Questions on Lautering

I'm new to the brewing process so this may be an ignorant question. I have been reading up on the lautering process and I was given a full brewing set up, complete with 7gal. Propane turkey fryer, lautering tun and grain mill. I have done only 2 batches using the extract and mini mash technique. Here is my question: For an all grain batch, Why go through the lengthy lautering process when you can simply crush your grains put them in grain bags and heat your full 5gal. of water on the burner to the appropriate temp and let them sit there for the appropriate time and then pull your grains and start your boil and hop additions? You don't have to sparge because all you have to do is pull the grain bags out and recirculate water through the bag to get all of the sugars out, not more stuck sparge water. I'm sure there is some reason you can't just do this otherwise everyone would and save the hassle of the traditional lautering process. Can any one tell me if this would work or am I a hopeless nube?

I prefer the traditional sparge and lauter method for a few reasons. With my picnic cooler mash lauter tun it's actually pretty easy. As easy as BIAB.
Also the vorlauf step to me is critical to clarify the wort. Vorlauf is not really possible in BIAB unless you have a drain valve on your kettle.
There are many who say that the wort will clarify in the fermenter but I don't believe this is beneficial.
For starters it makes it very hard to repitch yeast if it's caught in a giant mess of trub.
For every labour step there are rewards later. That's my opinion anyway.

I did install a valve filter on my boiler with a inline screen so I am able to filter out if needed.

Im with baldric...traditional mash/lauter techniques...There are def pros and cons to the BIAB method. IIRC there is research that say other unnecessary bi-products (i.e. lipids) end up in the boil kettle after you drain the sack. And not to mention having to either hold a 30+ lb sack while it drains and/or building some apparatus to support it and hope the damn thing don't break.


Don't get me wrong, good beer is made with either method...but who wants to re-invent the wheel.

What you're describing is basically the BIAB (brew in a bag) method, there are a tone of threads on the subject here on the forum. Never tried it myself, I like the lauter tun method too.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/biab-brewing-pics-233289/

It's just another way to do it. Nothing wrong with it, so long as you have the appropriate equipment to help get your efficiency up to par.

So it sounds like I can do an all grain batch with this steep method provided I run the resulting mash/wort through my filtered valve, rinse the kettle and port it back in and boil as normal. This make sense, and I have noticed some clarity issues when just steeping specialty grains because I use loose whole hops which clog my filter valve so I have to siphon the wort into the carboy.

So that's what BIAB means. That will be very helpful in researching this method. I had a feeling this was too easy a way to lauter and not already have a process in place to do it. I just didn't know what to call it. Thank you all for you help I will look into BIAB.

Dude I would try to minimize the number of times you transfer that wort prior to boil.run risk of hot side aeration

cheezycow said:

either hold a 30+ lb sack while it drains and/or building some apparatus to support it and hope the damn thing don't break.

Click to expand...

Yea, I'd hate to have to build something complicated like a cookie cooling rack that sits on top of the BK.