AG or BIAB?

[dstockwell]

I do 3.25G batches BIAB in a 7.5G aluminum turkey fryer kettle. I start on the stove and heat to strike, dump grains in wilserbag, cover to insulate, heat up after mash, and take it outside to the burner. EZPZ.....

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

This is becoming more and more popular, some claim it makes clean up easier. I can see this as a benifit for someone that doesnt want to build a MT, or has a cooler on hand. Also the cooler can be used for brewing on Saturday and taken to the beach on Sunday as no modification is required. I have never done this, just made the bags so I have a couple questions for the board...

1. Does one need any sort of manifold or drain, or do you just open the cooler drain and let it rip / drain?
2. I assume most are draining the runnings rather than lifting removing the bag with a pulley? I've had several request for a pulley with a cooler bag, and thought it strange....why use a pulley when you need to drain to another vessel anyhow...

thanks

I'm having trouble understanding why anyone is using a cooler or mash tun with BIAB. Is it just because their pot is to small to hold the grain for a full volume mash? Its just another step and thing to clean

 

[Peruvian802]

You don't need to use 170 degree water. Cold water does nearly as well and doesn't require another pot to heat it in. Unless conversion is not complete you don't need to let it set 10 minutes either. Pour in the water, stir to rinse the sugars off the grain and drain.

I approve of this message.

 

[jimbomij]

I've been doing BIAB for a few years now, and I have no intentions of switching. After a few months of tinkering with my system, I have a few tips that have worked for me and increased my efficiency:

1) Always mill your grains twice.
2) The following process is for a 5-6 gallon starting boil in a 7.5 gallon kettle:
-I heat 1.25 quarts of water for every pound of grains.
-I overshoot my strike temp by 10-12 degrees depending on grain bill so that I don't undershoot it when I add my grain bag.
-I take the kettle off the burner and add my grain bag.
-Then I wrap my kettle in a wool blanket on a chair, and let it sit for 90 minutes. (I've never had the temperature drop more than a degree.)
-When there are about 10 minutes left in the rest, I heat up 3 gallons of water to my strike temp in a separate pot and pour the heated water into a food grade bucket.
-Once the 90 minutes is up, I lift the bag from the kettle and squeeze out all the liquid from the bag.
-I put my kettle on the burner, and I put my grain bag in the bucket with the freshly heated water. (I find that this rinses the grains of the remaining sugars.)
-As the kettle is heated on the burner, I just let the grain bag rest in the bucket.
-When the kettle is almost at a boil, I drain the bag over the bucket and dump the bucket to get to my desired batch size.
-Then you just boil it like extract.

I'm sure there are plenty of brewers wiser than me, that would look at my system and point out tons of flaws, but this is what I've found that gives me the best and most consistent efficiency. Take it or leave it, but I thought I'd share my method.

 

[wilserbrewer]

That's a solid simple process jimbom, good for you!

 

[jimbomij]

That's a solid simple process jimbom, good for you!

Flattery will get you everywhere. I may have to buy a bag from you now.

 

[rhys333]

I like to mash on the stove using my old 5 gallon pot. It's perfectly sized for a standard batch, retaining heat really well since its usually full to within a couple inches. I heat 4 gallons sparge water outdoors in my 10 gal kettle when the hour-long mash is nearly up and transfer the bag across. I then get the first runnings heating on the stove. When it's nearing a boil, I pull the bag from the kettle, fire it up and dump in first runnings. Saves me some time and propane.

 

[BNolt17]

I use a cooler for BIAB. I explained my process earlier in the thread. The first time I tried BIAB in my pot, wrapped in a blanket like most suggest I dropped about 6 degrees in a 60 minute mash. Not sure exactly the reason, but I wasn't happy about that. I use coolers at work and had an extra 7.5 gallon cooler laying around, I figured why not grab the cooler to hold temp. I already had the bag so I didn't need to worry about a manifold or filter system. I mash in my cooler, towards the end of my mash I heat whatever water I need to hit my 6.5 gallon boil volume to 170 in my boil kettle. I have read this is unnecessary, but it's what works for me, plus I'm a little closer to boil temp than if I sparge/rinse with cold water. I pull the bag and dump in the 170 degree water in the brew pot. Stir well and pull the bag, let the bag drain into the boil kettle while it comes to a boil and dump the cooler wort into the boil kettle and continue as normal. I understand this might be an unconventional method. I'm hitting between 75-85% efficiency with double crushed grain so it works for me

I'm having trouble understanding why anyone is using a cooler or mash tun with BIAB. Is it just because their pot is to small to hold the grain for a full volume mash? Its just another step and thing to clean

 

[GeorgiaTiger]

Thanks for all of the replies. On the strike temp, wrapping the kettle holds in the heat. I'm wondering if I could use my cool brew bag that I ferment in to keep the heat? If I put frozen 2 liters bottles in the bag with a fermenting bucket or carboy, it holds the temp as cold as I need or want it to. Wonder if it will hold heat? Anyone ever use one of these to hold heat?

 

[soccerdad]

Nope - but I bet it will

 

[TexasWine]

Thanks for all of the replies. On the strike temp, wrapping the kettle holds in the heat. I'm wondering if I could use my cool brew bag that I ferment in to keep the heat? If I put frozen 2 liters bottles in the bag with a fermenting bucket or carboy, it holds the temp as cold as I need or want it to. Wonder if it will hold heat? Anyone ever use one of these to hold heat?

Never used mine for such a purpose. It would be better than letting it sit out uninsulated. But keep in mind it works so well for cooling for two reasons.

One, the temperature you're trying to maintain when cooling isn't that much different than the ambient temps, say 20F difference or so. If you're trying to maintain mash temps, you're delta will be 80-90F. Might not be a big deal, but your rate of heat loss will be greater than when keeping it cool.

Two, the phase change from ice to water requires a lot of energy. When keeping it warm, you don't have that advantage.

 

[RM-MN]

Almost anything that you can wrap around the pot will help hold in the heat but don't forget to insulate the cover too. A folded bath towel will help in this area. Don't be too concerned if you lose a little heat on the first couple batches. Concentrate on getting the water to strike temp and stirring in the grains well so you don't get dough balls (wire whisk is awesome for this). After you have a couple batched done you can worry about the heat loss.

 

[rhys333]

Eliminating head space helps maintain mash team too. It's why I moved the mash indoors using my 5 gallon pot. Virtually zero heat loss this way. I mash at 1.25 qt/lb then sparge, so needless to say the head space in my 10 gallon kettle was huge. It was a pain in the butt trying to keep it at temp.