BIAB all grain vs "regular" all grain brewing

I am looking to brew my first all grain batch. I would like some advice or recommendations as to which method to use, BIAB or the "regular" all grain brewing since it is my first time brewing an all grain batch. Any tips or other advice welcomed.

Thank you!

BIAB is convenient and requires no equipment upgrade if you already have a large BK, however, you might not get great efficiency using the BIAB method. You are also restricted to relatively low ABV beers due to less grains. Really all you need is a cooler converted MLT and you're set. This can be had for under $50.

I would go for the BIAB method first. It requires much less equipment and the results are just as good. Unless you are 100% certain that home brewing will be a life-long hobby, BIAB is the best way to experience all-grain brewing without investing a very large sum of money. Of course even BIAB setups can become expensive and elaborate, but in general it really is a simplification of the proceedure. Truth be told, I do BIAB brewing and I have no desire to expand beyond it. My setup is simple, I get great results, and I'm super pleased with the beers I'm making. It is working for me perfectly.

btw, I've hit 90% efficiency doing BIAB mashing once with a very long mash time (2 hrs). Although my average is between 80-85%. These are good numbers. When I keep to the schedule I have solid consistancy. Of course, I also mill my own grain and the crush is a tad finer than what you would use with anything other than BIAB.

My setup was designed to create great beer while keeping my materials cost low.

Another vote for BIAB. From a purely practical standpoint, BIAB is a much less-expensive way to try out all-grain, unless you're brewing on borrowed equipment, and there aren't really many drawbacks to the method.

I also don't really agree with the statement (which comes out regularly) that BIAB requires a huge kettle to do high-gravity beers. 'Traditional' BIAB is to mash in 100% of your brew water, which can certainly push the limits of a brew kettle's capacity on higher-gravity beers, but there's no real reason you can't mash thicker and sparge or even simply top off once you pull the grain bag out of the kettle.

Yet another BIAB vote given the assumption that you have the equipment for extract brews. All you need to add to your gear is a bag -- and maybe a bigger pot. You can always upgrade your gear to go traditional all grain.

I am also going to recommend BIAB. You don't need a ridiculous pot if you're willing to take ten minutes to sparge, and you really don't have to buy anything equipment wise. I keep thinking about building a conventional mash tun, just can't convince myself to spend the time dialing in new equipment when I get 80+ efficiency on every batch already. If you do a thick mash you can get about 10lbs into a 15 litre pot, which fits a paint bag just about perfectly.

I also will say BIAB. The lack of extra equipment enticed me to it. Normally I averaged 80% efficiency on my old system and am confident I could have made as big of a beer as I wanted.

Both methods are pretty simple and yield good results. I switch between BIAB and batch sparging with a cooler MT. I can say that neither is vastly superior to the other. Kind of depends on your skill set, if you have an old cooler b/w 20 - 48 qts it can likely be converted inexpensively.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ten-minute-cooler-mash-tun-conversion-125108/

You can also order the conversion parts on line from BobbyM at brewhardware.com for a reasonable price and a prettier result.

5 gal. paint strainer bags work fairly well and are also cheap. Sewing a bag is not that difficult either!

At the end of the day, both methods work well and it comes down to personal preference.

I've done about a dozen BIAB batches with a 5 gallon pot and a paint strainer bag. I mash with about 2 qts/gallon,"sparge"up to 4.25 gallons and yield 3.5 gallons after a 60 minute boil. I've hit gravities in the upper 70's without a special crush or anything. The only thing I had to buy was a $2 bag and the beer is much better. Sure, I'm not making high gravity beer, but I've learned a ton. I'll probably be upgrading to a bigger pot and bag soon, but BIAB is a great way to try AG with minimal cost.

BIAB is totally worth doing if you really want to do AG and don't yet have the equipment for traditional homebrew mashing.

BansheeRider said:

BIAB is convenient and requires no equipment upgrade if you already have a large BK, however, you might not get great efficiency using the BIAB method. You are also restricted to relatively low ABV beers due to less grains. Really all you need is a cooler converted MLT and you're set. This can be had for under $50.

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That's what I thought. Four trips to the hardware store and $50 in fittings later, it did not work out as easily as I had hoped.

Don't do what I did: I got into traditional all grain, bought/built all the equipment, and perfected my process. Then I tried BIAB on a whim, I loved it, and haven't done a traditional mash/sparge since. Now I have all this stuff that hasn't been used in months. I'm about to force myself to do more good old traditional mashes just so my hard work wasn't for nothing. If I had know about BIAB before I got the wild hare for all-grain, I would have saved time on building and mashing, and saved money

Well, I guess my vote for BIAB is not needed here.

I use a barley crusher set to factory settings and have made up to 1.065 OG beers with ease. I hit my expected OG almost every time. I recommend a 15 gallon BK if you plan on making 5 gallon batches and want to do "true" no-sparge BIAB which I find very convenient.

skunkfunk said:

That's what I thought. Four trips to the hardware store and $50 in fittings later, it did not work out as easily as I had hoped.

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Sorry about your luck. I followed this thread....https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

The cooler was on sale and the parts were readily available at Home Depot, they even had stainless washers. I have since upgraded to a false bottom though.

+1 for BIAB ... You can always add a MLT later. I've done fairly big beers in my 10 gallon pot with a dunk sparge. I've even partigyled a couple times, done one decoction mash,etc. All on the stove top btw.

Good way to get started with AG inexpensively.

BansheeRider said:

BIAB is convenient and requires no equipment upgrade if you already have a large BK, however, you might not get great efficiency using the BIAB method. You are also restricted to relatively low ABV beers due to less grains. Really all you need is a cooler converted MLT and you're set. This can be had for under $50.

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I don't know why people keep saying that efficiency isn't great with BIAB. I get great efficiency with my BIAB system... equivalent to any traditional three vessel system.

You're absolutely NOT limited to "relatively low ABV beers" if you have a big enough kettle. I have a 7.5gal turkey fryer kettle and have made any beer I want in it. If I start to push above 11lbs total grain weight, I substitute a little DME for some of the base grain. But in those cases, the final ABV is over 7%.

And all you really need is a $2 paint strainer bag from Home Depot to convert from extract to BIAB. I hold mash temps by wrapping the kettle in an old insulated blanket. A nice cooler would be great, but there's no need for it... and my blanket system keeps me from making any transfers of hot liquid.

Most of the recipes I've seen are either for 10gal or 5 gal. Right now I have a5 gal bk so I would be looking at 2.5-3.5 gal batches. Can I just do a straight conversion on the amounts of grains? For example if a10 gall recipe calls for 10# of a grain then I would use 3# for a3 gal batch?
And it's there any problem with just using my 5 gal carboy or 6.5gal primary with the smaller batch for primary fermentation?

gimpmeister said:

Most of the recipes I've seen are either for 10gal or 5 gal. Right now I have a5 gal bk so I would be looking at 2.5-3.5 gal batches. Can I just do a straight conversion on the amounts of grains? For example if a10 gall recipe calls for 10# of a grain then I would use 3# for a3 gal batch?
And it's there any problem with just using my 5 gal carboy or 6.5gal primary with the smaller batch for primary fermentation?

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Yes, you can scale batch size linearly.

Not a problem using a 5 or 6.5 gallon carboy for a smaller batch.

I do both BIAB and the traditional mash tun method wih a cooler. What I like about BIAB is that clean up is very easy during the colder winter months. I just dump the grain from my bag, let the bag dry out to shake the grain pieces away and then wash the bag. I don't like to do the mash tun in winter because I usually clean it out with my garden hose which I don't care to use in winter. I alsp find it a bit easier to control the mash temp with BIAB since the kettle can remain on my burner. I cannot do that as easily as my mash tun where I would need to add hot/cold water.

BansheeRider said:

BIAB is convenient and requires no equipment upgrade if you already have a large BK, however, you might not get great efficiency using the BIAB method. You are also restricted to relatively low ABV beers due to less grains. Really all you need is a cooler converted MLT and you're set. This can be had for under $50.

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I can get 75% efficiency using BIAB. Sometimes more.
I have brewed 8% alcohol beers using BIAB for 5-10 gallon batches.

Its a question of a tight crush, mash time and temperature, squeezing the bag, and dunk sparging. The BIAB dunk sparge adds 5-8% to the efficiency.

I think BIAB can be convenient and easy for most, as well as pretty cheap and without a ton of equipment.

For me, I like the set up I have because I'm an older weakling.

I have a traditional HERMS single tier, and it means I do very little lifting. When I started on the stove top, I was lifting and pouring and it was a bit tough on me. I still did it, but I would ache at the end of a brewday.

I went with a two tier, and that helped, but then I went with a single tier (with two pumps) so I never lift any wort or water at all. I have a "tippy dump" on my mash tun, to make it easier to dump out the grain without lifting as well.

If I was a guy, and younger, I'd probably go with a BIAB. I just can't easily lift the things I used to and that would be the only downside for me.

(That, and I brew indoors in my finished laundry room. Drips would be a mess for me!).

Yooper's right on the lifting issue. I do 6 gal BIAB batches on my stove top. Lifting the grain bag is pain (tip:use some sort of grate or cake rack over your kettle to sit the bag on to drip). If you brew in your garage and can mount a pulley,then no worries.

You don't want too big of a grain bill when you have to hoist it soaking wet from a hot kettle.

Thank you everyone for all the input!!!

My main concern with BIAB is that you cannot vorlauf (re-circulate the wort until it's clear) so you get that cloudy muck in the brew kettle. Will this damage the beer? I don't know, but I DO know it's a deviation from normal brewing procedure. I'd have to get comfortable with that first before doing BIAB.

SpeedYellow said:

My main concern with BIAB is that you cannot vorlauf (re-circulate the wort until it's clear) so you get that cloudy muck in the brew kettle. Will this damage the beer? I don't know, but I DO know it's a deviation from normal brewing procedure. I'd have to get comfortable with that first before doing BIAB.

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Nope, won't "damage" the beer.:rockin:

The 'only' downside to BIAB is the lifting that Yooper indicated. There are no clarity, or other issues with finished beer. I do BIAB with a buffalo boiler in my kitchen. When lifting the grain bag I stand on the countertop over the boiler. I don't bother but if you wanted to step mash it would be easy with BIAB in a boiler like this

If I did BIAB for full batches regularly, I'd rig up some kind of lifting device. I just junk all over the place and Harbor Freight probably has cheap pulleys or block and tackle or electric winch.

Although by that time you could have built a cooler mash tun...

Wilserbrewer here at HBT sells a nice little pulley. I haven't figured out how to get SWMBO to let me mount it over the stove.

I usually heave it up then pin against the microwave hood with one hand until I can slide a cooling rack on top of the kettle to rest the bag on.

I use the BIAB bag but brew using more traditional methods. Let the bag be your grain bed filter. No need to vorlauf or long, slow sparges to set a grain bed to filter your brews. It's a no brainer. period.

jtratcliff said:

Wilserbrewer here at HBT sells a nice little pulley. I haven't figured out how to get SWMBO to let me mount it over the stove.

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Mount a small screw hook inside the cabinet above the stove / microwave. Unless the cabinet is open and you are looking directly up and into the cabinet, no one will ever know it's there!

Cheers!

wilserbrewer said:

Mount a small screw hook inside the cabinet above the stove / microwave. Unless the cabinet is open and you are looking directly up and into the cabinet, no one will ever know it's there!

Cheers!

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Hmm.... That might just work. Thanks.

See there folks, that's fine customer service

jtratcliff said:

See there folks, that's fine customer service

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Or possibly in the wall, just above the cabinets in the soffit...unless you are over 7' tall, you'll never know it is there??? you could probably just leave the pulley attached and sitting on top of the cabinet out of view of all but an NBA center.

Or if you have a double cabinet like I have, there is likely vertical framing member of the cabinet centered b/w the two cabinet doors. just put a loop of cord around that...but it is best to have the bag hang over the kettle, then you can heat while the bag is draining....cheers!

What time does SWMBO go to bed, perhaps a covert night operation would work....