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Kyle Brown

Owner of Clawhammer Supply

How big can you go with a single kettle, "brew in a bag" (BIAB) system? That's what we aimed to find out by brewing this beer. It's a double IPA that calls for a whopping 20 pounds (9.1kg) of grain. The brewing process is a bit different for these types of beers, so if you're using a 10.5 gallon BIAB electric brewing system, pay close attention to the details below.

Brewing Water

We first added 8.6 gallons (32.6 liters) of tap water to our kettle and made some minor water chemistry adjustments. Next we removed about a gallon and a half of water. Some would argue that it's better to make chemistry adjustments based on the specific volume of water you plan to mash with. We weren't sure how much we were going to use so we just adjusted the full volume. It'll be good enough!

Grains

After heating the water to strike temp, we inserted the grain basket in our kettle and added the following grains to the grain basket:

• Pale malt (16lbs 9.6oz) / (7kg 529.6g)
• Cara-Pils (12.8oz) / (362.9g)
• Caramel Malt (12.8oz) / (362.9g)
• Munich Malt (12.8oz) / (362.9g)
• Honey Malt (8oz) / (226.8g)
• White Wheat Malt (8oz) / (226.8g)

Mashing

We mashed at 150F (65.6C) for 60 mins, did a quick mashout at 170F (76.7C) for 10 minutes.

Mashing in

It's important to stir your mash to remove any clumps

After this, we pulled the grain basket and placed it over the kettle using some basket hooks.

We then sparged by pouring the water we took out at the beginning of the brew day through the grains in the suspended grain basket.

Sparging through our suspended grain basket

Our pre-boil gravity was 1.066.

Boiling / Hops

We boiled for 60 minutes and added the following hops, etc:

• Mosaic (2.0 oz) / (56.7g) at 60 minutes (the start of the boil)

First Mosaic hop addition

• Whirlfloc Tablet (1) at 15 minutes (45 minutes into the boil)

Whirlfloc tablets help clarify beer

• Mosaic Hops (3.0 oz) / (85.05g) at flameout (once we turned off the heat)

Fermentation

Transferring chilled wort to a fermenter

We added two packets of Lallemand Bry-97 (we did not make a starter) and planned to let it ferment at 67ish degrees Fahrenheit (19.4C) for 10 days.

Pitching yeast

Aerating after pitching yeast

Actually, we let it sit for 2 months!!! Listen folks, it's summertime. We've been enjoying the nice weather doing a lot of day drinking. This one fell through the cracks.

Additional Benchmarks

Final Gravity: 1.012

ABV: 8.14%

Tasting Notes

Unfortunately, we had to name this one "Mosaic Mistake"

This one isn't hoppy enough. First, it probably needed to be kegged and drank much sooner than it was. Second, it probably needs a dry hop addition. There really isn't any hop aroma to speak of. All in all, it's an OK double IPA, but not our best work. That said, please brew this one and tell us what you think! We'd love to hear about your version of the recipe.

"I called it the Mosaic Mistake because...I forgot about it for two months"