Electric recirculating BIAB system without a basket

[Simonh82]

I've been happily making BIAB beer for 2 1/2 years now and made lots of great beer. Being something of a tinkerer I thought that I would upgrade my 30L 230V 2500W tea urn kettle with a pump to recirculate during the mash and a PID temperature controller. I shared my plans on another forum and a couple of people suggested that it wouldn't work with the bag alone and I would need a basket for the bag or grain to sit in if I wanted the recirculation to work properly.

I did a test brew the other day just with the pump and the recirculation seemed to work OK, but unfortunately the pump sucked the bag onto the element and it melted a hole in it. Lesson learned I've now got a perforated pizza tray which I'm fitting legs to, that I'm going to use to keep the bag off the element.

I'm looking for other opinions, hopefully to confirm I'm not crazy. Do you think the combination of bag and tray will work with the recirculating system? If not, what does the basket add that can't be replicated with a bag?

Thanks!

 

[andycook]

I have a steamer rack in my kettle keeping the bag off the heat and out of the pump intake.

I've thought about adding a basket to get a bit of space between the bag and the pot sites. This is for those few times when for those few and rare times where the grain in the bag makes a seal when the pump is pumping from the bottom faster than the wort is seeping through the grains and bag.

 

[trav77]

I've been happily making BIAB beer for 2 1/2 years now and made lots of great beer. Being something of a tinkerer I thought that I would upgrade my 30L 230V 2500W tea urn kettle with a pump to recirculate during the mash and a PID temperature controller. I shared my plans on another forum and a couple of people suggested that it wouldn't work with the bag alone and I would need a basket for the bag or grain to sit in if I wanted the recirculation to work properly.

I did a test brew the other day just with the pump and the recirculation seemed to work OK, but unfortunately the pump sucked the bag onto the element and it melted a hole in it. Lesson learned I've now got a perforated pizza tray which I'm fitting legs to, that I'm going to use to keep the bag off the element.

I'm looking for other opinions, hopefully to confirm I'm not crazy. Do you think the combination of bag and tray will work with the recirculating system? If not, what does the basket add that can't be replicated with a bag?

Thanks!

I use this: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/biabbottom17.htm

Works like a charm. Keeps the bag off the element and out of the pickup tube but also doesn't reduce flow.

 

[Simonh82]

I have a steamer rack in my kettle keeping the bag off the heat and out of the pump intake.

I've thought about adding a basket to get a bit of space between the bag and the pot sites. This is for those few times when for those few and rare times where the grain in the bag makes a seal when the pump is pumping from the bottom faster than the wort is seeping through the grains and bag.

Thanks, I guess that makes sense. I've always found I get a good flow through the bag when I manually vorlauf to keep the wort moving during temperature rises. My bag has quite a conical bottom so I think as long as I keep it suspended off the bottom it should allow wort to recirculate.

 

[Simonh82]

I use this: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/biabbottom17.htm

Works like a charm. Keeps the bag off the element and out of the pickup tube but also doesn't reduce flow.

This is the pizza tray I got https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0001IX3NC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20. There are lots of holes and I don't think it will impede the flow.

 

[andycook]

I used www.webstaurantstore.com