Cooler biab

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For me it is because when I do BIAB batches it is because I don't feel like hauling out all my equipment and want to brew in a single vessel so that would kind of defeat the purpose of BIAB for me.
 
Brewing in a cooler helps keep the temperature stable for a longer period but I find that my mash is complete quickly so that doesn't matter. It does leave you with one more item to bring out and one more to clean. It should work pretty well for a mash vessel.
 
Yes agreed, you can use a bag in a round beverage cooler, or rectangular picnic style cooler. Some like doing this claiming easier clean up, and no chance of a stuck sparge.
 
Several things come to mind that would prevent someone from mashing in a cooler. An extra thing to drag out, store and clean was mentioned. The ability to direct fire the mash is another. It's another thing to buy if you don't already own one, along with the various fittings you would need to convert it to a suitable mash tun.

For me, it's the last point. I couldn't justify the expense for what I perceive to be something that brings little to no benefit.
 
The other issue with a separate mash-tun and boil-kettle is setup. The MT needs to drain to the BK.

This requires either a second tier or lifting the MT off the lower level after filling with hot water to dough in. Either that or another vessel at a higher level to fill the MT which needs to be filled.

Other solution is pump hot water from BK to MT with all the attachments that that involves.

In any even water/wort has to be moved and I like as close to no-lift brew-days as possible.

I think there is a lot of benefits to having a metal mash-tun that you can directly heat and insulate as needed. The best of both worlds.

Single vessel, single tier is hard to beat from a workload/logistical standpoint IMO.

I'm not for a second doubting the efficacy of mashing in a cooler with a bag as a manifold. Seems to me to be an ideal addition to a tun for a multivessel setup. It just requires tiers and work that I would not want to add.
 
Thanks I appreciate everybody's input. The problems with the process are well outlined. A high tier is needed or pump and it is a second vessel to deal with. I guess I should have clarified my thinking the positives R superior insulation without manipulatives and in this system the bag never gets lifted only squeezed in the cooler thus bag never needs lifted and can be drained efficiently without mess. Because I'm learning no matter how you cut the cheese you got to lift the bag out and put it in a vessel to throw away (bucket) so why not use bucket (cooler) anyways?. But I think in the long run just some racks on top of the kettle and the bag squeeze down and the kettle maintains temperature fairly well and no extra vessel needed. But since I now have to brew outside just thinking of ideas to deal with the cold I think I will probably mash inside and boil outside or just try to insulate outside or just keep it very very low heat from the element on the mash and stir every so often. But then I have to build a false bottom and notch my kettle so I can keep the heat stick in there and insulate. I have only kept heat on a mash once and that was the worst beer I've ever made
 
applescrap said:
no matter how you cut the cheese you got to lift the bag out and put it in a vessel to throw away (bucket) so why not use bucket (cooler) anyways?.
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You can cut the chesse in many ways. :) No buckets for me. No mess.

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Also, big difference in weight between lifting a full mash-tun and an 8-13lb bag of damp grain. If you don't lift the bag from the cooler or perform a sparge you're leaving a lot of sugars in your cooler.

I would not fancy lifting my last mash. 8.1 gallons of water. 12.6lbs grain. (Of course you only need to lift the cooler +8.1 gallons of water) Mashing inside, brewing outside though. The whole job lot's gotta be moved. I would avoid that.

Mash with 8.1 gallons 12.6lbs of grain
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A bit of lifting of heavy hot fluid filled things doesn't bother many brewers. No right or wrong. Just something you need to factor in when planning your setup.
 
nettekdl said:
For me it is because when I do BIAB batches it is because I don't feel like hauling out all my equipment and want to brew in a single vessel so that would kind of defeat the purpose of BIAB for me.
Click to expand...
Exactly... May as well be 3 vessel vs one.
 
Thanks a lot for the input I appreciate the comments. I love that colander and that is totally the way to go for brew in a bag any idea what size I should buy for a 15 gallon kettle. I'm starting to wonder why the hell I didn't just stay on our stove too my main motivation was it was so new and nice I didn't want to mess it up and the hour long boil is pretty hard on the element I can only imagine. But if you don't play your cards right buying this Electric stuff can cost as much as a stove ! And I thought I could even be a little bit faster with a 5000 watt element , then I realized setting up a brew room was a little more than I asked for then wife kicked me out of the laundry room and now I'm going to be brewing electrically outside and it's freaking cold right now I'll just run an extension cord inside and insulate kettle.

As for the cooler my plan was to squeeze the bag in the cooler but full mash water volume and the grain that's gotta be pretty heavy. Last time I threw a 16 gallon keg in my car then my fridge I realized I'm not getting any younger. What do you guys insulate your kettle with
 
cVu4sK7.jpg

Stable mash temps are why I chose to biab-in-a-cooler. Granted, to Gavin's point, I do lift the whole cooler up onto the table. It doesn't bother me, but I'm not 30 yet :)

Anyways, I mostly brew single infusion, full volume, no sparge ales. So I don't really worry about multistep mashes, and can still brew most styles of beer with tremendous success.

I squeeze the bag with a small pot lid in the cooler, and I spray the MT out with a hose for a minute to clean it before letting it air dry. It really isn't that much work. Plus there's no winches to setup to suspend the bag, and no colanders to clean (which, if you have an all wire one, is a huge pain in the neck to clean).
 
Sub'd.

Going this way by the end of the year. I see it as an easy transition to all grain without the cost of a traditional 3-tier system but as a stepping stone towards it.
 
TexasWine said:
It's another thing to buy ... along with the various fittings you would need to convert it to a suitable mash tun.
Click to expand...

In this case, the cooler can be left as is. I realized after I converted mine that I could have slipped an auto siphon between the cooler bag and wall and drained it that way with, literally, 0% dead space. It would probably be faster than using a ball valve! :D
 
I'd like to see more photos of Gavin cutting the cheese.

My process is much like his, with colander, etc and with minimal lifting. Others use a cooler and it works for them
 
I will be trying this method this weekend. Borrowed a 5 Gallon beverage cooler from work, clean, sanitize, done. Having issues at the moment maintaining temperatures with my pot (even with a blanket and coat around it), so I wanted to try the pre-heated cooler method. I plan on draining the wort out, and then batch sparging for 10 minutes with the remaining water needed to get to boil volume. I still use a paint strainer bag...
 
Would the mash temperature melt the auto siphon? Thanks for showing that setup that's what I was thinking not like getting out blankets and insulation isnt an extra step you could do 10 gallons pretty easily in that cooler too couldn't you full volume that'd be a decent lift 16 gallons of water and 30 pounds of grain I wonder if I could do it. I will probably stick with insulating the kettle because I think even on a cooler day I can get it insulated and since I'll be outside I won't care about making a mess when I pull the bag. I wonder if the kettle will fit in the cooler that's my new evil idea
 
skitter said:
I will be trying this method this weekend. Borrowed a 5 Gallon beverage cooler from work, clean, sanitize, done. Having issues at the moment maintaining temperatures with my pot (even with a blanket and coat around it), so I wanted to try the pre-heated cooler method. I plan on draining the wort out, and then batch sparging for 10 minutes with the remaining water needed to get to boil volume. I still use a paint strainer bag...
Click to expand...

May be slightly easier to just remove the bag from the cooler and dunk sparge the bag of grain in the kettle w/ your sparge water. Same as batch sparging with a cooler, except your are removing the grain from the cooler, rather than the wort.

I have sold quite a few BIAB bags for coolers, and while I have never done it, the appeal seems to be:

1. Better heat stability, perhaps outdoor brewers in the winter.
2. cheaper than a kettle
3. Repurposing a cooler one already has, without making it dedicated for brewing
4. No lifting of the grain bag as done w/ conventional BIAB
5. Very easy to avoid a stuck sparge
6. Less wort loss to dead space than a conventional tun.
7. Very simple to implement. One may already own a picnic cooler with a drain, add a bag and you have a large mash tun that functions well. Some of us love DIY and building equipment, manifolds, bulkheads, false bottoms, etc. For the guy that may not be that handy, all that is needed is a cooler and a bag, and you have a very functional large MT. One can BIAB mash in their cooler on Saturday, and use the same cooler for a beach party on Sunday.

My cooler MT is fitted with a braid, it works well and I haven't considered using a bag. But for some, the simplicity and good performance of cooler MT w/ a bag suits their needs...different strokes I guess.
 
applescrap said:
Would the mash temperature melt the auto siphon?
Click to expand...

It's only 155~ish F that isn't enough to melt the plastic. I once had to stick my hand in a MT with a garbage bag around my arm to clear a stuck sparge. Hot AF, bit didn't melt the garbage bag. Plus the contact time for the siphon and the hot wort would only be 2 mins tops.

However, it mayyyyyy leech some BPA or some such thing. Lautering with an auto siphon is a pretty ghetto solution.
 
jwalk4 said:
It's only 155~ish F that isn't enough to melt the plastic. I once had to stick my hand in a MT with a garbage bag around my arm to clear a stuck sparge. Hot AF, bit didn't melt the garbage bag. Plus the contact time for the siphon and the hot wort would only be 2 mins tops.

However, it mayyyyyy leech some BPA or some such thing. Lautering with an auto siphon is a pretty ghetto solution.
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Morebeer.com has a 1/2" SS siphon (not autosiphon - but they are easy to use).

To OP - I BIAB in a cooler. I had to rig up a dip tube as my drain was 1" up off the floor of the cooler. I added a ball valve as well. Been brewing this way for quite some time. Works quite well. I batch sparge in the cooler as well. You really can't step mash in a BIAB cooler system... but I don't do that anyway. Haven't found a reason...

Tip - get some way to keep the bag from getting sucked into your cooler drain (thereby causing a "stuck sparge"). I have a DIY false bottom. The $20 1/2" SS siphon from morebeer is the best solution though really. Wish I had thought of it sooner.

In simple fact - I might just go ahead and get the siphon...Such an elegant solution...
 
jwalk4 said:
cVu4sK7.jpg

Stable mash temps are why I chose to biab-in-a-cooler. Granted, to Gavin's point, I do lift the whole cooler up onto the table. It doesn't bother me, but I'm not 30 yet :)

Anyways, I mostly brew single infusion, full volume, no sparge ales. So I don't really worry about multistep mashes, and can still brew most styles of beer with tremendous success.

I squeeze the bag with a small pot lid in the cooler, and I spray the MT out with a hose for a minute to clean it before letting it air dry. It really isn't that much work. Plus there's no winches to setup to suspend the bag, and no colanders to clean (which, if you have an all wire one, is a huge pain in the neck to clean).
Click to expand...

I use the same basic setup. The voile cloth liber (BIAB) and my stainless steel hose braid make a fantastic filtering setup with no grain going into the wort. Once brewing is done I pull the bag, dump the gran and rinse the mashtun.
 
After reading this thread, I did my first full volume mash in my keggle. About 12 pounds of grain for an IPA, a 5 gallon batch. There were some interesting observations. One, since I used more water, the grain sucked up much less of my heat than I had anticipated. Instead of losing about 12 degrees to the grain and my cooler, I lost perhaps 5. I ended up mashing fairly high because of this, somewhere around 160 for most of the hour long mash. I wrapped the keggle in blankets to insulate it and hardly lost any temperature whatsoever over the hour. I think I ended up sitting at 156 degrees after a full hour long mash and I heated my strike water to about 168. Pretty good for little insulation and an hour mash time. So next time I'll factor that in. I ended up with a gravity and efficiency slightly lower than usual and missed my gravity by a little bit but not a life changing amount. Just enough to factor into my recipes in the future, or consider some sort of sparge next time. I didn't sparge whatsoever, just squeezed the bag.
 
@jim so better worse? I have to use a bucket anyways to squeeze from collander into it....so i might do opposite of you. I mean clean bucket vs cooler any difference? Plus all the stuff required to insulate and you dont have to lift bag or need collander for squeezing idk im lost. I might get gloves so i dont need collander or bucket ill just squeeze right over kettle and on rack on kettle
 
I think BIAB in a cooler is a great setup. Go simple and just 2tier it. I'd rather just insulate my kettle and not stress over temp loss, but for people that want to have perfect temps the cooler is great.

I still vote you stop squeezing and just let it drip-dry on its own via pulley or collander etc.
 
iijakii said:
I think BIAB in a cooler is a great setup. Go simple and just 2tier it. I'd rather just insulate my kettle and not stress over temp loss, but for people that want to have perfect temps the cooler is great.

I still vote you stop squeezing and just let it drip-dry on its own via pulley or collander etc.
Click to expand...

You know i trust you so i will just stop worrying about temps im about to no chill and 30 min. Mash anyways. You ever 30 min mash? Problem with pulley is i dont know how big an eye i need or where to put it or how also i have big cheap aluminum pot you saw it where do i get collander THAT big. I have racks from keg fridge i can drip dry /squeeze thanks anyways iijakii
 
Ive never done a 30min but I know others here have, @psylocide does most of the time I believe. Ive been doing a 45min as of late. I get at least a few degree temp loss with just my blanket/box insulation but I'm making some of the same recipes as when I had my HERMS setup with rock-stable temps and havent noticed any difference in FG or body. Pretty much always where Beersmith predicts too. I'm beginning to think after maybe the first 20mins most of it's done and that's why I don't notice any difference.

I need to get a refractometer again so I can really tell what's going on, but I'm too cheap.
 
applescrap said:
You know i trust you so i will just stop worrying about temps im about to no chill and 30 min. Mash anyways. You ever 30 min mash? Problem with pulley is i dont know how big an eye i need or where to put it or how also i have big cheap aluminum pot you saw it where do i get collander THAT big. I have racks from keg fridge i can drip dry /squeeze thanks anyways iijakii
Click to expand...


Ladder for a hoist should work.

If you're going to 30 min mash, make sure your crush is nice and fine. Almost flour. I've recently gone back to 1 hr mashes, but it's purely because I am doing other things and not rushing it so much lately. Efficiency has increased, but I also started playing with pH and full volume mashes, so I don't know whether 1 or all of these things are contributing the most.

However, I was consistently getting 75% efficiency with a 30 min mash and no water adjustments.

You'll need to use whirlfloc in the boil (last 5 or 10 min) and most likely fine with gelatin or at the very least, cold crash before packaging if you want clear beer.

I make crystal clear beer this way, but not f I skip the whirlfloc.
 
Thanks for the sage advice psylocide and iijakii, this i feel is monumental steps in home brew. I believe i can brew in 2 hours +or- 30 min for mash means ALot to me. More time for golf!
 
I think what I did on the last batch was picked the grain bag up and put it in a separate pot I had. I kept periodically draining the pot into the keggle as it heated up to a boil. Then once it wasn't really dripping much anymore into the pot, the bag was cool enough to just squeeze over the keggle. I guess I did have to clean that second pot, but it was fairly small anyway, and what's one more thing to clean eh? Still easier than the cooler.
 
I started this hobby off by making ten 5-gallon extract batches. Then I wanted to improve my beer by going to AG without having to spend a lot of money on additional equipment. I just ended up getting a 10-gallon igloo cooler and a huge grain bag. Best decision ever! Easy to use, easy to clean.
 
I too am about to venture into BIAB from extract and ran into this thread... I have a 12g SS brewtech BME kettle but due to all the welded ports it seems insulating it for the mash would be difficult. I don't want a formal 3 vessel system quite yet either... but this. I like this idea! I can get a cooler / bag, mash in that. Drain to kettle. Then do a light sparge with a 5 gallon stock pot I have from my Northern Brewer starter kit which I already put a valve in. Heck with little extra money I can add a 1500W element and Inkbird's IPB-16 PID Controller to essentially hold my sparge water at temp.

1.) Heat mash water in boil kettle...
2.) Mash in cooler.
3.) Lauter to kettle.
4.) Sparge / mash out using my 5 gallon ghetto kettle. Putting a little element in there can hold temps fine and 5 gallons is enough for a sparge right?

Technically it's a modified 3 vessel system. Does this seem retarded?
 
It's a fine and normal alternative that many folks use. You are employing the bag in the cooler as a filter, rather than using a false bottom or manifold. You can also keep the bag in the cooler after lautering, dump in your heated sparge water, and drain again (batch sparging). Works a treat. Hardly need to vorlauf, either, if at all.

After all that, you can hang the bag or place it on a colander over your cooler (or kettle), and either gravity drain or squeeze to collect more wort.
 
bigdawg86 said:
I too am about to venture into BIAB from extract and ran into this thread... I have a 12g SS brewtech BME kettle but due to all the welded ports it seems insulating it for the mash would be difficult. I don't want a formal 3 vessel system quite yet either... but this. I like this idea! I can get a cooler / bag, mash in that. Drain to kettle. Then do a light sparge with a 5 gallon stock pot I have from my Northern Brewer starter kit which I already put a valve in. Heck with little extra money I can add a 1500W element and Inkbird's IPB-16 PID Controller to essentially hold my sparge water at temp.

1.) Heat mash water in boil kettle...
2.) Mash in cooler.
3.) Lauter to kettle.
4.) Sparge / mash out using my 5 gallon ghetto kettle. Putting a little element in there can hold temps fine and 5 gallons is enough for a sparge right?

Technically it's a modified 3 vessel system. Does this seem retarded?
Click to expand...

If it is, then we're retarded together. This is the exact process I follow with the exception that I heat my sparge water in the same kettle I boil in and put it into a 5G round igloo as a "HLT".

I was using a bazooka screen in the MLT, but had efficiency issues. With the bag I can mill finer, get better/faster conversion, and raised my brewhouse efficiency from 61% to 70%. Not a big deal for my IPA's, but I want to brew some 12+% stouts and going in with a crappy efficiency was not a recipe for success.
 

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