29"x29" MoreBeer BIAB Bag $5.50

[SFGiantsFan925]

Hmm... I suspect I should have bought a colander before I started mashing today, eh?

I pull mine out of the mash, spin in so it squeezes a lot of he wort out. Then place it in a bucket after most of the wort has dripped out. Then i fire up my wort to start the boil, and then go back to my bag and continue to spin it tighter and tighter while squeezing it. I use pair of nitrile gloves because its pretty hot. I try and squeeze out as much wort as possible, then just dump it into the boil. Seems to work great so far. I know aother way is to use a collander and while your grains sitting in it, use a small pot lid and press the wort out of the grains.

there is a LOT of controversy on here about squeezing grains, and wether that is okay to do or not. To sum up what I have read, is, it really does not matter at all. If you think about a commercial brewer, and the pressure that is on the grain at the bottom of a mash, it far exceeds any amount of pressure you could press onto your grains in the bag. I say go for it! More wort = more beer!

 

[bbHop]

I went out to my parent's house shortly after swinging by morebeer for the additional bags... and she broke out her sewing machine! I left the bags with her and she's going to reinforce the stitching (turned the bag inside-out and was going to do a larger zig-zag stitch).

Anybody do this sort of thing with any luck (i.e. notice any strengthening)?

 

[mark_a]

Fits a 15 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker perfectly.

Good to know
Just ordered one.
Thanks

 

[PennyBrewer]

I do smaller batches with cheese cloth that my wife has sewn into a pillow shape that I lay in the bottom of my cooler mash tun. She double reinforces the ends and my bags seem to last for dozens of brews. Mainly it's me that destroys them. Also I don't really lift them to get that last bit of wort. I just let gravity do the work. I never liked mashing in my boil kettle. I had tried that in the late 90's and would run into the same problems of tearing my grain sack.

 

[ong]

What's stumping me about this BIAB stuff is how you hold the bag over the kettle when draining it? Some of the custom bags I've seen have a reinforced fabric loop sewn on to the top of the bag so you can suspend the bag from an overhead pulley. That seems like a really worthwhile feature, even if it does bump the price up a bit... okay, more than a bit. Like 6x more, but, well... Seems worth it.

I use a pulley overhead, with a hangman's noose. Just cinch it around the neck of the bag, hoist it up, and wrap the rope around a cleat on the wall (yes, I live alone!).

 

[TerraNova]

there is a LOT of controversy on here about squeezing grains, and wether that is okay to do or not. To sum up what I have read, is, it really does not matter at all. If you think about a commercial brewer, and the pressure that is on the grain at the bottom of a mash, it far exceeds any amount of pressure you could press onto your grains in the bag. I say go for it! More wort = more beer!

I really think this is broken logic. In a commercial beer batch of say 900 lbs of grain, the entire weight of that grain bill would not be focused onto any single grain. It would be dispersed evenly across the mash tun. The weight of the grain on the geographic north side if a 900 lb grain bed would not be creating any pressure on the grain at the bottom of the south side of the mash tun.

The way to measure the weight the grain at the bottom of a commercial mash tun is bearing is to take a core sample and weigh it. Even with a 3" core sample (which is generous) of a 4' deep grain bed, I would suspect that the total weight would be around 25 lbs tops.

Now compare that 25lbs to the focused force that you are putting in the bag of grain while squeezing it. A lot if you dont know your own strength but think of how many times you can curl a 25 lb dumbbell. Or how much some of you gorillas can bench press. You can EASILY put way, way more pressure on a specific grain than the weight of a grain bed on a single grain. Its a small bag and crushing it with a lid or even between coffee cups (which i have read that one guy does) would yield way more pressure on the grains because it is more focused.

However, there are two other factors to consider. One, when homebrew experts are advising against squeezing grains they are talking about not putting the grains into a fruit press under a large screw which could put hundreds of pounds of pressure evenly to all grains which would physically force unwanted compounds out of the grains....which hand squeezing a BIAB bag wouldnt be able to do. And two, many, many BIAB brewers DO squeeze the bag and either don't get off flavors, don't admit it, or can't tell. So two of those options leave the brewer in the bliss of success.

So while hand squeezing the bag likely doesn't cause the off flavors caused by tannins, the logic that its because it is less than the weight the grains would be subjected to in a commercial brewery is completely inaccurate.

 

[Vellum]

Well just brewed again with this yesterday, 17.5lbs of dry grain. Bag held up like a champ.

As to the squeezing the grain, this is what I do, not saying it is right or wrong, just what I do. I place the wet grain bag in a bucket I have turned into a strainer by drilling holes into it. I then place another picket on top of that like a syringe plunger. In the plunger I place a 25lb weight, it squeezes the grain and gives me a grain absorption ratio of .088 gal per pound. Works great for me...

Cheers all and enjoy brewing, don't sweat the small stuff, different strokes for different folks.

 

[241]

17.5 wow!

 

[Vellum]

17.5 wow!

It was a barleywine, so tasty too. The bag did well, I think I would only trust it with twenty pounds before I strengthen the seams. Really a good bag though.

 

[bbHop]

Brewed the barleywine I had been planning (16.25 lbs of grain) in the newly re-inforced bag - went swimmingly. I decided not to double-bag it and just see how the single bag did (thanks Vellum - your post inspired me) - and it was great.

Additional support definitely seemed like a bonus... I was also careful about how much hanging it did while draining the grain (didn't want to put undue stress on the seems), but was still able to get mid-70's efficiency on a big beer (1.083).

 

[Vellum]

Brewed the barleywine I had been planning (16.25 lbs of grain) in the newly re-inforced bag - went swimmingly. I decided not to double-bag it and just see how the single bag did (thanks Vellum - your post inspired me) - and it was great.

Additional support definitely seemed like a bonus... I was also careful about how much hanging it did while draining the grain (didn't want to put undue stress on the seems), but was still able to get mid-70's efficiency on a big beer (1.083).

Happy to be an inspiration. Upon inspecting my bag after washing it, I found the seams to be a little puckered (I am assuming from the weight). It did just fine and the puckering may be normal but I think I'll reinforce the seams to be safe. We were shooting for 1.084 in a 6 gallon batch. I believe we hit low 80's or upper 70's in efficiency. Too lazy to punch it up and check. Really a great bag, can't wait to brew with it again.

 

[241]

How's everyone's bags holding up?

 

[MaxStout]

Thanks for the helpful review, 241. I have had trouble locating a source of fine-mesh bags for BIAB that will fit my 10 gal. 16" dia. pot. The 24 x 24 bags I have won't quite fit - 24 x 2 / pi ~ 15". I originally bought those from MB for my 5 gallon pot.

I just placed an order for a couple of the 29" x 29" bags from MB.

 

[241]

Thanks for the helpful review, 241. I have had trouble locating a source of fine-mesh bags for BIAB that will fit my 10 gal. 16" dia. pot. The 24 x 24 bags I have won't quite fit - 24 x 2 / pi ~ 15". I originally bought those from MB for my 5 gallon pot.

I just placed an order for a couple of the 29" x 29" bags from MB.

Hope it fits!

 

[shmEk]

I am a fan of Morebeer. I have had their bags blow out the side.... my first batch ever actually. They replaced it, without a problem next order... morebeer is excellent service. Also longer term use, I have two bags that have seen about 10 batches and the reason I was looking into bags at all was because mine are about to break in a few areas along the seems. I wish they had better seams because the rest of the material is still holding up well (one is definitely starting to go and I double bag my grains - suppose my squeezing is killing the bag??).

There is someone on HBT that makes bags too, and his seem to be better quality to me, but I have to find him since I am in the market atm, and I think he charged about 15 bucks to stitch them up for us, which I am willing to pay for a more durable bag.

 

[MaxStout]

Update: the 29" x 29" bags I ordered from Morebeer fit perfectly in my 10 gallon kettle. I haven't tried one yet, but the bags appear to be well-constructed.

BTW, the 10 gallon kettle I have is on sale for $92 on Amazon, with free shipping. It's a heavy-gauge, NSF pot with a clad bottom. Can't beat the price.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FNLTCU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Vellum]

After a few more brews I can see what smeck was talking about. Mine is just starting to unravel at the top seem where the drawstring ties. I will reinforce it with my own stitch as I'm not afraid to pick up a needle and thread. Really a great bag. I am used to reinforcing my purchased bags as they never seem to be meant for repeat brews. Still love the bag and would recommend it to anyone at the price. A little sewing action makes it a lifetime bag. Just sew it up while watching the game on Monday/Sunday. Cheers all

 

[Vellum]

Well after stitching my bag from more beer up I saw that wilserbrew was having a triple pay combo on his setup. I just couldnt pass it up as I was looking for a pulley system for the patio. The bag arrived today. It looks very hardy with string seams. I'll be brewing with it in the next couple of weeks. My conclusion to all of this is the $5.5 bag is great and works wonderfully, it will most likely need repair from time to time. Wilserbrews bags look much nicer although I can't comment on its use yet. Hopefully this thread has been a good resource to people. I will comment one more time once I've brewed with wilserbrews bag and again should I have troubles with his bag in the future (I don't expect to have any).

 

[Cider123]

My morebeer bag is holding up well. Every 4 or 5 brews I soak it in oxyclean just to tidy it up. The only thing that has happened is the draw cord got pulled into the bag on one side and it was near impossible to fish it back out. I just took out the cord completely as I don't really need it.
I spin the bag tight after removing it. I then set it in a colander over a bucket. A few squeezes and I'm done.

 

[MaxStout]

I bought 2 of the bags last spring, and have used one on about a half-dozen batches so far. No problems with it--the stitching appears good. I had switched to using a basket (like this) the last couple of brews, so the bag no longer endures as much physical stress. With that, the bag should last quite a while, and I have a second one for when the first one wears out.

 

[Carlscan26]

I bought this bag and it's a perfect fit for my MB 15 gal kettle. However, on the first use while squeezing the grains the bottom stitch failed. I've since re-sewn it with a double stitch.

 

[Jupapabear]

Just ordered mine, will post with results after first brew. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Jupapabear]

Besides tearing a small hole in it while exciting my first mash (wasn't paying attention to the therm probe) I hit the expected pre boil gravity I was aiming for, says Beersmith2. That's at 70% efficiency. I'll know the true numbers buy the end of the night.

Edit: While unsure of the boil off on my new kettle, guessing below par, I ended with 5 gallons. -3 points of what I was aiming for and expect it to be due to my not ish process. The bag was great, and a time saver for sure. Going biab was worth the .... $6? Haha. I'm doing a big beer tomorrow with the same bag. I'll post with results then as well.
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