How to make a ridiculous Imperial IPA... Part 1 the pitfalls

Ok, here it is, the series you have all been waiting for.  The big one.   How to make a ridiculous double India Pale Ale.   This is the first in a 3 part series on this topic.  Part 1; the pitfalls, Part 2 Hop Oils and how to use them, Part 3 The Counterbrew dIPA recipe "Hoptonite".  I wont bore you with too much information and history about dIPAs.   But give me just a little leeway.   Until 1974 American beer was bland.  Bland, bad, yellow, fizzy lager. And not even great lager.  Then Fritz Maytag of Anchor brewing said, enough.  He came out with an English style pale ale hopped with Cascade hops, called Liberty Ale.   Liberty Ale was off the charts hoppy, clocking in at a reported 31 - 35 IBUs.  In a world where most beers were 12 to 16 IBUs, this was a game changer.  Fritz was soon followed by Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and his gift to the world, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Vinnie Cilurzo the father of dIPA
and probably still the best brewer of the style!

But the world really changed in 1994 when a young brewer at a winery named Vinny Cilurzo came out with a high alcohol, high IBU beer called... Pliny the Elder right?  Wrong.... Blind Pig actually came first and is widely considered the first double IPA.   He took his IPA,  doubled the hops, increased the malt bill by 30%, and kept dry hopping  for a year while storing on oak chips.   And the revolution that was preserved by Anchor, Minhas, and Frankenmuth, and fueled by Boulevard, Sierra Nevada, Stone, and others got the turbo charge it needed.  The Double India Pale Ale, or Imperial IPA.

So, double India Pale Ales are a bit of a misnomer.  They are an American invention.  They are incredibly hoppy.   Believe it or not they are easy to make taste decent.  But really hard to make taste incredible.  This is why they are so very popular with home brewers.   Even if you don't absolutely nail it, it will still be pretty damned good.

But today, for this day only,  we here at Counterbrew will break open the secrets of making a great double India Pale Ale.   We will explore the pitfalls, we will explain techniques, and we will give some good guidelines to follow when making a dIPA.  At the end of the series we'll make a great dIPA and post all about it.

First the pitfalls.

many, many aftershool hours were wasted playing this
iconic game. Good Ol Atari, and Activision!

Guys get excited when they are making a dIPA, and really why shouldn't they?  A good dIPA is something we all long for.  The ability to create one gives a brewer great satisfaction, and pride. Sharing it with other brewers gets a brewer respect and a bit of brew geek glory.   But there are potential pitfalls to avoid when making a dIPA.  Today we focus on the pitfalls.

1. Over complicated grist! -  Remember it is just a beer. You do not need 14 types of grain.  You do not need organic Himalayan spelt, malted by monks in a temple.   Keep your grain bill simple.  We here at Counterbrew (mostly me and John) have examined winning dIPA recipes from all over the internet.   Most winning recipes we have examined have no more than 4 grains.   Almost always those grains include pale ale malt and dexterine malt.  Often they include a crystal grain 20 to 40.  It is the attention you pay to the mash, and your skill as a brewer that will determine your mash quality, not some freaky ingredient.  
2. Over complicated hop bill -  dIPAs tend too get muddled when you use to many hops, or you combine your hops carelessly, or you do not have a good schedule for adding your hops.   Muddled is a term that means... the hop flavor is there, but it is not definable, it's all mixed together.  The individual flavors offered by the hops can not be identified.  They have just kind of mixed together into a big conglomeration of hoppy goodness.   Still delicious.   But not at all what you want from a world class dIPA. That muddled taste can be what you want sometimes, especially in a pale ale, but not in a ridiculous dIPA.  
1. A good rule of thumb is 1 flavor or aroma hop at a time, separated by 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Over pitching yeast - yes over pitching yeast.   There has been so much focus in recent years on proper pitch rate.  Some of you missed the point.  Proper pitch rate, not ridiculous over pitch.  I recently fielded a question from a guy who put a 1 gallon starter in a 5 gallon batch of 1.050 beer.   He wondered why it didn't attenuate... duh!  Because it didn't need to attenuate.   The colony was already at its desired healthy population level.  Yeast only "eats" sugar to have energy to reproduce and colonize.  The population was already at its maximum density.    Remember yeast only "wants" to survive.  When the colony is healthy and full it is genetically coded to move into a "maintenance" cycle.    (Not exactly how it works, but a useful way to view things)
1. Use a trusted calculator and stick with what it says.  I like homebrewdad/brewunited yeast and starter calculator.   I also like the pitch rate calculator on Brewtoad.  It never lets me down.   
4. Underpitching yeast -   I feel like this has been covered very thoroughly on this blog.   But underpitching can create off flavors and keep the beer from attenuating completely.  dIPAs are supposed to be crisp.  The sweet flavor, if there is any, comes from the hop oils and sugars in the hops (yes there are sugars in hops).  A dIPA that is too sweet is cloying and gross. 
5. No temperature control -  Once again if you spend $2000 to $5000 on a wort production machine and you can not control the temperature of your fermentation, you missed the point!  Many of you fancy boys would find our equipment ghetto.  Many of you new and intermediate brewers would be blown away by our toys.  But any of you who can't control fermentation temperatures would be jealous.  John has a Cold Chamber, and a Hot chamber (for sours and saisons), I have an ale chamber and 2 individually controlled lager chambers.  You see?  we didn't miss the point!  You must be able to ferment at the correct temperatures for your yeast.  Period!   There is really nothing more to say on this topic.  
1. If you do not have temperature controlled fermentation, I strongly suggest you use a yeast that is very forgiving, US05.  WLP001  WY1056.  
2. If you can't control fermentation temperatures, this should be a high priority, right after full volume boil, and before switching to all grain.  
3. By the way, don't even talk to me about specialty liquid yeasts (other than those I've mentioned above, if you can not control fermentation temperatures)
6. Chilling too slowly - As you all know I sometimes make batches of "no chill" beer.   But you may have noticed, I never do this with hoppy beers.  No chill works fine with a house cream ale.  It doesn't work with hop monsters.   You must chill your beer quickly.  If you do not have an immersion chiller it may not be time to try this recipe yet.  (Or message me and I will scale it down to 2 gallons that you can chill in your kitchen sink with ice)
1. With a dIPA it is critical to get the entire batch to under hop isomerization temperature quickly.  We believe an immersion chiller is the best option for this.  We believe Jaded makes the best chillers.   It is the only method by which you can quickly bring the entire volume of wort down at once.  
1.  Why is this so critical?  Hop Oils continue to isomerize above 140 F.
2. What the heck is isomerize?  Isomerization is the process by which a molecule rearranges its atoms due to an outside force like temperature.   Still the same number of atoms but they are in a different arrangement.   It literally changes into a different molecule.   With hops exposure to high temperatures for long periods of time causes the oils in the hops to change.That is literally how we use hops in beer. The longer the exposure the more the change.
1. Change from the bright herby, spicy, citrusy, etc... to just plain ol bitter.  
2. You want some bitter in a dIPA but you also want clearly defined hop flavors.    
2. If you can recirculate you could use a counter flow chiller, or a plate chiller to bring the temperature down as quickly as possible while recirculating. 
7. Lack of attention to detail during brewing -   This is the number one thing brewers do wrong.  It isn't water chemistry, it isn't pitch rate, it isn't lack of temperature control.  It's not paying attention when brewing.  Believe me I understand, family, friends, other chores, a great game on television, a Doctor Who marathon, and Verdi's Othello (I love opera) have all distracted me on brew day!  But when you are brewing a dIPA there is no room for distraction. (Really when brewing anything there is no room for distraction).  Keep a brew day log.  Put every step of your brewing on the log.  Follow it.   Basic brewing has a great log book. 

Those are the common pitfalls when brewing a dIPA, and really almost all beers.  Some beers are more forgiving, some are less forgiving.  But in general these are the pitfalls of brewing a great dIPA, and good practices to follow with any brewing session.  So as you plan your recipe, don't just plan the ingredients take the time to plan out everything.   It will dramatically improve your brew day. 

In our next installment we will be looking at hop oils... what are they, and what flavors do they create?  How can you use them best... notice I did not say maximize them... Use them best...

How to make a Session IPA clone... spring and summer are coming!

Yes, I know... alright.  You don't have to tell me... session beers have become all the rage. Every micro pub and brewery has them now.  But I was brewing sessions before they had a cool name.  Not because I was some trailblazer, I wasn't,  but rather because that is what we brewed in the dark ages.  In the early years of home brewing we didn't have all of the computer software, and technology we have now.   Most of the recipes we brewed were between 1.040 and 1.050 original gravity.   Because... well that's just how it was.   No one had thought of a double IPA in 1992.   So we made lots of American Pale Ales, and English IPAs.    Sure, when we made a Russian Imperial Stout, or an Imperial Porter we bumped that gravity up as high as we could but we only brewed  those maybe once a year.

Why?, you ask?   Well the main reason is that the beer culture in America was centered around light american lagers that were all 3.2% alcohol.  So making a 4-5% alcohol beer was comparatively strong.  But I think the quality of the yeast, and what we knew about yeast had a factor in our brewing too.

So we brewed a lot of lower alcohol beers.  Beers we now call Session Beers.   When you think about it, session beer makes a lot of sense.   With a session beer you can enjoy multiple beers with out becoming intoxicated.   Intoxication and alcoholism are real problems.  We often make lite of them in our hobby, but I believe that if we were being real and honest we would all admit that drinking too much is a problem among some home brewers.  (And if you do choose to get drunk, do it at home and never ever freaking drive drunk!)  But session beers offer more than the ability to have multiple beers . Session beers are fun.  It is fun to try to make a beer reminiscent of one of your favorite high alcohol beers. It requires thought, planning and creative experimentation.  And finally session beers cost less than high OG beers.  They just do, less grain, less extract, less yeast always equals less cost.

So with those things in mind I am going to give you some tips to cloning the big beers you love into reminiscent session beers.  These are not true clones.  They are homages to their bigger inspirations. Today I present to you Pliny the Petulant.  A less than 5% alcohol version of a great IPA.   I'm sure most of you have heard of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.   Some of you may have even heard of Pliny the Toddler.   For those of you who haven't,  "Pliny" is a beer by Russian River Brewing.  It is debatably the penultimate imperial India pale ale.  I'll let you research and try for your self.


I have a long love affair with this beer.  It is with out question one of my 2 favorite dIPAs (the other being Boulevard The Calling, which I don't think lends itself well to a session approach).  So when I set out to make a session IPA for spring and summer... I'm setting out to make a version of Pliny.   I'm setting out to capture the flavor profile of this beast.   Having said that I am not the first,  Drew Beechum's recipe for "Pliny the Toddler" is widely available online.  As is the recipe from The Maltose Falcons brew club.  I have made these recipes many, many times.  I have even blogged about them several times. They are great recipes.  But I have brewed them and made certain tweaks over time.  Tweaks that have gotten me exactly what I want.

In Planning a session, There are two approaches.   The first approach is to try to capture the flavor profiles of the original beer with out worrying about the balance of IBU to OG.  When you take this approach, and I certainly prefer this approach and have taken it many times,  you aren't as worried about the ratios and % of the hops, or the balance index?   Wait, you did it again, you used some term no one has ever heard...  You're right I did.   The balance index is merely the IBUs / OG.  In Pliny the real laboratory IBUs are insanely high... approaching 250.  But the perceived IBUs are around 95.    And this is the gist of the other approach.  Leave the % of hops the same,  and leave the balance index the same. make a smaller beer with exact percentages.  I have done this too and... I think the first approach is actually the better one.  But with either approach we still have to do some math and some planning and we have to look at the original recipe carefully.   So here is the American Home brewers Association published clone recipe for Pliny the Elder.  

6 Gallons (22.7 L) 5.5 to the second fermenter
75% efficiency
OG 1.072
FG  1.011
IBUs  90 -  95 (200)
Balance Index - 1.319
ABV is around 8%

13.25# of 2 Row Barley
.6 # of Crystal 40
.6 # of CaraPils
.75# of Corn Sugar (late boil)

3.5	28.00%	oz (99 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (90 min)
0.75	6.00%	oz (21 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (45 min)
1	8.00%	oz (28 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (30 min)
1	8.00%	oz (28 g) Centennial hops, 8% a.a. (0 min)
2.5	20.00%	oz (71 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (0 min)
1	8.00%	oz (28 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (dry hop, 12-14 days total)
1	8.00%	oz (28 g) Centennial hops, 9.1% a.a. (dry hop, 12-14 days total)
1	8.00%	oz (28 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (dry hop, 12-14 days total)
0.25	2.00%	oz (7 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (dry hop, 5 days to go in dry hop)
0.25	2.00%	oz (7 g) Centennial hops, 9.1% a.a. (dry hop, 5 days to go in dry hop)
0.25	2.00%	oz (7 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (dry hop, 5 days to go in dry hop)

West coast ale yeast (WLP 001, Wyeast 1056, Safale US05)  appropriate starter.
1 tsp Whirlflock at 15 M
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient at 12 M
Aerate
Ferment at 67 F till fermentation subsides.
Rack to secondary.   Yes actually rack it, there are loads of dry hops in this beast.
Dry Hop in secondary, again you'll thank me... you'll lose way less beer with secondary in this particular recipe.
Let it finish, and package it!


So A little math and planning tells us that we want a recipe that looks something like this...

6 Gallons (22.7 L) 5.25 to the fermenter
75% efficiency
OG 1.045
FG  1.007
IBUs  50 to 55
Balance Index - 1.319

The goal is creating a beer that captures the beer being cloned.   It's that easy to "sessionize" your favorite big beers.   Of course you'll have to brew it, drink it all, and tweak it a couple of times.   I've done that bit for you... you're welcome!   But if you do you'll end up with something that looks like this...

Pliny the Petulant

Method: All Grain 
Style: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min 
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons 
Boil Gravity: 1.033 (recipe based estimate) 
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)
Source: Counterbrew 
Rating:

5

 of 

5

Original Gravity:

1.045

Final Gravity:

1.008

ABV (standard):

4.91%

IBU (tinseth):

57.31

SRM (morey):

2.99

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
7.6 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	88.4%
0.5 lb	German - Caramel Pils	35	2.4	5.8%
0.5 lb	Corn Sugar - Dextrose	46	0.5	5.8%
8.6 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
0.3 oz	Warrior	Pellet	16	First Wort		11.71
0.5 oz	Columbus	Pellet	15	Boil	45 min	27.73
0.5 oz	Simcoe	Leaf/Whole	12.7	Boil	30 min	17.87
0.25 oz	Centennial	Leaf/Whole	10	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min
0.5 oz	Simcoe	Leaf/Whole	12.7	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min
0.25 oz	Cascade	Leaf/Whole	7	Dry Hop	4 days
0.25 oz	Centennial	Leaf/Whole	10	Dry Hop	4 days
0.25 oz	Simcoe	Leaf/Whole	12.7	Dry Hop	4 days

Hops Summary

Amount	Variety	Type	AA
0.25 oz	Cascade	Leaf/Whole	7
0.5 oz	Centennial	Leaf/Whole	10
0.5 oz	Columbus	Pellet	15
1.25 oz	Simcoe	Leaf/Whole	12.7
0.3 oz	Warrior	Pellet	16

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
8.72 gal	No sparge brew in a bag	Temperature	150 F	60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 4.36 qt/lb

Yeast

Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Attenuation (avg): 81% Flocculation: Medium Optimum Temp: 54 - 77 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 67 °F Pitch Rate: 0.75 (M cells / ml / ° P) 175 B cells required

This is what we'll be brewing this coming weekend.  And to make things even easier, we will be doing a no sparge batch.   We put all but 1 gallon of the water into the mash tun and all of the grains. If our temp is spot on we add the withheld 1 gallon when it is at the mash temp.  if we are too high we add up to 1 gallon of cold water until we are at temp.  Were almost never too low, but if we were we could add up to 1 gallon of 170 F. water to get to temp.  This is the easiest way to brew by far.   We use a bag as a filter medium, but you don't have to if you prefer a false bottom or stainless supply screen. After 60 minutes we stir, check our gravity, and usually we are ready to drain into the kettle.   Yes I know some of you are  freaking out right now  what about pH, what about ideal mash thickness, what about, what about... Kai says... John Palmer says.... Just adjust your water, use good buffers, and give it a try it works just fine. (OK clearly I've touched a nerve with a disciple of the BrauKaiser who has chosen to PM me rather than post publicly,  Listen, I am a huge fan, nearly a devotee of Braukaiser... but no sparge works every stinkin time, so just try it!)

From there on it is just like any other batch... It is really that straight forward.    With No sparge brewing you can reduce your brew day to under 3.5 hours if you are organized and plan in advance.  

That's all for now sports fans.  Prost!

C4 Hop Explosion...American Pale Ale Hop Bursting Action Inside!

John came up with the perfect name for the APA that
features 4 "C" hops!

Pale Ale.  Good ol' pale ale.  The impetus of the craft brew revolution.  The craft brew that started it all, the craft brew that the muggles will actually drink.    I think we all love pale ale.  But you have to admit that pale ale has become a bit ordinary.  A bit too familiar.  So we here at counterbrew, your ever faithful servants, are here to update the common pale ale into the hop explosion that it can, and maybe should be.

Pale ale is an awesome background malt bill for hops.   The maltier wort and ever so slight roasty flavors create an interesting backdrop when balanced against the hops.   But beware, this is not the right background for 70-100 ibu IPA hops.   This is the right back ground for the "c" hops.   You remember the C hops.  Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, Citra. (and sometimes Columbus).

Before 5star pH stabilizer pH was 8.1
Due in part to the camden addition the night before.

So Saturday we set out to brew an American Pale Ale.  A "hop explosion" ,  But not an unbelievably bitter beer. A Beer with loads of late hop additions.   We were brewing 10 gallons.  But of course there was a problem with the keggle so we had to split the batch into 2 separate boils.    It was time for the counterbrew crew to understand why we are so committed to BIAB, and no sparge brewing.  So to aid in that understanding, and also because I get a maniacal pleasure out of it.    We did our first 3 vessel brewing session as a group.  John prepared the water the night before with camden.  If you're not using camden to knock the chorides out of your water, then you need to start.   John and Jake had the water heating when I arrived, and we did a simple water treatment.    We added 1 TBLSPN of 5.2 stabilizer for each 5 gallons.   For those of you who don't like 5 Star 5.2 pH stabilizer... get over it.

After 5 star 5.2 stabilizer the pH was 5.86

There has been an unsubstantiated trend on forums recently.  This trend is to say 5.2 stabilizer doesn't work.  Or 5 .2 makes beer salty (whoa there Poindexter, it's not even that kind of salt).   There is no science behind this trend, just a bunch of guys who feel like they are better brewers if they do things the hard way.   Here is a fact from brew day.   By the way, don't you dig Johns zooba shorts (KC Chiefs ) and black socks.

• pH after camden and before 5.2 =  8.1
• pH after 5 star pH stabilizer = 5.86
• pH of the mash was... pause for dramatic effect... 5.2. Right on the money!

All hands on deck for the dough in.  Mark Anthony and his brother Rob
Helped us get doughed in!  3 spoons makes quick work of dough in!

We put 21 lbs of grain into the mash tun, in a bag.  And we hit it with 167 F water.  Stirred to prevent dough balls and that was it.  Our initial temperature was a little high so we stirred.  Missing your initial temperature can lower your efficiency, and it did a little bit. (We only got 72.86% hoping for 75%  We could have added .25lbs of sugar or DME but we just rolled with it! ) We got it to 152 and let it sit for 90 minutes.  Then we drained it off and batch sparged.   We let our batch sparge for 15 minutes.  

spilit the boil

in the future the
keggle will rock!

Today we had to boil in 2 separate pots.  The keggel needs some new parts, a new high pressure hose, a new regulator, and a new 3/8th" flared orifice.   But soon, very soon we will be brewing with 150000 BTUs of banjo burner power again.  I for one cant wait.  This brew day was 5 hours long.  My crew now understand how long a 3 vessel brew day can take.  They now also understand the pros and cons of 3 vessel.  There are times when not having to mess with and monitor the temperature of your mash is a benefit.   A brew day where you need to bottle and do other brew house chores, for example.

Now, here comes the fun part.  The part you have all been waiting for... the hop schedule ( really the whole recipe).

Jake handling the hop bursting!
Bursting may be the trick you
are looking for!

C4 Hop Explosion Pale Ale
OG 1.052
FG  1.008
SRM 11
ABV 5.9%
Taste  - Citrus and lemon notes, with cedar, pine, floral, pepper, and green mellon.   freaking awesome!

16.5 lbs of pale ale malt (ask for RAHR PALE ALE)
2.5 lbs of biscuit malt
.75 lbs of caramel/crystal 80
.25 lbs of caramel/crystal 20
Mash at 152 for 90 minutes.
Sparge to volume
1 tsp of gypsum added mid boil
1.5  ounces of Chinook @ 60
1.5  ounces of Centennial @ 15
1.5  ounces of Cascade @  10
1.5 ounces of Citra @ 10
2    ounces of Centennial @ 5
2   ounces of Cascade added to the whirlpool at 190 to 180 degrees (hop bursting)
2   ounces of Citra added to the whirlpool at 190 to 180 degrees
2   ounces of Cascade dry hop for 4 to 5 days
2   ounces of Citra dry hop for 4 to 5 days
US 05 (2 packs) rehydrated in 1.035 wort during our brew day!

Jake setting the chamber to
64 F.  Yes, he is freakishly tall!

Chill to 185 F.  Then add the whirlpool hops, allow them to burst for 10 to 15 minutes then continue with the chill.   By the way sanitized silicone gloves are a great way to get all that hoppy goodness in your beer, if you, like us put your hops in a bag.

We are fermenting in temperature controlled fermentation chamber at 64 F.  So with endothermic heat the batch should rise to about 68 F.  Which is right where we want it.  With US05  if you ferment at 68F you will get very slight fruity esters.  They should compliment the beer perfectly.  If you ferment cooler, there are very few esters at all.  Its not as clean as K-97 but it is really clean.  Jake set the temp to 64 and now we wait.

But our wait wont be too long.  It's only a 1.050 beer.  The US 05 will chew through this batch in no time.   Should be adding dry hops in 10 days and packaging the beer in about 14 days.

UPDATE:

Tuesday night John reports fermentation was slowing down.   He turned the chamber temperature up to 66 F to help the yeast finish strong.  In about a week he will dry hop for a couple of days, fine with gelatin and cold crash.   This one should be ready after just 2 weeks.   We'll bottle and be ready to drink in another week.  Cant Wait.

The future of home brewing... Its in the bag!

You can get as complicated as you want!
If that is fun for you, go for it!
I prefer to keep it simple!

If recent days have taught us anything, they have taught us that we live in a world that is changing faster than any of us could have ever imagined.   Facebook and Twitter are a part of our everyday lives, they weren't even around 10 years ago.  (Well ok, they were around but not like they are today) And 10 years ago no one had ever even heard of eBIAB RIMS (or HERMS).  I'm sure they existed but very few home brewers were using them.

yes, I am that nerd who enjoys
a tripple decoction brew day!

Now it seems like everyone is building some behemoth system capable of cranking out home brew with the push of a button.   Bluetooth compatible, iPad controlled wort machines may be all the rage.  But I take a different tact. First of all, I don't really want push button beer.  I enjoy controlling the process.  I like the contact with my beer.  I imagine myself a wort whisperer.  I want to be the one to stir my mash and check it's temperature. I taste the mash.  Heck, I even enjoy decoction mashing. ( the SWMBO has a retreat coming up and I fully intend to fully nerd out and triple decoct a Vienna lager) I want to write it down in our brewing log, not have it automatically upload to google cloud. And I want everything to be simple and easy to clean.  (you cant clean what you can't see, and minor infections ruin good beer).

I know (not suspect KNOW) after 25 years that it is the brewer, not the equipment! I have tasted world class beer made on ghetto brewing systems! I will state quite arrogantly, I make far better beer than I can buy.  And for the most part far better beer than I have at club, or the LHBS.  (if you want to try my beer, come brew with us when you're in KC.you're always welcome and KC is a blast!)   I think part of the reason our beer (my beer) is so excellent is that we are in touch with our process.  So I try to keep everything old school.     So I avoid most of the new fangled technology up grades.   But there is one improvement I do not shy away from;

I think the most significant improvement in brewing, since I started brewing 25 years ago... it the Brew Bag. (the quality of malt extract being a close second)  

Affordable brew bags!

I use a brew bag for lautering my grains no matter what system I am using.   And as I have said numerous times.  I have several systems.  This weekend, we will be breaking out the 10 Gallon, 3 Vessel system.  We need to get ready for summer, and that means we need to get some 10 gallon batches of August Hyppo Pale ale, and Johns Cream Ale ready.  I don't often post about large brew days on the blog.  This blog targets newer, and intermediate brewers.  But we do brew some more advanced stuff, some sours, some decotions, and some large batches.  Saturday, I'll let you all behind the veil at counterbrew studio 2 (John's house)  But even when I use the ol' system, which I am admittedly somewhat romantic about.  I wont be doing it with out a brewing bag.   Brewing Bags offer home brewers many advantages.

• Higher efficiency due to finer crush.   
• yes I know some of you don't believe this, but it is true, try it for your self, this is a well established fact of home brewing now. 
• faster vourlauf - sometimes no vourlauf 
• you don't know till you give it a try, usually I pull about 1/2 of a quart and were done. 
• NO STUCK MASHES or SPARGE
• Can you brew a 100% wheat or rye beer?   I can.  
• Can you brew a pre prohibition pilsner with 65% corn & rice and 35% pilsner?  I can.
• Faster brew day
• Higher efficiency

Zapap Lauter tun still works
one bucket with holes drilled
inside of another bucket!

So, I don't understand why some guys will spend hundred and hundreds of dollars on an amazing false bottom, but wont spend $40 on a brew bag?   I have used bags from both of the major suppliers, they both worked fine.   They're both just tools for lautering.  When I started brewing we had separate lautering buckets.    We wold mash in a great big pot, then transfer the mash (grain and all) to a lautering tun (2 plastic buckets 6.5g and 5g).   The zappap lautering tun.  Still works.  But there are some of you that think the zappap is real brewing, and the use of a bag is sacrilege.  And folks that makes as much sense as mustard on a birthday cake! 

the overwhelming best advice I ever got
Keep it simple!  Learn your system!  Become a wort whisperer
and always remember "brewers make wort, yeast makes beer"
It's all about coaxing flavors out of the grains, and creating the
right environment for the yeast!

A brew bag is no different than any other filter you use for lautering... except... they work better.  What ever drunk aussie thought of the brew bag... should get a medal and free beer for life!  They make everything faster.   "if they're so great why aren't commercial breweries using them".   My answer;  They are, or at least they are trying to replicate them.  I have it on excellent authority from a brewer at a major label that they are trying to add a permanent filtering medium to their experimental brew house.   Inspired by BIAB efficiency, they are working with an engineering firm trying to create filters inspired by this home brewing process.  And why the hell wouldn't they? Increased efficiency = increased profits.   And further who cares what they do?  We are home brewers, we have certain advantages over the big boys.  This is one of them.   So no matter how you brew, I suggest strongly that you work a brew bag into your system.   You won't regret it!


BONUS MATERIAL
Here is my trusty ol mash tun, and keggle set up,  150,000 BTUs it can easily handle no sparge 5 gallon batches, and can easily handle traditional 10 gallon batches of beer.

My keggle was purchased legally
from a distributor.  It features
a 150000 BTU banjo burner!

I removed the pvc false bottom
from my ol mash tun, and now
use a bag.  The bag was sewn by a friend.
She charged me a beer, The fabric cost
me $9.00

And here it is in action.