Required First AG/First BIAB Post

Hey Guys. Do believe this post is a requirement after you perform the first AG, so here it goes.

I did BIAB. Sounded easy, cheap, simple way to get in to AG (I dont want to stir up any debates that its perfect/it sucks, I just want to make some decent beer). I made myself a bag from a voile curtain from wally world (a guy I know caught me browsing the curtain isle, and my wife wasnt even there). I got a 40 qt pot from Instawares, pretty thick. I ordered two NB kits, a dunkelweizen for myself and a hefe for the mother in law. Here is the play by play.
-Mash at 1.5 qt/lb= 3.84 gal+1.26 gal for grain= 5.1
-Mashed when I hit 170. Resulting temp was a bit high but after stirring settled to 155.5.
-Wrapped with two winter jackets
-Did two loads of laudry/worked on writing masters thesis (throughout entire process.
-Stirred every 20, hit with a little heat (bucket heater) to maintain 153-155.
-Pulled after an hour, went to put in to small pot for a 170 sparge. Found out 2.5 gal plus grains wont fit. Dumped 1 gallon into big pot, everything better. Let it set for 10 mins, pulled, drained, combined.
-Boiled for 1 hour, all 6.5 gal, on stovetop, with help of aformentioned bucket heater. I was never able to get a *boil* in my test runs without it. Me likey.
-Cooled the sucker (ice bath, i know, not best, but worked)
-Pitched the yeast out of starter (saving rest for hefe) at 11:45, and I think I just saw my first bubble (1:00)!

Not bad. I checked my efficiency on TastyBrew. According to them I got 71.7%. I'll take it! Thanks for help all of you guys gave me by giving me this forum for research!!

Sounds great! What's a bucket heater?

Pappers said:

Sounds great! What's a bucket heater?

Click to expand...

I would guess just a heating element in the bucket (big plug-in heating element stick). I've seen them forever but never saw people actually using them. I'm always a little hesitant to have something that can produce that much heat close to any plastic. Especially after I've melted buckets on my stove by accident.

I have seen a few guys talk about them, mostly for heating sparge or strike water. Basically, a 1000 watt ready made heatstick. It runs on 120 volt (GFCI outlet only, 12 gauge wire on that line-Post edited by the lawyer). They are designed for agricultural applications for cattle tanks I believe. It worked nice. I used it in my aluminum pot. Didnt get hot enough to melt that!

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