Aussiehomebrewer, brew in a bag

This is an interesting brewing forum from "down under".
I was looking at their all grain pm forum tonight and noticed an article about BIAB. or brew in a bag. Using a large grain bag and avoiding sparging, supposed to be easier, less equipment. it seems to me you still need to do a full 5 gallon or more boil and will need a heating element beyond a stove. Any one have any experiance or opinons about such a method, I my self use a grain bag for pms and sprinkle water on bag to "sparge" it. I havent reseached this method much since it's late, I got to go to work early next morning and am half in the bag my self!

This was discussed before, my personal feelings are.

1. It could be dagerous considering you have to remove a huge bag full of hot grain from the boil pot and then hold it there while it drains.

2. You are mashing in the full amount of water you will be boiling. I did the math once and it came out to something like 3 qts per pound of grain compared to the usual 1 to 1.5 qts per pound. I would think tannin extraction from the increased ph would be unavoidable, they claim otherwise.

3. Since you have to make this giant bag yourself out of curtain material you'd better be darn sure of your sewing abilities, one ripped seam and you got a pot full of loose grain or a big pile of 170º F grain on your feet.

4. Its much easier to rinse out a cooler/mash tun than it would be trying to rinse all of the grain out of a big bag.

Just my opinion:rockin: