BIAB question

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
craigd

craigd

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
315
Reaction score
2
Location
Central Florida
Recent discussions here and at BN have me thinking of trying Brew in a Bag All-Grain to compare to my minimash setup. Given that I have a 32qt brewpot I think I would be very tight on volume with BIAB. Any reason I could not just do a 4 gallon boil (make a concentrated wort) with this same method and top off with water to 5 gal at the end? I suppose I would need to slightly adjust hop schedule to account for a higher gravity in the boil, no? The biggest obstacle to AG brewing to me is the kettle investment rather than the mash tun... Doing this could save me enough per batch to justify a new kettle soon but I'd like to proof-of-concept it first. I have heard folks say they can boil 5G in a pot this size but I almost have boil-overs with my 3G extract boils now so I must be doing it wrong :drunk:

-Craig
 
I'm doing this very thing as I type! I have 4.5 gallons in one kettle, and 1.5+ (as much as I dared put in without boiling over) in another and I have about 10 minutes left in the boil. I use TLAR to divide up the hops between batches. (that looks about right)

... scurries off to add hops ...

I used Edwort's Haus Pale Ale and my efficiency worked out to 80.4% which I'm fairly astonished with, truth be told.

I'm interested to hear how other are doing this. It's a great "foot in the door" for me into AG brewing.

Cascadie
 
You could certainly do a concentrated boil, and yes, you would have to use more hops for bittering. However, it IS possible to do a full boil in your pot. You CANNOT walk (or even look) away from it. But if you keep one hand on the gas valve, and one on a spray bottle, you should be fine. Also, you don't have to keep the burner running all out once you reach a boil.

I do all my BiaB batches in a 30 qt pot.
 
You'll get a really low efficiency, as you will be sparging 2-3 gallon less from your mash as a typical setup with adequately sized brewpot.
 
32 quarts is 8 gallons, why do you only want to do a 4 gallon boil? I get that much pretty easily out of my 20 quart stock pot. Perhaps you actually have a smaller stock pot. My batch started out about an inch and a half from the rim, and it was fine, but as has been said, don't even think about leaving until after your hot break. I just barely have enough heat from my burners to boil this way on my stovetop.
 
Cascadie said:
32 quarts is 8 gallons, why do you only want to do a 4 gallon boil? I get that much pretty easily out of my 20 quart stock pot. Perhaps you actually have a smaller stock pot. My batch started out about an inch and a half from the rim, and it was fine, but as has been said, don't even think about leaving until after your hot break. I just barely have enough heat from my burners to boil this way on my stovetop.
Click to expand...

Grains add a LOT of volume. BIAB has you put in all of the water for the entire batch (considerably more than 5 gallons, has to account for absorption and boiloff for the entire process) at once. To do a full BIAB the way that the original post says to, you really need 10gal+.

I looked at doing BIAB with my pot but decided to just use a cooler I had around, using it to mash with the bag rather than a pesky braid/false bottom.

This process works a lot better than people seem to want to admit, but you do need a very large pot or to split the batch.
 
Kilgore_Trout said:
Grains add a LOT of volume. BIAB has you put in all of the water for the entire batch (considerably more than 5 gallons, has to account for absorption and boiloff for the entire process) at once. To do a full BIAB the way that the original post says to, you really need 10gal+.
Click to expand...

I don't do a full volume mash for the reason you mention. I usually mash with between 5 and 6 gallons and then top off after lautering. Works fine for me.
 
lustreking said:
I'm not entirely sure what you are saying here, but I'm sure that it isn't true.
Click to expand...

He means you will have to use a lot more malt to get the amount of sugars that you need because you are using less water to wash the sugars fro the grain bed.

I don't know what you would be looking at efficiency wise but im think that your grain bill would have to be a lot bigger.
 
BIAB has you put in all of the water for the entire batch
Click to expand...

Hmm, then I did it wrong.

152*F for an hour in 3.25 gal (needed to add water maintain heat due to cheap cooler)
added 6 qts @ 170*F
Drained bag, poured wort into bucket
Bag back in 3 gal @ 170*F
Drained bag, poured wort into bucket
Divided remaining wort between 8 qt kettle and 20 qt kettle

The wort boiled down to 5 gallons total to the fermenter

Cascadie
 
brewjunky said:
He means you will have to use a lot more malt to get the amount of sugars that you need because you are using less water to wash the sugars fro the grain bed.

I don't know what you would be looking at efficiency wise but im think that your grain bill would have to be a lot bigger.
Click to expand...

No, it's not really true. Yes, it is a no-sparge process, but the bag allows you to use a finer grind. I usually get efficiencies in the mid to upper 70s, which is the same that I get using my "real" system. I just spend a lot less time doing it!

I was surprised at how high my BiaB efficiency was the first time I used it, but it has been consistent ever since.
 
lustreking said:
I was surprised at how high my BiaB efficiency was the first time I used it, but it has been consistent ever since.
Click to expand...

I have read this this a lot by BIAB brewers. I think this is a combination of better conversion due to the thin mash and possibly finer grind which gets you to or close to 100% conversion efficiency (amount of starch actually converted) and the dead-space free lautering that you get with the bag. Including a slight squeeze that the bag gives the spent grain. The theoretical lauter efficiency for no-sparge on a 1.050 beer with 20% boil-off is between 75 and 80%. The increased conversion efficiency seems to make up for the 10% efficiency loss that you get when you go from a 1 sparge to a no-sparge lautering.

Kai
 
So I have heard it said that this process goes downhill with "bigger" beers. Is there any data that shows an efficiency curve? I don't do a lot of small beers but wondering where the sweet spot is...
 
craigd said:
So I have heard it said that this process goes downhill with "bigger" beers. Is there any data that shows an efficiency curve? I don't do a lot of smal beers but wondering where the sweet spot is...
Click to expand...
I don't know, but I've got a strong dark Belgian that I'm about to rack to secondary which was made with the BIAB method. When making it, after I removed the grains from the pot, I put the grain bag in a bucket and ran some sparge-water through it, as I figured there'd be some useable sugar in there. And with such a large amount of grain it would take an age for all the liquid to drain out, so I thought I'd give it some help. Anyway, I used Jamil's recipe and hit his numbers almost exactly, so from my single-trial anecdotal evidence, I'd suggest that big beers can be made with BIAB.
 
That' spot on why I was asking, thanks! I was really thinking about doing a Belgian Dubbel for my next beer when the BIAB idea struck me. I just finished "Brew Like a Monk" and it's as inspirational as it is informational.
 
Danek said:
I don't know, but I've got a strong dark Belgian that I'm about to rack to secondary which was made with the BIAB method. When making it, after I removed the grains from the pot, I put the grain bag in a bucket and ran some sparge-water through it, as I figured there'd be some useable sugar in there. And with such a large amount of grain it would take an age for all the liquid to drain out, so I thought I'd give it some help. Anyway, I used Jamil's recipe and hit his numbers almost exactly, so from my single-trial anecdotal evidence, I'd suggest that big beers can be made with BIAB.
Click to expand...

When doing it this way did you suspend the bag in the bucket or just leave it sitting there? I've done some beers this way but am trying to improve my efficiency a bit. #1 for me is to stop slopping so much wort all over the place when draining the bag :cross:
 
By the by, a little product review here. I forgot my bag at my house when I went to a friends to brew, so I grabbed those paint strainer bags from Home Depot.

BTW, I line my cooler with the bag and use it instead of a braided hose.

In my 5 gallon cooler, it just barely lined the thing. We could fit all our water and grain just fine, but the bag kept slipping off the lip (despite the elastic) when we were stirring. This resulted in some grains getting outside the bag and getting stuck in the spigot (my first stuck sparge!). We got it to go, but the bigger, 28x30 bags for winemaking give you more bag to work with, and more material to grab when you want to pull it up and out (not to mention a drawstring opening).
 
gabeweisz said:
When doing it this way did you suspend the bag in the bucket or just leave it sitting there? I've done some beers this way but am trying to improve my efficiency a bit. #1 for me is to stop slopping so much wort all over the place when draining the bag :cross:
Click to expand...
I used to try suspending the bag, but as I don't have anything to hang it off, that meant me having to hold it, and it's f**king heavy, so I gave up pretty quick :drunk: . The lazy way I now sparge the BIAB bag is by using two plastic bucket fermenters on it, and moving the bag from one fermenter to the other every few minutes. I put an inverted bowl on the bottom of the fermenters to stop the bag sitting in its own liquid, and pour the run-off liquid from the bottom of each fermenter back into the brew kettle. That seems to get a lot of extra juice out of the grains, especially for big beers.
 
Danek said:
I used to try suspending the bag, but as I don't have anything to hang it off, that meant me having to hold it, and it's f**king heavy, so I gave up pretty quick :drunk: . The lazy way I now sparge the BIAB bag is by using two plastic bucket fermenters on it, and moving the bag from one fermenter to the other every few minutes. I put an inverted bowl on the bottom of the fermenters to stop the bag sitting in its own liquid, and pour the run-off liquid from the bottom of each fermenter back into the brew kettle. That seems to get a lot of extra juice out of the grains, especially for big beers.
Click to expand...

i do this sometimes. i use a colander (when i can borrow it from a friend...need to buy one) to drain the wort into the sparge water and then i put the bag in a seperate pot. after 15 minutes or so, when i dump the grains, i add the last of the wort to what is ready to boil.
 
craigd said:
Recent discussions here and at BN have me thinking of trying Brew in a Bag All-Grain to compare to my minimash setup. Given that I have a 32qt brewpot I think I would be very tight on volume with BIAB. Any reason I could not just do a 4 gallon boil (make a concentrated wort) with this same method and top off with water to 5 gal at the end? I suppose I would need to slightly adjust hop schedule to account for a higher gravity in the boil, no? The biggest obstacle to AG brewing to me is the kettle investment rather than the mash tun... Doing this could save me enough per batch to justify a new kettle soon but I'd like to proof-of-concept it first. I have heard folks say they can boil 5G in a pot this size but I almost have boil-overs with my 3G extract boils now so I must be doing it wrong :drunk:

-Craig
Click to expand...

hey you should try fermcap it is awesome.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...10388&osCsid=7e1cfbef62809f868bf4b49c69c4b3df

i can boil within an inch of the top of the pot, a good healthy rolling boil, no foam, no hassle. i just did it yesterday in a 5 gal stock pot and worked inside while it was going. it really works awesome and cuts down on the mess, and if you are afraid of adding chemicals to your beer commercial breweries use it to get more hop utilization by keeping hop sludge/particles from sticking to the side of the kettle.
 

Similar threads

J
How much water is needed to make your wort
2 3
Replies
89
Views
3K
balrog
balrog
W
False bottom height?
Replies
9
Views
941
whoaru99
W
C
Best brewing system for 5-15 gallon batches
Replies
25
Views
1K
Ninoid
Ninoid
S
Best investment in brewery?
2
Replies
47
Views
2K
jerrylotto
jerrylotto
BeerFather Brewing
Texas Electric Homebrewing Set-up - $100 local p/u DFW, TX - SOLD
Replies
1
Views
361
BeerFather Brewing
BeerFather Brewing
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top