My crock pot micro brew test, using fresh whole cone hops!

[RMS]

My first BIAB attempt as well as using my home grown hops that I picked about two weeks ago (hallertau and tettnang). I am currently mashing as I am posting this. My 3 quart slow cooker is doing the 1.5 hour mash and only has the volume to do about 0.6-0.7 gallon batch max, so for a 1 gallon batch you may need a slow cooker in a 7 quart size.

So at the last minute I decided to use the crock pot to do the mash; I heated up the water first to 160 degrees, then poured that into the slow cooker and set the dial to low. After the dough in I had to place the dial on high and cover with a towel for 15 minutes to get the temp back up then put the dial back to the low setting. Once back up to 160 degrees I put the stove timer for 1 hr. But after 30 minutes the temp was at about 168, so I had to pull out the ceramic bowl and stir then I placed the dial on keep warm. It has 3 temp settings thankfully because I had to use them all.

My test recipe is .6 gallon final volume:
0.8 lbs. (12.8 oz) of 2 Row
0.1 lbs (1.6 oz) of Vienna
0.06 lbs (1.0 oz) of Cara-Pils
0.06 lbs (1.0 oz) of Cara-Red
0.06 lbs (1.0 oz) of Crystal-20

*added 5.2 cups extra water for grain absorption, boil off and hop cone absorption.
* edit: In addition I used 1 cup of 170 degree for a sparge

0.2 oz hallertau & tettnang 60 min boil (0.1 oz of each 50/50)
0.2 oz hallertau & tettnang 15 min boil (0.1 oz of each 50/50)
0.2 oz Irish Moss 15 min boil (not used)

2.0 grams of yeast (used 3.0 grams)
0.625 oz (17.7g) corn sugar for prime w/ 2 oz of boiled water
* days to ferment 3 - 5 days? (not sure yet)

I bought two packages Nottingham and Safale s-04 not sure what one to use yet.
*used Nottingham
The picture seen represents the actual amounts as listed in this recipe.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I'll be doing a very similar brew day in about a week and a half.

Only question I have is, what temp were you attempting to mash at? Did you test the og? It would seem your temp fluctuation and high temp (160-168 mash temp?? ) might be denatured the beta and alpha enzymes pretty quickly. Even if you got conversion, you might end up with an unusually high fg.

 

[TimBrewz]

Looks like a fun side project... brewing one growler at a time So you mashed at 160? Looks like a pale ale recipe? I use my crock pot for immersion cooking and hooked up a PID temp controller to it, I had not thought of using it as a micro mash tun.

 

[RMS]

Its a converted recipe from a Boston Larger clone, but I can't do a larger yet so I am just experimenting.

Yeah I hope that high temp did not ruin anything, I did not do any gravity readings so the final test will be when Its ready to drink.

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

Very interesting. Wife got a new crock pot two weeks ago and then I proclaimed crock pot only meals for two weeks, to which we've gotten very creative, including crock pot banana bread.

HOWEVER - this is taking it to a whole 'nother level. Nice post!

My recommendation is to use the Nottingham.

 

[RMS]

Very interesting. Wife got a new crock pot two weeks ago and then I proclaimed crock pot only meals for two weeks, to which we've gotten very creative, including crock pot banana bread.

HOWEVER - this is taking it to a whole 'nother level. Nice post!

My recommendation is to use the Nottingham.

Nottingham it is!

I found a cool spot in my cellar that is about 66 degrees right now at floor level so that should be good.

Thanks.

 

[RMS]

I'll be doing a very similar brew day in about a week and a half.

Only question I have is, what temp were you attempting to mash at? Did you test the og? It would seem your temp fluctuation and high temp (160-168 mash temp?? ) might be denatured the beta and alpha enzymes pretty quickly. Even if you got conversion, you might end up with an unusually high fg.

158 degrees and I did end up pitching more yeast and maybe I let this one sit longer fermenting due to this outcome.

Good luck with your brew, hope I see your thread on that here!

 

[RMS]

Just did my first taste test on one beer and its still a week premature but I could not resist. My first impressions are:

Color is a light amber
No head (sadly; but surprisingly a good beer)
A little lace not much
Skunk aroma kinda like an old time Heineken (as far as I can remember)
Smooth with a nice after taste not too tart not too sweet
Very good balance between the hops and malt

My best brew to date; but also my first all grain BIAB.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I'll be posting a more thorough write up on monday, but I've done 5 pico brew so far. 0.75-1.5G batches. The .75 batches have all been mashed in the slow cooker, working great so far.

I set it to low, and it maintains mash temps perfectly. .5 degree loss over an hour. The biggest complication right now is sparging and draining the grain bag again, it's rather awkward. I'll figure something out eventually though.

 

[RMS]

I'll be posting a more thorough write up on monday, but I've done 5 pico brew so far. 0.75-1.5G batches. The .75 batches have all been mashed in the slow cooker, working great so far.

I set it to low, and it maintains mash temps perfectly. .5 degree loss over an hour. The biggest complication right now is sparging and draining the grain bag again, it's rather awkward. I'll figure something out eventually though.

I have done this two ways, one is putting all my grains and hops in cotton muslin bags in the mash, (other times I mash the grains first then filter into the muslin bag) then after the mash I place this bag on a flat 12" stainless steel type strainer over my boil pot and slowly pour 170 degree sparge water over it.

Today I did my first lager with this technique and it is outside now on its first day at 60 degrees using Saflager W-34/70.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I have done this two ways, one is putting all my grains and hops in cotton muslin bags in the mash, (other times I mash the grains first then filter into the muslin bag) then after the mash I place this bag on a flat 12" stainless steel type strainer over my boil pot and slowly pour 170 degree sparge water over it.

Today I did my first lager with this technique and it is outside now on its first day at 60 degrees using Saflager W-34/70.

I might do it that way next time, as the grain bag I have is vastly larger than my current brew kettle/mashtun/slowcooker. @wilserbrewer made it for my 9 gal pot, currently in storage.

Just mash, no grain bag, then pour into bag which is placed in brew kettle to filter, then pull grain bag and suspend over kettle using @wilserbrewer pulley from the "grand slam" package (FINALLY OPENED IT TODAY! over a year later?) Once bag draining has slowed, I'll do a dunk sparge back in the slow cooker and whisk the crap out of it to make sure I get all the precious sugars and wort homogenized.