BIAB Brewing (with pics)

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This thread is a big inspiration... I've been doing extract/partials for about a year now & have that process down pretty good. A good friend who has been brewing for /years/ gave me an old 11 gallon pot as a birthday brewing gift, and I think I'm going to step up to doing all grain BIAB.

If I buy that curtain from walmart a few pages ago (for $5!), do I need to cut/modify it to fit my pot?
 
fenners said:
This thread is a big inspiration... I've been doing extract/partials for about a year now & have that process down pretty good. A good friend who has been brewing for /years/ gave me an old 11 gallon pot as a birthday brewing gift, and I think I'm going to step up to doing all grain BIAB.

If I buy that curtain from walmart a few pages ago (for $5!), do I need to cut/modify it to fit my pot?
Click to expand...

To get started? No. Simply line the pot with the curtain and brew some beer. You will eventually want to cut/sew the curtain into a more manageable bag but at this point just shove it in the pot and have at it. Good luck!
 
I just did a porter double crushed in two paint strainer bags. Hardly any grains got into the wort. I love BIAB. It made my jump to AG so much easier
 
Saturday was the most fun, efficient, easy & successful brewing day since I've been doing this hobby, so I wanted to share my process (sorry, this is going to be long!)

I've tried a handful of different methods and have finally settled on one that has helped me to hit all my numbers accurately (volumes and OGs), eliminate the possibility of stuck sparges, and is scalable to 10 gallons with zero extra time & maybe a small amount of elbow grease.

Basics:

  • I would call it the Bag In A Cooler method
  • My philosophy is: I want to accomplish a few key things: combine liquid and grains, then separate liquid from grains. I see a straining bag as a perfect device to accomplish this end goal, with no real negatives
  • I do my mash in a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler that will easily hold enough grains for medium gravity 10 gallon beer batches as well
  • I use a BIAB mesh bag from Jeff Omundson (http://www.bagbrewer.com/contact-me.html)
  • I do my "sparging" in a 15 gallon kettle that also serves as the boil kettle
  • I do not move liquids with valves during the mash/sparge, I move the grain bag instead
  • I squeeze my grain bag. I do not think it is physically possible for someone to squeeze a bag with enough pressure to influence the temperature or pH of the grains inside
  • I realize some people like to just mash with the full volume of water in a single vessel, and that's fine, but my kettle has no lid so this is not optimal
  • The last recipe I did with this method was formulated with an estimated 75% mash efficiency and my OG ended up being 2 points over what I intended. What I'm saying here is that there is no efficiency hit (though I will admit that this is not a number that I really pursue - I just want it to be repeatable)

Nitty Gritty & Calculations

  • I use a spreadsheet I made in Google Docs to calculate my water volumes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AikCmAEkJA-8dFJ3bjIxTGtFM0RYQlUxaEZrVGFLb3c&output=html
  • I normally play around with my mash thickness ratio so that it gives me mash and sparge volumes that are easy to measure (quarter/half gallons/nice round numbers), but I stay within 1.25-1.33 qts/gal
  • During a 1 hour boil, my system will reliably lose 2 gallons to evaporation, so I start with a 7 gallon preboil volume target

Process

  • Weigh & mill grains the day before
  • Add up my mash & sparge water volumes together and heat it all at the same time in my kettle
  • Overshoot the strike temperature by about 10-12 degrees
  • Drain my strike water into the mash tun and seal it up to pre-heat the cooler
  • Stir & equalize the temperature at my desired strike temp
  • Drop in my grain bag and stir with a large stainless mash whip (like a huge whisk)
  • Check the temp for hot spots and when it looks good, seal the MLT up and start the timer for 60 minutes
  • At this point, whatever is left in my kettle is my already-measured sparge water
  • While you're waiting for the mash, you want to get your sparge water up to 175 and keep it there
  • When the mash timer is up, pick up the grain bag and squeeze it well
  • Transfer the grain bag into the kettle and turn it out around the edges to combine it with your sparge water. Stir it up well for several minutes.
  • You want the grains and sparge water to equalize at 168 (I don't care if mine is a little bit lower than that, but I do not want it above 170). Hold it at this temperature for 10 minutes.
  • While you wait, dump your 1st runnings into a trusted graduated bucket to check that your grain absorption was in-line with what the spreadsheet estimated (i.e. on my last batch, I started with ~3 gallons of mash water, the spreadsheet estimated I'd lose .75 gallons to absorption, and sure enough I collected 2.25 gallons of 1st runnings, great!)
  • If for some reason you didn't quite hit your desired volume on the 1st runnings, you can add a little bit of liquid to your sparge to compensate
  • Once your grains have sat at 168 for 10 minutes, pick the grain bag up again and squeeze it well
  • Set the grain bag aside and use your grains for whatever you'd like (bread, dog treats or discard)
  • Dump your 1st runnings into the kettle to combine with the 2nd runnings and fire the burner up!
  • You can take a pre-boil gravity reading now if you'd like - draw off a sample and set it aside to cool
  • Now's the time to quickly spray out your cooler, whisk or mash paddle, and grain bag & put them away (should be very quick, since the bag did most of the dirty work)
  • Boil as usual
  • BIAB haters will say that the method produces cloudy wort - probably even moreso on my method because I don't care about recirculating or filtering through the grain bed or anything like that. To combat this issue, I use Whirlfloc when there is 5 minutes left in the boil (not 15, not 10), and I chill using a 50' copper immersion chiller. I get great cold break that quickly settles to the bottom of my fermenters and leaves me with very clear beer
  • When my 60 minute boil is up, I drain my kettle into the same trusted graduated bucket I used before, to reality check how much wort I boiled down to. If you are still calibrating your system, this will be helpful. For me, it's just a check to make sure my batch volume is right on. If you need to top off with water (I usually avoid this), do it now. Now that your wort is in a bucket:
  • Another thing I've really had good results with is aeration via just dumping my wort between two sanitized buckets - this is fun to do with a friend too. One person picks up the bucket and dumps it into the other person's bucket, then the other person repeats. You may sing a sea shanty during this time if desired.
  • When you're good and aerated, transfer to fermenter

Equipment Rundown (the big, important stuff anyway)

  • 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler (valve/bulkhead optional, really - I only have one on there because I used to use a false bottom)
  • 10-15 gallon Kettle - obviously you will need the 15 if you want to brew 10 gallon batches (a keggle would work great & save you some money)
  • A good grain bag (I really recommend the one I linked to) - if you get a custom one made, make sure it's big enough for your largest vessel - i.e. mine is fitted to my kettle, so it's a little big for the mash tun, but that works out perfectly
  • Trusty graduated buckets

Conclusion

  • Because I am using larger vessels (10 gallon mlt, 15 gallon kettle), this is easily scalable to 10 gallon batch sizes. The only variables that would change would be the amount of grains that I'd be lifting, and I would change my pre-boil volume on my water calculator to 12 gallons.
  • I will just get cocky and say that I could do a 100% wheat or rye beer with this method because there's no way to really get a stuck sparge.
  • The wet grain bag is not that heavy (and I'm by no means a big guy), and you're only holding it for long enough to quickly squeeze and transfer from cooler to pot & pot to discard bucket.
  • Cleanup is quick & I even throw my grain bag and hop bag in the washing machine to make it even easier

Nothing groundbreaking here - but if you're reading this and you have a cooler, a grain bag and a kettle and haven't tried it this way - it's definitely worth a shot. I think you'll enjoy the brew day and hopefully the results!

:mug:
 
This is a great idea. I may have to give it a shot. Here's the problem I have with my current setup. I'm using a 42 qt pot and I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. It works even though it's a little tight to get it all the way around the rim of the pot.
My main issue is removing the bag. I'm on the stovetop and I have a range hood so it's near impossible to get the bag out cleanly. I can't raise it high enough or get enough leverage to get it high enough to clear the sides. So I always wind up getting some wort running down the side of the pot and scorching the hell out of my stove.
With the cooler, I'd have plenty of room to maneuver the bag and let it drain and even do a sparge. Then it's just a matter of getting the wort transferred to the kettle.
 
Use the curtain from Walmart. $5 and you don't need to stitch it. Get some spring-clamps and use that to hold it in place around the rim of your pot. I just did a brew like this yesterday and it worked fine.
 
SpacemanSpiff said:
This is a great idea. I may have to give it a shot. Here's the problem I have with my current setup. I'm using a 42 qt pot and I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. It works even though it's a little tight to get it all the way around the rim of the pot.
My main issue is removing the bag. I'm on the stovetop and I have a range hood so it's near impossible to get the bag out cleanly. I can't raise it high enough or get enough leverage to get it high enough to clear the sides. So I always wind up getting some wort running down the side of the pot and scorching the hell out of my stove.
With the cooler, I'd have plenty of room to maneuver the bag and let it drain and even do a sparge. Then it's just a matter of getting the wort transferred to the kettle.
Click to expand...

how long does your stove take to get 6+ gallons to a rolling boil?
 
Mysticmead said:
how long does your stove take to get 6+ gallons to a rolling boil?
Click to expand...

Maybe 20-30 minutes. I'm blessed with a Viking range that has a flamethrower for a front left. If I straddle the left and middle I have no issues getting a solid boil. I started with close to 7 gallons on the last batch and had no problem. That's the main reason I haven't ventured outside and if I could solve the bag extraction and related mess on the stovetop, I'd be golden.
 
SpacemanSpiff said:
Maybe 20-30 minutes. I'm blessed with a Viking range that has a flamethrower for a front left. If I straddle the left and middle I have no issues getting a solid boil. I started with close to 7 gallons on the last batch and had no problem. That's the main reason I haven't ventured outside and if I could solve the bag extraction and related mess on the stovetop, I'd be golden.
Click to expand...

Ahhh... yeah a Viking would explain it..
 
I just did my first BIAB yesterday and it went so so. The biggest problem I had was too much water. I stupidly used Beer Smith's 18.5 gal BIAB equipment profile that started with ~10.4 gal water for ~18# grain for a 5 gallon batch; the starting boil volume was ~9.5 gallons. I think this partially accounted for my low efficiency. At the time, I thought this was a lot of water to begin with but considering I'd never done BIAB or used this kettle, I went ahead anyways. I extended the boil time to 120 min to try to compensate but alas, my OG was still too low.

So my question is, what do most people use for an equipment profile in beersmith for BIAB? I've tweaked the trub loss, boil loss, etc. so the starting boil volume is only 7 gallons for future brew days, but I'm curious what other people are using.
 
Awesome guide! Really love the pulley setup. I am starting to research all grain and looking at what is needed to step up. After reading this I think I finally get it. For my partial grain I heat the water and then steep the grains for 30 min. Then add extract and boil for 60 while adding hops. With all grain it's heat the water add the grains. Get the mash temp and let it sit. Sparge and then you are right back to boil for 60 while adding hops?
 
drocu said:
I just did my first BIAB yesterday and it went so so. The biggest problem I had was too much water. I stupidly used Beer Smith's 18.5 gal BIAB equipment profile that started with ~10.4 gal water for ~18# grain for a 5 gallon batch; the starting boil volume was ~9.5 gallons. I think this partially accounted for my low efficiency. At the time, I thought this was a lot of water to begin with but considering I'd never done BIAB or used this kettle, I went ahead anyways. I extended the boil time to 120 min to try to compensate but alas, my OG was still too low.

So my question is, what do most people use for an equipment profile in beersmith for BIAB? I've tweaked the trub loss, boil loss, etc. so the starting boil volume is only 7 gallons for future brew days, but I'm curious what other people are using.
Click to expand...

Yeah that setting in Beersmith defaults for a 10 gallon batch, so you should definitely make your own Equipment profile. I use a 15 gallon keggle but still only do 5 gallon batches. I usually start with about 6.5 to 7 gallons of water. Just make sure that you set the Batch Size to 5 gallons when in your recipe design and then go to Mash Details - this will show you how much water you need and what temp the strike water should be to hit your desired mash temp.

You'll get better with each batch, I know I did. Good luck!
 
Sippin37 said:
Yeah that setting in Beersmith defaults for a 10 gallon batch, so you should definitely make your own Equipment profile. I use a 15 gallon keggle but still only do 5 gallon batches. I usually start with about 6.5 to 7 gallons of water. Just make sure that you set the Batch Size to 5 gallons when in your recipe design and then go to Mash Details - this will show you how much water you need and what temp the strike water should be to hit your desired mash temp.

You'll get better with each batch, I know I did. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah, Beersmith is funky. I did adjust the batch size to 5 gallons and it still had me using >10 gallons.

Do you start with 6.5-7 gallons before mashing in or is 6.5-7 gallons your pre-boil volume (after mashing)?
 
That's before mashing in. It just depends on how many pounds of grain you are going to be using. Beersmith does all the guessing for you though, that's why it is so great.
 
I attempted my first BIAB last night, and for the most part it went very well. I love the time savings and simplicity compared to the HERMS rig I used to have. Most of the issues I had are minor and will be easily correctable.

The one issue that has me stumpted is the amount dust (I guess you would call it) from the grain that made it into the boil. There wasn't any husk in the boil that I could tell. But after chilling, it pretty much turned into cake batter and quickly plugged up my hop stopper (from theelectricbrewery.com). I had a sanitized auto-siphon handy that saved the day, but in the future I'd like to make use of the hop stopper.

I followed the OP's process pretty closely. I used a voile bag, not a paint strainer. I ended up stirring the mash quite a bit while fighting to adjust the temp and mashing out. I didn't drain the bag for very long (maybe 5-10 Min), and only lightly pressed the grain bed with a pot lid. I get my grain crushed at he LHBS, so I don't have a lot of control over that at the moment. I don't think the crush would be the problem considering a lot of BIAB brewers double crush their grains. Also, there was less than 2oz of pellet hops in the batch, so that isn't the issue.

Has anyone had this problem before? Is allowing these finer grain particles into the boil just an inevitable part of the BIAB process or am I doing something wrong?

A couple of possible solutions I have thought of are:
- minimize stirring the mash
- don't mash out and adjust efficiency to compensate
- try a different bag (although I think my bag is just fine)
- buy grain from somewhere else, or get a mill.

Any ideas?
 
Seeing as though you are not lautering through a grain bed, you will get much cloudier wort (flour, etc). This is not a problem as everything settles out in either the NC cube or the primary. A lot of us BIAB'ers just dump the whole kettle into the primary and let the beer gods sort it out.

Not sure of a solution to offer concerning your hop stopper getting blocked up, I'm one of those that uses pellets and just dumps everything from the kettle straight into the fermenter.
 
I'm defintely not concerned with it making it's way into the fermenter. I use pellet hops whenever I can, but there are some recipes where whole hops are the only option, or even a large portion of pellet hops can still plug up a dip tube.

Maybe I need to selectively use the hop stopper depending on the recipe. I would still like to find a way to use it regularly.
 
thughes said:
Hop spider. ;)
Click to expand...

If I have to, I will resort to that. I've used one before and while the results are good, I wasn't a big fan of trying to stir in/around it.

Has anyone been able to use a ss mesh hop stopper successfully with BIAB?
 
Some guys just rinse the grain bag and then put it back in the kettle for the duration of the boil. Pull it out before chilling....gets all the hops residue, break, and other stuff out.
 
I used the extra voile I had and made a hop sack. It has a tie string at the top that I tie off the one of the handles of my kettle (and keggle). it's big enough and long enough to just about reach the bottom of the pot and allows plenty of room for the hops to be mixed by the boil. no hops into the primary that way.

you used to use a herms. if you still have a pump you can recirculate during the mash and it'll help filter the wort pretty well.

Other than that, if you can post a pic of your bag material, just to see if it's the real fine weave or not.
 
A close up picture of the bag is below. I bought it from another HBTer who was making some extras. I don't think the quality of the bag is the problem. I no longer have a pump, so a recirc is not an option. I may try another batch and see if I can keep it suspended by stirring as I drain, or if I can scrape it away from the stopper as it drains. I hate to waste the money I spent on this thing.

IMAG0119.jpg
 
rudy0498 said:
A close up picture of the bag is below. I bought it from another HBTer who was making some extras. I don't think the quality of the bag is the problem. I no longer have a pump, so a recirc is not an option. I may try another batch and see if I can keep it suspended by stirring as I drain, or if I can scrape it away from the stopper as it drains. I hate to waste the money I spent on this thing.
Click to expand...

What I do is mash in the voile bag in the kettle. Stir enough to dough in. When I am done mashing I lift the bag out and sit it in a large stainless colander over the kettle and let it drain.
Then I put the bag in a food safe 5 gal bucket and pour rest of my water at 170 deg water on it. Let it mash out for 10 min. Then I squeeze the bag out. While this is happening I am bringing my first runnings up to boil.
Then I pour off the bucket and leave a little bit in the bottom which has some grain dust in it.
This method leaves very little grain dust in the kettle.
My efficiency has always been mid 80s this way.
 
Hey guys - I want to try this out... but not sure what voile is!!? Is it like a sheer curtain? Cotton? Nylon? Avoid colored material?
 
rudy0498 said:
Has anyone been able to use a ss mesh hop stopper successfully with BIAB?
Click to expand...

I think it was in one of the "hop taco" threads someone suggested ordering a SS mesh sheet (I forget how fine) from McMaster-Carr, folding it in half, clamping the edges and inserting a dip tube. I tried this and have had very good success, though I sometimes have to scrape it with my paddle during transfer if my brew has a lot of trub, usually my wheat beers.

That being said, I no-chill, so I don't really have to contend with cold break.
 
I bottled my first two BIAB batches today. they were both cream ales that contained some flaked corn and rice. I noticed that there were very tiny particles suspened inside my beer while it was in the bottling wand. I cannot recall seeing these before so I was wondering if I made a mistake crushing the flaked corn and rice with the rest of my grain or if these partiles are just normal for the course of doing BIAB. Any ideas of what this might have been and if it could be a problem?

I did use new paint strainer bags to hold my grain.
 
msa8967 said:
I bottled my first two BIAB batches today. they were both cream ales that contained some flaked corn and rice. I noticed that there were very tiny particles suspened inside my beer while it was in the bottling wand. I cannot recall seeing these before so I was wondering if I made a mistake crushing the flaked corn and rice with the rest of my grain or if these partiles are just normal for the course of doing BIAB. Any ideas of what this might have been and if it could be a problem?

I did use new paint strainer bags to hold my grain.
Click to expand...

no need to crush flaked corn and rice.. just toss it in the mash. if you use voile instead of paint strainer bags it'll keep small particles out of the primary
 
I kind of figured that so I moved to using voille material for the next several BIAB brews. I am not sure if the tiny particles will just fall to the bottom on the bottles and settle out with the yeast sediment or not.
 
I hope to do a BIAB batch this weekend and after reading about the first 20 pages of this thread I was still left with one question. Maybe it was addressed and I missed it, but why is a finer crush or double crush helpful for efficiency using this technique? I just got a RebelBrewer mill for my birthday and get great crushes with it.
 
by crushing finer you expose more of the grain to the water. with a high water volume mash like with BIAB it will convert pretty complete if crushed fine. you also don't have to compensate for not sparging which would normally mean adding an extra pound or two of grain. In a traditional 3v setup they don't crush to fine because they could get a stuck sparge. In BIAB that's not an issue. I have my barley crusher set to .034 and average 75% efficiency
 
perimeter said:
Mine is set to 0.027". Do you think that'll work okay for a BIAB batch?
Click to expand...

should work great.. I could go much tighter on mine I just haven't played with it since setting to .034. Hmmm... might try dropping it down to a tighter setting on my next beer to see how I like it. The main thing in BIAB is ti crush it nice and fine.
 
Is it easy to make the gap a little smaller on the Barley Crusher? I just got one but didn't want to mess with the gap spacing for fear of breaking the thing, lol!
 
Sippin37 said:
Is it easy to make the gap a little smaller on the Barley Crusher? I just got one but didn't want to mess with the gap spacing for fear of breaking the thing, lol!
Click to expand...

real easy. loose 2 screws.. insert feeler gauge at desired thickness.. turn adjustment knobs to tighten roller to the feeler gauge. tighten screws
 

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