More Brew in a Bag (BIAB) Success - Page 8

bigjoe · 01-14-2010, 09:17 PM

Palmer's BYO article mentions top off water. Can't recall what his book says.
http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/9-all-grain-brewing/1407-skip-the-sparge

I thought I had a good reference for the 65%, but having trouble finding it. Here is an HBD site that says 50%. I know thats way out of line.
http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

I'd swear I saw Fix reference on a forum archive somewhere. There really isn't much out there on it in print or the internet really.

I found this but no mention of 65% either.
http://www.valhallabrewing.com/dboard/dbnewsl/t9703f.htm

bakins · 01-15-2010, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigjoe

Palmer's BYO article mentions top off water. Can't recall what his book says.

pg 185 in 2nd edition of How to Brew. He does mention 65% and using top-off water, which is not the same as the no-sparge we are doing.

**LandofOZ** · 01-16-2010, 03:47 AM

ok so now we call it "BIABSPIAB" BREW IN A BAG SPARGE IN A BAG another acronim to add to the list
ok so i have been using a modified brew in bag. i brew 5 gallon batches. i came across a 6.5 gallon aluminium fryer pot and a 5 gallon gott coller (round) at sales for $5 each and got a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, the bag fits into the cooler and am able to pull it over the threads. preheat the the cooler and then add 3 gallons mash water to the grains in the bag in the cooler at about 162 stir and i get 150 mash temp droping 2 degrees in 90 minute mash. because the bag is streched over the coller threads the top holds the bag in place and am able to shake the cooler to stir the grains without removing the lid. while masing i heat my 3.5 gallons of sparge water to 180 degrees in the boil pot, when the mash is done i pull the bag and sit it in the a callander over the cooler and squeze the bag and then the bag goes into the sparge water in the pot for 15 minutes. 180 gets me 170 sparge temp. I have my stove down to where to know where to set the dial to maintain 170. after the 15 minute dip sparge i once again put the bag in a coolander over the pot. turn the heat up. squeeze the bag then remove to go in the garden. I add the mash from the cooler. usually do a 60 minute boil. i am usually several ponts over the origianl gravity called out in the recipee and have gotten final gravities 1.010 or lower for recipees that call for brewhouse efficiencies of 75 percent. this is working well for me and have done 7 to 12 pounds of grain, i think 12 would be about max for my 5 gallon cooler.
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mrcmatt · 01-16-2010, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooper

That sounds very interesting. Do most people use a 10 gal pot? I'm also working on getting a 10 gallon cooler too, that's way up on the list of essentials I have to get once I get back home from Iraq.

Also, where do you purchase your "voille" stuff... I've never heard of this.

Hope you get back soon, to relax with a home brew...

I use a 10 gallon pot for BIAB with good success. I have found I can use up to 15 or so pounds of grain in 10 gallon pot and still get pretty good efficiency. More grain than that makes the mash so thick the efficiency goes down.

Adding a batch sparge to BIAB lets you get to the real high gravity stuff. I recently brewed a belgian tripel with 22 or so pounds of grain in the 10 gallon pot. The pot was very full. very. but I ended up with 4 gallons of 1.100 in the pot when I pulled the bag. I then batch sparged the bag and made a belgian pale (6 gallons at 1.060 or so) and got a few extra gallons to put in the tripel to make a 6 gallon boil. you can read about it on the link in my signature.

mrcmatt · 01-16-2010, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyGuy

That's great to see all the people having such great success! It's great to demonstrate that we don't have to choose just one method to get fantastic results (like some old school brewers would have you believe).

For all you BIAB guys, is anyone doing larger than a 5 gal batch or high gravity (>1.07) brews? If so, what's your method for draining your grist bag? Pulley? Giant collander?

With gravity that high, I have found I have to modify my BIAB method. I have a 10 gallon kettle - this limits the amount of water + grain, so if I want a bunch of grain I can't use as much water. So then the mash is thick (I'm starting to think thin mash is a key to efficient BIAB...) and I don't collect much liquor to boil. A quick batch sparge is my remedy. Drop the bag in unmodified cooler, add 170 F water, stir, stir, stir, drain and you are ready to boil. You can read more about my recent adventures with high gravity parti-gyle on the link in my signature...

mrcmatt · 01-16-2010, 03:39 PM

One last comment for now.

Regarding physical process of removing bag of wet grain from the kettle,

for example, say you have 14 pounds of grain for a five gallon batch. obviously the bag will weigh 14 pounds plus the weight of the water retained. I have seen .2 pounds of water is absorbed by 1 pound of grain during mash as a general rule of thumb.

So 14 x 1.2 = about 17 pounds - but that is once it is pretty well drained,

when you first pull it up it is heavier, I'd guess 21 to 23 pounds or so when you first pull it up and it is dripping fast. That drops pretty quickly to close to the 17 figure above.

If you can lift a full carboy or brew bucket you can do it unless you have shoulder, back or some physical thing limiting lifting from waist to shoulder height.

But, if you are boiling on the stove, the bag will start out much higher and that would mean you are lift the weight from shoulder height to above your head, that is a harder lift...

goin2brew · 01-19-2011, 05:14 PM

I BIAB all the time.
I use the 1.33qt x #grain ratio @154 in 1 pot x60 mins.
I have a second pot (with the remainder of my boil volume) that I put the grain bag in after mashing. I leave this at 170 deg x10 mins, remove the grains and then combine both volumes and boil as normal.

Saves plenty of time for me.

paraordnance · 01-19-2011, 06:14 PM

I BIAB as well for last 4 batches and have no plans to moving ahead with MLT design AG. Its saves me a LOT of room for equipment, I only have one closet to hide all my brewing equipment. I have 40 qt pot and mesh bag, thats it. My first time BIAB I had 68% efficency but its going up couple points at a time since I started to nail my process down.

**BARBQ** · 01-19-2011, 06:20 PM

I just did a BIAB last night, but this time I sparged with the HBT advice after getting low OG before. If I could figure out how to measure my effeciecny I could say if it is a good process or not. I read for an hour last night about this, but it is still a mystery.

I used this recipe: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/red-rye-ale-25929/

1. I mashed at 152F 3.5 Gal water with all grain in a paint bucket strainer bag. (wow these are awesome)

2. Then I heated up two seperate pots (smaller) with water at 170F.

3. Then after mashing for 60 min I pulled the bag out and put in a SS colander on top of the mash pot and let drain. Then smashed down to get every drop out.

4. Then I split the bag of grain loose into both smaller pots at 170F (no bag anymore its still in the SS colander over Mash pot)

5. I stired them in the sparge pots for 15 min. Then I poured one into the SS colander still over the mash pot and let drain. Smashed too. Repeat on second sparge pot.

6. At this time I had all the 1st run and sparge wort in one place and did a boil for about 70 min maybe 5.5 gal or a little more. (Ended up with right at 5 gal in fermenter)

It seemed pretty thick, but after two ice baths and still not cool enough to pitch I put the top on and stored at room temp overnight from 11pm. With the yeast in a luke warm cup (i hope ok). Then I measured the OG see pic below in the morning 6am, then pitched. It was probably 75-78F on measuring OG.

I think I was 1.040 with temp correction at 1.042 OG - 1.012 FG (Estimated) * 131 = 3.93 ABV? I think I am right. Learnin more and more each day on HBT just not getting any sleep or work done.

Mysticmead · 01-19-2011, 06:35 PM

2 BIAB under my belt and many more are in the planning stages. My wife has been baking dog treats and bread using the spent grains and actually told me that I need to brew more beer so she can have more grain to bake with!!