BIAB – bottling the second round

Last time I wrote anything about my second attempt at BIAB it was in expectancy for a failure. My BIAB process just doesn’t seem to work well with unstable temperatures in the mashing stage and the fermentable sugars aren’t really sufficient.

If you have a quick look at the BIAB’s brewing day, you will see that I was sure that it will be a flop, another one (the first was really bad), but I was still hoping for a drinkable beer. The other day I bottled the beer and I was very surprised from a number of reasons:

1. It wasn’t bad, really. At first taste from the fermenter it was quite tasty – dry, light, hoppy – all the characteristics of an IPA but without the ABV punch (about it later).

2. Fermentation actually ended and FG=1008.

3. The last minute addition of 100g dextrose hasn’t ruined the beer and made it too sweet.

4. The mix of hops worked great: I used Target hops (12.17%) for bittering, some Fuggles hops (that I love, at 3.48%) for flavour and a mix of Citra (14%) and Celeia hops (3.9%) for dry hopping – great mix so far.

5. The colour is great – really light and golden, a true pale ale. That is a result of on using crushed pale malt in the mashing stage.

The other side of it is the ABV. FG at 1008 is good, but it only had OG of 1030, resulting at 3% ABV – too low to be called an IPA. I think next time I just need to add more dextrose at the beginning of the boiling stage and hope to reach 1050-1060 OG.

So that is it for this beer. I think I will end up calling it my “Light IPA” and will try next time to make into a full blown IPA with the right ABV but still trying the same BIAB process.

One small note that is a little embarrassing – I’m completely out of beer bottles, so I had to use soda bottles. I had used them in the past when I made my Cranberry Ale so I know they will work just as much. Still, not the same thing.