Bag hoist/hanging...any pics?

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sablesurfer

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I am wondering if anyone who BIAB has build their own system for hoisting a bag and hanging it? I have seen some ladders and some winches from rafters, but I am hoping for smaller systems.

Say you needed to hang a bag over pot in the kitchen. :D

Any and all pics and other solutions welcome, but I am hoping to adapt something to part of my mobile 9gal electric brew BIAB system.
 
Ah well a kitchen makes it a tad tougher. I brew in my garage and screwed an eye bolt into the celiing rafter. Attached a pulley I never use from my electric winch, and hung an anchor rope to attach to the fryer basket. In your kitchen, you could also screw in and leave an eye bolt, but it may be a bit of an eyesore.

The basket that came with my turkey fryer has a pair of hanging hooks so it hooks to the kettle rim. I often use just these, but when the volumes get higher I suspend it from the rope/pulley. Might be an option if you can find the right basket and have a large brew kettle.

Otherwise I guess you need to have a self supporting frame to hang it from. Which would need to be pretty robust to hold the ~ 20 lbs of weight of grain/water.
 
Funny, I've been thinking about this all day. I just ordered a BIAB bag for 5 gallon batches. I intend to brew inside and wondered how I'll fare with the bag. My only thought was to use another bucket and colander like I would with steeping grains and let it drain the rest of the way that way.
 
Can you get a 6 foot ladder setup with your brew kettle beneath in your kitchen? Obviously not while it's on the range, that would be tricky.

I also use a ladder to hang the bag from by using the simple devices shown.

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When ready to lift the bag first place the ladder over the kettle and slip the loop of the noose on your wrist then gather the top ends of the bag together and slip the noose down around the gathering and pull it tight. Then just simply lift the bag and hang on the hook.

7515-biab01.jpg
 
Aw hell, just put a screw eye bolt into the ceiling rafter. You can always patch and paint if you need to pull it out.

Actually you can likely hide a small hook either inside the cabinet above the stove, or up top in the kitchen soffit at the back of the cabinet in the wall.

I have thought about this a bit, and likely no SWMBO would permit a ceiling hook in her kitchen. Then after a little thought, I realized the hook can either be mounted inside the stove top cabinet, or up above and behind the cabinet in the soffit wall where no one can see it, then the line can run over top of the cabinet and down. A simple ratchet pulley makes BIAB even easier IME.

This vid gives you an idea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZcfJgkrZoA
 
Funny, I've been thinking about this all day. I just ordered a BIAB bag for 5 gallon batches. I intend to brew inside and wondered how I'll fare with the bag. My only thought was to use another bucket and colander like I would with steeping grains and let it drain the rest of the way that way.

This has worked for most of my BIAB's to date, and yeah I have even put it in the pot with some 170 water for a dunk. (BTW...do NOT actually fill that pot with 170F...cause...well...think of Archimedes BEFORE trying it.)

The problem is when I am starting with a lot of wort, the collander bottom is below the level of wort so trying to run some sparge water through it not so effective.

If your pot was tall enough, this probably no problem. I infact have other plans to over engineer even the bag of brew in a bag for my sparge recirculation. LOL! So I need to hoist it up and have it hang steady enough to attach a hose to. :D
 
if you're working in your kitchen, do you have counter space on either side of your stovetop? why not build two (upside down) t-shaped frames out of 2x4s and throw another across the top to hang your bag from? put it up when your mash is done to drain, and store it away when you're finished?
 
I didn't like the idea of hoisting, so heres what I did.

5 gallon home depot bucket, drill a bunch of holes in the bottom

old homebrew bucket.

place home depot bucket in homebrew bucket, should be about 2 gallons worth of space in between the hole-drilled bottom of the HD bucket and the bottom of the homebrew bucket. Put grain bag in the HD bucket when you're done mashing, put pressure on it with the lid of a saucepan or something, I get about 1.25 gallons of water from the bag this way (10 gallon batches).
 
I purchased a weber replacement grill grate that's just a bit wider than my kettle. I pull the bag, slide the grill under the bag and on top of the kettle and rest the bag on the grate. This lends itself really well to tying off the bag and using your kettle lid to squeeze out any excess wort.

I have a pic of it on my blog here: Amber Brew Day
 
I purchased a weber replacement grill grate that's just a bit wider than my kettle. I pull the bag, slide the grill under the bag and on top of the kettle and rest the bag on the grate. This lends itself really well to tying off the bag and using your kettle lid to squeeze out any excess wort.

I have a pic of it on my blog here: Amber Brew Day


Had any issues with rust spots near the welds? I did with mine after the second batch and just discarded it. I use a pizza pan now. It's about 14-15" diameter and sits perfectly on my 10 gallon kettle.

:off:

I may have to try the Squatch amber ale. Looks like a tasty recipe!
 
Had any issues with rust spots near the welds? I did with mine after the second batch and just discarded it. I use a pizza pan now. It's about 14-15" diameter and sits perfectly on my 10 gallon kettle.

I bought one but haven't used it yet, thanks for the heads up.
 
I haven't had issues with it. I wash it off and dry it almost right after using it. I've done close to 20 batches using it.


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I have my E-Keggle setup on a rolling stand/storage rack, I have the pulley for my grain filter on the top rack and hook to the handle then hook the other end of the rope to the bottom shelf to hold the filter to drain/squeeze out the water.

Image is from when I was first assembling the pulley and sizing the length of the rope. I have 2 pulleys on there now to keep the rope pulled to the side instead of down at an angle.
IMG_20140315_104723_771-M.jpg
 
I purchased a weber replacement grill grate that's just a bit wider than my kettle. I pull the bag, slide the grill under the bag and on top of the kettle and rest the bag on the grate. This lends itself really well to tying off the bag and using your kettle lid to squeeze out any excess wort.

My bags never stay on top of anything and always try to spill out sideways and past the edge of the pot. This even happens with the collander I have so I get a mess all down side of my pot and it is very difficult to rinse the grains as then the water just pours out.

Is this not an issue for you?
 
I do a mash in a cooler and then a "dunk sparge" so I don't really pour sparge water over the bag to rinse the grains. After I do a 10 minute dunk sparge, I pull the bag and put the grate underneath and let the bag drain. To do this, I twist the top of the bag until the grains are packed really tight and it almost looks like a loaf of bread in a bag sitting on the grate. Then I press with my kettle lid.

I used to use generic bags from the LHBS, but I had a similar issue where part of the bag would extend over the edge of the kettle and spill wort. I've since started putting down a few rags in case any wort spilled over.

I've now gone to using a specifically manufactured bag for BIAB that I've had much more success with in terms of spillage while sitting on the grate. The LHBS bag was more of a square when laid out so the grains would tend to move to the corners and spill out over the edge. My new bag is almost more circular in its design, so it sits more like a cake in the bag after I squeeze it down. My bag was one designed to fit my cooler and was purchased at BagBrewer. I'm really happy with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I just put an eye hook in the ceiling of my garage and hoist the bag up with a ratcheting pulley. Tried it out today and it works great. It made getting the bag out so much easier!
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1396296274.093307.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1396296290.709194.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I found a swivel hook at Home Depot. The hook slides onto a small (1"?) white metal disk that's screwed into the joist above my kitchen stove. I take the hook off when I'm not brewing, and the disk is pretty unobtrusive. No complaints from my very understanding wife.
 
Im in the no-hook party as well.

5 gallon home depot bucket sitting in a 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket.

drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of the home depot 5 gal bucket. put bag in it, press on it. 20 minutes later, all the water is drained from that bag and it gets dumped in.
 
My goal as a lazy brewer (the reason I do BIAB) has been to be able to brew all-grain in my kitchen, where I can be cool in the summer, warm in the winter and have a sink and other amenities readily available. Fortunately, we have handy hooks over our stove to hang our pans (photo 1). With some cable and clamps I have rigged a harness utilizing these hooks (photo 2) so I can lift the basket using the ratcheting tie-down rope from my kayak carrier. I wrap the brew pot with bubble insulation for mashing (photo 3) and remove the wrap for boiling (photo 4). This has worked very well. I can hold mash temps within 2 or 3 degrees over an hour.

I also usually reserve 2 gallons or so for sparging after mashout. I recently but the bottom third off a Home Depot bucket and drilled a few holes in the bottom. I can rest the bucket in the top of the raised basket and pour in my sparge water to drizzle over the grains. I can even start the heat under the pot while I'm sparging to get up to a boil faster. The key to this has been a narrow and tall 9 gallon brew pot (Ballington turkey fryer - $70 Amazon) that fits perfectly on the cooktop element. Brew days have become much more comfortable and simpler.

Brew setup-1.jpg


Brew setup-3.jpg


Brew setup-2.jpg


Brew setup-4.jpg
 
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Mash is complete

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Bag is gathered with drawstring

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Short loop cord is wrapped around bag and cinched tight, and connected to ratchet pulley.

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Bag lifted partially to drain

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Bag lifted fully out of the kettle, allowing the bag to drain for another 20 minutes or so leaves very little wort left in the grain.

This took about 3 minutes, including the time to upload the photos...BIAB and Iphone, perfec together :)
 
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Sorry for the poor pic, I'm checking pre-boil volume on my marked mash paddle, I am a gallon low, so on to simply sparge a gallon through / over the hanging bag...

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1396793326.627963.jpg

After ignoring the bag and letting it drain for 20 minutes, I actually gave it a squeeze and got only a few ounces...further confirming that bag squeezing is just pointless exercise, let gravity do the work as there is no hurry while waiting for the boil anyways....
 
Pardon the blurry cellphone pics... :)

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I used the handy little ratchet pulley from Wilserbrewer. No worries about it slipping and dropping back in. I used a second (regular) pulley to make it a compound pulley system.
 
Ive been doing pretty well without a hook/hoist/pulley with 5 gallon BIAB

I simply took a 5 gallon bucket and drilled several holes in the bottom

Then i grabbed a metal refrigerator shelf (From a mini fridge, so its essentially like an oven rack)

when my mash is over, i pull out the bag, have someone else put the shelf on the kettle, then put the bucket (with holes in the bottom) on the shelf over the kettle. The bag goes in the bucket and drains into the kettle.

when youre ready to sparge, it's as easy as slowly pouring the water over the bag in the bucket

:rockin:
 
I wanted my rig to be mobile since we can brew outdoors all year in Nor Cal so this is what I cobbled together.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1397572772.166795.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1397572930.632534.jpg

The support is a shelf bracket U bolted to a stove leg that is anchored to the base, all stuff from garage sales or second hand stores except the pulley which was $10 from Lowes. Works great and when the bag is drained I just unhook the pulley and lower it off to the side into a bucket.
 
I use a huge strainer over my boil kettle and sparge directly into the boil kettle. Works like a charm. I got a little overzealous last time while squeezing the bag with my lid and broke the support on my burner...
 
Here's my setup. It works great, as long as you tie a secure knot around the neck of the bag. My knot came loose last night allowing the bag to drop back into the kettle, splashing wort all over the place. Luckily I didn't lose too much, but it was a drag to clean up.

I use Wilserbrewer's bag and pulley attached to an eye hook in the ceiling joist.

Bag & pulley arrangement.jpg
 
I bought a $15 round charcoal grill grate (stainless) and put that right over my pot. I put the bag on it and open it up. I then pour out 2 pitchers of wort and filter it through the grain bag on top of the pot. I let it drip out while I let it get to a boil. I have am always somewhere between 60-80% efficiency. The lower ones are always when I wasn't paying attention and the temp got too high during mash, etc.
 
I bought a $15 round charcoal grill grate (stainless) and put that right over my pot. I put the bag on it and open it up. I then pour out 2 pitchers of wort and filter it through the grain bag on top of the pot. I let it drip out while I let it get to a boil. I have am always somewhere between 60-80% efficiency. The lower ones are always when I wasn't paying attention and the temp got too high during mash, etc.

I always... ALWAYS mash at 150 for 90 minutes, just cause I'm anal about attenuation. I may do 152 from time to time, but 150 is my marker, apparently I like dryer beers but "wet" wines
 
Yeah, I try to mash at 150 as well but once it got too hot when I wasn't paying attention and it took too long to cool off after the fact. Do you dough in at 130?
 
I notice most of you don't use any basket. I kinda like Seven's use of the basket (detailed in the Sticky thread in this forum) for ease of attaching the hoist rope.

Since I'd like to build an electric BIAB, it sounds like the Bayou Classic baskets used with their pots would also keep the bag off the electric element.

Any disadvantage to using a basket to hold the bag? (Other than cost)
 
I notice most of you don't use any basket. I kinda like Seven's use of the basket (detailed in the Sticky thread in this forum) for ease of attaching the hoist rope.

Since I'd like to build an electric BIAB, it sounds like the Bayou Classic baskets used with their pots would also keep the bag off the electric element.

Any disadvantage to using a basket to hold the bag? (Other than cost)

I used to use a ss basket with 10 gal kettle, before I switched to a keggle for brewing. Only disadvantage is the basket won't fit in a kettle with a bulkhead thermometer, unless the basket's diameter is much less than that of the kettle. In which case, the available mash volume will be greatly reduced. That was the case for me, as the basket was an afterthought, and the one I bought was about 12" in diameter, and used in my 16" dia. kettle. It cleared the thermo probe, but I was limited to about 12-13 lbs. grain.

If you buy a kettle/basket combo, the basket will fit closely inside the kettle, and you won't have room for a thermometer.
 
A basket is preferred by those that choose to use a pump to recirculate. I prefer to keep it simple and not use a basket, even though I have one for a B/C 44 qt pot.

I guess I just prefer a full volume mash with a bag that lines the entire kettle.
 
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