Brew In A Bag: All Grain Brewing Made Very Easy

[Brulosopher]

I know some of you might not like posts of blog links, but that seems the best way to host what I've got.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/04/25/brew-in-a-bag-all-grain-brewing-made-very-easy/

Cheers!

 

[Brulosopher]

Anyone have any other tips to make BIAB brewing easier?

 

[railwalker]

Does the wort come out cloudy because there's no vorlauf?


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[HBngNOK]

Does the wort come out cloudy because there's no vorlauf?


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Does cloudy wort matter? In my opinion, and as a new brewer it's just that, even if the wort is cloudy, by the time the beer's ready to drink, won't it be clear?

Since I BIAB and generally make dark beers, I've never paid any attention to the clarity of the wort.

 

[railwalker]

I wonder if it matters too, but in fly and batch sparging brewers usually put back the first runnings that are quite murky before they begin running clear. BIAB does not allow for this. Maybe the gunk stays stuck in the grain mass?


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[boydster]

I do BIAB with no-chill, and my beers are coming out pretty clear. The bag full of grains makes for a pretty good filter, and if there is any cloudiness to the wort before the boil, it hasn't impacted the end product. I took the picture below a couple days ago - you can see my daughter sleeping on the other side of the glass. The white streaks are from bubbles rising (it's just an old crappy cell phone camera that I used, so take it for what it is). That beer was BIAB, no chill, and no cold crash. I used whirlfloc, but that's it for fining.

 

[RM-MN]

Anyone have any other tips to make BIAB brewing easier?

Skip the mash out step. It isn't needed since you are going to bring the wort to a boil asap anyway. The only time mashout is really needed is in fly sparging because your wort and grain bed will be at mash temp for much longer.

How fine you mill your grains defines how long you need to mash for. With your grains milled fine you can get by with a 30 minute mash or even less. That means you probably won't need to heat the mash at all, just get the water to strike temp and stir the grains in. Cover the pot and insulate. You should try using iodine to test for starches and see how long it really takes for conversion. I'd suggest you use a white plate and put a drop of iodine in several places on the plate, then take a drop of wort to mix with the iodine at regular intervals. If it turns black or purple you still have starches to convert. No change in color would indicate your conversion is complete. Try getting a little grain in the sample and see if your grain has all the starch converted too.

 

[railwalker]

Looks very nice. I really think that's a great simple method if the beer comes out well. Would it help to dunk the bag in a couple gallons hot water to "rinse" the grains?


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[RM-MN]

Looks very nice. I really think that's a great simple method if the beer comes out well. Would it help to dunk the bag in a couple gallons hot water to "rinse" the grains?


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Many of us do just that. I tried the no sparge and was surprised that I got about 80% efficiency. Then I tried the dunk sparge and made a mess because I dunked in too much water in too small of a container and got wort all over the floor. After that fiasco I thought about the pour over method and it worked well for me since my pot was a little small for the no sparge and that let me rinse some sugars from the grains at the same time it topped up my pot. That got me to an average of 85% which I'm pretty happy with.

 

[railwalker]

You can't do much better than that.


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[Brulosopher]

Does the wort come out cloudy because there's no vorlauf?


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Not at all, at least in my experience. That said, you just gave me another idea for an exBEERiment: vorlauf vs. no vorlauf. I forget who, but one rather prolific out there swears the vorlauf step is unnecessary on the homebrew scale. We'll just have to see about that.

 

[JDGator]

I do BIAB with no-chill, and my beers are coming out pretty clear. The bag full of grains makes for a pretty good filter, and if there is any cloudiness to the wort before the boil, it hasn't impacted the end product. I took the picture below a couple days ago - you can see my daughter sleeping on the other side of the glass. The white streaks are from bubbles rising (it's just an old crappy cell phone camera that I used, so take it for what it is). That beer was BIAB, no chill, and no cold crash. I used whirlfloc, but that's it for fining.

so after your boil you just allow the air to cool the wort?

i use my chiller to get it down some but hate to use all that water so i generally get it down to 100F and then into my buckets. toss them in a swamp cooler full of ice and pitch yeast when i'm just below 70F.

Similar to what you are doing??

 

[JDGator]

Skip the mash out step. It isn't needed since you are going to bring the wort to a boil asap anyway. The only time mashout is really needed is in fly sparging because your wort and grain bed will be at mash temp for much longer.

How fine you mill your grains defines how long you need to mash for. With your grains milled fine you can get by with a 30 minute mash or even less. That means you probably won't need to heat the mash at all, just get the water to strike temp and stir the grains in. Cover the pot and insulate. You should try using iodine to test for starches and see how long it really takes for conversion. I'd suggest you use a white plate and put a drop of iodine in several places on the plate, then take a drop of wort to mix with the iodine at regular intervals. If it turns black or purple you still have starches to convert. No change in color would indicate your conversion is complete. Try getting a little grain in the sample and see if your grain has all the starch converted too.

do you always do 30min mash? i'm looking for ways to shave some time off my brew day and 30min quicker is a big time saver!!

 

[boydster]

so after your boil you just allow the air to cool the wort?

i use my chiller to get it down some but hate to use all that water so i generally get it down to 100F and then into my buckets. toss them in a swamp cooler full of ice and pitch yeast when i'm just below 70F.

Similar to what you are doing??

I cover my kettle after the boil, let it cool naturally to 170-180, add any flameout/whirlpool hops, and cover it again. Then I wrap either aluminum foil or plastic wrap around it to help seal it up and leave it outside or in my garage overnight to cool. Transfer to bucket/carboy and pitch the next morning. That process is what I've been doing for every brew since starting BIAB this year and I'm very happy with the results so far.

 

[BadDeacon]

I have an 18 gal pot and use the stained basket lined w a paint strainer bag. Usually mash for 60 min and do a mash out. I have seen an increase in efficiency.

I use my garage door to hang the basket above the pot to drip as it is coming to a boil.

For cooling I likewise cool to about 100 then into fermenter overnight and pitch next day after it sits in 62 deg ferm chamber.

I have done this for about 8 months with great success. I don't use whirl flock or anything findings either.

Deacon.

 

[RM-MN]

do you always do 30min mash? i'm looking for ways to shave some time off my brew day and 30min quicker is a big time saver!!

No, not always. The last 3 brews I mashed for 10 minutes. Then I dumped the boiling hot wort into my fermenter bucket, slapped the lid on, and left it out on my deck to cool. That has cut my brew day down to 2 hours 10 minutes but before you get too excited, make sure you check for conversion to be sure you aren't putting a bunch of starch into the fermenter. The first one of the 3 ten minute mashes had an OG of 1.058 and the gravity has stayed at 1.012 since April 16th so I assume that is FG.

 

[JohnSand]

I BIABed an APA yesterday. One of my quickest and smoothest brewdays. My method varies a little, I dunk sparge, then use a colander to drain the rest. No gloves, I press on the grains in the colander with a plate. I actually was a bit high in both volume and gravity, so high efficiency is possible. BIAB also allows using modest pots. I now have a 30qt, but did many 5 gallon batches in a 20qt. Just mash in 3+ gallons, start the boil with your "first runnings" while dunk sparging. Top off to 4gal, after hot break to 4.5. Add any remaining sparged wort as you boil down. Top off a bit in the fermenter. My 20qt pot is an old canner-cooker, $5 at a yard sale.

 

[MarathonMurse]

Loving BIAB.

My first few batches were extract with specialty grains. I found that switching to BIAB takes the same amount of time, costs about a third of an extract batch, and all you need is a $5 paint strainer bag.

 

[TimFarAway]

+1 for BIAB with no-chill.

 

[Brulosopher]

Sounds like a lot of folks out there are simplifying (have simplified) their brewing, which is great to hear. Cheers!

 

[Brulosopher]

Just got some rad BIAB bags to beta test, these things look ****ing great!


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