BIAB Bag Question

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f4an

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I am going to do my first BIAB and I was wondering if I should buy a fine or coarse bag? Any suggestions.
 
What catalog? I made my own and have more in it than that. I might buy one or two to have spares in case of blowout.
 
Very fine mesh. Nylon or poly voile is the usual choice. The bag should be big enough that you can put your brew pot in it.

What catalog did you find a bag in?
 
I bought one from northern brewer about a months ago:

7322 Straining Bag - Coarse Mesh 18" x 32" 1 $5.99 $5.99

Just used it last weekend for my first BIAB Full Mash and it worked great. Wort came out perfectly clear, I did a vorlauf, but wouldn't have had to.

I used a modified BIAB - I made a temporary MLT out of a 5 gallon igloo cooler:replaced the little spring valve with a ball valve, Lined the cooler with the mesh bag. The only minor snag was I had to pull the bag up little bit and wiggle it to get it to start flowing when I opened the valve.

12.5 grain, single fission, batch sparge, and managed about a 65% eff. - not to bad for a first attempt at full mash
 
I have read on several places that you want to avoid nylon, as it will become somewhat "stretchy" when hot. Anybody know of where to buy a bag big enough to do 10gal batches in a keggle?
 
Go to a hardware store and buy a paint strainer bag - i use this all the time and it works great. It also costs half as much as the "specially made for brewing bags" and it is pretty much the exact same thing.
 
I bought one from northern brewer about a months ago:

7322 Straining Bag - Coarse Mesh 18" x 32" 1 $5.99 $5.99

Just used it last weekend for my first BIAB Full Mash and it worked great. Wort came out perfectly clear, I did a vorlauf, but wouldn't have had to.

I used a modified BIAB - I made a temporary MLT out of a 5 gallon igloo cooler:replaced the little spring valve with a ball valve, Lined the cooler with the mesh bag. The only minor snag was I had to pull the bag up little bit and wiggle it to get it to start flowing when I opened the valve.

12.5 grain, single fission, batch sparge, and managed about a 65% eff. - not to bad for a first attempt at full mash

+100

This is my exact setup and it works great. Here's another tip: take a bit of thick wire and stick one end in the drain inside the cooler. The wire that sticks out will push the bag away from the drain a little bit, so that the wort will flow out.

Also, PAINT STRAINERS ROCK. I use a 5gal one and can mash up to 12lbs or so of grain.

FINALLY, have your LHBS double-crush your grain really fine. I have them run it through the mill twice. Now I get around 75-80% efficiency. :rockin:
 
Go to a hardware store and buy a paint strainer bag - i use this all the time and it works great. It also costs half as much as the "specially made for brewing bags" and it is pretty much the exact same thing.

I've never seen one big enough for a real BiaB. The 5 gallon kind works great for partial mashes and hops, though.

The BiaB bag should be big enough to put your brew kettle inside of--you basically want the grain floating around unconstrained as though there is no bag. It's just there to lift out the grain at the end.
 
I got two bags from NB I forget the sizes but ones ridiculously big, like 3 feet by 2 feet or something. Works great though. I have a 5 gallon round and a 13 gallon rectangle. The 5 gallon I just use the spigot it came with. I have a plastic "mash paddle" that I just stick between the bag and spigot and it drains fine. I might even use the bigger bag with the rectangular tun since I think the manifold I made is botched. Couldn't get the wort to clear and had to strain through a hop bag.
 
I've never seen one big enough for a real BiaB. The 5 gallon kind works great for partial mashes and hops, though.

Yeah, no-sparge BIAB needs a bigger one. But I use the 5 gal cooler & 5 gal bag and do a sparge with great results.
 
Thank you everyone for your help. I did my first batch with 12 pounds of grain and got a SG of 1.062, I was shocked! I don't do that well in my mash tun. I ran the grans through my mill twice trying to get my gravity up. Not having to worry about a stuck sparge was nice.
 
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