BIAB Brewing (with pics)

[Brewitt]

Sid, Watched your video, very nicely done. I do the same except I use two bags, mashout at 170-175 deg and then sparge in about 2 gallons of 175 deg water (my hose water is pretty nasty). In the end I take my bags of grain and drop them into a bucket with holes in the bottom which is suspended inside another bucket and I push to squeeze the xs wort out. Together the first wort, the sparge water and the squeezings make up my full volume. Probably no necessity to mash out but that is the proceedure I have come up with and its working well for me. Also, regular old large black binder clips from an office supply fit great over the upper ring of the keggle. Thanks for your ideas.

 

[C-Rider]

There has been a bunch of back and forth lately about squeezing the grain bag and weather it's worth the effort. So the other day I did a brew and took careful notes.
This is what I came up with.

4.43 lbs of grain mashed in 1.5 gallons in my 5 gallon Colman cooler.
From this I got 1.2 gallons from just the dripping w/a brix of 18.5 (1.073)
Squeezed another 0.1 gallon w/a brix of 20 (1.079)
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That gave me 1.3 gallons w/a brix of 19 (1.075)
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Put bag back in cooler and slowly added 1.5 gallons of water at 170*
This gave me an aditional 1.4 gallons w/a brix of 5 (1.0168)
Squeezed another 0.1 gallons w/a brix of 12 (1.045)
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That gave me a total of 1.8 gallons w/a brix of 12.8 (1.049) pre-boil
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I was supprised that I got back the whole 1.5 gallons of sparge water.
Then it hit me. The grain was saturated with 0.2 gallons of water from the mash
So it could not absorbe any of the sparge water and it all came out in the squeeze.
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Post boil volume was 2.15 gallons w/a brix of 16.2 (1.063)
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I've done this brew twice before w/o sparge but always boiled down to about 1.8 gallons which gave me a brix of about 18 (1.071). Less liquid/same grain higher SG
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So it looks like sparging or rinsing did little except take time and effort.
Since I squeezed all three times I can't compare squeezing or not but...
It looks like my sparge/rinse was a waist of time and effort.
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But I think the squeeze is needed to get the volume of wort needed. If not
I'd have to add more grain which means more money and since I'm retired
I have more time than money so I'll continue to squeeze and eliminate the sparge
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[WileECoyote]

Hello C-Rider, Great job, Thanks.

Cheers

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello marshallwms, That makes perfect sense.

Thanks

Cheers

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello sidbedi, Great idea splitting up the grain, making it easily manageable for one person is awesome.

Nice video bu the way.

Cheers

 

[mnmatt]

I've been searching the forum to see if anyone has successfully done a 10 gallon BIAB? I'm going to set up a pulley system to handle the weight of the bag.
My concern is whether my 20 gallon boilermaker will hold the grain bill and water? I'm also thinking of using the hop blocker at the bottom....using a tapered bag from Jeff Omundsun. Another thought is to go partial mash....grain for five gallons and extract for the rest. Any thoughts?

 

[C-Rider]

I've been searching the forum to see if anyone has successfully done a 10 gallon BIAB? I'm going to set up a pulley system to handle the weight of the bag.
My concern is whether my 20 gallon boilermaker will hold the grain bill and water? I'm also thinking of using the hop blocker at the bottom....using a tapered bag from Jeff Omundsun. Another thought is to go partial mash....grain for five gallons and extract for the rest. Any thoughts?

Didn't sidbedi just cover that in his video?

 

[mnmatt]

My bad. I posted while on a connection that wouldn't support streaming video - checking it out now.

 

[Mikko]

1.st post from Finnish lurker , my 2 cents:

If you squeeze grain bag you waste less wort in grains.
That means that you can use less water overall and still get amount of pre boil wort you want.

Because you can use less water, wort is less diluted and SG is higher, and that means you can use little bit less grains to get same SG than without squeezing, and you get efficieny gain !

Squeezing works same way than batch sparging. When you do batch sparge you dilute wort that is remaining in grains, so you waste less of it. When you squeeze, the wort remaining in grains is still stronger stuff, but you waste much less of it.

EDIT: I noticed that by squeezing I actually do not mean really "squeezing" , but letting wort drip out of bag somehow. I have not actually measured how much more wort is removed from grains if I really squeeze bag vs I just let it hang and drip slowly on top of kettle.

Here Iam mashing 5gal's of 1.100 Barley Wine, total efficiency according to Beersmith2 was 70%, it is enough for me, did not do batch sparge :

Brew kettle (50l) has 3000w custom made immersion element and it is controlled with arduino based control box. Software is home made (Iam SW engineer), DS18S20 digital temperature sensor monitoring wort temperature and cheap chinese pump doing wort circulation. Out of picture is winch which Iam using to lift grain bag out of kettle. Iam very happy with this setup, works excellently.

 

[robcj]

I've been searching the forum to see if anyone has successfully done a 10 gallon BIAB? I'm going to set up a pulley system to handle the weight of the bag.
My concern is whether my 20 gallon boilermaker will hold the grain bill and water? I'm also thinking of using the hop blocker at the bottom....using a tapered bag from Jeff Omundsun. Another thought is to go partial mash....grain for five gallons and extract for the rest. Any thoughts?

My friend and I have cranked out quite a number of 10 gallon BIAB batches in a 20 gallon Boilermaker. Works great. We don't use the hop blocker but we do keep the false bottom in to filter out the break and hops.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, This weekend I did a (test batch) BIAB 1 gal SMASH with 2 lbs of grain, after holding the bag up and letting it drip for about 60 sec, squeezing the bag made quite a difference in final wort volume, though I didn't measure it, from watching when I squeezed, Im guessing it was about 12 oz or so, sorry guys at the time I wasn't thinking about measuring the volume.

If I do another test batch next weekend, Ill measure the amounts from dripping and also from squeezing.

Cheers

 

[MMJfan]

I am attempting my 2nd batch of BIAB tonight! Brewing a Bells Two Hearted clone. I've done an extract clone of that was very good so it should be interesting to see how this one compares!

My first BIAB turned out OK, but not as good as I was hoping for. I'm tweaking some things to do differently tonight. One major thing is I got a grain mill to crush my grains finer.

I'm anxious to see if my tweaks will produce a better beer and I'm also anxious to see how the AG version of this clone compares to my extract version...

 

[Safa]

Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere, but a search yielded nothing!

How possible do you guys think it would be to put the grain in a number of smaller grain bags for ease of mash out?

I was thinking of spreading the grain bill between 4/5 smaller grain bags to make the mash out easier on the arms (no pulley for me unfortunately). I could lift each bag out, squeeze them dry(ish) without having to hold the whole lot up in one go.

I don't foresee any problems with it, but you guys are the experts.

 

[Rdom]

Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere, but a search yielded nothing!

How possible do you guys think it would be to put the grain in a number of smaller grain bags for ease of mash out?

I was thinking of spreading the grain bill between 4/5 smaller grain bags to make the mash out easier on the arms (no pulley for me unfortunately). I could lift each bag out, squeeze them dry(ish) without having to hold the whole lot up in one go.

I don't foresee any problems with it, but you guys are the experts.

There's a link to a video on a post by sidbedi 2 pages back that addresses this.

 

[Beer-lord]

I just use a colander and pull out about half the grain into another bag in a bucket to drain which makes both bags easier to lift but I never doper than 15-16 lbs.

 

[C-Rider]

If you are doing small batches or use a number of bags to make it easier to squeeze you could use my method. A coffee cup in each hand and pressing down w/all the weight you can. I began w/1.5 gallons and 4.4 lbs of grain and wound up w/1.3 gallons after squeezing/pressing so to me it's worth the effort.

 

[SiriusStarr]

World's largest pair of underwear, or new brew bag? You decide!

Can't wait to try it out this weekend; sorry, it came out so well I had to share.

 

[trevor_b]

Could one use a 5 gallon brew pot for a 3 gallon BIAB?

 

[Antler]

Could one use a 5 gallon brew pot for a 3 gallon BIAB?

Yes

 

[trevor_b]

Yes

For a standard ABV beer what is the amount of water needed total? 4.5 gallons or so?

 

[wilserbrewer]

For a standard ABV beer what is the amount of water needed total? 4.5 gallons or so?

Sounds about right...just spitballing here, but you could mash in a touch low on volume, and max out the kettle w/ a hot water addition after the mash to give you plenty runnings for a 3 gallon batch....w/ 4.5 gallons initial water you will be close to overflowing the pot...I suggest mashing in a little low on water and adding hot water after the mash...stir and stir then pull the bag.

 

[JimTheHick]

World's largest pair of underwear, or new brew bag? You decide!

Can't wait to try it out this weekend; sorry, it came out so well I had to share.

That'll lots o' ****e!!!!

 

[Antler]

Sounds about right...just spitballing here, but you could mash in a touch low on volume, and max out the kettle w/ a hot water addition after the mash to give you plenty runnings for a 3 gallon batch....w/ 4.5 gallons initial water you will be close to overflowing the pot...I suggest mashing in a little low on water and adding hot water after the mash...stir and stir then pull the bag.

I agree. This is what I did for my first batch (5.5 gallons batch in 32 quart kettle).

I mashed with about 4 gallons IIRC, and after mashout I topped up to 6.5 gallons.

 

[wormraper]

ok guys, I'm thinking of going BIAB from all extract for my next brew (queue drums and fanfare)... was going to try the all grain Chinook IPA kit from Northern brewer pre-crushed grains etc... now I only have a 7.5 gallon pot that came with my Bayou burner... do I have enough volume in that pot do do BIAB or should I hold off till I have a bigger pot??? (volume is 10 lbs of 2-row and one pound of carapills)

 

[C-Rider]

ok guys, I'm thinking of going BIAB from all extract for my next brew (queue drums and fanfare)... was going to try the all grain Chinook IPA kit from Northern brewer pre-crushed grains etc... now I only have a 7.5 gallon pot that came with my Bayou burner... do I have enough volume in that pot do do BIAB or should I hold off till I have a bigger pot??? (volume is 10 lbs of 2-row and one pound of carapills)

Never did that big a batch, but I've mashed 7 lbs of 2Row in a 5 gallon cooler so I think you'll have no problem. I'm sure someone brighter than me will kick in soon.

Oh, that was NOT for a 5 gallon brew. I think I did 3 gallons.

 

[SiriusStarr]

ok guys, I'm thinking of going BIAB from all extract for my next brew (queue drums and fanfare)... was going to try the all grain Chinook IPA kit from Northern brewer pre-crushed grains etc... now I only have a 7.5 gallon pot that came with my Bayou burner... do I have enough volume in that pot do do BIAB or should I hold off till I have a bigger pot??? (volume is 10 lbs of 2-row and one pound of carapills)

You won't have enough volume if you're trying to mash with the entire volume. I have an 8 gallon pot and yesterday I mashed 9 pounds of grain at 6 L / kg (2.88 qt / lb) for a mash volume of ~6.5 gallons and my pot was full. Really full, like less than a half-inch down from the rim, so there's no way you're going to fit 6.5 gallons of water and 10 lbs of grain in a 7.5 gallon pot.

However, there's no reason why you couldn't mash with 5.5 gallons or whatever will comfortably fit in your pot and then top off with the extra volume before the boil. For instance, according to Brewtarget (which was pretty accurate for me with this last mash), a ~5.9 gallon mash will give you a total mash volume of 7.1 gallons (which should fit comfortably in your pot and will yield about 5 gallons of wort, in which case you can top off with a gallon of water (or whatever you need for your boil off rate) and be fine. That would be mashing at 4.9 L/kg (~2.3 qt/lb).

 

[solbes]

Sure, I just brewed a Scotch ale with 13.5 lbs of grain in a 7.5 gallon pot for 5.75 finished gallons (FG 1.073 with 1 lb of DME added). I suspend the grain/bag after mash and 170F mashout by a fryer basket and rope/pulley. Then drip 1-2.5 gallons of sparge water through there.

I certainly would not recommend this large of a mash right away, but 11 lbs is doable. Generally I get better efficiencies with the standard 7.5-9 lb mash (mid 80 %). With the 11-13.5 lbs I get ~ mid 70%'s.

 

[EdgeBrew]

Sure, I just brewed a Scotch ale with 13.5 lbs of grain in a 7.5 gallon pot for 5.75 finished gallons (FG 1.073 with 1 lb of DME added). I suspend the grain/bag after mash and 170F mashout by a fryer basket and rope/pulley. Then drip 1-2.5 gallons of sparge water through there.

I certainly would not recommend this large of a mash right away, but 11 lbs is doable. Generally I get better efficiencies with the standard 7.5-9 lb mash (mid 80 %). With the 11-13.5 lbs I get ~ mid 70%'s.

Do you mill your grains finer than standard all grain?

 

[SiriusStarr]

Sure, I just brewed a Scotch ale with 13.5 lbs of grain in a 7.5 gallon pot for 5.75 finished gallons (FG 1.073 with 1 lb of DME added). I suspend the grain/bag after mash and 170F mashout by a fryer basket and rope/pulley. Then drip 1-2.5 gallons of sparge water through there.

I certainly would not recommend this large of a mash right away, but 11 lbs is doable. Generally I get better efficiencies with the standard 7.5-9 lb mash (mid 80 %). With the 11-13.5 lbs I get ~ mid 70%'s.

I am very curious how you can fit that kind of volume. As I said, my larger pot was full with a smaller volume of grain, and that was crushed very finely. What is your secret.

 

[solbes]

Yeah my grain is probably a little finer than std. Not terribly so though. I double bag my grain. A coarse paint strainer bag inside a fine voile bag, which does reduce the trub by 1/2 gallon or so.

As to higher grain amounts, I just mash at a lower grist ratio. That one was mashed at around 1.4 qt/lb. It does lower the efficiency some I guess.

Theres no getting around the fact that larger kettles make BIAB easier. I have my eye on a nice 15 gallon stainless, but haven't gotten the fundage approved by the boss yet