nmfree
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2008
- Messages
- 1,321
- Reaction score
- 2,512
If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.
BIAB Brewing (with pics)
- Thread starter Seven
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Griffin495
Well-Known Member
Well, I've finally read through all 197 pages of this thread. And just in time. Tomorrow I try my first true BIAB full volume no sparge batch. It will actually be my 22 batch of beer I've brewed including extract, partial and a hybrid BIAB method I was doing using a crappy bag from my LHBS and a cooler. Looking forward to simplifying my process and using less equipment.
Got my grains, my new wilser bag and my new cereal killer mill and am ready for action as soon as I drop my kid off at daycare tomorrow and get my propane tank refilled.
Wish me luck.
Got my grains, my new wilser bag and my new cereal killer mill and am ready for action as soon as I drop my kid off at daycare tomorrow and get my propane tank refilled.
Wish me luck.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2012
- Messages
- 2,418
- Reaction score
- 3,058
Good luck! You'll realize like the rest of us that's it's rather simple and that you will refine your process with each brew day.
Griffin495
Well-Known Member
Everything went great. Easily my smoothest brew date ever. With the use of all the advice here and some online calculators I hit all my volumes perfectly. 6.25 gallons pre-boil, 5.25 gallons post boil. All into my fermentor and the extra .25 to account for trub.
My starting gravity was 1.044 and my OG was 1.052. According to Brewer's Friend, it should have been 1.044 so I guess I had better efficiency than I thought? I had it set at 70%. Not sure what happened there.
Used my brand new Cereal Killer mill and it worked great. Not sure what I had it set to. Its got a mark for 0.025 and 0.05. Figure half way in between would be 0.0375. I tightened it up a little more than that, so maybe 0.03. About a credit card thickness.
Did a 90 minute mash and it held pretty steady. Nailed my 152 temp and by the end of 90 minutes it had fallen to 148, but I didn't worry about it as after an hour it had only dropped to 150. Also did a 10 minute mashout at 168. Some say its needed, some say its not, but I didn't have anything else going on yesterday so I decided to give it a shot.
Don't think I'll be going back to using my cooler as a mash tun anymore. Heck, I'm thinking I might go to my local clubs next meeting and seeing if anybody wants to buy it. You can count me as another BIAB convert. Can't wait to try this brew.
My starting gravity was 1.044 and my OG was 1.052. According to Brewer's Friend, it should have been 1.044 so I guess I had better efficiency than I thought? I had it set at 70%. Not sure what happened there.
Used my brand new Cereal Killer mill and it worked great. Not sure what I had it set to. Its got a mark for 0.025 and 0.05. Figure half way in between would be 0.0375. I tightened it up a little more than that, so maybe 0.03. About a credit card thickness.
Did a 90 minute mash and it held pretty steady. Nailed my 152 temp and by the end of 90 minutes it had fallen to 148, but I didn't worry about it as after an hour it had only dropped to 150. Also did a 10 minute mashout at 168. Some say its needed, some say its not, but I didn't have anything else going on yesterday so I decided to give it a shot.
Don't think I'll be going back to using my cooler as a mash tun anymore. Heck, I'm thinking I might go to my local clubs next meeting and seeing if anybody wants to buy it. You can count me as another BIAB convert. Can't wait to try this brew.
Griffin495
Well-Known Member
I will say that I did "cheat" little. I had to take my son to daycare yesterday before I could start brewing. As I was making him breakfast and getting him ready, I thought to myself "Why don't I start preheating my water a bit?" So I grabbed my three largest cooking pots in the kitchen and filled them up and started heating on my stove while getting him ready. So I got half my strike water to boiling, then shut it off and put lids on them. When I got home from dropping him off, I dumped the water into my kettle and added the rest of the water that was at room temp. So technically, I ended up using 4 pots, but the 3 kitchen pots just got set in the dry rack and didn't need to be cleaned and while my whole strike water wasn't yet at temperature (and I didn't check to see what it was), it was above room temp and gave me a jump on warming it all up to mash temps. That count as "cheating?"
Good work....
Do a mash out if it makes you happy, my opinion is it's not needed and can lead to burnt grain and or bag.
Scorch flavor is the worst I've tasted in 3 decades of brewing, only dumped batch to date.
Do a mash out if it makes you happy, my opinion is it's not needed and can lead to burnt grain and or bag.
Scorch flavor is the worst I've tasted in 3 decades of brewing, only dumped batch to date.
Griffin495
Well-Known Member
Thanks Wilser and thanks for the bag. They worked great. I thought I was going to undershoot my volume by .25 gallons until all the wort from my hop bag drained out. I was surprised when I pulled it and .25 gallons drained out.
I was worried about a melted bag as well even after reading all through this thread. I just used your pulley and raised the bag until it was off the bottom of the kettle till I hit 168, killed the heat and then released the bag, stirred it and let it sit 10 minutes.
I was worried about a melted bag as well even after reading all through this thread. I just used your pulley and raised the bag until it was off the bottom of the kettle till I hit 168, killed the heat and then released the bag, stirred it and let it sit 10 minutes.
Nice job! Once you get the BIAB bug you won't want to brew any other way.
FWIW, I have done it with and without mashout. Don't think I have ever gleaned much more from the mashout, so I skip that now. But to each their own.
And brewing is so much nicer with a Wilser bag, than to use those coarse bags from the LHBS.
I have a Bayou 20g pot with a steamer basket. All aluminum. Any known issues with using the steamer basket to hoist a bag?
It would keep the bag off the bottom. I will still continue traditional brewing, but would like the option to biab for a quick one off here or there. I typically gyle brew 20g in a day. Got that down to 5 hours. But if I can knock out 10 in a couple hours at night, I would brew more often.
Also, with no sparge, what's the max gravity I could expect out of a 20g kettle, shooting for 11g in the fermentor?
Thanks biabers.
It would keep the bag off the bottom. I will still continue traditional brewing, but would like the option to biab for a quick one off here or there. I typically gyle brew 20g in a day. Got that down to 5 hours. But if I can knock out 10 in a couple hours at night, I would brew more often.
Also, with no sparge, what's the max gravity I could expect out of a 20g kettle, shooting for 11g in the fermentor?
Thanks biabers.
There's a pic of the basket in question.
Also, I would recirculate through the grain bed, some hopefully temps would stay even
My biggest worry is if my blickmann burner would overshoot, though I do have a rims system in the works.
Also, not sure if it will fit in the kettle due to my spin cycle whilpool arm. Should probably check that.
Third concern would be if the basket handle(also Al) could handle the weight.
View attachment 1494110876755.jpg
Also, I would recirculate through the grain bed, some hopefully temps would stay even
My biggest worry is if my blickmann burner would overshoot, though I do have a rims system in the works.
Also, not sure if it will fit in the kettle due to my spin cycle whilpool arm. Should probably check that.
Third concern would be if the basket handle(also Al) could handle the weight.
View attachment 1494110876755.jpg
I've used the steamer basket since I started BIAB. The only problem I've had is since I started recirculating the grain bag/basket combo clogs up occasionally, and if I don't catch it my element runs dry and trips my breaker. Usually I stir every few minutes and it's fine, but once I find a break in my brew schedule I'm going to take a step bit to every other hole the make them a little bigger, hopefully preventing clogging.
For an 18.5 gal mash volume, with ~40 lbs of grain, and a grain absorption rate of 0.08 gal/lb (moderate squeeze), I get your max OG for 11 gal at about 1.087. You'd probably have to do this without the steamer basket.
Brew on
I've never used a basket. With larger batches mash temps are pretty stable due to the large mass. If you need to raise your mash temp use low heat and stir to avoid scorching the grain or bag, and be patient
Jmo, but I feel a basket and recirculating with a pump unnecessarily complicates a simple process that works very well.
I suppose, but to do 10 gal in a couple hours (optimistic) I would imagine streamlining as much as possible. Heat strike, dough in, rest, stir and remove bag.
I just don't see what benefit the pump and basket brings to the party for large batches that will hold mash temp reasonably well.
If you enjoy using it during the mash, that's cool. But I would imagine you will want to monitor the pump as well, plus connecting, disconnecting, cleaning pump and lines. Compared to doing other tasks....perhaps not even brewing related.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2012
- Messages
- 2,418
- Reaction score
- 3,058
I agree with larger batches holding temperatures extremely well with the kettle properly wrapped. One trick I've learned from here regardless of batch size is to lay some aluminum foil on top of the mash before putting the lid on. This helps with the dead space in the kettle.
I brewed my yearly RIS at my LHBS for Big Brew Day kind of teaching as I brewed. I was explaining strike and mash temperatures and said I was looking for 149* which was spot on. Put down the foil on top of the mash, wrapped the kettle in my redux/blanket concoction and set the timer for 75 minutes. At the end of the mash everyone gathered around as I unwrapped the kettle. I poked the thermometer through the foil and it read 148*. Man I love brewing.
Sorry @wilserbrewer , no picture of your bag in action with 21 pound of grain in it, but I sure let people know where to get one.
I brewed my yearly RIS at my LHBS for Big Brew Day kind of teaching as I brewed. I was explaining strike and mash temperatures and said I was looking for 149* which was spot on. Put down the foil on top of the mash, wrapped the kettle in my redux/blanket concoction and set the timer for 75 minutes. At the end of the mash everyone gathered around as I unwrapped the kettle. I poked the thermometer through the foil and it read 148*. Man I love brewing.
Sorry @wilserbrewer , no picture of your bag in action with 21 pound of grain in it, but I sure let people know where to get one.
philly224
Well-Known Member
For those of you that don't do a mash out do you do a longer mash?
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2012
- Messages
- 2,418
- Reaction score
- 3,058
I stopped doing a mash out after trying both ways about 3 times each way and couldn't tell any difference. I also only stir while mashing in and again at the end of the mash. I normally do a 75 minute mash for beers 1.070 up. Anything less I just go for 60.
Morrey
Well-Known Member
I like that tip!
Did a brew for Big Brew Day, and tried a new way of squeezing the bag. This new method doesn't require me to touch the bag! I use a Wilser bag with a ratchet pulley suspended from a step ladder (8' ladder is best) to pull the bag at the end of the mash.
I let the bag drain naturally until it slowed to a slow drip. Then I put a colander on top of the kettle, under the bag, and dropped the bag into the colander. Now the new part -- I put a Homer bucket full of water (~5.5 gal, ~46 lbs) on top of the bag in the colander. Let that sit for a while, and occasionally leaned on the Homer bucket.
My grain absorption rate dropped from my typical 0.07 gal/lb to 0.05 gal/lb. A 0.02 gal/lb decrease in grain absorption rate is good for about a 2 - 3 percentage point gain in lauter efficiency.
The colander
The colander on my 15.5 gal Bayou Classic kettle:
The Homer bucket press in action:
Brew on
I let the bag drain naturally until it slowed to a slow drip. Then I put a colander on top of the kettle, under the bag, and dropped the bag into the colander. Now the new part -- I put a Homer bucket full of water (~5.5 gal, ~46 lbs) on top of the bag in the colander. Let that sit for a while, and occasionally leaned on the Homer bucket.
My grain absorption rate dropped from my typical 0.07 gal/lb to 0.05 gal/lb. A 0.02 gal/lb decrease in grain absorption rate is good for about a 2 - 3 percentage point gain in lauter efficiency.
The colander
The colander on my 15.5 gal Bayou Classic kettle:
The Homer bucket press in action:
Brew on
Last edited by a moderator:
I use a pulley, then move the bag into a makeshift grain press. I took three food-grade plastic buckets, drilled a bunch of small drainage holes into one then nested them bottom to top, catch bucket --> drilled (sieve) bucket --> grain bag --> "plunger" bucket, then press down slowly (I usually end up sitting on it.) Works very well.
Did a brew for Big Brew Day, and tried a new way of squeezing the bag. This new method doesn't require me to touch the bag! I use a Wilser bag with a ratchet pulley suspended from a step ladder (8' ladder is best) to pull the bag at the end of the mash.
I let the bag drain naturally until it slowed to a slow drip. Then I put a colander on top of the kettle, under the bag, and dropped the bag into the colander. Now the new part -- I put a Homer bucket full of water (~5.5 gal, ~46 lbs) on top of the bag in the colander. Let that sit for a while, and occasionally leaned on the Homer bucket.
My grain absorption rate dropped from my typical 0.07 gal/lb to 0.05 gal/lb. A 0.02 gal/lb decrease in grain absorption rate is good for about a 2 - 3 percentage point gain in lauter efficiency.
View attachment 399954
The colander
View attachment 399955
The colander on my 15.5 gal Bayou Classic kettle:
View attachment 399956
The Homer bucket press in action:
View attachment 399957
Brew on
Ok your getting there....where would you be if you waited a bit longer from slow drip to almost no drip....perhaps another 10 minutes of patient waiting? Just like pennies make dollars, drips and drops make gallons.
I challenge you to wait longer, and not bother with the colander and homer bucket....
A mash in a bag is typically free draining in my experience, all this squeezing and pressing is really just a lack of patience?
Last edited by a moderator:
philly224
Well-Known Member
How long do you typically wait?
Long enough lol....
Not a real time keeper but perhaps 30 minutes, or say 15 - 20 minutes into the boil.
The proof to the pudding for me was when I used to squeeze the bag and toss it into a tote for disposal later, there was always a quart or so of free wort that had continued to drain from the bag.
Maybe it's just me, but assaulting the bag and squeezing with silicon gloves just seems like a false sense of achievement over patiently waiting ... let it drip
.05 vs ,07, sounds to me like we are involving a colander and homer bucket on a bag that was at a slow drip for um.... .02
What's that, a half pint? At some point you gotta let go
And save the effort, you can't get that back
Not a real time keeper but perhaps 30 minutes, or say 15 - 20 minutes into the boil.
The proof to the pudding for me was when I used to squeeze the bag and toss it into a tote for disposal later, there was always a quart or so of free wort that had continued to drain from the bag.
Maybe it's just me, but assaulting the bag and squeezing with silicon gloves just seems like a false sense of achievement over patiently waiting ... let it drip
.05 vs ,07, sounds to me like we are involving a colander and homer bucket on a bag that was at a slow drip for um.... .02
What's that, a half pint? At some point you gotta let go
And save the effort, you can't get that back
philly224
Well-Known Member
Long enough lol....
Not a real time keeper but perhaps 30 minutes, or say 15 - 20 minutes into the boil.
The proof to the pudding for me was when I used to squeeze the bag and toss it into a tote for disposal later, there was always a quart or so of free wort that had continued to drain from the bag.
Maybe it's just me, but assaulting the bag and squeezing with silicon gloves just seems like a false sense of achievement over patiently waiting ... let it drip
.05 vs ,07, sounds to me like we are involving a colander and homer bucket on a bag that was at a slow drip for um.... .02
What's that, a half pint? At some point you gotta let go
And save the effort, you can't get that back
I never thought of starting the boil while the bags still draining...
I'll try that next time.
One thing that helped me enormously in mashing was simply greater volume. A big-ass 55-liter pot full of grain and water is just so much easier to maintain mash temp with.
Well that and getting a Wilser bag...
Well that and getting a Wilser bag...
philly224
Well-Known Member
One more question before my next brew. What's the best way to determine how much water to use? My first batch I only ended up with about 4 gallons after the boil. I did a no sparge BIAB with 16lbs of grain and 7.5 gallons of water.
This Saturday I will have 10lbs of grain so I was thinking about trying 8 gallons of water. Do you think that will be too much?
This Saturday I will have 10lbs of grain so I was thinking about trying 8 gallons of water. Do you think that will be too much?
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2012
- Messages
- 2,418
- Reaction score
- 3,058
I go flame on as soon as the bag clears the wort and let it hang as it comes to a boil. By the time it's slowed to a drip I've reached my pre boil volume and it's just coming to a boil. Great time saver.
Start with your target batch size (volume to fermenter), then add in all of your losses thru the process:
- Trub held in BK and any plumbing
- Boil off
- Unrecoverable MLT volume (should be 0 for BIAB)
- Gran absorption (= grain weight * grain absorption rate [gal/lb])
Brew on
I just bought a 10 gallon kettle and was told that 14lbs was the max I could do in it. You can do 21 lbs with no sparge?
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been covered... very long and very informative thread.
Ok. Grain takes up about 0.08 gal/lb in the mash. You will also lose about 0.08 gal/lb to grain absorption if you do a moderate bag squeeze. Let's say you want 6.5 gal pre-boil volume. Then you have about a 3 gal budget for grain and grain absorption allowance. The amount of grain you can use is 3 / (0.08 + 0.08) = 18.75. If you squeeze harder, and get grain absorption down to 0.06 gal/lb, then you can mash 3 / (0.08 + 0.06) = 21.4 lb.
Brew on
And how much if you implement a batch spurge?
I'm curious Doug, likely a ridiculous amount lol
Just for posterity I wouldn't advise mashing in the max theoretical volume, as while you are stirring it in the volume will be greater, hence a mess over the kettle rim lol
I'm curious Doug, likely a ridiculous amount lol
Just for posterity I wouldn't advise mashing in the max theoretical volume, as while you are stirring it in the volume will be greater, hence a mess over the kettle rim lol
Surprisingly, not so much. The amount will be limited by what the brewer feels is the maximum acceptable mash thickness. If your maximum acceptable mash thickness is 1.25 qt/lb, then you can only get 24.2 lb of grain in a 9.5 gal kettle. If you like your oatmeal thick (1.0 qt/lb), then you could mash 28.8 lb (but I wouldn't want to have to mash that in.) With these large grain bills, most of your water is required for strike, leaving very little sparge water.
I totally agree.
Brew on
PrairieDawg
Well-Known Member
I brewed a Porter on the weekend, had loaned my sillycone gloves to a coworker. Pulled the bag out and let it drip drain while bringing to a boil.
Dripped for about 20 minutes probably, has very little wort left in the bag after that.
Don't think I will be asking for my gloves back..
GolFisHunt
Well-Known Member
My first BIAB batch is in the fermenter now. A very simple recipe to start. With information gleaned from this site and a "dry run" with the new gear yesterday, I hit all the numbers. The brew day was longer than I expected, but I was enjoying myself thoroughly.
Posting a pic of my recent DIY mod to the BIAB system I have. Added an infusion tube that allows me to recirculate the water throughout the mash and not have any dead spots. Made it out of food grade CPVC and stainless steel screws. Also built a single vessel brew stand as well. My temps were more stable than ever before. I typically had a dead spot at the center and the recirc water would go around the outside.
Gluten Free Tony
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2017
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 3
I just started BIAB. I happened to have an old Bike Pulley Lift (less than $20) so I tried that and it worked fantastic. By holding the bag open, I was able to thoroughly flush the grains.
Lmiller1708
Member
That's a great idea! We'll be doing the same thing... Thanks!I just started BIAB. I happened to have an old Bike Pulley Lift (less than $20) so I tried that and it worked fantastic. By holding the bag open, I was able to thoroughly flush the grains.
View attachment 549753
Similar threads
