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**LarryC** · 10-27-2010, 04:47 PM

I just listened to a podcast from Brew Strong on brew in a bag. I have been slowly moving from extract brewing to all grain brewing (currently doing min-mashes) and this sounds like a natural next step with very little additional equipment required.

My question is, if I get an all grain recipe, can I just do it as brew in a bag or are there adjustments I need to make?

By the way, I'm on jury duty today and they have free wi-fi so I can read brewing stuff and listen to brewing podcasts all day!

BrookdaleBrew · 10-27-2010, 04:51 PM

Depends on if you sparge or not. If you do not, you'll want to use more grain to hit your OG, although I couldn't tell you exactly how much, that is going to depend a lot on your process.

I've been doing BIAB with a sparge for a while and usually hit 80%+ efficiency on normal sized beers.

jfr1111 · 10-27-2010, 07:03 PM

Depends on your efficiency, but would still need to tweak recipes based on your efficiency if you used a "standard" AG setup. You might not get as clear a wort since you can't vorlauf, but you can just use finings or let it sit longer to clear up. Or just brew dark beers.

It's not rocket science, you just measure more stuff.

redalert · 10-27-2010, 07:11 PM

I have Coleman 48qt cooler with a copper manifold. On my best day I cannot get the efficiency that I get when I BIAB.

**LarryC** · 10-27-2010, 10:32 PM

BrookdaleBrew - how are you doing the sparge? Just hold back some of the water and pour it over the grain bag after you have lifted it up or???

zman · 10-27-2010, 10:41 PM

Death brewer did a great writeup on this. I am going to do my first BIAB AG this week. I like using my cooler but this might be a good way to go since winter is on its way and I have a 72 qt cooler and a smaller kitchen.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

BrookdaleBrew · 10-27-2010, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryC

BrookdaleBrew - how are you doing the sparge? Just hold back some of the water and pour it over the grain bag after you have lifted it up or???

I have a cooler and 2 kettles. 1 5 gallon kettle, 1 15 gallon kettle and 1 15 gallon cooler. Smaller batches I'll mash in the 5 gallon kettle and then sparge in the 15 gallon kettle using DeathBrewer's method, which it linked just above this post. Bigger batches get mashed, drained, then sparged in the cooler with the bag acting as a false bottom.

Homebrewtastic · 10-27-2010, 11:00 PM

I know a lot of people have had good success with BIAB but I haven't. I was never able to get a decent efficiency. So now I just do regular AG with my homemade MLT. I typically hit about 78% efficiency.

Some people say to just over-shoot your grain bill to hit the efficiency with BIAB, but long term it's cheaper to invest in a MLT.

Jollyjimbo · 12-10-2012, 04:30 PM

I just started BIAB as I am also moving to all grain and have no problem reaching my efficiency (typically 75%). I purchased a restaurant grade collider, put the nylon bag into it then sparge into a large pot/cooler and transfer back into my brew pot.

acidrain · 12-10-2012, 08:37 PM

I never tweaked/scaled an all grain recipe just to do a BIAB, never sparged, always did full volume mashes, and always hit at least 70% (80% once I started really squeezing the bags and no, there are no tannins... that is a myth).