Cistercian
Well-Known Member
I did my first "brew in a bag" today. My wife sewed a bag for me from a material similar to voile: 28 inches by 30 inches. It fit nicely in my keggle.
I brewed a Guinness Draught clone, all grain. Total grain bill came to just over 8lbs.
I mashed in the keggle, in the grain sack. Doughed in at 120 and brought it slowly up to 151. I mashed at 151 (within a few degrees or so, up and down) for 90 minutes and stirred almost every ten minutes using my burner to regulate a steady temp.
No sparging. I just let the bag drip dry for 10-15 minutes while I raised the keggle to a boil. I gave the bag a couple of gentle squeezes and that's it.
I boiled for little over an hour. Perle hops for 60 minutes.
Positives:
Five gallons with a 73% efficiency (my OG was 1044). Not bad and not much clean up.
Negatives:
The grain bag stitching ripped slightly when I pulled it out of the keggle. A bit of grain got into the wort. I got it out with a hand strainer. Also, the weave of the fabric wasn't as tight as it should be and some smaller pieces of husk did make it through the bag. I got most of this with a hand strainer.
I'm definitely going to "Brew in a Bag" next time - but work on perfecting the large bag.
Does anyone else have advice on the BiaB method?
I brewed a Guinness Draught clone, all grain. Total grain bill came to just over 8lbs.
I mashed in the keggle, in the grain sack. Doughed in at 120 and brought it slowly up to 151. I mashed at 151 (within a few degrees or so, up and down) for 90 minutes and stirred almost every ten minutes using my burner to regulate a steady temp.
No sparging. I just let the bag drip dry for 10-15 minutes while I raised the keggle to a boil. I gave the bag a couple of gentle squeezes and that's it.
I boiled for little over an hour. Perle hops for 60 minutes.
Positives:
Five gallons with a 73% efficiency (my OG was 1044). Not bad and not much clean up.
Negatives:
The grain bag stitching ripped slightly when I pulled it out of the keggle. A bit of grain got into the wort. I got it out with a hand strainer. Also, the weave of the fabric wasn't as tight as it should be and some smaller pieces of husk did make it through the bag. I got most of this with a hand strainer.
I'm definitely going to "Brew in a Bag" next time - but work on perfecting the large bag.
Does anyone else have advice on the BiaB method?