Biab, wow!

I know everyone is aware of the magnificence of BIAB brewing, but despite batch sparking for the past two years I just tried BIAB for the first time. Talk about speed! All in all, I was done and clean in under 4 hours, compared to a usual 5-6 hour day! My only complaint is the terribly cloudy wort, but I know there is beer on the other end of that wort. Anyone have any good clues how to get clearer wort from BIAB brewing? Maybe a finer mesh bag?

It will all settle out...no worries

That's what I'm thinking. I got great efficiency with around 80%, I don't consider the cloudy wort a draw back from the process.

I agree, clear wort is not necessary for clear beer. I get crystal clear beer from very cloudy wort.

Brew on

Schmoltsbeer said:

I know everyone is aware of the magnificence of BIAB brewing, but despite batch sparking for the past two years I just tried BIAB for the first time. Talk about speed! All in all, I was done and clean in under 4 hours, compared to a usual 5-6 hour day! My only complaint is the terribly cloudy wort, but I know there is beer on the other end of that wort. Anyone have any good clues how to get clearer wort from BIAB brewing? Maybe a finer mesh bag?

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I once worried about that.....but no longer. It just gives a bit more sediment in the fermenter, and has no effect on final clarity. A bit more sediment in your fermenter is a cheap price to pay for the time savings.
My last BIAB brew used a 20 minute mash, and a 30 minute boil, with my floating heater to assist things to boil and to strike temp, and fast chill with my immersion chiller (about 10 minutes). Total time including crafting the recipe on Brewer's Friend and crushing grain, taking equipment out, cleaning and putting it away was under 2 hours 20 minutes including dunk sparging with about 1/3 of my strike water. Needless to say I had my ducks in a row and used my time efficiently. I often dough in at noon and finish after I get done working which removes the mash time from the equation altogether..... or leave it over night.
As I write, I'm drinking a pseudo lager made with Green Magic experimental hops. It's about the same color as Bud, and crystal clear. My beers tend toward orange to red colors, but I occasionally go on a BMC kick........ ultra pale but with some hop bite, and flavor.

H.W.

I love BIAB. Between the time savings, it reduces the amount of equipment I have to bring up from the basement.

I always use a whirfloc tablet at the end of my boil. I've never had an issue with a particularly cloudy finished beer. I've used irish moss, to clear it too, and haven't had any problems producing a clear beer.

Most of my wort comes out cloudy I never have worried about it, I do cold crash and this seems to help with drop any impurities out and clear the beer and when I pour my beers I hardly ever have any trub in my bottles.

I plan on boiling to 11 liters and transferring 10 liters to the fermentor. Flock the proteins with a little Irish Moss and most of what transfers is very clear.

I pour my wort into my fermenters through a hop sack

Owly055 said:

My last BIAB brew used a 20 minute mash, and a 30 minute boil, with my floating heater to assist things to boil and to strike temp, and fast chill with my immersion chiller (about 10 minutes). Total time including crafting the recipe on Brewer's Friend and crushing grain, taking equipment out, cleaning and putting it away was under 2 hours 20 minutes including dunk sparging with about 1/3 of my strike water. Needless to say I had my ducks in a row and used my time efficiently. I often dough in at noon and finish after I get done working which removes the mash time from the equation altogether..... or leave it over night.

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When you start boasting about how quick you can do a batch, please let folks know you only do 2.5 gallon batches. I know you claim people doing bigger batches have bigger burners and coolers, but it does make a big difference in time. I reckon I could cut an hour out of my time going from 6 gallon to 2.5 gallon batches, maybe more.

Calder said:

When you start boasting about how quick you can do a batch, please let folks know you only do 2.5 gallon batches. I know you claim people doing bigger batches have bigger burners and coolers, but it does make a big difference in time. I reckon I could cut an hour out of my time going from 6 gallon to 2.5 gallon batches, maybe more.

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If the heat source isn't up to the job then volume doesn't matter. Most time savings with biab are cleanup and avoiding the hour long fly sparge and those are not affected by volume. Not everyone does a full volume mash so the sparge time savings will vary on that aspect.

pretzelb said:

If the heat source isn't up to the job then volume doesn't matter. Most time savings with biab are cleanup and avoiding the hour long fly sparge and those are not affected by volume. Not everyone does a full volume mash so the sparge time savings will vary on that aspect.

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I have no argument with what you say, and I made no comment on the BIAB time savings. Most people make 5 gallon batches, and when they see someone say they can complete a batch on 2.5 hours, they immediately think that is impressive and wonder how you can do a 2.5 gallon batch in that time.

Making a 2.5 gallon batch vs a 5 gallon batch has time savings whatever you brew on. Whatever equipment you have it is always quicker to sort out and crush grain for a smaller batch. It is always quicker to bring a smaller batch to the boil and cool it. It is always quicker to drain the bag in a smaller batch. I've just seen a lot of posts by Owly055 where he has said (or even boasted) how quick he can do a batch, but doesn't say that he normally does 2.5 gallon batches; I think it gives a false impression, as I think everyone (regardless of equipment or method) will be able to produce a smaller batch quicker.

With a 30 minute boil (which I think he said he did), I think I could easily do a 1 gallon BIAB in under 2 hours - size does count when you are telling people how quick you can do something.

Calder said:

I have no argument with what you say, and I made no comment on the BIAB time savings. Most people make 5 gallon batches, and when they see someone say they can complete a batch on 2.5 hours, they immediately think that is impressive and wonder how you can do a 2.5 gallon batch in that time.

Making a 2.5 gallon batch vs a 5 gallon batch has time savings whatever you brew on. Whatever equipment you have it is always quicker to sort out and crush grain for a smaller batch. It is always quicker to bring a smaller batch to the boil and cool it. It is always quicker to drain the bag in a smaller batch. I've just seen a lot of posts by Owly055 where he has said (or even boasted) how quick he can do a batch, but doesn't say that he normally does 2.5 gallon batches; I think it gives a false impression, as I think everyone (regardless of equipment or method) will be able to produce a smaller batch quicker.

With a 30 minute boil (which I think he said he did), I think I could easily do a 1 gallon BIAB in under 2 hours - size does count when you are telling people how quick you can do something.

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If you size the equipment to the size of the batch, the time will be pretty similar. You don't honestly think that it take a big brewery days to heat their mash with an undersized turkey fryer nor mill their grain with a Barley Crusher.

I used to have my system pretty well matched so that while heating the water to strike temp I could weigh and mill the grain and have it ready when the water was ready. Then I went from hand cranking to power and now my grain is ready quite a bit before the water is hot enough. Now if I were willing to get a better hear source, I could cut time from my brew day but I don't spend enough time on it to matter much.

Calder said:

I have no argument with what you say, and I made no comment on the BIAB time savings.

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I thought you did. If not, then I'm not sure what you meant by "but it does make a big difference in time." And the way I read this next quote makes me think you do have an argument with what I say.

Calder said:

Making a 2.5 gallon batch vs a 5 gallon batch has time savings whatever you brew on. Whatever equipment you have it is always quicker to sort out and crush grain for a smaller batch. It is always quicker to bring a smaller batch to the boil and cool it.

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Sorry but either I'm missing your point or you aren't paying attention to mine because I think you're wrong. If your heat source was a fixed factor then yes, volume would affect boil time all the way to the point where too much water and you can't get a boil.

But heat source is not a fixed factor. We all have different burners and different stove tops and different heat sources. In most cases this is even more dramatic when you compare the 5g brewer to the 2 or 3g brewer. When brewing small amounts most are inside using a stove top and that is a big difference between those using brewing burners.

You would be correct if most 2-3g brewers were using the same equipment as the 5g brewers. It would be faster to boil 3g on a Blichman burner than 7g. But I suspect most trying to boil 3g are not using something like a Blichman burner. Instead I'd bet a nickel the time to reach boil is very similar on average when you compare a 5g brewer to a 2.5g brewer.

And the same goes for chilling. If you were correct when you say "whatever equipment you have" then why are there so many different chilling options out there? Why are there happy users boasting how they save so much time and water because of the new XYZ chilling product they just bought? Equipment does matter - it is a major factor. You'd be correct if the 5g and 2.5g brewer both used the same pump and the same plate chiller but that is rare and a minor time savings.

Calder said:

It is always quicker to drain the bag in a smaller batch. I've just seen a lot of posts by Owly055 where he has said (or even boasted) how quick he can do a batch, but doesn't say that he normally does 2.5 gallon batches; I think it gives a false impression, as I think everyone (regardless of equipment or method) will be able to produce a smaller batch quicker.

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Again I would disagree. Well, maybe a smaller bag drains faster, I'm not so sure about the physics there. Seems like a sponge with the same absorption will drip at the same rate no matter the size. Squeezing will take longer due to size. Either way I can't see it being a major factor. The obvious time savings for BIAB is once the bag is hoisted you can start the boil right away during that drip time and that is a time savings over even a batch sparge.

Calder said:

With a 30 minute boil (which I think he said he did), I think I could easily do a 1 gallon BIAB in under 2 hours - size does count when you are telling people how quick you can do something.

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The 30 minute boil is I see more people doing but that isn't a factor of size either. That is people saying conversion is over and they don't need the full 60. Batch size isn't related to that.

Again, size isn't the main factor in nearly every time saving biab story you read. As I said before the main factors are clean up (1v instead of 3v) and sparge. I will agree that most biab brewers leave the details out on sparging.

Look at it this way. Most batch spargers can boast time savings over when they used to fly sparge for 45+ minutes. Most biab brewers (depending on mash and sparge method) can boast time savings over the batch spargers. This is true no matter the batch size.

There are some time savings with smaller batches but mainly those are minor. If you deal with the same flow rate then yes 2.5g will drain faster than 5g but that isn't where the main time savings are coming from. And sure you could take your 5g batch burner and plate chiller and save time heating and cooling, but imho that isn't the main point and it seems wrong to assume you'd use the same equipment on different batch sizes.

Shrug. Cheers.

Calder said:

When you start boasting about how quick you can do a batch, please let folks know you only do 2.5 gallon batches. I know you claim people doing bigger batches have bigger burners and coolers, but it does make a big difference in time. I reckon I could cut an hour out of my time going from 6 gallon to 2.5 gallon batches, maybe more.

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Frankly I completely disagree with your assertions.......... I brew 3 gallon batches on the kitchen stove. I was looking at outdoor burners for brewing that often range as high as 75,000 BTUs, where kitchen stove burners typically are about 7000 for the large burners, with some on commercial stoves going as high as 12,000. Are you trying to tell me that physics do not apply? That I can boil 3.5 gallons of water with 7000 BTUs faster than you can boil a 6 gallon brew with 60,000 BTUs.... or whatever your burner is rated? I use a 2500 watt floating heater. This could just as easily be twice that size for a big brewer. Are you telling me that the multiple coil chillers, counterflow chillers, and plate chillers which are highly efficient can't chill 5.5 gallons as fast as my simple single coil chiller can chill 3 gallons?

My point was not to as you put it "brag" about my time, but to educate brewers that it is possible to greatly reduce your brew day. The strategies I use, all apply equally to the big boys.

Improve your heating efficiency
Improve your cooling efficiency
Reduce mash time
Reduce boil time
Use BIAB

Have your ducks in a row, equipment readily available and organized, crush grain while heating water, (or pre-crush). Measure out hops while mashing, clean and put away equipment when you are waiting for mash or boil, doughing in and going away to do whatever you need to do.... such as work, sleep, study, etc, and do your boil later. Cranking your water heater up to 170 the night before, installing a couple of high capacity valves on your water system for rapid filling.

Conventional mashing, lautering, sparging imposes an immediate time penalty over BIAB, a penalty you have to accept at the outset if you choose that process..... But it is not the only process out there anymore.

This is about making your brew day manageable...... for people who have a life.

I'm working with my friend I just started in brewing to cut his time down. He uses a turkey fryer and boils outdoors. The next two steps are to cut down to a 30 minute boil, and build a heat shield around his burner so the heat is captured as was described by a brewer in a recent post. He brews 5.5 gallon brews. He already cranked his water heater up in the morning for the last brew and was able to mash with water straight out of the tap!! He then cranked it back down to normal (the 170F setting was perfect). He has a laundry sink with high capacity taps already so he can mash in the laundry room. Eventually we will set up an exhaust hood as there is an ideal location to do this, so we can boil indoors. That location happens to be right next to a dryer plug. Eventually we will install a spa panel that simply plugs into the dryer outlet, so he can drop 5000 watts of additional heat in. A higher capacity chiller is of course the next step, and raising the burner enough that you can simply open the spigot and drain into a brew bucket.

One step at a time, and eventually you reach the goal of a greatly shortened brew day. You can do it too........ once you decide it's possible.


H.W.

My brew day is about 13 minutes using BIAB.......I guess I should note that I only brew two bottles at a time.