I've been brewing for 16 years and have most processes under my belt. For the past two years it's been BIAB exclusively. I love it. It's easy and quick. I won't go back. A couple of quick points: Find a water ratio that works for your system. Mine is about 2.5 to 2.6 quarts per pound of grain. Grind the grains fairly fine and run them through twice and you'll get decent efficiency 70-75%. Also, try conditioning your malt first with a little water to soften the grains. You'll get a lot less dust when you grind.
Anyone BIAB?
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I've done my only ag biab. Easy as extract I think. Used large sparge bag from brewgadgets.com. Put bag and grain in 6.5 gal bottle bucket with screen over spigot.used spigot to control flow out into boil pots(2 for on elec stove. Covered with lid to keep heat in. Lost one degree in hour.easy clean and already had bucket
kman6234
Well-Known Member
I've been reading a lot about BIAB the past few days and the more I read the more interested I'm becoming in it. I moved to all grain brewing last year with the typical round cooler / stainless braid setup and it works just fine.
But from what I'm reading I should be able to produce just as good beer with BIAB and it will shorten my brew day and decrease the equipment I need and will have to clean. This really appeals to my minimalist nature. Thank you guys for convincing me to give it a try!
But from what I'm reading I should be able to produce just as good beer with BIAB and it will shorten my brew day and decrease the equipment I need and will have to clean. This really appeals to my minimalist nature. Thank you guys for convincing me to give it a try!
you'll be glad you did!
Parkinson1963
Well-Known Member
Brew in a Bag, also known as BIAB
As simple as I can make it
Equipment List
1 Pot , with lid, at least 40 litres in volume (I use a keggle)
2 Bag, swiss voile (mine is 0.5m wide by .75m high)
3 Mash Paddle
4 Heat source
5 Thermometer
6 Insulation (old comforter, blankets, sleeping bag, etc)
The Bag
A lot of talk is generated on this simple thing.
What you are making is a pillow case out of mesh.
In fact a new washed pillow case (poly cotton/polyester) will work quite well, just not as efficient.
Best material so far, Swiss voile (fabric land carries it).
The material comes in 1.5 meter widths so 1/2 m will make a bag.
Use of sewing machine and ten minutes will make a bag, ask your mommy, girl friend, sister, etc
If no sewing machine a needle and thread will do (about ½ to 1 hour)
A draw string closure will be nice, but not necessary.
Also I believe a 1m by 1m square of the material will make a bag, with no sewing. Just push the material into the pot with 4 spring clamps holding up the edges (I have not tried this yet).
The Grains
A fine crush is best for BIAB, I use a 0.5mm (0.02”
gap on my barley crusher mill.
Some flour is fine and expected.
Procedure
for a five gallon batch
1. Add 28 litres (7.5 gallons) of water to the pot.
2. Begin heating
3. When to about 10c less than the mash temp add the bag and the grains
4. Stir the grain with your mash paddle well, no lumps.
5. Keep heating and stirring until your mash temp is reached (65 to 68c)
6. Turn off heat
7. Put lid on pot and insulate
8. Leave alone for 60 to 90 minutes
9. Remove insulation
10. Apply heat and stir until mash out temp reached (~76c)
11. Shut off heat
12. Lift up bag, drain, squeeze, drain, squeeze,drain, repeat as necessary I try to get every drop.
13. Apply heat bring to boil, add hops, cool, pitch yeast, etc
With the above equipment and method I get ~75% efficiency, same as my three vessel system.
There are lots of room for modifications to above method, knock your self out.
However in my opinion keeping it simple is what BIAB is about
“It's dead easy” Uncle Dennis, 40+ year beer maker
As simple as I can make it
Equipment List
1 Pot , with lid, at least 40 litres in volume (I use a keggle)
2 Bag, swiss voile (mine is 0.5m wide by .75m high)
3 Mash Paddle
4 Heat source
5 Thermometer
6 Insulation (old comforter, blankets, sleeping bag, etc)
The Bag
A lot of talk is generated on this simple thing.
What you are making is a pillow case out of mesh.
In fact a new washed pillow case (poly cotton/polyester) will work quite well, just not as efficient.
Best material so far, Swiss voile (fabric land carries it).
The material comes in 1.5 meter widths so 1/2 m will make a bag.
Use of sewing machine and ten minutes will make a bag, ask your mommy, girl friend, sister, etc
If no sewing machine a needle and thread will do (about ½ to 1 hour)
A draw string closure will be nice, but not necessary.
Also I believe a 1m by 1m square of the material will make a bag, with no sewing. Just push the material into the pot with 4 spring clamps holding up the edges (I have not tried this yet).
The Grains
A fine crush is best for BIAB, I use a 0.5mm (0.02”
gap on my barley crusher mill. Some flour is fine and expected.
Procedure
for a five gallon batch
1. Add 28 litres (7.5 gallons) of water to the pot.
2. Begin heating
3. When to about 10c less than the mash temp add the bag and the grains
4. Stir the grain with your mash paddle well, no lumps.
5. Keep heating and stirring until your mash temp is reached (65 to 68c)
6. Turn off heat
7. Put lid on pot and insulate
8. Leave alone for 60 to 90 minutes
9. Remove insulation
10. Apply heat and stir until mash out temp reached (~76c)
11. Shut off heat
12. Lift up bag, drain, squeeze, drain, squeeze,drain, repeat as necessary I try to get every drop.
13. Apply heat bring to boil, add hops, cool, pitch yeast, etc
With the above equipment and method I get ~75% efficiency, same as my three vessel system.
There are lots of room for modifications to above method, knock your self out.
However in my opinion keeping it simple is what BIAB is about
“It's dead easy” Uncle Dennis, 40+ year beer maker
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
I hope to be doing my First BIAB this weekend (waiting on my pot). Here is the link mentioned earlier about the BIAB forum
http://www.biabrewer.info/
Archie
http://www.biabrewer.info/
Archie
Rockape66
Well-Known Member
I do up to a 12 lb grain bill BIAB. 5 gal Lowes paint strainer and a 21 qt canning kettle for mash. Wrap an Army wool blanket around kettle to maintain temp. I put a rope through a ring bolt in the ceiling of my garage to let the bag drain. Use 2 pot lids to squeeze bag. I sparge in my 7.5 gal or my 10 gal pot. Add first runnings from canning kettle and start boil. 78% effidiency is my average with this method, and I get about the same with my cooler mash tun with larger grain bills. The cooler is not more work; just different work, and more time.
watergod
Well-Known Member
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Went from all grain with mash tun cooler to BIAB about 3 weeks ago. I bought the voile material from target(7.99$ curtain material) made it into a bag to line my keggle. So far up to 14 lb grain bill with full boil and plenty of room for a 5 gallon batch. Getting about 80% efficiency on the last three batches so far. I love the simplicity. Also it's much easier to figure out your water volumes needed to hit final batch size. Temp control of the mash is as easy as just firing the burner for a couple minutes if needed. I don't see myself going back to the ice chest any time soon!!
Ambrose_Balin
Member
I BIAB. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from home depot. A 2 pack was 3 or 4 dollars. Since I keep it off the bottom of the pot with a vegetable steamer, it is plenty large for 3 gallon batches (4.3 gallon boils in a 5 gallon pot).
It's very cheap and easy and my efficiencies have been consistently high.
It's very cheap and easy and my efficiencies have been consistently high.
oh great... now you let everyone know that All Grain brewing is as easy as extract brewing (just more time to drink a few extra homebrews ). Next thing ya know everyone will be doing it..
Anyone know how to enter a BIAB recipe into Beersmith? I am using version 1.4 (not the updated version 2.0) I thought I would just lower the efficiency to 60% and set the mash profile to single infusion, medium body but I am not sure if I need to do a mashout or not. Any ideas?
yeah... enter it as a NORMAL all grain recipe... because that's what it is. the only difference is the equipment and it's really not needed to create a recipe. set it for single infusion and run with it. setting the efficiency to 60 is really low, 70 if you've never done a BIAB is fine. I routinely get 74-75% on a beer with 11-12lbs of grain and on smaller beers have gotten as high as 87%. I recently got 73% on a 4 gallon Russian Imperial Stout that came out to 1.111 OG on 16lbs of grain.
With BIAB the key is the crush. If you crush your own grain, crush it real fine. if you buy it pre-crushed, ask for it to be double crushed. Once you get your setup dialed in you'll be able to adjust your recipes for your efficiency.
Just so I am clear regarding your reply...you do not sparge in your BIAB recipes. I usually have 75-80% efficiency when I batch sparge with my mashtun so I am looking forward to seeing what happens with BIAB.
msa8967 said:
Correct. I do a full volume no sparge BIAB
Ambrose_Balin
Member
msa8967, I do a dunk sparge in 170 degree water I've heated in a second pot. My mash and boil both occur in the same 5 gallon pot, so I can't mash full volume (4.3 gallon boils). I'm limited to 7lb grain bills (1.25 quarts per lb mash) and my dunk sparge volume is based on bringing my total preboil to 4.3 gallons.
I get very high efficiency, but I think that the sparge step wouldn't be necessary if I had a larger kettle to mash in.
I get very high efficiency, but I think that the sparge step wouldn't be necessary if I had a larger kettle to mash in.
tre9er
Well-Known Member
I've been thinking of how to do this. Since it's BIAB, we can mash in a cooler that doesn't have fancy fittings or manifolds. I have a 5-gallon cooler, just a plain cooler. I could use my bag in it, throw strike water and grains in there, stir, cover, mash...then pull the bag out and dunk it in my boil kettle (that would have sparge water at 180). There's my sparge, add first wort from cooler into BK, voila.
Yeah?
aubiecat
Well-Known Member
Is my 8 gallon pot going to be large enough to do full 5 gallon BIAB batches?
tre9er
Well-Known Member
yes. You will only need 6 gallons max in it at one time, for preboil volume. Even big grain bills only need 4-5 gallons of mash water, then you will be left with 3-4 gallons of first wort, sparge 2-3 gallons.
Unless you're going no-sparge and you want to mash in 7 gallons of water...not gonna happen in an 8 gal pot. Mash in what volume you can, then add boiling water during your boil.
aubiecat
Well-Known Member
Ah I need a bigger pot. 
10 gallon pots are perfect.. you can get them fairly cheap online (Aluminum is perfectly fine)
tre9er
Well-Known Member
Ah I need a bigger pot.
Really, you can mash in 5-6 gallons (plenty for most grain bills) and if you're no-sparge, just heat another 2 gallons up near the end of the mash, then add it to the wort after you've removed your grain bag. Doesn't really take any more time.
aubiecat
Well-Known Member
I'm not against doing a sparge, I'm just lazy. Ha, Ha. I think sparging is the most logical thing to do right now and see how that works out.
I am brewing a Kellerweis clone this weekend so that will tell me what I need to know.
Now I just have to kill a six pack of it to get the yeast.
I am brewing a Kellerweis clone this weekend so that will tell me what I need to know.
Now I just have to kill a six pack of it to get the yeast.
tre9er
Well-Known Member
I would just dunk-sparge then. Easy enough.
Sordfish
Member
Newbie here and I have a dumb question...
Can someone explain "dunk sparging"? I only have a 5 gallon kettle so I would most like be looking at 3 gallon batches.
Can someone explain "dunk sparging"? I only have a 5 gallon kettle so I would most like be looking at 3 gallon batches.
tre9er
Well-Known Member
Sure, dunk sparging is when you mash in one vessel (a smaller pot or cooler) and then pull the bag out and place it in another vessel that has sparge water in it.
For instance, what I do is line my 22qt. cooler with the bag, mash in there, then pull the bag and put it in my brew kettle which is filled with the sparge water. I stir, let sit for 10 minutes, then pull and squeeze...then add the first-runnings from the cooler into the brew kettle and commence my boil.
For instance, what I do is line my 22qt. cooler with the bag, mash in there, then pull the bag and put it in my brew kettle which is filled with the sparge water. I stir, let sit for 10 minutes, then pull and squeeze...then add the first-runnings from the cooler into the brew kettle and commence my boil.
It's absolutely possible to 'normal' batch size ~9 gal (23 l) in 5 gal (19 l) pot/kettle (sort of/using sparging and post- boil dilution processes). Just search this topic: "Using Maxi-BIAB to Brew a 'Single Batch' Mini-BIAB by Ralph deVoil (Ralph)" at biabrewer.info. All with foolproof howto, pics etc.
