My First BIAB

And I'm sure it won't be my last

http://jakecpunut.com/2010/07/jakes-first-biab-brew-in-a-bag/

jakecpunut said:

And I'm sure it won't be my last

http://jakecpunut.com/2010/07/jakes-first-biab-brew-in-a-bag/

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Good to see you made BEER.
Won't be long before you have a proper mash tun/lauter tun and doing full scale AG.

Cheers

boo boo said:

Good to see you made BEER.
Won't be long before you have a proper mash tun/lauter tun and doing full scale AG.

Cheers

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Thanks! I already have a MLT and 2 1/2 barrel kegs that I'll be converting to keggles!

boo boo said:

Good to see you made BEER.
Won't be long before you have a proper mash tun/lauter tun and doing full scale AG.

Cheers

Click to expand...

BIAB is a form of full scale AG.

I started doing 3-vessel for my all grain brewing, but I've moved to BIAB for most beers (I still use 3-vessel occasionally for more complicated mash schedules).

For the majority of single-infusion 5-gallon batches, there's no real difference between BIAB and 3-vessel (single batch sparging both), aside from 3-vessel taking longer and leaving more stuff to clean up.

I love my BIAB/keggle setup-AG is the only way!

I have done 6 batches using this procedure: http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/
I consider this full scale AG brewing...I don't know if I will build a real mash tun, or not.

Glad to see people loving BIAB. I've been doing mini-mash recipes for over a year and I'm about to move to all grain. It seems like a similar principal just with larger quantities. Also it seems like the most affordable entry into AG brewing, just a bigger pot and a big bag.

I did my first AG yesterday using BIAB. I found it a pain in terms of mash temp control, also in that it doesn't filter the wort using the grain bed as a mash tun would. I resorted to doing a couple of thermal cycles, heating above mashing temp a suitable amount, then throwing insulation around the pot and allowing it to slowly cool to about 135F. Used a large colander, lifted the grain bag into the colander while reheating. At the end I set the bag and colander over a second pot, opened the bag, and slowly filtered the wort through the grain bed to clarify it..... recycling the cloudy stuff that came through at first. I'm building a mash tun before I run my next brew. I also set aside a percentage of my water and heated it to mashout temp, and sparged the grain. Efficiency seems to have been pretty good.... though a factor I failed to take into account makes it impossible to assign an accurate efficiency.

H.W.

I do a bunch of BIAB batches and I've never had much trouble controlling mash temp. It would take hours for my mash to cool to 135 as I typically lose less than one degree when conversion is done. With that all said, what were you doing wrong to have those results or are you just trolling?

RM-MN said:

I do a bunch of BIAB batches and I've never had much trouble controlling mash temp. It would take hours for my mash to cool to 135 as I typically lose less than one degree when conversion is done. With that all said, what were you doing wrong to have those results or are you just trolling?

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I bought the bag my LHBS had, which was not as fine a bag as I expected....... I'll be shopping for a finer bag if I repeat the process with a bag. In any case it was pretty cloudy until I recycled it.......... As far as temp loss, it was a small batch.....2 gallon, done in an enamel pot.......Room temp here is pretty low. After putting the grain bag in the strike water, the temp stabilized at about 152, but temp loss was fairly steady. Even wrapped, it went from 152 - 135 in about an hour, and that sitting on my heating pad............. why I don't know.... except that the temps in the room were about 55F

H.W.

With those cool of room temps I could see why you would lose a lot of heat in an hour of mashing. Next time try a 30 minute mash. If your grains are milled fine for BIAB conversion only takes a few minutes. I've been doing a few 10 minute mashes with good efficiency. If you have iodine you can test for conversion. You might also use something more insulating to wrap your pot.

For small batches, I just set my oven on its lowest temperature (170°F for mine). Once I dough in, I just stick the tun in the oven for the duration without any insulation. I don't lose anything in terms of mash temperature and I don't gain anything either.


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