Hello all, I figured I would post about my first BAIB experience. Lastnight my buddies and I started at 7 pm brewing a NB IPA AG kit. I started by adjusting my grind to make a smaller crush for the grains. Then placed grain's in the bag. Heated 8 gals of water to 155 deg. Placed the bag of grains in water, stirred and got a temp of 142. Turned on the heat, I had a false bottom, and stirred until hit 155 in the middle of the mash. Put a lid and a blanket on top and set the timer for 60 mins. I then stirred every 20 mins. The temp never dropped below 150. After that, mash out, blasted the burner till the temp got to 170 stirring all the while. Put the lid back on and let sit ( had to run to the store to trade in my propane tank... it was very close to empty and I don't have a spare and I've ran out before during a boil... not cool) so it sat at mash out temps for about 20 mins. Then with help of a friend we moved the keggle to the area I rigged a pulley system and let the bag drain for 10 mins. Squeezed the bag a little then placed the keggle back on the burner. After this it was a normal brew day. Boiled for 60 mins added hops and so on. Cooled with a immersion chiller. When I transfered to a bucket and I got just under 5 gal... what was left in the keggle was full of gunk. I regret that I did not take a gravity reading after the mash out but when I took the OG I got 1.061 and the recipe said I would get 1.064... so not bad. Now its time to sit back and watch the fermentation lock bubble away. I shot a video of my equipment and the major steps to show my brew club and as soon as I get it edited I will post it up here.
BAIB for the first time! Great success
- Thread starter Mandrew
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Had you squeezed the bag a little more you probably would have hit your projected OG but that is hard to do with the hot grains. I'm sure I have given up some of the sugars when I quit squeezing early too.
For your next brew session, use one of the calculators to find the proper strike temperature and you won't have to heat the kettle while stirring to get the proper mash temperature. I like this one. TastyBrew.com | Homebrewing Calculators | Infusion Calculator
For your next brew session, use one of the calculators to find the proper strike temperature and you won't have to heat the kettle while stirring to get the proper mash temperature. I like this one. TastyBrew.com | Homebrewing Calculators | Infusion Calculator
gunner65
Well-Known Member
Squeeze baby squeeze!
1MadScientist
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the club. 
jonp9576
Well-Known Member
i havent tried this yet. i have been intimidated about all grain brewing. this just seems so easy though. i have a keggle as well as another very large pot. but i guess i dont need both now.
what did you use for the bag? ive been reading about paint strainer bags.
what did you use for the bag? ive been reading about paint strainer bags.
BradleyBrew
Well-Known Member
BIAB is awesome... I have been doing it for about a year. I use a 5 gallon igloo cooler for my mash tun. I recently put on a ball valve and it has made a big difference. I can mash up to 10lbs of grain... after that I use extract if I need to hit a high OG.
I've been using BIAB since day one and get great results... I always wanted to build a mash tun so that i can say i know how to use one, but to this day i have not done, simply because i have not felt the need to... I just get great results with my BIAB setup
I was intimidated too until I did my first one. With brew in a bag, all the intimidating nomenclature is gone and I found it to be so easy. I use paint strainer bags. I have the 5 gallon size with the elastic top and that fits tight around the top of my turkey fryer pot which keeps it from falling into the pot while I stir in the grains. The hardest part for me it getting the water to the right temperature before I stir in the grain and that only takes a little patience and the use of an online calculator like the one at this site. TastyBrew.com | Homebrewing Calculators | Infusion Calculator
I started with a half size batch in my 20QT pot just to see what it was like and quickly got a turkey fryer so I could do a 5 gallon batch. A bigger pot would have been a little better as I have it full to the brim with a normal grain bill and it would overflow with a big beer.
cincydave
Well-Known Member
Great to hear all the BIAB sucess stories. My next step from extrct. Is the final product noticably better than extract? Hope so.
BradleyBrew
Well-Known Member
I think you can hit a lower FG with BIAB vs extract, you have much more control of fermentables vs. non fermentables (mash temp), and the overall color of the beer.
gunner65
Well-Known Member
LOADS! I will never do another extract again. There is no point as AG kits are cheaper and turn out better.
Thank you for all your comments, I have been brewing since April and have done 15 extract kits. I have been also brewing with my brew club and that is a traditional all grain set up. I could have done that as well but I thought I would jump onto a whole different world.
Thank you for the Infusion Calc. that should help, but I was really just using my Thermometer that I got with my turkey fryer, my digital one was acting weird a brew or two a go... it would start at 122... something wasn't right. So, I was not entirely sure how accurate it was, I was rather surprised that when I added the grain, it drop as much as it did.
As for the bag... I talked my mom into sewing me one up, I told her about the type of martial and all that stuff, the next time she went to the fabric store she picked something up... very lovely woman that for some reason supports my addiction haha.
Had I not had her I would totally buy a paint strainer bag... I think that will work very well... I just have not tried it.
BIAB is just the way to go!!! I wanted a bigger brewing pot but after that it cost me a bag and paddle, oh wait I got those for free, both hand made... I made my own mash paddle out of cherry(my dad has a saw mill)
I will update this when its time to move to secondary or bottling, none the less, there will be more to come
Thank you for the Infusion Calc. that should help, but I was really just using my Thermometer that I got with my turkey fryer, my digital one was acting weird a brew or two a go... it would start at 122... something wasn't right. So, I was not entirely sure how accurate it was, I was rather surprised that when I added the grain, it drop as much as it did.
As for the bag... I talked my mom into sewing me one up, I told her about the type of martial and all that stuff, the next time she went to the fabric store she picked something up... very lovely woman that for some reason supports my addiction haha.
Had I not had her I would totally buy a paint strainer bag... I think that will work very well... I just have not tried it.
BIAB is just the way to go!!! I wanted a bigger brewing pot but after that it cost me a bag and paddle, oh wait I got those for free, both hand made... I made my own mash paddle out of cherry(my dad has a saw mill)
I will update this when its time to move to secondary or bottling, none the less, there will be more to come
Alright I transfered to secondary and I have some questions ... I did not use Irish moss or the like so I know it will be cloudy ... but my question is why do I have a gallons worth of goop? Its a mix of yeast cake and what ever sediment came out of the bag... is there a way to prevent this.... or off set it or anything? Because instead of having 5 gal i now have 4- gal and I dont like that. Thank you
bessieflames
Well-Known Member
Mandrew said:
It is pretty hard to avoid. I started with BIaB and switched to a cooler mash tun because of the excessive trub. It is from disturbing the grain bed when you lift the bag. With a cooler mash tun, it filters a lot of the trub out.
cincydave
Well-Known Member
Mandrew...Thanks for sharing. Love hearing first time BIAB sucess stories, as I plan on switching from extract to BIAB very soon. Got some paint strainer bags yesterday. Have all I need other than the actaul ingredients. Did you leave your kettle outside during mash? I was thinking that in colder weather, it might be better to bring inside. I don't have an imersion cooler...just used cold water and ice in the wort when doing extract. Anyone have tips for cooling a full 5 gallons without a wort chiller? Could do the ice bath, but would take a lot of ice. In winter can use free snow.
If you leave it in the primary a bit longer the trub will all settle out and form a pretty tight yeast cake which you can siphon above without losing much beer at all. I probably only leave half a cup in the fermenter and I go right to the bottling bucket without any secondary. The last beer I bottled was a pale ale and after the second day in the bottle it was perfectly clear (I even used some clear bottles so I could see).
I dry hopped right in the fermenter without moving my beer until it went into the bottling bucket. Looking back, I should have left it to clear out a little more before I dry hopped and I should have either used a hop sack or left the hops longer to settle as I had particles from the hop pellets that wanted to clog up my bottling wand. I had dry hopped for only 5 days and I like the aroma I got from even that little time.
djfriesen
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Use the bath method but use a sink full of cold tap water the first 2 times (make sure to stir the chilling water with your hand and the wort with a sanitized spoon). This should bring 5 gallons down to ~90° in 20 minutes or so. Then pack the sink with ice and pour water over it and do an icebath. This will cut down greatly on the amount of ice you use. You don't chill exceptionally fast (so you won't get a great cold break, leading to cloudier beer), but you also don't use 50+ lbs of ice.
I have been holding 80% to 90% with a 3 to 4 gallon sparge through the bag using a 5 gallon coffee maker 178* water heated in about 25 minutes
bessieflames
Well-Known Member
bessieflames said:
Oh- also, I brew an extra gallon so that I can leave some behind in the kettle. That way I don't have as much trub in the fermenter and I can leave it in primary longer without getting off flavors. just calculate your grain and hop amounts for a 6 gallon batch.
Just how long do you leave your beer in the fermenter that you have to worry about getting off flavors from the trub? I dump it all in the fermenter and at 4 1/2 weeks don't notice any off flavors and I really enjoy drinking that extra gallon that you throw away.:rockin:
Another suggestion...I do BiaB and had tons of trub. I started using a hop spider (search the forum) and the amount of material left in my kettle and primary has decreased substantially. Some say the spider affects hop utilization but I haven't noticed any difference.
Sorry I missed your questions,
Did you leave your kettle outside during mash? No, I brew in my garage, I have easy access to the outdoors which is very handy. It turned into a nice sauna while it boiled lol.
Anyone have tips for cooling a full 5 gallons without a wort chiller? everyone else answered this question.
cincydave
Well-Known Member
Thanks DJ...great idea on saving some ice. I always fill and freeze some tupperware containers for chilling ice as well, but is sure melts quick. Using jsut cold water first sounds like a plan.
Mandrew...any worries about Carbon Monoxide brewing in garage? Do you leave the door partially open or anything?
bessieflames
Well-Known Member
RM-MN said:
You either throw the trub away before fermentation or after. I do it before just so that I have 5.5 gallons in a 6.5 gallon fermenter and end up with 5 gallons in my keg after I rack off the yeast. That way I have a lot of headspace during fermentation. A master brewer friend of mine said that you can get off favors from too much trub in primary. I haven't noticed, but my palate isn't delicate enough to notice.
I open a window and brew next to a set of 2 doors that swing out so I can adjust if I feel that its necessary ... but to be perfectly honest, I've only been brewing since April. So I have yet brewed in all seasons yet but last time I brewed ( which is actually this brew) it seemed to work well enough.
I am considering switching from BIAB to a 3 vessel system, partly for this reason. I get a ton of crud at the end of the boil, enough the it has plugged my hopstopper on numerous occasions. Do you really notice a significant drop in trub since switching to a dedicated mash tun? I found that skimming the hot break at the beginning of the boil significantly decreased hopstopper clogging, but I still got a lot of crud left in the boil kettle.
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