Introducing Fermentation in a bag.

[Parkinson1963]

All righty then.
As an adjunct to Brew in a Bag (BIAB) I now offer Ferment in a Bag (FIAB).

This is not my idea I saw in a U brew place many years ago, so on a kit stout I tried it, worked fantastic with zero, and I mean zero clean up.

Equipment
1) A ~30L food grade LDPE plastic bag, I got mine from a bulk food place.

2) a bucket to hold the bag, any pail or bucket will do as long as it s big enough.

Methodology
1) place bag in pail, open up bag
2) use you favourite sanitizer, I used idophor
3) rinse bag in pail.
4) empty bag of rinse water.
5) fill with cooled wort add yeast, etc
6) twist top of bag closed and keep closed with a loose elastic (I used just two wraps of the elastic)

Results
As the fermentation occurs the bag expands and excess CO2 leaks out through the elastic closure.

After transfer of beer to keg or bottles, throw bag away.

Clean up done! No gross yeast cake to clean from the fermenter.

So I see a mini revolution BIAB and FIAB hand in hand.

In the words of my Uncle Dennis "Making beer is dead easy"

 

[Edcculus]

I guess I see it as an advantage in the sanitation department. Besides that, I don't really see the point.

BIAB replaces a traditional mash tun, which can be somewhat expensive or a pain to make since you have to buy a cooler, make some type of bulkhead and have a false bottom, manifold or at least stainless braid.

With this, you still have to have the bucket. I guess it could be any old bucket and you don't really need a lid, but thats not really a big deal. I can also see vigorous fermentations being a big problem. Also taking a hydrometer sample might be a pain too.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but at least for my setup, it doesn't really seem like a great solution.

 

[Revvy]

Several folks on here have already been doing this for years using turkey roasting bags to line their buckets.

And IIRC someone from another country had posted about bag fermenters, that you hung from a hook.

And last year someone posted on another forum about the possibility of making a "plastic bag conical."

http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-.../5562-plastic-bag-conical-beer-fermenter.html

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the revolution's "already been televised." Or at least web forumned.

 

[billc68]

The WineKitz franchise in Canada lines their primaries with a bag, then transfers to a carboy. Works great. Not sure where they get he bags but they just tear them off the roll and line the buckets, no sanitizing. (well the bucket lids get sanitized)

 

[samc]

Let the guy have his day in the sun! Who cares if someone else did it before.

 

[ksbrain]

They did a similar thing at the brew your own I went to a few years ago. I thought it was an awesome idea, but for some reason never tried it at home. And I do hate cleaning yeast off the inside of the fermenter.

 

[Special Hops]

Sounds like a great way to increase the amount of trash going to the landfill.

 

[509inc]

Sounds like a great way to increase the amount of trash going to the landfill.

Great Point.

I do not find the yeast at the bottom to be nasty or hard to clean.

 

[Parkinson1963]

Ok Ok I never said it was original

In my small little mind I saw this as small step in simplifying the beer making progress, less muss ,fuss and less equipment.

With BIAB and FIAB the total amount of equipment will be reduced to a propane burner,one large pot ~7 gal, One large bucket ~7 gal, a grain bag, long handled spoon and a plastic bag. and oh yeah an elastic band.
to quote Thoreau "simplify, simplify"

P.S. and a thermometer and a hydrometer. ( I have my doubts about the hydrometer)

 

[damdaman]

sounds like a great way to increase the amount of trash going to the landfill.

+1
........

 

[mezak1gd]

It takes me 5 mins to clean out the fermenter.

 

[Shooter]

Sounds like a great way to increase the amount of trash going to the landfill.

That is a great point. I am completely for that. I can throw these in the same bin I use to store my spent batteries and used motor oil. I cover it up with the grass clippings and the trash collector never knows the difference.

 

[Walker]

Ok Ok I never said it was original

In my small little mind I saw this as small step in simplifying the beer making progress, less muss ,fuss and less equipment.

With BIAB and FIAB the total amount of equipment will be reduced to a propane burner,one large pot ~7 gal, One large bucket ~7 gal, a grain bag, long handled spoon and a plastic bag. and oh yeah an elastic band.
to quote Thoreau "simplify, simplify"

P.S. and a thermometer and a hydrometer. ( I have my doubts about the hydrometer)

If you really want to minimize, just ferment it in your kettle. BIAB, no-chill, ferment in the kettle.

 

[billc68]

More waste going to teh landfill, maybe, very little however unless everyone started doing it. However it does preserve your primary, no scratches inside and less chemicals to pour down the drain when cleaning.

 

[bad coffee]

"more chemicals"

What are you using to clean? I use Oxyclean to clean my fermenters. If I'm not mistaken, Oxyclean breaks down into peroxide(H2O2). Once the extra oxygen gets loose, yo have water(H2O).

Why do you want to keep buying bags and putting them in a landfill?

B

 

[jtrainer]

That is a great point. I am completely for that. I can throw these in the same bin I use to store my spent batteries and used motor oil. I cover it up with the grass clippings and the trash collector never knows the difference.

Shooter, have you been going through my garbage bins again?

 

[Shooter]

Shooter, have you been going through my garbage bins again?

No, no, that wasn't me. It...uh...it was someone else. Yeah, that's the ticket!

 

[l1ranger]

its not a bad idea.

I'd probably opt to rubber band the top of the bag on the outside of the bucket, "trashcan style" (c) , and use a bucket lid with an airlock/blowoff. it shoudl still seal up pretty good if the bag isn't unusually thick and it relieves any worries of a out of hand yeast orgy.

of course, its not too bad to clean up the fermenter IME, and it does cause extra waste and it does add a little extra cost to each batch you do. any idea how much these bags cost?

viable option indeed. whether its the best option will be up to the individual brewer.

 

[lschiavo]

Don't knock this until you try it.

I have been doing this for a while now. My buckets get quite a bit of use and I was getting a little sceptical that they were realling getting "clean" between brews. Many were discolored and had a little "funk" smell even after a good cleaning. Not to mention the scratches that inevitably develop.

I really did not want to junk my buckets for new ones so I looked into liners. I got 500 20x30 2mil LDPE bags for less than $40.00 delivered (less than 8 cents per bag). I dont see the actual product I bought there anymore but this is the site I ordered from:

http://plexsupply.net/

20x30 seems to be the perfect size for the Ale Pail's I am using. I just wrap the bag over the top lip of the bucket and snap on the lid as usual. Cleaning buckets was never a huge job but now is is completly unneccesary. I like

 

[bsdx]

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail...24-x-30-8-10-Gallon-15-mil-Clear-Trash-Liners

 

[kjjohns5]

Ok Ok I never said it was original

In my small little mind I saw this as small step in simplifying the beer making progress, less muss ,fuss and less equipment.

With BIAB and FIAB the total amount of equipment will be reduced to a propane burner,one large pot ~7 gal, One large bucket ~7 gal, a grain bag, long handled spoon and a plastic bag. and oh yeah an elastic band.
to quote Thoreau "simplify, simplify"

P.S. and a thermometer and a hydrometer. ( I have my doubts about the hydrometer)

Was Windows 7 your idea too?

 

[Parkinson1963]

No because Windows still sucks.

Why dose the help function only tell what you did wrong but offer no "help" to fix it?

 

[kjjohns5]

I couldn't agree with that more. Mac ftw.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Apologizes for the zombie thread.

I started training yesterday at a craft brewery in Japan. They line upright chest freezers with giant plastic bags (one as a liner, then one to hold the wort). They pitch the yeast, then fill the bags with chilled wort. They tie the top of the bag with a bit of twine. They use Inkbird-style temp controllers and slide a 24W panel heater along one of the vertical sides of the freezer.

It seems to work well for them. I'll be here for two weeks total, so I'll see what else I can learn about this method.

 

[broadbill]

Apologizes for the zombie thread.

I started training yesterday at a craft brewery in Japan. They line upright chest freezers with giant plastic bags (one as a liner, then one to hold the wort). They pitch the yeast, then fill the bags with chilled wort. They tie the top of the bag with a bit of twine. They use Inkbird-style temp controllers and slide a 24W panel heater along one of the vertical sides of the freezer.

It seems to work well for them. I'll be here for two weeks total, so I'll see what else I can learn about this method.

I'm glad you resurrected it, because I was thinking of this very thing and remembered a thread about it a long time now.

I have a very small chest freezer (5cf?) and fermenting 10 gallons (2 buckets) requires me to stack them in there so they are off-set to one another and also to take door off and replace it with a styroform box built to increase head-space. It is kludgy but it works...

I was toying with the idea of lining the chest freezer itself and fermenting right in that. Moving the wort is an issue for me, but I'm glad to see someone is trying it and it is working for them. I figured temp control would be better since the beer would be right in contact with the wall of the freezer.

I'd be interested in learning more on the liners used, etc. Thanks!

 

[ebbelwoi]

Here's a pic of one being filled. There's a plastic liner that stays in the freezer, then a second plastic bag that holds the liquid. After filling, the bag is tied off with a bit of twine, then hangs out the side.



There doesn't seem to be anything special about the bags. I could take a pic for you tomorrow, but it'd all be in Japanese.

 

[broadbill]

yep, exactly what I was thinking....cool! Thanks for sharing that.

 

[ebbelwoi]

One more from today:

 

[broadbill]

those freezers don't have compressor humps? Is the grey part at the bottom part of the freezer or an add-in by the brewery?

 

[ebbelwoi]

The bottoms are totally flat. The compressors are contained underneath the units. The gray (silver) part is the original part of the freezer, and the white area on top is a collar that the brewery added.

 

[NTexBrewer]

How do they get the beer out?

 

[ebbelwoi]

How do they get the beer out?

With a bit of copper pipe attached to a hose and a pump. The pipe is curved slightly upwards at the bottom, and curved more at the top so that it hangs over the edge of the freezer.