Modified BIAB and LODO

[Murphys_Law]

I've been playing around with the best way to incorporate LODO into my BIAB set up and 2 areas concern me: adding grains to my strike water and dough balls/stirring; and lifting the bag and letting it drain/splash.

As a work around I was thinking of doing something like this:

1) Heat strike water in my Spike 10G kettle
2) Using one of those little brown pumps, transfer water (underlet) to a (yet to be acquired)Home Depot water cooler (will be lined with the bag I've been using for "regular" BIAB")
3) Using the same brown pump, transfer wort from HD cooler back into my Spike to begin the boil (will of course have to modify the cooler to add the ball lock)

Does this sound like an OK process? Am I overthinking this?! If I do a full volume mash will I get enough wort from the cooler mash tun into my kettle w/o the need to sparge or will this method not drain as thoroughly as say lifting the bag and using gravity to drain? I am really curious about the latter because I have no experience with doing this...always just done a single vessel "traditional" BIAB.

Curious to hear thoughts, etc for those who do something similar.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I don't BIAB but from what I've read folks are simply lowering their grain bags v e r y s l o w l y into their kettles with the strike volume already in place. Done right it should be pretty darned close to the same effect I get slowly underletting the grain above my FB, displacing any air in the grain before the bed has a change to get gluey...and without the need for a second vessel, in your case...

Cheers!

 

[Murphys_Law]

fwiw, I don't BIAB but from what I've read folks are simply lowering their grain bags v e r y s l o w l y into their kettles with the strike volume already in place. Done right it should be pretty darned close to the same effect I get slowly underletting the grain above my FB, displacing any air in the grain before the bed has a change to get gluey...

Cheers!

Thanks for the response. The problem I’m seeing is even lowering slowly I seem to always get a big “burp” from the grain bag as well as big dough balls which require stirring (I try to be gentle).

I’m just curious what others are seeing/doing.

 

[Bilsch]

I brewed low oxygen for quite a while with two vessels. DO boil the strike water in one kettle then underlet to the mash in the other then back to the first for the boil. What your proposing is similar and should work well and also eliminate the bag dunk and pull which isn't that friendly to lodo.

 

[zeptrey]

I wonder what effect malt conditioning would have on the dunk method if any? Perhaps less dough balls due to less flour?

 

[rkhanso]

I was looking into low-oxygen brewing and also do eBIAB.

Is the BIAB method just not very conducive to low-oxygen brewing? Or maybe only able to reduce to a point the amount of oxygen?

I think I have many strikes against me after reading THIS and THIS and THIS.

• I have an aluminum kettle that is wider than it is tall.
• I recirculate to the lid of the kettle to maintain mash temp.
• I don't have any type of oxygen measuring equipment.
• I have a corona mill that really tears apart the grain and makes near flour - at the recommendation of most anyone who does BIAB.
• I have a DIY copper CFC based on the Jaded Cyclone.
• I don't yet have a Conical Fermenter and use glass carboys and plastic buckets.
• I don't have any kegging equipment and have to bottle.

Is the best I can hope for is to just do what I can that can minimize oxygen? But not really actually do a low-oxygen brew?

 

[tennesseean_87]

I was looking into low-oxygen brewing and also do eBIAB.

Is the BIAB method just not very conducive to low-oxygen brewing? Or maybe only able to reduce to a point the amount of oxygen?

I think I have many strikes against me after reading THIS and THIS and THIS.

• I have an aluminum kettle that is wider than it is tall.
• I recirculate to the lid of the kettle to maintain mash temp.
• I don't have any type of oxygen measuring equipment.
• I have a corona mill that really tears apart the grain and makes near flour - at the recommendation of most anyone who does BIAB.
• I have a DIY copper CFC based on the Jaded Cyclone.
• I don't yet have a Conical Fermenter and use glass carboys and plastic buckets.
• I don't have any kegging equipment and have to bottle.

Is the best I can hope for is to just do what I can that can minimize oxygen? But not really actually do a low-oxygen brew?

, but following some threads here I grind coursers with eBIAB to help with flow rate and get better efficiency. You don't need flour, since the recirc helps mix the enzymes and starches together to get all the conversion you need. I, like other experienced stuck recirc until grinding courser, and now I can recirc faster and get better efficiency.

 

[jdauria]

I wonder what effect malt conditioning would have on the dunk method if any? Perhaps less dough balls due to less flour?

Have done two LoDo BIAB batches so far, both lowering the grain slowly into the water and have not had any dough balls. I do condition the grain first.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Have done two LoDo BIAB batches so far, both lowering the grain slowly into the water and have not had any dough balls. I do condition the grain first.

Any tips avoid O2 uptake when pulling the bag and draining the wort post mash?

 

[jdauria]

Any tips avoid O2 uptake when pulling the bag and draining the wort post mash?

That's one part I always struggled with. What I did was, with a pulley system, to pull the bag up to just above the wort, to prevent a lot of splashing as it drained. As for draining, I ran tubing from the ball valve to the bottom of carboy and slowly ran off. This way, the wort is not splashing into the carboy. I also would flush carboy first with CO2 and then cover opening after adding the tubing with foil.

 

[cmac62]

I have used a little kmeta and Ascorbic acid in the mash and end of the boil to scrub the O2 that does get in and do everything else as gently as possible, but don't worry too much. Stir gently if needed and transfer without splashing all over the place.