BIAB - ALL GRAIN HYBRID

[Paolo44]

Hello, im' homebrewer from Italy and often read your forum and find good advices.
I generally make beer with the biab method, i've done about 10 batches with quite good result. However I often get a lot of trub in the fermenter and the beer is a little cloudy.
Now...I wanted to try a different technique to try to improve it, plus my bag broke a little, and i'm afraid it might cause problem. I want to still using only one pot (electric) and a bucket as equipment.

I thought about doing this, I wanted to understand if, in your more expert opinion, it is a correct method:
- do mashing with grain in the bag in my pot
- pour the wort from the bottom into a bucket (with a false bottom? With a bazooka filter? Throwing the first 2-3 turbid liters back into the pot?)
- make (batch?) sparge by pouring hot water on the grains (in the pot, with the grains contained in the bag)
- let it rest for a few minutes and then pour the liquid from the bottom into the bucket.
- Remove the bag (with the grains) and empty the pot.
- Pour all the liquid in the bucket to the pot and boil.

In this way the bag would only help me to 'remove' the grain from the pot, losing other functions.

Will this work? any advices? should I use the false bottom and the bazooka?
Thank you very mutch in advance!!

 

[redrocker652002]

Sure sounds like a good way to do it. Almost sounds exactly what I do. But I will let the pro's give you the advice. Welcome to the forum.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I often get a lot of trub in the fermenter and the beer is a little cloudy.

I am not convinced that trub into the fermenter leads to cloudy beers, and in fact I am in the camp that trub into the fermenter leads to healthier fermentations and beers that clear faster.

What you propose seems like it will work and produce wort. Give it a try and see if you like the process and the beer it produces. What have you been using for a grain bag? Maybe getting a better quality grain bag will address your issues without adding more work.

Water chemistry can have an impact on beer clarity. It is all anecdotal, but I had a few batches brewed with my unadjusted tap water (Calcium in the 20-30 range) that took forever to clear, where similar beers with added Calcium (to the 50+ range) dropped clear after a week or two in the keg. Lots of people swear by clarifying agents like Gelatin to produce clear beers as well.

 

[hotbeer]

I started out doing BIAB in a very loose weave sock hop that let a lot of fine malt particles and stuff come through. So I always had a lot of sediment suspended in my beer. Only a few times was I ever able to get a good cold break when cooling my beer before putting it in the fermenter. So usually most all of what I'd rather have left in the kettle went to the fermenter.

It wasn't any issue though. But I did have to wait longer for my beer to clear up in the fermenter. Some went for up to six weeks before they got clear enough to see across the trub surface to the other side of the FV.

So IMO, trub isn't a issue unless you are just in too big a hurry for that beer in the FV. So go out and buy a six pack or case of beer to tide you over till it's ready. You can cold crash and use gelatin to hurry it along. But I'm lazy and rather wait and drink all my other beer that is already bottled and ready to drink.

I have tried similar to what you suggest, but found that the re-cycled wort doesn't drain out in the amount of time I'm willing to wait. Nor did it ever show as clearing up anything that was subsequently running out.

I think what you are suggesting is sort of a Vorlauf method. Probably works much better for a more traditionally made mash bed with proper amount of rice hulls.

 

[Paolo44]

Thanks for all the feedbacks.
I think i'll give this method a try. I figured it out to try to make an all grain full brew with limited equipment and a broken BIAB bag, without buying new equipment. I think my biab bag was decent quality (it's original brew bag).

For the trub..it clears up but i throw a lot of stuff reducing overall efficiency, plus even if beer clears i still get chill haze (dunno if its related).
For water.. I usually go with ez water calculator sheet to adjust tap water. My municipality provide water analysis every month and I use this, correcting with gypsum/lactic acid as needed.

I will post feedback if this method will work / efficiency etc.

 

[hotbeer]

i still get chill haze

Chill haze that comes on for a day when you put the beer in the fridge and then is gone 2 days later? Or a chill haze that hangs on for days and weeks?

The former I consider normal, that's why the common recommendation is to put your beer in the fridge two day before you plan to drink. Or at least that is what I have always imagined the reason for 2 days in the fridge.

I did have the latter once. I'd forgotten to use whirlfloc near the end of boil with that batch. But I don't know for certain that was the reason.