say?
Maybe you could post where you got the recipe from and the exact ingredients/ directions that it gives? Something doesn't seem right.
If it's going to be your first BIAB, next brew make sure that your bag is as big as your pot. You don't want constricted grains.

That's exactly what I thought. Grain absorbtion est. at .15gal/lb should have only been .3 gallons absorbed by the grains. This was 5qts/lb of grain, should have been very thin...

 

[Alphadawg]

This was a partial extract recipe for 2.5 gallons. Grains were 2 lbs Flaked Wheat • .50 lb Pilsner Malt • .50 lb Flaked Oats • 2 oz Light Munich Malt . Maybe the oats absorb more water than the other grains we usually use?

Also added 1 lb Wheat DME • 1.65 lb Wheat LME (I added more LME to get the OG up to 1.050)

 

[marc1]

This was a partial extract recipe for 2.5 gallons. Grains were 2 lbs Flaked Wheat • .50 lb Pilsner Malt • .50 lb Flaked Oats • 2 oz Light Munich Malt . Maybe the oats absorb more water than the other grains we usually use?

Also added 1 lb Wheat DME • 1.65 lb Wheat LME (I added more LME to get the OG up to 1.050)

OK, so this is a partial mash recipe. When you refer to it as BIAB it makes it sound like an all grain.

Was this your first beer?

That seems really light on grains that can convert starch into sugar. The mash temp also seems like its too high. I doubt you had good conversion, so low gravity makes sense.

Where was the recipe from? It doesn't seem great.

Maybe we can troubleshoot this batch for improvement next time.

 

[Alphadawg]

Not my first beer. Followed directions from Homebrew Supply. Keep in mind, I was only making 2.5 gallons. The SG was 1.050 - that does not seem low to me. I expect FG to be 1.010 with a 5.4% alcohol.

Tips for a better beer are appreciated

 

[marc1]

Not my first beer. Followed directions from Homebrew Supply. Keep in mind, I was only making 2.5 gallons. The SG was 1.050 - that does not seem low to me. I expect FG to be 1.010 with a 5.4% alcohol.

Tips for a better beer are appreciated

In your original post you said you had to add extra extract to get to the expected 1.050.
This article explains diastatic power pretty well.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/diastatic-power-and-mashing-your-beer/It should probably have more malted grains to convert all the flaked. Maybe equal amounts to be sure?
Add your grains to somewhat cooler water. You want the temp to end up at ~148-158 so water around 160ish? You'll probably lose temperature over the course of the mash so you can start on the higher end. If you're using a bag you want a big one that doesn't constrict the grains. Whole pot size so that they can float around freely. You'll also want the grains crushed well, with a good bag you can crush finer than if you were using a traditional mash lauter tun.
For small grain bills you can just carefully pull the bag out and drain it. For larger ones a pulley makes things much easier. If you need more liquid, you can put the bag in another pot and rinse there to get it easily. No need to heat the sparge water unless you want to.