Brew In A Bag - Make AWESOME All-Grain Beer At Home book on amazon

[hairymare]

Brew In A Bag - Make AWESOME All-Grain Beer At Home , Jon Finch. Has anybody read this book? I purchased it and I was wondering if anybody had opinions. I have only done one BIAB and I used one of northern brewers 3 gallon kits. My kettle is 8 gallons and I wanted to know how many pounds of grain could I use in that pot. I wish I knew at the time to purchase a larger kettle. I wonder if I could do 12 lbs, for example. I don't have a crusher so I am stuck with the grain crushed from an internet store as to get to the closest home brew store I have to cross into Vermont and it's costly with a ferry boat ride. I'm really want to go all grain and am not opposed to purchasing a mill but a mill and a larger kettle will take some time. I can buy sacks of grain at the local store. Which is still an hour away but the focus is on wine and beer kits. . No crushing there. I've spoken with northern brewer and there crush is stock whether or not the purchaser is using the grain for BIAB or another form of all grain brewing. I am trying to get a good start. From what I've been reading I believe a grain mill would be a good purchase for BIAB, especially since I can procure grain locally. Thanks for considering answering my questions.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Welcome to the club, sit back, grab a beer and relax. You will find plenty of good information here.

Sound like you may be next door to North Country Malt?

8 gallons would be a minimum kettle size for 5 gallon batches. Yes, you can mash 12 lbs in your 8 gallon pot, but you may need to incorporate a sparge step for larger grain bills.


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[hairymare]

Thank you. I wonder if somebody could demystify one thing that I am finding perplexing. I can't seem to figure out if for example I purchased an all grain kit and the advertisement for example, dead ringer IPA, from Northern Brewer who's recipe includes 11 pounds of Rahr 2 row and 1 pound of Briess caramel 40 as the ingredients minus the hops, and recipe suggests the original gravity to be 1060, can I expect an original gravity to be the same or 1060 using the BIAB method of brewing? Thanks. The book mentioned above does have recipes but I am curious as to will things remain the same using the two methods. Thanks again.

 

[Milan37]

Your question isn't really related to BIAB, but rather to all-grain brewing in general. The answer is you should be close, depending on the efficiency of your system. You can over-shoot as well as under-shoot your target gravity. I'm sure NB designs all their recipes with some efficiency value assumed, but I'm not sure what it is.

Efficiency depends on several factors, but I think with BIAB one of the ones you'll see over and over again is the crush.

So I say buy the kit, double-crush the grains if you can, and try it. You'll probably get very close to the target. Even if you under-shoot you'll make good beer. Unfortunately there's not a quick, easy answer to guarantee you'll hit your target. It may take several batches until you can predict your efficiency.

And one thing I forgot: RiteBrew.com offers an option to double-mill when you purchase your grains. I've never had it done (I mill my own), but you might consider it as an option.

 

[hairymare]

I think if north country malt is the Briess distribution point in Champlain, NY than I am reasonably close but the Merry Winemaker shop in Plattsburgh is much closer. My plan is to purchase 50 lb sacks of organic malt from her. She carries Briess malt. And Brewers Best kits. I really like to make my own and my dad has made tons of brewers best kits and they are good but I want to proceed all grain, mostly organic. A while back I wrote to Briess in an attempt to find out the country of origin of the organic malt and the answer I received was Canada and domestic. The other useful information I was given was the organic malt is very fermentable. thanks for the info on my kettle and Bummer, I wish I had started out larger.

I have decided I am ordering a malt mill. I have chosen the Schmidling mill because I have read all I can stand on mills and it seems it comes in one piece and I can turn it by hand. I've been reading around and I now wonder about BIAB using a cooler, draining the wort into my kettle and proceeding. except, I'm concerned about plastic and leaching chemicals? I wonder if anybody else does? The other complication is my kitchen gas stove, even though I have been blessed with a power burner can only get a rolling boil by keeping the pot partially covered. I do have a nice outdoor burner, Blichman, but our winters are cold making it impossible to brew outside in the winter. Also, I fell into a 75 pound propane tank but I don't have a garage and getting a pully system might be complicated. I like where I am because I'm close to the outdoor water for the cooler. So, there are some complications to work through.

Back to the aforementioned book, I guess folks aren't familiar with it. It does have some recipes and since my taste is a good strong hoppy ale I just want to master one or two recipes so that I can produce, reproduce, a good beer, simplified where I can purchase hops for example in bulk and flavoring malts too.

Thanks for answering. I'm getting closer.

Sound like you may be next door to North Country Malt?

8 gallons would be a minimum kettle size for 5 gallon batches. Yes, you can mash 12 lbs in your 8 gallon pot, but you may need to incorporate a sparge step for larger grain bills.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew[/QUOTE]

 

[hairymare]

thanks for the info. So, as I replied above I'm going with my own mill. I decided that at least. Trying to sort through things and I see brewing as an art and a personal one at that. Options abound and I'm trying to get a good jump on avoiding the pitfalls like too small a kettle. I'm looking into the possibility of a cooler but the thought of plastic turns me off. Or, two pots inside in the winter. The cooler inside in the winter, boil outside. Thanks for taking the time to give me information. I'm trying to do my best, we all are.

I do think I am going to try an all grain kit, mill it and work towards trying dial in the master plan and come up with THE master plan.

I'm really surprised folks in the BIAB forum aren't familiar with the Jon Finch book. I'm more used to recipes than calculators but I have a feeling I'll be learning.

I'm learning lots, I am starting my study of yeast, too. I am the kind of person who takes pride in not buying things already made, for example, I bake all our bread, make all of our cereal, granola, belong to a food coop, know how many pounds of oat I eat in a year, etc, etc.

Your question isn't really related to BIAB, but rather to all-grain brewing in general. The answer is you should be close, depending on the efficiency of your system. You can over-shoot as well as under-shoot your target gravity. I'm sure NB designs all their recipes with some efficiency value assumed, but I'm not sure what it is.

Efficiency depends on several factors, but I think with BIAB one of the ones you'll see over and over again is the crush.

So I say buy the kit, double-crush the grains if you can, and try it. You'll probably get very close to the target. Even if you under-shoot you'll make good beer. Unfortunately there's not a quick, easy answer to guarantee you'll hit your target. It may take several batches until you can predict your efficiency.

And one thing I forgot: RiteBrew.com offers an option to double-mill when you purchase your grains. I've never had it done (I mill my own), but you might consider it as an option.