Moving onto BIAB

A few weeks ago, I made a post asking about my equipment and seeing if it was enough to go all grain. Someone mentioned BIAB and I've been looking it up since and I think it's the route I want to go for all grain. I'm thinking about doing the mash in a cooler BIAB as I read some blogs about it and I like that system.

Anyways, I have a 58qt rectangular cooler that I plan to get a bag for from The Brew Bag folks. Will this cooler be a big enough vessel for 5-5.5 gallon batches? And how big of an OG can this cooler go? I don't mind buying a bigger cooler, but if I can save money this way, it'd be perfect. I don't plan on brewing 10gal batches any time soon.

I've got a 8-9gallon brew kettle that I will use to heat the strike water.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but is this how the process would go:

• heat the strike water
• place the bag in the cooler
• pour some heated water into the cooler to prime the cooler
• once you reach the strike temp, add the water into the cooler
• dough in the grains and stir until you reach your mash temp
• leave for an hour, checking the temp occassionally and stirring
• after the hour, lift the bag out
• drain the wort into the brew kettle

Does this sound correct? Is there a step I'm missing?

Payday is next week and I'm already planning on spending it on BIAB stuff as that's what I want my next brew day to entail.

 

Get the water up to above strike temp before putting it into the cooler. This will heat the cooler as you add the water. Aim for a bit above strike temperature once the water is in the cooler. Stir it till it comes down to strike and dough in.

Dough in fast with BIAB and a fine crush as you want that temperature to come down to rest temps ASAP. I dough in in about 1 minute.

That size of cooler pretty much will allow any and all types of beer in a 5.5 gallon batch size. Your pot will be a good size too seeing as you are not mashing in it.



Looks like a good setup. Best of luck with it.

 

Oh man. I after I made my post, I started searching for other similar posts. I thought I was reading a different thread, saw your reply, and thought, "Man, someone already a post exactly similar to mine...this is crazy..."

Then I realized it was my own thread. Still too early. I need my coffee....

Anyways, thanks for your reply! That's great to hear I've got a big enough cooler already. As far as the cooler goes, all I need to do is fit a ball valve on it and use a silicone tube to transfer the wort into the kettle to avoid oxygenation of the hot wort, right? No need for that that SS braid?

 

No need for the ball valve or tubing either, just open the spigot up and let it drain into the kettle.

 

Oxygenation not a concern at that stage. The hose will reduce splashing and mess which I'm all for.


Note: HSA hot side aeration is often talked about. Lots of threads talking about that. It is not something I give a moments thought to. Nor should you I reckon.

 

Ahh right on. Sounds good! Though, I'm just remembering now, I may have to replace the spigot anyways. I remember the last time we used the cooler, my brother was dumping out the ice and something hit the spigot and loosened it. i don't remember if we ever got it to tighten again. I'll have to check it later.

Ahhh okay. Thanks again for all your help! I can't wait to do my first AG/BIAB!

 

Get a Wilserbrewer bag.

My own 2 cents based on a TON of trial and error.

 

IME, a 58 qt cooler is on the large side for 5 gal batches, and will lose a fair amount of heat for all but the extreme large 5 gal batch.

My suggestion would be to run a batch or two in your kettle BIAB style, and decide how you want to progress once you have some experience.

Your Kettle may fit in your oven with the upper shelf removed, putting your kettle in a warm oven is an excellent way to maintain mash temps.

My advice, while a poly voile bag that fits your kettle is preferred, an inexpensive paint strainer bag for a couple bucks, and your 8-9 gallon kettle will get you started in a very simple inexpensive fashion making good beer.

 

Your process sounds good to me, no need to preheat your mash tun though, if your using a brewing calculator like Beersmith that's already going to be figured in.

It would certainly improve your efficiency if you did at least a small sparge with that setup. A simple batch sparge at the end, or just dump some more strike water onto the bag while its draining. You will still most likely get acceptable extraction with a full volume mash and no sparge, but it wouldn't really be much more work at all, and a big improvement.

I honestly love the simplicity of just doing BIAB in the kettle, I own several good mash tuns but have been doing BIAB lately just because of the ease.

Anyway sounds like you've got a handle on things, I think you will brew great things!

 

You need to tell Beersmith the temperature and material the mash-tun is made of. It's temperature is important and is not known by the software unless you tell it. The specific heat is dependent on the tun's material. This way it will give you more accurate strike temperature. It doesn't just figure it out on it's own.

Mashing in a pot or preheating the plastic mash tun is easier as the mash-tun temperature will be the same as the strike temperature assuming everything has had time to equilibrate prior to dough-in.

Beersmith Mash. Initial Temperatures and Equipment setup


@Wilserbrewer is right as usual. The mash-tun is large and retaining heat is made more difficult with air in the tun. Hadn't thought of that in my earlier post.

I mash in the pot and place insulation. It gives incredibly stable temperatures. Just something to consider. You can make a custom jacket very cheaply or use a jacket/blanket of your own. Both work well.

Reflectix and Ski-Jacket Insuated Mashes

 

Thank you folks!

Thanks @wilsenbrewer for the input about the extra room in the cooler. I may actually just do the traditional BIAB and mash in the kettle.

Thanks @Gavin_C for the info about beersmith. I actually bought the software, but have yet to install it as I may need a new computer. Looking at your picture with the reflectix insulation, is that bungee cords holding it together? I'd like to go that route.

 

I Started out with using a 8 gallon turkey fryer for BIAB batches and it worked just fine with beers up to about 15 pounds of grains, just used Beersmith to get my total Volume needed and substituted out whatever water couldn't fit in the kettle (ex. 9.5 gal volume needed, so i would remove about 1.75 Gal.) of water and rinse the grains with whatever water i had left over in the end.

My biggest suggestion though if you have some extra cash, buy a 15 Gal. SS pot! they can be expensive but so worth it in the long run, no headaches, plenty of room for high gravity beers, and you cut down on scorching your bag/wort from hotspots. Welcome to AG brewing! you'll never look back!

 

Bungee cords indeed. 4 layers of Reflectix with Metal foil tape to seal the cut edge where the spigot and thermometer are. Bolts hold the layers together at on the other side. It is a very easy DIY project.

Probably goes without saying but be sure not to directly heat the pot with gas with the insulation on. It will melt/ignite.

Other views showing the DIY insulation.







Go ahead and install Beersmith and you can install it on another computer if you change later on. Play with the software. That's the easiest way to learn how to use it. It is a very very useful tool once you feed it accurate data. Same product key is good for more than one computer so long as you are the end user. Not sure how many computers it can be installed on. I have Beersmith on my Mac and old slow PC.

 

I use the $5.00 paint strainers from HD as my BIAB's, and have had great luck so far. Strictly by curiosity one day, I put a "trash" bag over my 22qt kettle followed by the usual zipped up jacket and I lost <1 degree over 90 minutes. I had never lost that little heat before with just the jacket. I am guessing the plastic bag "vacuum" sealed the pot as heat and cold don't move in a vacuum.

 

@Mindenman
How did you create the vacuum?

 

I actually didn't "create" the vacuum, I put the bag over my pot and burped the air out it like it was a loaf of bread. I am guessing since no "cold" air could get to the pot that is why it stayed very warm.