BIAB Brewing (with pics)

[flushdrew42]

to keep it from melting?
that was at least my thought.
i'm BIAB on my electric stovetop.

 

[flyfisherwes]

to keep it from melting?
that was at least my thought.
i'm BIAB on my electric stovetop.

I haven't heard of the bag scorching or melting. If you are heating with your bag in you should stir it while you apply heat. As long as your bag is wet it shouldn't melt or scorch. You can boil water over an open flame in a Styrofoam cup.

If you insulate your kettle well during the mash you shouldn't have to heat much.

 

[flushdrew42]

alrighty then! thanks.

 

[Euphist]

I do 5 gal full-boil on my electric stove and have never had a problem when I add heat during the mash.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

I had always used a small cake rack in the bottom of my pot to keep the bag off the bottom. I forgot last time and added some heat during the mash. Sure enough, I scorched the bag and burnt 3 holes in it. Not cool. I've been using the 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags.

 

[Mysticmead]

If using a voile bag and stirring you should be ok adding heat. . Your mileage may vary using a paint strainer

 

[smyrnaquince]

I use a paint strainer bag and a stainless steel fold-out steamer with the central column removed.

 

[jr14]

So lesson learned on what type of material to use. I tried a voile my mother got me. It's the type they use for veils. The mesh was WAY too big and let damn near everything through it. Not good. The second I used was a paint strainer bag. The mesh was MUCH finer and it did a good job. Much better than the veil voile. Then I happened to be stumbling down the curtain aisle at lowes and noticed their voile curtains. Holy crap. The mesh is SO much finer than the paint strainer bags. I used the curtain and it worked AWESOME. At first I thought the mesh would be too fine, but it turns out to hold the double killed grain (flour) quite well.

 

[Mysticmead]

that's the stuff I use.. it's perfect and lets you crush REAL fine

 

[jr14]

Yup. I asked northern fewer.com to double mill my grain and it came milled REALLY fine. Good for them. The curtain voile held it all. Definitely use it. At $8.99 for a single curtain it's a steal.

 

[wilserbrewer]

that's the stuff I use.. it's perfect and lets you crush REAL fine

Yes, curtain voile is exactly what you want, very fine mesh and quite strong.

 

[BPhad]

Reading this thread makes me wish I had not just ordered some extract. I will be trying BIAB as soon as possible.

 

[Domes]

Excellent! I use the same procedure. Mill the grains fine and run them twice. I don't have a turkey fryer basket so I use a pie stand in the pot so the bag doesn't sit on the bottom and burn when I mash out. I don't press the grains just let them drip in a separate pot while I'm heating up the bulk of the water in my main pot. Get about 70% efficiency every time.

 

[CthulhuDreaming]

I apologize in advance if this question has already been answered. I read through many pages, but couldn't bring myself to read all 59. I am not experienced in all-grain brewing.

I want to do 5 gallon batches (so I'd like to net about 5.5 gallons of wort in the fermentation vessel). My largest kettle is 36 quarts (9 gallons), and I'm not in a position right now to upgrade. It seems unlikely that I could mash a significant amount of grain with 7.5 gallons of water in such a pot, though I have no problem with boiling that much.

So I was thinking about what I could do to work around my kettle limitation and thought of a couple of possibilities:

1. Mash using the no-sparge process with a reduced volume of water (reduced only as much as was necessary), and then top up with (pre-heated?) sanitized water?

2. Mash with a reduced volume of water, put the grain bag in a strainer/collander over the kettle at mash-out, and rinse/sparge/top-up with 170F water?

To my inexperienced mind, it would seem that either would work, provided the grain bill wasn't too big for the mash water volume.

Are there any special considerations to keep in mind were I to take either approach?

 

[Euphist]

I would either go with your option 2 or, if you have a large enough second pot, do a dunk-sparge...like a tea bag.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I want to do 5 gallon batches (so I'd like to net about 5.5 gallons of wort in the fermentation vessel). My largest kettle is 36 quarts (9 gallons), and I'm not in a position right now to upgrade. It seems unlikely that I could mash a significant amount of grain with 7.5 gallons of water in such a pot, though I have no problem with boiling that much.

Your 9 gallon pot should be large enough for a full volume BIAB style mash if you really max it out. The rackers calculator link, Can I Mash it? http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/ indicates w/ a 14lb grain bill at 2.2 qt/lb, total mash volume is 8.8 gallons. 14 lb of grain will absorb about 1 gallon so that should leave you 6.7 gallons preboil. If you do a beer w/ a much larger grain bill, I would suggest a dunk sparge of the bag in either another pot or a bucket, even a cold water dunk and stir the grain sparge will produce quality wort. Adding fresh water, (no need to preheat or sanitize), to the boil kettle is really a last alternative w/ all grain brewing, best to use any water added to rinse the grain in some manner to improve efficiency.

 

[Mysticmead]

Your 9 gallon pot should be large enough for a full volume BIAB style mash. The rackers calculator link, Can I Mash it? http://rackers.org/calcs.shtml/ indicates w/ a 14lb grain bill at 2 qt/lb, total mash volume is 8.12 gallons. 14 lb of grain will absorb about 1 1/2 gallons so that should leave you 6.5 gallons preboil. If you do a large beer w/ a much larger grain bill, I would suggest a dunk sparge of the bag in either another pot or a bucket, even a cold water dunk and stir the grain sparge will produce quality wort. Adding fresh water, (no need to preheat or sanitize), to the boil kettle is really a last alternative w/ all grain brewing, best to use any water added to rinse the grain in some manner to improve efficiency.

the water needed alone will be at least 8 gallons for a beer using a 14lb grain bill and not squeezing the crap out of the bag.
absorption + boil off + trub loss + batch size = water needed
using grain in lbs. * .07 = absorption if you squeeze you can lower it to .06


for a 9 gallon pot either pour the extra water over the grains to rinse the sugars or dunk sparge.

 

[Antler]

I apologize in advance if this question has already been answered. I read through many pages, but couldn't bring myself to read all 59. I am not experienced in all-grain brewing.

I want to do 5 gallon batches (so I'd like to net about 5.5 gallons of wort in the fermentation vessel). My largest kettle is 36 quarts (9 gallons), and I'm not in a position right now to upgrade. It seems unlikely that I could mash a significant amount of grain with 7.5 gallons of water in such a pot, though I have no problem with boiling that much.

So I was thinking about what I could do to work around my kettle limitation and thought of a couple of possibilities:

1. Mash using the no-sparge process with a reduced volume of water (reduced only as much as was necessary), and then top up with (pre-heated?) sanitized water?

2. Mash with a reduced volume of water, put the grain bag in a strainer/collander over the kettle at mash-out, and rinse/sparge/top-up with 170F water?

To my inexperienced mind, it would seem that either would work, provided the grain bill wasn't too big for the mash water volume.

Are there any special considerations to keep in mind were I to take either approach?

I've done a 5 gallon BIAB in 32 qt pot. I just mashed with about 4 gallons, squeezed the crap out of the bag. Topped up to 7 gallons and boiled down. You don't need to top up with sanitized water, Your going to boil it anyway.

 

[CthulhuDreaming]

Perfect, thanks for the pointers. I'm going to probably opt for dunk sparging in cases where my kettle is not big enough.

 

[Riseabovebb]

Hey guys - looking to try my first BIAB barleywine. I've got 3 successful BIAB batches done and would really like to brew something my brew partner would enjoy (i.e. MALTY). Please let me know what you think of the changes, keeping in mind I'm limited to an 11g kettle.

Note: I basically only reduced the pale malt by 2 lbs due to kettle size. I probably need to reduce the hops a bit also. Haven't thought about that yet.

Name: Old Stoner – A pacific northwest style barleywine
Created by: Denny Conn
INGREDIENTS
• 18.00 (***orig. 20***) lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
• 4.50 lbs. Munich Malt(2-row) *changed to accommodate kettle size
• 1.75 lbs. CaraMunich 80
• 0.75 lbs. Crystal 60L
• 2.00 oz. Columbus Whole 18.30%AA First Wort Hopping
• 3.00 oz. Chinook Whole 14.50%AA 60 min.
• 1.00 oz. Centennial Whole 7.80%AA 2 min.
• 1.00 Tsp Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)
• WYeast 1056 Amercan Ale/Chico

PREPARATION
Mash at 154F for 60 min. Boil 10 min., then start hop schedule

SPECIFICS
Style Barley Wine
Recipe Type All Grain
Batch Size 5 gal.
Original Gravity 1.105 (will be lower since 2lbs fewer grain)
Final Gravity 1.024ish
Boiling Time 70 min. (will boil for 90 mins)
Primary Fermentation 18 days in glass 65 F
Secondary Fermentation 2-3 months in glass
Other Specifics Est. 132 IBU, Approx. 12% ABV (this will obv. change also)

Grain Total: 25 lbs; (18.0 Pale Malt 2-row, 4.5 Munich Malt 2-row, 1.75 Caramunich 80, 0.75 Crystal 60L)
Total Water: 8.85g; (5g batch + (grain absorption = 25lbs x .074) + (Evap. = 1.5g) + (trub = .5g)
Strike Water: 7.81g; (1.25 Mash Thickness; 25lbs x 1.25)
Mash Volume: 9.81g of space; (25lbs grain @ 1.25qt/g per Greenbayrackers calculation)
Sparge Water: ~1g @170°; (Total water – Strike Water)
Initial Boil Volume: 6.96; (Strike Volume – Grain Absorption) + Sparge

1) Bring 7.81g of water up to 170°, dough in 25lbs grain, mash for 60 minutes at 154°.
2) Bring mash up to 170°, cut heat and rest for 10 minutes (mashout)
3) Drain bag for 15-20 minutes, squeez'er, and sparge grains with 1g of 170° water
4) There should now be ~7.5 gallons of wort left
5) Boil wort for 90 minutes, following hop schedule (assuming 1 g/hr evap, net: 6g)
6) Bring 6g of wort down to 60°, transfer ~5.5g to fermenter, aerate
7) Pitch yeast, primary for 21 days
8) Rack to secondary for 2 months


I've tried to be pretty thorough with this. If anyone sees any potential hiccups, please let me know. ABV, IBU's listed above are based on original recipe (+2lbs pale). I know these will change. I upped the boil time from 70 - 90 to allow for more sparge water, as I didn't see a point in sparging with less than 1g.

Plan to brew this in a few weeks...any help is appreciated.

 

[Seven]

Hey guys - looking to try my first BIAB barleywine. I've got 3 successful BIAB batches done and would really like to brew something my brew partner would enjoy (i.e. MALTY). Please let me know what you think of the changes, keeping in mind I'm limited to an 11g kettle.

Note: I basically only reduced the pale malt by 2 lbs due to kettle size. I probably need to reduce the hops a bit also. Haven't thought about that yet.

Cool idea, I've been thinking about trying a barleywine ever since I sampled my first SN Bigfoot a couple of weeks ago.

I guess my initial thoughts/concerns would be about the massive grain-bill vs. your kettle size. I don't have any exact numbers handy but I'd be more comfortable using a 15-gallon kettle for this big of a beer. Although maybe you could make it work with your 11-gallon kettle...

About the 2-pounds reduction of the base malt: why don't you just add 1-pound or so of DME or corn sugar at the end of the boil to make up for the difference?

Another thought would be to try doing it in two smaller "mashes" that you combine just prior to boiling. For example, mash half of the grain in the first mash and transfer the wort to a temporary holding container while you mash the other half of the grain in the second mash. At the end of the second mash combine all of the wort then start your boil. Just an idea... I haven't really thunk it all the way through.

Be sure to let us know what you decide to do. Curious minds want to know!

 

[Riseabovebb]

Cool idea, I've been thinking about trying a barleywine ever since I sampled my first SN Bigfoot a couple of weeks ago.

I guess my initial thoughts/concerns would be about the massive grain-bill and your kettle size. I don't have any exact numbers handy but I'd be more comfortable using a 15-gallon kettle for this big of a beer. Although maybe you could make it work with your 11-gallon kettle...

That's my concern too. Using the greenbayrackers 'Can I mash it' calculator, it should all fit in the kettle, but I don't know if there is room enough to mix well, etc. The 1.25qts/lb ratio should be good enough, no?

I suppose I could cut the grain bill down another few lbs or so, refigure the numbers and add some dry malt extract (can't remember the conversion, but know it's not # for #). It's a consideration for sure. I guess I'm just being stubborn and wanting to call it AG.

 

[Riseabovebb]

P.s. I thought I was dangerously close to overflowing on my last BIAB due to the large grain bill. I think I was mashing at a higher ratio though. Will double check to avoid 'cruel learning experience' on brew day.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

I didn't see your assumed efficiency on there. I recently did a smaller batch wheat wine and had some issues that I'm still trying to figure out. The biggest being I wound up getting 60% efficiency and was way low on OG. Don't know if it was because of the larger grain bill, a smaller batch, or what. I also wound up a half gallon short on my volume, but didn't want to top up and drive my OG even lower.
Something to look out for if you've calculated based on 70% or more.

 

[Mysticmead]

unless you crush extremely fine (mostly flour) your efficiency will suffer on such a large grain bill. If you're concerned at all about fitting it all into your kettle, you can lower the batch size and adjust the grain bill to fit better. Another option that is used by a lot of big name brewers is to use dry extract to boost the gravity to hit the numbers. Keep some on hand and use it if needed.

 

[Sippin37]

Definitely lower the base malt grain and use a lot of dry extract to hit your OG. That's what a majority of people do when they are limited on grain space. Should help your efficiency a lot. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Riseabovebb]

Definitely lower the base malt grain and use a lot of dry extract to hit your OG. That's what a majority of people do when they are limited on grain space. Should help your efficiency a lot. Let us know how it turns out.

Gave this some thought last night and I won't to be so hard headed. I'll go ahead and lower the base malt and add some extract.

If I reduce the base malt from 20 to 13lbs, how much extract would I need to add? Do you recall the conversion of grain to extract? Any tips on when to add the extract to prevent too much darkening would be much appreciated.

If anyone has a BIAB specific barleywine success story - please PM me or post the recipe here! Thanks y'all.

 

[Sippin37]

1lb grain = 0.75lb liquid extract = 0.6.lb dry extract.

Yeah just throw the DME in for the last 15 min. of the boil.

 

[Tizzomes]

Just gotta say BIAB rocks! I've been using a keggle with a voile bag and can't get over my results! 1 1/2 mash using your mash out technique and everything is on point. FG may be off a bit but we're make all grain quality beer here. A little DME or up the grain bill a pound I'm in.

Just wanted to say thanks for the info people : - ))))))

 

[msa8967]

I have done six 2.5 gallon BIAB sessions with good results and now want to try this with a 5 gallon recipe but the bag size I have been using will not fit my larger brewpot that I use for 5 gallon sessions. There is no LHBS near me to buy one from and the local Walmart is sold out of their voile sheer curtains. Thus, I was thinking about cutting up an older voile curtain material that I have washed. Anyone think using "older material" would be OK?