BIAB Brewing (with pics)
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mrgstiffler
Well-Known Member
I know this isn't a PBW thread, but a 8lbs container is only 37.99 from NB. Considering brewing is 90% cleaning/sanitation, I think that is a pretty good investment.
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You can get about 15lbs of Oxiclean Free from Amazon for that price. Plus free shipping
BrewIndy
Member
mrgstiffler said:You can get about 15lbs of Oxiclean Free from Amazon for that price. Plus free shipping
Link?
mrgstiffler
Well-Known Member
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Did my first BIAB this last weekend using pretty much the same type of setup as the OP of this thread. Even though I thought I was making mistakes, lo and behold, all the numbers hit exactly where they were supposed to be. I was actually quite shocked to tell the truth. So I give the OP and BIAB my endorsement.
yep, its so simple that you feel like you're screwing up, but you're doing it right.
BPhad
Well-Known Member
I have to give a thumbs up to beer smith. I hit the numbers it calculates all the time using the BIAB setting.
I used to use this calculator for full-volume mashing which works OK. I have since reverted back to 1.25-1.50 quarts / pound of grain for calculating mash volume and getting the rest of the volume from a 'ghetto sparge' setup.
While not a true 'no sparge' BIAB brew, it goes get me 8+ points of efficiency.
JohanMk1
Well-Known Member
Please share some details on the "ghetto sparge"
Lets assume a 5 gallon, 10# grain recipe:
Using 1.25 quarts per pound = 3.125 gallons to mash
Using 1.50 quarts per pound = 3.75 gallons to mash
I go middle of the road and mash with 3.5 gallons.
During the mash, I heat another ~3.5 gallons of water on the kitchen stove to 170° for the sparge.
3.5 gallons (mash volume) + 3.5 (sparge volume) = 7 gallons total. Subtract a gallon for boil off, another gallon for grain absorption, and you get your final volume of 5 gallons. You'll have to adjust for your specific setup but that is the general calculation I go by.
I have seafood basket that came with my pot so I put my BIAB in there. Once I'm happy with the mash, I begin a 10 minute mashout @ 170°F. After 10 minutes, I pull the whole seafood basket out and use two pieces of wood to balance the seafood basket over the kettle so it drains down and back into the kettle. I go to the kitchen and grab the water on the stove and slowly pour it into the seafood basket to sparge. The hot sparge water washes through the grain, through the basket, and down back into the kettle -- residual sugars and all. Same principle as a traditional sparge but instead of having pumps and sprayer heads and all that, you just pour the water over the grain by hand. I don't drip it or take my time or anything, just pour it on and let it drain.
Remember how I said ghetto
I started as a no-sparger but like I said, I wasn't happy with my no-sparge BIAB efficiency. It was hitting in the 60% range without the sparge. Adding the sparge (along with some other refinements) brought be up to 75% range. Milling my own grain along with the sparge took me to 85%. While I imagine I could cut the sparge out and still be in the 75%+ range, I'm already used to my 'ghetto sparge' so I still do it for the extra points.
JohanMk1
Well-Known Member
Lets assume a 5 gallon, 10# grain recipe:
Using 1.25 quarts per pound = 3.125 gallons to mash
Using 1.50 quarts per pound = 3.75 gallons to mash
I go middle of the road and mash with 3.5 gallons.
During the mash, I heat another ~3.5 gallons of water on the kitchen stove to 170° for the sparge.
3.5 gallons (mash volume) + 3.5 (sparge volume) = 7 gallons total. Subtract a gallon for boil off, another gallon for grain absorption, and you get your final volume of 5 gallons. You'll have to adjust for your specific setup but that is the general calculation I go by.
I have seafood basket that came with my pot so I put my BIAB in there. Once I'm happy with the mash, I begin a 10 minute mashout @ 170°F. After 10 minutes, I pull the whole seafood basket out and use two pieces of wood to balance the seafood basket over the kettle so it drains down and back into the kettle. I go to the kitchen and grab the water on the stove and slowly pour it into the seafood basket to sparge. The hot sparge water washes through the grain, through the basket, and down back into the kettle -- residual sugars and all. Same principle as a traditional sparge but instead of having pumps and sprayer heads and all that, you just pour the water over the grain by hand. I don't drip it or take my time or anything, just pour it on and let it drain.
Remember how I said ghetto
I started as a no-sparger but like I said, I wasn't happy with my no-sparge BIAB efficiency. It was hitting in the 60% range without the sparge. Adding the sparge (along with some other refinements) brought be up to 75% range. Milling my own grain along with the sparge took me to 85%. While I imagine I could cut the sparge out and still be in the 75%+ range, I'm already used to my 'ghetto sparge' so I still do it for the extra points.
Thanks, that gives me some ideas.
As a noob on a tight budget this is exactly the kind of info that should help to get me brewing great beer without spending a fortune.Why bother with sparging at all?? Kind of defeats the purpose of the ease of BIAB. I've gotten consistent efficiencies in the mid 80's & some as high as 94% with no spare whatsoever. Just mash in, check temp/stir well every 20 mins (add heat if necessary), raise to 168 after 60 mins, lift out grain & let drip, then proceed with boil. Has been perfect in my 7-8 batches. I'd never ever go back to the typical mash/lauter method again. Waste of time & WAY too many headaches. BIAB produces easier, better end beer IMO....
>>Why bother with sparging at all??
You can always get additional sugar by sparging.
Sugar will flow more freely at 168, instead of 152.
And the pure water will help the sugar dissolve.
>>Kind of defeats the purpose of the ease of BIAB.
Some feel that way, feel the extra effort of sparging isn't worth it.
To each his own.
For a large grain bill (15+ pounds) I think a sparge might be worth it.
For a smaller grain bill, say 12.5, maybe not.
If you get good efficiency without a sparge, then thats great.
A tight crush is important for BIAB.
As for Ghetto Sparge, I wonder how effective that is for such a large volume of water (3+ gallons). I can see doing it with 1 gallon, after squeezing, then squeezing again. I think teh extra water doesnt do much.
I Sparge in a 8 gallon pot by placing the grain bag in it, with some hot water , and soak it for 10 minutes at 167.
Note - I always let the bag drip for a couple of minutes before any sparging. I also squeeze the bag before and after sparging.
You can always get additional sugar by sparging.
Sugar will flow more freely at 168, instead of 152.
And the pure water will help the sugar dissolve.
>>Kind of defeats the purpose of the ease of BIAB.
Some feel that way, feel the extra effort of sparging isn't worth it.
To each his own.
For a large grain bill (15+ pounds) I think a sparge might be worth it.
For a smaller grain bill, say 12.5, maybe not.
If you get good efficiency without a sparge, then thats great.
A tight crush is important for BIAB.
As for Ghetto Sparge, I wonder how effective that is for such a large volume of water (3+ gallons). I can see doing it with 1 gallon, after squeezing, then squeezing again. I think teh extra water doesnt do much.
I Sparge in a 8 gallon pot by placing the grain bag in it, with some hot water , and soak it for 10 minutes at 167.
Note - I always let the bag drip for a couple of minutes before any sparging. I also squeeze the bag before and after sparging.
just as with a traditional 3 vessel setup... some fly sparge, some batch sparge, others don't sparge at all. BIAB has the flexibility to let people do full volume (no sparge which is what I do), dunk sparge, or pour some hot water through the grains at any rate of speed they way. It also allows for people to squeeze the bag (which I do) or let it drip. In the end you still mashed in a bag and made beer (hopefully a great beer!)
Point is, because one person does it one way and its not how you do it, it doesn't make it wrong. Its just a different way to get to the same end. That would be beer, from grain to glass.
Point is, because one person does it one way and its not how you do it, it doesn't make it wrong. Its just a different way to get to the same end. That would be beer, from grain to glass.
rhamilton said:Lets assume a 5 gallon, 10# grain recipe:
Using 1.25 quarts per pound = 3.125 gallons to mash
Using 1.50 quarts per pound = 3.75 gallons to mash
I go middle of the road and mash with 3.5 gallons.
During the mash, I heat another ~3.5 gallons of water on the kitchen stove to 170° for the sparge.
3.5 gallons (mash volume) + 3.5 (sparge volume) = 7 gallons total. Subtract a gallon for boil off, another gallon for grain absorption, and you get your final volume of 5 gallons. You'll have to adjust for your specific setup but that is the general calculation I go by.
I have seafood basket that came with my pot so I put my BIAB in there. Once I'm happy with the mash, I begin a 10 minute mashout @ 170°F. After 10 minutes, I pull the whole seafood basket out and use two pieces of wood to balance the seafood basket over the kettle so it drains down and back into the kettle. I go to the kitchen and grab the water on the stove and slowly pour it into the seafood basket to sparge. The hot sparge water washes through the grain, through the basket, and down back into the kettle -- residual sugars and all. Same principle as a traditional sparge but instead of having pumps and sprayer heads and all that, you just pour the water over the grain by hand. I don't drip it or take my time or anything, just pour it on and let it drain.
Remember how I said ghetto
I started as a no-sparger but like I said, I wasn't happy with my no-sparge BIAB efficiency. It was hitting in the 60% range without the sparge. Adding the sparge (along with some other refinements) brought be up to 75% range. Milling my own grain along with the sparge took me to 85%. While I imagine I could cut the sparge out and still be in the 75%+ range, I'm already used to my 'ghetto sparge' so I still do it for the extra points.
How do you prop up the basket? Just lay the wood over top of the pot and set the basket on that? Are you concerned about your water running over the wood?
inkdbrewer
Member
This topic has really opened my eyes to just how easy brewing all grain can be. Been brewing extract for the past 9 months and enjoyed it, but wanted more control and understanding of the processes and the privilege to say i truely brewed a beer from scratch. So i finally decided to take the plunge. I just recived my 10 gal kettle and bayou burner, and after a few more pieces to be purchased, i'll be biab-ing. So stoked! Oh, and great tutorial from the OP!
BPhad
Well-Known Member
inkdbrewer said:
It is easy. I started about 10 batches ago and will never go back to extract. It's amazing the difference in the final product when mash temp is just 4 degrees different. Have fun!
BPhad
Well-Known Member
Fordzilla said:
I have not had a problem with my setup which is a 13 gallon aluminum kettle. I wrap in a sleeping bag but have never had to add heat. I use brewsmith and it calculates a mash in temp that is usually a little high once I add my grain.
I use an aluminum kettle and wrap mine in an old sleeping bag. I lose 2-3 degrees over 90 minutes. IF you're concerned about a couple degrees of heat loss, you can always make a refeltix (water heater wrap) wrap for your kettle leaving it just loose enough to slip on after you dough in. Or you can always direct fire (while stirring to prevent scorching and ensure even heating) to raise the temp.
35se
Well-Known Member
does it matter if the bag is coarse or fine mesh?
Looking to get into BIAB but not sure which bag to buy of midwest.
Looking to get into BIAB but not sure which bag to buy of midwest.
You can also make your own bags from voile curtain material. I bought one of these from Walmart for $5 and have gotten 4 very good bags out of the purchase. For bigger sized BIAB sessions I use two bags.
MMJfan
Well-Known Member
Ok. I've tried reading through this thread and made it about 20 pages or so without seeing questions I have answered.
I just started homebrewing this past spring and have been doing all extract brewing. I have a 7.5 gal kettle and a propane burner. My question is, would my kettle be large enough to handle most normal BIAB brews? I've been very content with extract brewing, but I want to brew a clone of Great Lakes Holy Moses and I've found one extract recipe for it, but I haven't heard how it turned out. I emailed the recipe to a brewer at Great Lakes and he said it looked good but he'd never tried it using extracts.
I did find an AG recipe and my question is, can I use the AG recipe using BIAB instead? Or is there some tweaking of the ingredients I need to make to convert from the AG to BIAB? And I'm also wondering if I could make this recipe using BIAB without having to buy a larger kettle?
The AG recipe calls for 10.25 lbs of grains (5.25 lbs American 2-row, 4.5 lbs Torrified Wheat, .5 lbs Oats Flaked).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I just started homebrewing this past spring and have been doing all extract brewing. I have a 7.5 gal kettle and a propane burner. My question is, would my kettle be large enough to handle most normal BIAB brews? I've been very content with extract brewing, but I want to brew a clone of Great Lakes Holy Moses and I've found one extract recipe for it, but I haven't heard how it turned out. I emailed the recipe to a brewer at Great Lakes and he said it looked good but he'd never tried it using extracts.
I did find an AG recipe and my question is, can I use the AG recipe using BIAB instead? Or is there some tweaking of the ingredients I need to make to convert from the AG to BIAB? And I'm also wondering if I could make this recipe using BIAB without having to buy a larger kettle?
The AG recipe calls for 10.25 lbs of grains (5.25 lbs American 2-row, 4.5 lbs Torrified Wheat, .5 lbs Oats Flaked).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
first of all... BIAB is AG brewing. it's just a different method of extracting the sugars from the grain. Yes the 7.5 gallon pot could be used, but you'll need another pot to do a dunk sparge in to finish rinsing the grain of all those sugars. OR get a 10 gallon pot and not worry about it. with 10.25lbs of grain you'll need a total amount of water right at 7.5 gallons.
now, will you have to tweak the recipe? that one is hard to answer since you've never done any kind of AG before. You would need to know your equipment and how well you extract the sugars before knowing if you needed to tweak it. do you know what efficiency the recipe was designed around? that would need to be known as well.
>>I just started homebrewing this past spring and have been doing all extract brewing. I have a 7.5 gal kettle and a propane burner. My question is, would my kettle be large enough to handle most normal BIAB brews?
Yes - except for the risk of boil over.
Worst case scenario is you use a bit less water, and add it into the fermentor. (You will have to hover around the kettle near teh start of the boil with a spary bottle of water and spray down the boil over as it appears)
Another alternative is to use Fermcap - its an additive to prevent boil overs. It works.
Yes - except for the risk of boil over.
Worst case scenario is you use a bit less water, and add it into the fermentor. (You will have to hover around the kettle near teh start of the boil with a spary bottle of water and spray down the boil over as it appears)
Another alternative is to use Fermcap - its an additive to prevent boil overs. It works.
For that grain bill, a 7.5 gal pot would be quite tight, but doable. As mentioned previously, you could scale down the water for the mash/boil & just top up in the fermenter. Should get you to approx the same end beer....
MMJfan
Well-Known Member
So it is OK to use a little less water for the mash/boil and then add water to the fermenter to top it off at 5 gallons like you can do with extract brewing?
I've also saw where someone put their bag with grains in a bottling bucket and heated 3 gallons of water to 160 and then poured the hot water into the bottling bucket and let that sit for an hour and then drained using the spigot into another bucket. During the hour mash, they heated another 3 gallons of water to 170 degrees and then poured that over the grain bag and let it sparge for another 20 minutes. They then combined the buckets back into the kettle and boilded like usual.
This seems like an effective way of doing things as well?
If I can just top off the fermenter with water to get my 5 gallons, I might just do it that way though. Less equipment and mess to clean up in the end...
I've also saw where someone put their bag with grains in a bottling bucket and heated 3 gallons of water to 160 and then poured the hot water into the bottling bucket and let that sit for an hour and then drained using the spigot into another bucket. During the hour mash, they heated another 3 gallons of water to 170 degrees and then poured that over the grain bag and let it sparge for another 20 minutes. They then combined the buckets back into the kettle and boilded like usual.
This seems like an effective way of doing things as well?
If I can just top off the fermenter with water to get my 5 gallons, I might just do it that way though. Less equipment and mess to clean up in the end...
Keep it simple. Forget the sparge. Just mash in the 7+ gals, boil, transfer to carboy & top to 5 gals. You'll be fine. Don't over think it - the beauty of BIAB is its complete simplicity. When you start introducing sparging, etc., you move away from the initial intention. Just my IMO...
MMJfan
Well-Known Member
Cool. Sounds like a plan jmd...
>>So it is OK to use a little less water for the mash/boil and then add water to the fermenter to top it off at 5 gallons like you can do with extract brewing?
Yes.
You don't have to mash super thin, you can hold a bit back, and sparge with the extra. Its not that hard, and will get you a few gravity points, and your mash will still be thin, but not super thin. You dont want too high a Ph Mash which you may get if it's super thin (10# and 7.5 gallons).
Yes.
You don't have to mash super thin, you can hold a bit back, and sparge with the extra. Its not that hard, and will get you a few gravity points, and your mash will still be thin, but not super thin. You dont want too high a Ph Mash which you may get if it's super thin (10# and 7.5 gallons).
How do you take a pre-boil gravity reading? Won't 150 degree water cause the reading to be way off, and possibly crack my hydrometer from the rapid temperature change? Seems like it would take a long time for it to cool off enough for me to take a reading.
if you take the sample and place the sample tube in an ice bath (1 liter beer mugs work great) it'll cool fairly quickly. that said, I rarely take a pre-boil gravity test. in fact I only do it the firs 1 or 2 times I brew a recipe. if they're close (or on the nose!) and the post boil gravity is close, then I know my efficiency was in the range for the recipe. After that, I just take a post boil gravity reading.
mb82
Well-Known Member
I put the wort into the clear plastic case my hydrometer came in and put that into an icewater bath. It is not a lot of wort and it cools to useable temps in a few minutes.
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