BIAB basket instead of bag.

Why couldn't I make a basket made of the same screen material as a false bottom instead of using a bag for my mash?

Money. Bags are SUPER cheap.

I was thinking of lining a basket with that material... I think it would be super easy to clean and you would have one less item to deal with.

So money is the only reason? Cause I could do it super cheap since my job is making brewing systems

Some people like to squeeze the remaining fluid out of the bag. That would be trickier with a basket.

I could easily make a thing to push down the grains

This is something that I've been kicking around for awhile. I have a 15.5 gallon stainless Bayou Classic that came with a steamer basket. I took my Greenlee punch to the basket and fashioned a smattering of bigger holes into... instead of using a bag, I've been thinking about lining the basket with some 300 or 400 SS mesh (there's a vendor on another thread who has sort of fallen into supplying custom SS mesh things for the HB community).

This really appeals to me. Cleaning would be a cinch.. turn it upside down and spray the chunks off with a hose. Done.

MetallHed said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-one-vessel-ag-system-380656/

Click to expand...

GREAT thread.. I find myself doubting that just the mesh alone would withstand a grain bill for 10 gallon batches, which is why I was considering lining my steamer basket with mesh. Leaving a 1/2" space between the basket and the mesh basket might work out well though.. although, I could punch extra holes in the bottom of my basket to kind of "force" more of a "false bottom" sort of thing.

This is all very similar (if I recall correctly) those fancy "Meisterbrau" systems.

I love HBing. So many option.

Hmmm, what we need is something like a French press brewing-pot.

The two negatives that we came up with while brainstorming this a while back was:
1. Expense; more expensive than flat false bottom
2. Loss of volume; the basket material itself will take up volume and it will not exactly match the inside of the kettle resulting a little lost volume.

Nice! That looks similar to what I'm thinking except just use regular ss sheet for the sides and screen material for the bottom and just recirculating and sparking from the top using a spray ball

I'm not too worried about the cost because I know I can get the screen material for the bottom for about $8 and the side sheet material would be at the cost that the company I work for gets it for. I'm also not worried about it taking up space since I'm going to be making my own mash/kettle so I can just make it a bit bigger to account for the space the screen pot takes up

well, that sounds awesome! You should try the hop thing from that other thread too.

Here's a link to an album from a guy on Reddit that uses a bucket to "BIAB" along with pumps and other goodies. He also has a home-made auto-sparge system that looks pretty cool. It could give you some other ideas.

LINK

FWIW, that guy in the other thread I posted, wobdee, is my father-in-law and I brew with him often. That basket of his is VERY well made and has been through quite a few brews without showing any signs of wear or tear. He also uses that device to push down on the grain hard and there hasn't been any problems.