Going Back To BIAB

[Slim M]

Years ago, when I first got into home brewing, I started out with extract batches, but soon graduated up to all grain. Back then brew in a bag was not a thing or if it was, I didn’t know about it so I had a three tier system that I use for several years.

Life got busy though, and I took some time away from the hobby and when I started back brewing biab was popular and it seemed like a cost-effective simple step to get back into all grain so I did that for several years. Honestly, I always felt like I was cheating a bit and the efficiency was a little below what I normally got back in the day but not so much a little extra grain could make up for.

A year ago, I decided to go back to the three tier fly sparge, still had some of my old stuff, so why not see if the old days & old ways were better. Well, the efficiency went up a bit but so did the work and the amount of propane used and the hours in a brew day. The beer quality stayed about the same from my perspective. I’m going back single infusion mash biab, and yeah, I squeeze the bag. One thing I have noticed about BIAB is that if you can get your mash thickness at or above 2.5 quarts of strike water per pound of grain the efficiency is about equivalent to what I got with the three tier system.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

BIAB FTW!

 

[Agent]

Minimal setup/cleanup, and knocking 10 gallons out in 3-4hrs. What's not to love?

 

[Yooper]

I’ve done the same. Went from a BIABish set up with a bucket, a cooler, and a burner slowly to a 1/2 barrel all electric HERMS with a tippy dump. Then went to BIAB in that three vessel system and loved it, so I gradually downsized. A lot. I now have a small Brewzilla and the weight is great- I can lift/move the equipment. But…I don’t like to lift the malt pipe or grain bag so now I’m using my old cooler MLT and the Brewzilla and doing BIAB in the cooler, and using the Brewzilla as an HLT and boil kettle. Super easy, lightweight, and still indoors brewing.

I love doing full volume mashes, so that’s why I went back with the cooler as it all didn’t fit in the Brewzilla. With this set up, I have no sparging, no temperature changes, just plain old BIAB mashing in the MLT and then drain to the Brewzilla and boil. I don’t need two pumps, a HLT stirrer, heavy keggles or kettles, a winch/hoist, etc. Just a cooler and the Brewzilla (on wheels). I could have done this without the Brewzilla of course, but it’s so much lighter and easier than my old huge keggles. It also takes up so much less room in my laundry room.

I’ve always been strong for my size, but at 5’5” and 125 lbs, and now 61 years old(!), I’m all about simplicity and doing things easier.

 

[Slim M]

Minimal setup/cleanup, and knocking 10 gallons out in 3-4hrs. What's not to love?

Yeah for sure. I’ve never gotten my time down to 4 hours though. My biggest time waster are setting up, moving things around & chilling. I yield about 11 gallons on packaging day.

Chilling isn’t a total waste though because I sanitize my fermenter & start cleaning up a bit. My brew area is in the shop that stores lawnmowers and other shop stuff that has to be moved to set up.

 

[MaxStout]

The times for my BIAB day are (approx):

Heat strike water, mill grain, dough-in 30 mins.
Sacc rest 60 mins.
Remove grains and heat to a boil 30 mins.
Boil (with a few exceptions) 60 mins.
Chill, pitch, button up FV, set in ferm chamber 30 mins.

Total about 3-1/2 hours

Set up takes about an hour, take down and cleaning another hour. So it's close to a 6 hour brew day for me.

 

[Bobby_M]

Setting up a dedicated brewing spot where you just leave your stuff setup is the primary way to save time. It's notable how many people I chat with who don't do that and then have an epiphany mid conversation that their inability to dedicate a brewing space is all imagined (or at least rarely something that couldn't be worked through). Just as a for example, a bunch of people eventually go from propane out in the driveway to electric out in the driveway just because repetition says that's where brewing happens. Well, yeah, if you have to or want to. An electric system can be setup just about anywhere.

 

[BrewZer]

Years ago, when I first got into home brewing, I started out with extract batches, but soon graduated up to all grain. Back then brew in a bag was not a thing or if it was, I didn’t know about it so I had a three tier system that I use for several years.

Life got busy though, and I took some time away from the hobby and when I started back brewing biab was popular and it seemed like a cost-effective simple step to get back into all grain so I did that for several years. Honestly, I always felt like I was cheating a bit and the efficiency was a little below what I normally got back in the day but not so much a little extra grain could make up for.

A year ago, I decided to go back to the three tier fly sparge, still had some of my old stuff, so why not see if the old days & old ways were better. Well, the efficiency went up a bit but so did the work and the amount of propane used and the hours in a brew day. The beer quality stayed about the same from my perspective. I’m going back single infusion mash biab, and yeah, I squeeze the bag. One thing I have noticed about BIAB is that if you can get your mash thickness at or above 2.5 quarts of strike water per pound of grain the efficiency is about equivalent to what I got with the three tier system.

Grind your own. Set the gap at .025 or finer and your efficiency should exceed the calculator's prediction.

 

[worlddivides]

I see zero difference in quality between beers produced by "traditional all grain" and BIAB. Extract can also make very high quality beers, but you lose a lot of control over certain aspects of the brewing process and you need to make sure you're using fresh extract or the quality will drop. I always bought super fresh extract and used it within 1-3 weeks of buying it, so I never tasted the "extract twang" people talk about in my own beers, but I did taste something that might have been what they were talking about in other people's extract beers.

For me, brew day is usually about 4 hours. It can be as soon as 3.5 hours or as long as 5 hours, but it's usually right around 4 hours (1 hour mash, 1 hour boil, 1 hour heating up/cooling down/pitching yeast/etc., 1 hour setup/cleanup). The longest brew days are when I do an extended mash and an extended boil (for example, a 90 minute bittering addition in the boil and maybe a 90 minute mash), but I do those very very rarely.

 

[Slim M]

Grind your own. Set the gap at .025 or finer and your efficiency should exceed the calculator's prediction.

Yeah that’s about what I got it at now, but I would rather not mess with it because I know what to expect I just about always hit my og plus or minus .001

 

[Slim M]

Setting up a dedicated brewing spot where you just leave your stuff setup is the primary way to save time. It's notable how many people I chat with who don't do that and then have an epiphany mid conversation that their inability to dedicate a brewing space is all imagined (or at least rarely something that couldn't be worked through). Just as a for example, a bunch of people eventually go from propane out in the driveway to electric out in the driveway just because repetition says that's where brewing happens. Well, yeah, if you have to or want to. An electric system can be setup just about anywhere.

Yeah maybe one day I will have a dedicated space but sometimes you gotta live within your means & make do with what you have. With the wife going back to school and raising 3 teenagers that kinda how it is for now.

 

[Kickass]

Your system has to match your goals and priorities. For some, that’s propane 3V fly sparge. For me, that’s EBIAB. With two little kids, I can setup after the kids go to bed, mill, mash overnight then resume in the morning before everyone gets up. It works for me and my family.

When I bought my own mill, my mash efficiency went up to higher levels than when I 3V fly sparged.

 

[Halfakneecap]

I started with the 3V cooler and gravity in the early 2000's. Very basic. Then people started getting temp probes, pumps and PID controllers on home made 3V trolleys. Pretty complicated to my simple mind. Im in maintenance, so like the simplest setup i can get. Then i saw BIAB. I was sold instantly. Now have a robo, and love it.

Beer quality has been the same in all systems. They all make great beer

 

[Slim M]

Yeah I like the simplicity of biab over my old 3v fly sparge ways. I haven’t been an efficiency chaser in years but more of a consistency chaser a with my recent back and forth trials between 3v & biab, Biab is the way to go for me.

Years ago I chased efficiency on the 3v doing multi step mashes initially and finally settled on double decoction for most all brewing. It was efficient with all grains and all styles but I don’t miss it. Grain is cheap.

 

[Shenanigans]

I mostly do BIAB except for when the grain bill goes above 10kg/22lbs then it gets too heavy.
I don't have the possibility to install a pullley over my brew kettle to help me.

Anyway I don't get the day off to brew very often so when I do I want to brew as much beer(s) as possible.
I have two 3500W induction plates one 15 gallon mega pot and another 9.5 gallon pot.
On a Saturday I can usually knock out four 5 gallon batches of beer with an OG of anything from 1.045 to 1.080.
Normally I weigh out the hops and malt and grind the malt the evening before and usually mash in around 10 in the morning and I'm finished brewing by 5 or 6 pm. In the past then I used to clean up until 10pm but now I'm getting old so leave a lot for the next morning as I'm already pooped after 8 hours of brewing

 

[Slim M]

I mostly do BIAB except for when the grain bill goes above 10kg/22lbs then it gets too heavy.
I don't have the possibility to install a pullley over my brew kettle to help me.

Anyway I don't get the day off to brew very often so when I do I want to brew as much beer(s) as possible.
I have two 3500W induction plates one 15 gallon mega pot and another 9.5 gallon pot.
On a Saturday I can usually knock out four 5 gallon batches of beer with an OG of anything from 1.045 to 1.080.
Normally I weigh out the hops and malt and grind the malt the evening before and usually mash in around 10 in the morning and I'm finished brewing by 5 or 6 pm. In the past then I used to clean up until 10pm but now I'm getting old so leave a lot for the next morning as I'm already pooped after 8 hours of brewing

I made a roll around hoisting beam thing basically just a piece of vertical 1 1/4” square tubing with a 2 foot 90 degree section attached up top with an eye bolt through it to attach my ratcheting pulley that’s rigged for 2:1. If you don’t weld or do metal work you could probably come up with something similar with a couple 2x4s and a harbor freight furniture dolly.

 

[Imhoppy]

In the past then I used to clean up until 10pm but now I'm getting old so leave a lot for the next morning as I'm already pooped after 8 hours of brewing

Consider hiring a couple of German Bar Maids to take care of the clean-up. Assuming the price is right. Just have them take their time and not be in a hurry. Lol

 

[Shenanigans]

I made a roll around hoisting beam thing basically just a piece of vertical 1 1/4” square tubing with a 2 foot 90 degree section attached up top with an eye bolt through it to attach my ratcheting pulley that’s rigged for 2:1. If you don’t weld or do metal work you could probably come up with something similar with a couple 2x4s and a harbor freight furniture dolly.

Might have to add it to my ever growing brewing project list

 

[Shenanigans]

Consider hiring a couple of German Bar Maids to take care of the clean-up. Assuming the price is right. Just have them take their time and not be in a hurry. Lol

Think my girlfriend would be more unhappy about that than when I leave the stuff lying around over night

 

[MaxStout]

Think my girlfriend would be more unhappy about that than when I leave the stuff lying around over night

Tell her that having German bar maids to help is a requirement for Reinheitsgebot. Bierhelfer.

 

[BrewZer]

I mostly do BIAB except for when the grain bill goes above 10kg/22lbs then it gets too heavy.
I don't have the possibility to install a pullley over my brew kettle to help me.

I made a roll around hoisting beam thing basically just a piece of vertical 1 1/4” square tubing with a 2 foot 90 degree section attached up top with an eye bolt through it to attach my ratcheting pulley that’s rigged for 2:1. If you don’t weld or do metal work you could probably come up with something similar with a couple 2x4s and a harbor freight furniture dolly.

Or you can just rig a pulley and rope to a folding 8' ladder...

 

[Slim M]

Or you can just rig a pulley and rope to a folding 8' ladder...
View attachment 876763

Which bag is that?

 

[Slim M]

When I first tried biab I done a few 5 gallon batches to see how it would work out. With the 5 gallon batches I never had more than 12 pounds of grain so snatching the bag out was easy, but when I start back my usual 12 gallon batches it got pretty cumbersome. That’s when I got a ratchet pulley.

If you have never tried a ratchet pulley you’re missing out. It gives more control on the lowering down for removing, suspending for dripping, or while you are squeezing.

 

[CDS]

The times for my BIAB day are (approx):

Heat strike water, mill grain, dough-in 30 mins.
Sacc rest 60 mins.
Remove grains and heat to a boil 30 mins.
Boil (with a few exceptions) 60 mins.
Chill, pitch, button up FV, set in ferm chamber 30 mins.

Total about 3-1/2 hours

Set up takes about an hour, take down and cleaning another hour. So it's close to a 6 hour brew day for me.

Yup, mine's pretty well identical.

 

[BrewZer]

Which bag is that?

That's the BrewBag. Has ribbing and loops.

 

[kohalajohn]

My experience is the same.

Back in the day it was 3v and DIY and a huge amount of time, just fiddling around with plumbing that never fit.

Now, ebiab has taken me back into the hobby.

What I"m currently interested in is the Brewzilla rapt system. I think I can create a staged temperature run from say 11pm to 11am the next morning. Overnight mash, then at 6am I get a reminder to come downstairs and lift out the grains and add hops, then an hour later a reminder to go downstairs to add the immersion chiller. Then at 730am pump 4 gallons of cold wort into a 5 gallon corny keg and put it in the fridge, which is run by an Inkbird.

Then two weeks later, said keg goes into a cold kegerator out on my deck. LIke a real grown up.

Wow.

 

[Whisky River]

What’s the reminder to come downstairs and clean up the boilover?

 

[kohalajohn]

My wife yelling

 

[seatazzz]

I went to BIAB about 4 years ago and pretty much never looked back. Just got my second wilserbrewer bag (first one got a few snaggy holes from overlong temperature probe, my bad) (also thank you loads @Bobby_M for carrying them), and since I brew in my unceiled garage I have my brewstand situated under a sturdy rafter, with a hook, so I can use the ratchet/pulley thing to lift the bag. I still have a 3-vessel setup that I use when I take the brewery on the road to our semi-annual group brewdays, and also for the rare occasions I want to brew something over 8%abv, which is almost never. If I prep water and mill grain the night before, I'm done the next day in less than 4 hours including deep cleaning. I love brewing, but the older I get the less I want to spend 6+ or more hours at it.

 

[crazyjake19]

I love BIAB. Started with it in 2016 and never felt the need to change. Single vessel, full-volume mash, making great beer. 5 gallon batches done and cleaned up in 3-3.5 hours.

The only downside I see is hoisting the grain bag if you're brewing more than a 5-gallon batch, but there's pulleys and setups for that.