1st BIAB Thoughts

I attempted my first all-grain BIAB session last night and wanted to share my thoughts.

My recipe was a 2.5 gallon IPA provided by LHBS:

5.6 lbs Pale Malt
0.6 lbs Crystal 60L
0.3 lbs Carafoam
.5 oz Simcoe - 60 min
.5 oz Amarillo - 20 min
.5 oz Amarillo - 10 min
.5 oz Amarillo - 0 min

I got some help with volumes & misc. calculations here:
http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286
I thought it was pretty cool that the calculator will allow adjustment to result in final volume of beer -- in this case their calculator allowed a final volume of 2.5 gallons of beer (post-fermentation, i.e., "brew length").

I found most of the provided estimates to be spot-on!

I brewed a partial mash (following deathbrewer's sticky) a couple of weeks ago, and found BIAB to be even easier with a single vessel to deal with. I'm a bit confused on calculating efficiency (can someone provide the equation using my recipe as example?), but SG into fermenter was 1.060 (what LHBS estimated).

In the end, I spent about 4hrs15min total (including clean-up), and had a really enjoyable time attempting my first all-grain batch.

Highly recommended!

Congrats! I've done a couple 2.5gal BIAB and so far it's been great.

Brewer's Friend has a Efficiency Calculator that seems to work pretty well. You just add your fermentables and it'll tell you the efficiency based on the gravity reading you enter. Did you take a pre-boil gravity reading?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

I love doing AG. I started with BIAB but since I like to make 5.5 gal batches I had to progress to a mash tun quickly in order to mash that much grain at once. I'm getting 80% efficiency when I do BIAB and 75% when I mash in my cooler tun. It's more rewarding than extract and I think the beer tastes better when it's AG, plus more bragging rights.

For my BIAB batches, I've found this calculator to work best for me and my pot/process. Just like the software out there, the differences from one to the other are sometimes huge.

turketron said:

Congrats! I've done a couple 2.5gal BIAB and so far it's been great.

Brewer's Friend has a Efficiency Calculator that seems to work pretty well. You just add your fermentables and it'll tell you the efficiency based on the gravity reading you enter. Did you take a pre-boil gravity reading?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

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That's great turk -- thanks! Its good to see the maximum efficiency & have it show mine! Yeah, my pre-boil gravity was 1042.

Beer-lord: That one looks nice and simple! The volume from the other calculator was just a bit higher, but still pretty close.

Jayhem -- have you tried a full batch BIAB? Is there any reason one couldn't?

wherestheyeast said:

Jayhem -- have you tried a full batch BIAB? Is there any reason one couldn't?

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The most grain I can successfully mash in my large nylon mesh bag that fits in my 5 gal pot is about 8 lbs. Most of my recipes call for 9-12 lbs of grain for a 5.5 gal batch so it's just easier to move to the mash tun. For a small beer (1.040 OG range) you could probably get away with 8 lbs if you could achieve good efficiency.

Jayhem said:

The most grain I can successfully mash in my large nylon mesh bag that fits in my 5 gal pot is about 8 lbs. Most of my recipes call for 9-12 lbs of grain for a 5.5 gal batch so it's just easier to move to the mash tun. For a small beer (1.040 OG range) you could probably get away with 8 lbs if you could achieve good efficiency.

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I just went to a larger pot. 7.5 gallon pot could only mash 10 lbs grain if I do a separate sparge. No mash tun, although I haven't ruled it out down the road.

Jayhem said:

The most grain I can successfully mash in my large nylon mesh bag that fits in my 5 gal pot is about 8 lbs. Most of my recipes call for 9-12 lbs of grain for a 5.5 gal batch so it's just easier to move to the mash tun. For a small beer (1.040 OG range) you could probably get away with 8 lbs if you could achieve good efficiency.

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So is it a question of pot limitation? I recently picked up a 10.5 gal kettle, and figured that I could easily double the grain bill from last night's batch.

I tried to pay attention to the weight/volumes/etc., to try and forecast the ability to do a larger batch and figured it to be possible.

I look forward to trying more!

wherestheyeast said:

So is it a question of pot limitation? I recently picked up a 10.5 gal kettle, and figured that I could easily double the grain bill from last night's batch.

I tried to pay attention to the weight/volumes/etc., to try and forecast the ability to do a larger batch and figured it to be possible.

I look forward to trying more!

Click to expand...

Aside from pot size it's also the fact that more than 8 lbs of grain starts to get awfully heavy and risk of ripping the bag becomes greater. Sparging becomes difficult as well.

A mash tun is a bit more expense (I built mine for about $50) but it is so much easier than dealing with a heavy, steaming bag and now I can mash 15-25 lbs of grain for a 10 gallon batch! :rockin:

Check out Seven's sticky in the AG forum, he's got a pretty awesome setup that allows him to do full 5.5gal BIAB batches with as much as 20 lbs of grain, he uses a turkey frying basket to support the grain bag so it doesn't tear.

I'd love to eventually move up to a system like his but until I move out of an apartment into somewhere with a yard or garage, I'm content to do the 2.5gal BIAB for the time being.

I did a 20lb batch last week in my keggle. Custom made bag can easily handle more weight than I could possibly get by filling it with wet grain. But I would definitely recommend a pulley setup for bigger batches.

I use a 15gallon pot and can easily do an 8 gallon biab. I've done a 10 gallon low gravity beer, but a that's nearing the max for my set-up.

Jayhem said:

Aside from pot size it's also the fact that more than 8 lbs of grain starts to get awfully heavy and risk of ripping the bag becomes greater. Sparging becomes difficult as well.

A mash tun is a bit more expense (I built mine for about $50) but it is so much easier than dealing with a heavy, steaming bag and now I can mash 15-25 lbs of grain for a 10 gallon batch! :rockin:

Click to expand...

BIAB is awesome, don't get me wrong. I made the choice to go right to 10gallon igloo, for more control. The decision maker was low cost (I already had a cooler) and I spend 4 hours from strike to pitching yeast. The fact that the MLT doesn't need to be sanitized made the difference, cleaning is simply rinse with the hose while the boil is going.

BIAB is less equipment and really gets you started with all-grain which is awesome, but the MLT allows me no limitations to my 5-gallon batch sizes, and I can BIAB and Mash for that wicked barley wine 1.200 here I come...

-Mac

I have a nice, cheap 10gal aluminum pot I picked up from a local mexican store ($20). It works really well, and I recommend it to anyone who can find a similar pot.

I haven't tried maxing out its capacity, but the largest bill I've done so far is 14 lbs of grain @ 7.5 gals of water. I do have about an 1.5 inch lip, so I think I could probably be safe to throw in another few lbs of grain before the level reaches too close to the top.

I jumped from extract to the dark side (all-grain) pretty fast, and went right into BIAB without ever going traditional, and I must say that I don't think I'd ever go traditional mash/sparge.

I get close to 80-82% efficiency on all my brews, and I have not had one that has failed me yet! BIAB is so easy! The only hard part sometimes is to try to find a good enough bag.

I'm wanting to jump up to a 15 gal pot one of these days, and finding a bag for that size is getting difficult!