Biab

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watergod

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I've been brewing for about two years with a all grain system. I'm looking into trying something new and making an attempt at Biab. I'm not sure what size pot to use for a 5 gallon batch and also will those 5 gallon paint strainers at Home Depot work for a bag?
 
10 gallon pot will work, 15 is better. The 5 gallon paint strainer bags at HD are too small and a bit too coarse. Best to use some voile material from Joann Fabrics or another store. You technically don't even have to sew to use the bag, just have to have a large enough piece and be careful not to lose an edge into the kettle. The bags are easy to make though.
 
You can make quite a few 5 gallon brews in 10 gallons.
I could make up to 1.070 ish beers, but that got pretty darn full.

I 2nd the voile idea. Lowes and Walmart also have the fabric, as curtains of all things. Work great though.
 
If your looking at getting a new pot for BIAB, I would to with a 15gal. That's what I use and I haven't found my limit yet. I've done quite a few over 1.100 at about 75-85% efficiency. If you mill your own grain dial in your mill a little finer and that'll help out a lot.
 
I just got a 50 liter pot for all grain. Unfortunately finding a bag big enough has been difficult. I'll definitely have to look into this voile thing, as the 5 gallon paint strainer bag was a pain in the ass.
 
You'll find it in the curtain material section, it the white sheer looking stuff that you would hang to blur out stuff i guess. If you decide to sew the bag. make it as close to the size of the pot. Get quilt binding strips and heavy duty quilt thread to sew up the seams. that is what I have used and have yet to have a bag break. Make it double layered just to make sure you wont have a breakage. I remember seeing someone on here that was making them. Im not sure it they were made to order or just a specific size, or even who was selling them.
I switched to this and have no plan going back. Its so much easier and no difference in the final product.
good luck.
 
I've been brewing for about two years with a all grain system. I'm looking into trying something new and making an attempt at Biab. I'm not sure what size pot to use for a 5 gallon batch and also will those 5 gallon paint strainers at Home Depot work for a bag?

BIAB can be done two ways. No sparge or what I call pseudo sparge. The difference is the size pot you need or can get away with.

With no sparge, your pot needs to be big enough for the grain, all of the mash water and the water lost to grain absorption. (pre-boil volume +grain volume + grain absorbtion water). Any of the calculators can simplify the math.

Pseudo sparge BIAB can be done in a smaller pot, but you will need a second pot to heat sparge water. I use a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer for the mash pot, and a 5 gallon (formerly used for extract )pot to heat sparge water. I mash at more traditional AG thicknesses of about 1.25-1.5 qt/lb of grain. then I pull the bag & drain through a colander. after draining, I pour 1/2 the sparge water through the grain bag, and then tea bag the bag into the sparge pot. Fire up the boil kettle while finishing the sparge & re-draining the bag. add remaining sparge water and boil.

5 gallon paint strainer bags work great. You need a bag big enough to hold the grain, not the full vloume of the pot. clip the bag to the pot edges with binder clips.
 
Pseudo sparge BIAB can be done in a smaller pot, but you will need a second pot to heat sparge water. I use a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer for the mash pot, and a 5 gallon (formerly used for extract )pot to heat sparge water. I mash at more traditional AG thicknesses of about 1.25-1.5 qt/lb of grain. then I pull the bag & drain through a colander. after draining, I pour 1/2 the sparge water through the grain bag, and then tea bag the bag into the sparge pot. Fire up the boil kettle while finishing the sparge & re-draining the bag. add remaining sparge water and boil.

5 gallon paint strainer bags work great. You need a bag big enough to hold the grain, not the full vloume of the pot. clip the bag to the pot edges with binder clips.

Have you tried the pseudo sparge using cold water? It seems to extract the sugar pretty well and then the bag of grains is cool enough to really squeeze without cooking your hands. I put the empty 5 gallon in the sink, add the bag of grains and then add cold water, stirring as I add it until I think I have enough to make up my volume for boiling, then drain and squeeze until the grain is as dry as I can get it.
 
Great idea, I didn't want to have to buy a bigger pot just to try biab. Sounds like from everything I've read it's ok to sparge using biab. I guess lots of people do it. I think I'll give it a try.
 
I do 5 gallon BIAB batches in an 11 gallon kettle and 10 gallon batches in a 15.5 gallon keggle.

An average 5 gallon batch requires about 6.8-7.0 gallons of total water volume. During the mash with the grains in the 6.8-7.0 gallons of water, the grains displace up to a little under the 9 gallon level of the kettle, so you're good with a 10.0 gallon pot.
 
Did my first BIAB brew day yesterday. It went great no problems at all. Conventional BIAB procedure with my 15 gallon keg boil pot. My mash efficiency was 85% and I only lost 1 gallon of water to grain absorption.
 
I just completed my first two BIAB's (sorta). I didn't want to brew in a paint strainer since no one knows what you are drinking after heating up nylon to 168 degrees (for mash out) so I took my 5 gallon pot and drilled a 1000 holes on the sides and bottom. I then lined the inside with stainless steel mesh (80 threads per inch). I added the grain to that pot and then dropped it in my 9 gallon pot with the heated water. I had a clean beer with no more in the wort than with my all-grain system.

Both were Rogue Hazelnut Brown clone. My efficiency was 72% and then 84% with NO SPARGE.

Better yet was how little time the entire process took. It took me about 5 hours for everything (including cleanup).
 
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