Brew in a bag?

[bakins]

Any one here tried the brew in a bag method described here: The Brewing Network &bull; View topic - How to go from Extract to AG for < $10.00

It looks interesting. I may give it a try, but was wondering if anyone here had tried it.

 

[gabeweisz]

I made a Bitter last weekend using this method - my overall efficiency was not spectacular because I spilled some of the sweet wort while draining the bag, but it took the same amount of time to make as many of the partial mash recipes I've done and tasted great going into the fermenter. Took an hour or so less than the all grain batches I've done using a cooler as a mash tun.

 

[bakins]

Took an hour or so less than the all grain batches I've done using a cooler as a mash tun.

The time and cleanup are the biggest draws for me. Mash/boil in one kettle - only have to clean one. Of course, I don't really clean my HLT, just drain and dry it and my MT I can just rinse out. I'm thinking I could actually do 2 batches concurrently, though.

 

[svraines]

I used that method to mash 9 lbs of grain before I made my cooler mash-latuer tun. I added 8 lbs of extract to make an imperial stout. Turned out mighty nice. I am thinking about doing it again to make a quick rye pale ale soon, even though I have a cooler.

 

[Danek]

I make my beers that way, and it works great. Most of the beer-making process is the same with BIAB as with other techniques - so as long as you have a good recipe, you control fermentation temperature, and you give the beer time to ferment and age properly, you can make kick-ass beer this way.

 

[adamjab19]

I have done one. It went great, the beer tastes great. I only lost on the fact that I had to finish boiling on my stove top instead of the turkey fryer and I did not lose as much wort as I needed to.

 

[lustreking]

I've done it quite a few times, and it works great. I do it when I want a short brew day, or if I want to brew another beer while I'm brewing with my "real" system.

I get really good efficiency with my BiaB system, usually around 75%. I think that my high efficiency is a result of the fact that I can use a very fine crush. I made my bag out of a sheer curtain, and the mesh is very fine. I run my BiaB grains through my mill twice to get a finer crush.

edit: I wanted to add that I've used the BiaB method twice to brew Light American Lagers, which don't allow any room for off flavors, and none could be found.

I've also used the BiaB method to brew 1 gallon AG batches on the stovetop.
Stovetop All Grain Small Batch Brewing - Lustreking Brewing

 

[bniesen]

I was going to try something simular to this technique. I was going to use a 10gal igloo type cooler and just put a no-weld ball valve on it then I would use a over sized nylon bag to keep the grains in while mashing. This way I would have to worry about stuck mashes, grains clogging up the valve, clean up would be a breeze. Couldn't you still sparge? It seems to me all you would have to do is open the bag and pour the sparge water in.

 

[MikeRLynch]

I was going to try something simular to this technique. I was going to use a 10gal igloo type cooler and just put a no-weld ball valve on it then I would use a over sized nylon bag to keep the grains in while mashing. This way I would have to worry about stuck mashes, grains clogging up the valve, clean up would be a breeze. Couldn't you still sparge? It seems to me all you would have to do is open the bag and pour the sparge water in.

That's exactly what I do. Pics here. The only things I've changed from the setup shown there, is I've replaced the stock tap from the cooler with the plastic one from a bottling bucket, which has a tip that racking tubing can fit on. I can now control the rate of the spage better and run to my boil kettle with no splashing.

Honestly, the only limitation you have is the size of your bag. Mine is only big enough to use on a 5 gallon cooler, which means a limit of about 12 lbs of grain. Fine for me, I brew session beers, but if you wanted to go bigger you're going to have to rig a bigger bag, like the shower curtain mentioned before.

 

[gabeweisz]

The main reason I'm using the bag is to save on the sparge time.

 

[lustreking]

I was going to try something simular to this technique. I was going to use a 10gal igloo type cooler and just put a no-weld ball valve on it then I would use a over sized nylon bag to keep the grains in while mashing. This way I would have to worry about stuck mashes, grains clogging up the valve, clean up would be a breeze. Couldn't you still sparge? It seems to me all you would have to do is open the bag and pour the sparge water in.

The beauty of the BiaB system is that you don't need a separate mash tun. If you're going through the work of putting a ball valve on a cooler, just put a stainless braid in the cooler, forget about the bag, and have a proper mash tun.

I guess you could sparge if you wanted to, but not sparging saves you quite a bit of time. I'm very happy with the efficiency that I get without a sparge, which I had mentioned before was 75%.

 

[bniesen]

Here is another goofy question: Does it matter if your "cooler" mash tun has a threaded lid? Seems like the only ones I can find around town are the press on lids.

 

[MikeRLynch]

Nope, shouldn't matter. However I have a threaded one, and that can help with stuck sparges. In order to unstick a sparge with my bag lined cooler, I just gather up the top of the bag, lift it a little to free up the space in front of the spigot, and then screw the top back on, with top of the gathered bag hanging out. This pins the bag in place, and keeps the spigot free.

 

[mrcmatt]

Brew in a Bag makes good beer, I've had good success with it. I was getting low efficiency because I was not raising temperature at mash out. I didn't think I needed to. I read around and saw that folks were doing this and hey, it raised efficiency.

 

[bakins]

FWIW, I do BIAB 95% of the time and average about 80% efficiency.

EDIT: forgot to add, yes, I do a mash-out.

 

[johnnyc]

+1 on mash out. 10 min at 168-170 while stirring brought my eff up from high 60s to high 70s.

 

[Chips]

I also use this as my exclusive brewing method! So easy, just like making a giant kettle of tea (well, sort of). I've found 75%+ efficiency is easy to obtain by making sure to do the following 3 steps:
1) fine grain crush. No need to worry about stuck sparges
2) longer mash - I usually let it run 90 minutes
3) Mashout - Don't let your nylon bag touch the bottom of your pot and don't let it hang out over the pot. It WILL burn.

All in all a very easy way to get going with all grain!

 

[mrcmatt]

... and don't let it hang out over the pot. It WILL burn.

All in all a very easy way to get going with all grain!

yup, learned that the hard way, the good thing about nylon is a 6 inch burned out stripe does not make the bag fail, I was able salvage the batch.

 

[Daddymem]

Brew in a Bag is all I do. We recently did a group modified partigyle and I did 24# of grains in my BIAB setup. I've gotten crystal clear Kolsch doing and without any off flavors. I do BIAB because the process is much simpler to me and it was easy to make the jump from extract using this method.

 

[caphector]

I've been looking to do all grain and doing a bunch of research.

It looks like there's decent evidence that no-sparge brewing produces maltier beers (correct me if I'm wrong), so I was thinking of trying parti-gyle to get multiple beers out of one batch of grain. I know I'd need a bit more grain to hit my target gravity on the first beer.

Could you do something like that with BIAB?

 

[Daddymem]

Actually, I just did. I got 2.5 beers out of one BIAB mash tun. A Tripel [5 gallons], 1/2 a Dubbel [it ended up probably more like 3/4 of a batch ~4 gallons], and a bonus 24 hour sour beer [5 gallons]. I used 24 # of grain, one normal BIAB mash, one pour over and dunk sparge, and a second pour over and dunk sparge 24 hours later. Blog with details is in my sig.