BIABish

[Rossa1978]

Hi, been referring to this website for a while now and found it a great resource.
I started brewing a while back and I have just being doing one gallon batches. As I don't have much space and didn't want to make too much of a mess to not incur the wrath of she who must be obeyed, I tried BIAB.
I was finding the bag to be a bit awkward, then I saw on one of Basic Brewing's episodes where James (I think) mashed in the pot without a bag and then he strained the mash into a separate pot for the boil.
I started doing this (using the bag over a colander), are there any limitations to this or anything else I need to consider?
Efficiency wise, I was getting mid to high 60's when using the bag in my pot and it has only improved a little bit when using the straining method (that may be more to grind coarseness and stirring on my part).
Thanks in advance.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Hi, been referring to this website for a while now and found it a great resource.
I started brewing a while back and I have just being doing one gallon batches. As I don't have much space and didn't want to make too much of a mess to not incur the wrath of she who must be obeyed, I tried BIAB.
I was finding the bag to be a bit awkward, then I saw on one of Basic Brewing's episodes where James (I think) mashed in the pot without a bag and then he strained the mash into a separate pot for the boil.
I started doing this (using the bag over a colander), are there any limitations to this or anything else I need to consider?
Efficiency wise, I was getting mid to high 60's when using the bag in my pot and it has only improved a little bit when using the straining method (that may be more to grind coarseness and stirring on my part).
Thanks in advance.

I've used both of these methods with 1-gallon batches on my stove.

I started with a 3 vessel method: mash in one pot, one pot to heat/hold sparge water, one pot for lautering. Put a strainer over the lauter pot and pour the mash through it, then sparge by slowly pouring the sparge water over the grain. Alternately you could choose to no-sparge and forgo the extra sparge water.

For BIAB I mash in the bag in a large pot. To lauter I just lift the bag and place it in the strainer above the same vessel while it is heating to boil. I no longer sparge, but you could if you want.

I find that BIAB with no sparge drastically reduces the mess and greatly simplifies the process -- I only have one vessel to clean and at no point do I need to pour anything. It's a much faster process without sparging & I don't have to worry about heating the water separately and monitoring temperature or measure two sets of water additions. Putting the spent grain into the trash is easier when it's all contained in a bag imo. Plus the extra mash water holds the mash temp better.
This method also drastically reduces potential for hot side aeration for what it's worth.
I get around 67% efficiency. For such small batches it doesn't matter as long as it's consistent.

What kind of bag are you using? I got a custom bag from wilserbrewer and "awkward" isn't a word I'd ever use for it.

And welcome to the forum! Cheers

 

[Pappers_]

Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

[Rossa1978]

Thank you both for the replies.

The bags I use are paint strainers I got from Home Depot, as I couldn’t find any voile nearby. I found that when I was stirring the mash the bag seemed to get in the way. Then I saw one of Basic Brewing’s videos and it seemed like a great idea.

I still need to use two pots as my colander ends up dipping into my wort, unfortunately I don’t let the bag drip enough as I suffer from impatience when it comes to all aspects of brewing.

 

[cooper]

Thank you both for the replies.

The bags I use are paint strainers I got from Home Depot, as I couldn’t find any voile nearby. I found that when I was stirring the mash the bag seemed to get in the way. Then I saw one of Basic Brewing’s videos and it seemed like a great idea.

I still need to use two pots as my colander ends up dipping into my wort, unfortunately I don’t let the bag drip enough as I suffer from impatience when it comes to all aspects of brewing.

I've also had problems with the bag getting in the way during stirring or recirculation during the mash. That's the only thing I dont like about using a bag. What a lot of people have had success with is to just stir up the mash really well and then cover and wrap it in a sleeping bag and let it sit for 60 minutes. They lose very little heat during the mash and get really good extraction.