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My 1st BIAB

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bucfanmike

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I have been doing all grain for about 2 years. I have 3 keggles converted and use them on turkey fryers. I have not yet built a stand. I have one pump in a toolbox. I brew outside so winter in MN can be difficult. I was looking for a way to drag less stuff out to brew and came across biab. After some research I decided to give it a shot. Took a few pics along the way.

Wife sewed up the voile material. $5 at walmart for a curtain
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Ok, so I should have started with a smaller grainbill. I had pick up grains for 2 recipes. Biermunchers Centennial Blonde and Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Porter. I brewed the blonde the other day and used my old cooler mash tun. I figured I used tried and true on that one, because there was less room for error should i miss my gravity. If i come up 10 points short on the porter well then its still going to be a good porter. So anyway 19.75 lbs
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Used my corona bucket in a bucket and tightened it abit more. Really crushed it, glad im not worried about a stuck sparge.
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I must apologize to BobbyM, ive had this sightglass.thermo combo sitting around forever and just finally threw it on my BK last night. No time to calibrate it, so i went ghetto and marked a piece of tape at 5.5 gallons, this is my goal to boil down to. Honestly my MT is a really nice keg, this BK is a beater. Gotta love my ghetto heat shield too. Wow is my crap ugly.
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After heating the full volume, I went with 8.25 gallons, i wrapped the kettle up for a nice little nap. Its just over 20 degrees and I dont wanna lose heat. Ran the recirc line inside the sleeping bag to also help keep from losing heat.
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At this point I got too busy to devote another hand to picture taking. Mash temp was a little hot, 156, stirred it down to 153. I covered the top with another blanket and left it for awhile. I recirculated for most of the mash. l lost 4 degrees in the hour, I could have removed the blanket and fired but chose to go with it. After that i fired up the burner and pump and brought it up to 168. Ok time to pull the bag. I can tell you with a normal grainbill it would be no issue. With this grainbill it was a bit tougher. I had a hard time getting the bag to fit through the opening. I was afraid i was going to tear it on the opening and had to work it out a bit at a time. Had the wife throw a cooling rack and big colander on the kettle and put the bag there to cool abit and drain. I squeezed out what I could and proceeded with the recipe from there.

I usually use a refractometer, well when i decide to check gravity that is. I decided i really needed to know for sure how i did with the brew so i broke out the old hydrometer. Gravity was 1.078 with 5.5 gallons in the bucket. I am very happy with the prospect of brew in a bag and gotta say this would be an easy way for one to get into all grain. Ill continue to use this for normal grainbill size batches and my keggle MT for 10 gal batches and bigger brews.
 
For your BK is there still a ring of metal inside the top? Or is that completely removed? Seems from the reading there is still a lip on the inside. I'm going to move to BIAB when I get home and a keg seems to be the simple/cheap method, just wanted to see what you'd suggest.
 
I cut a 12" hole so there is still a lip. It did make removing the bag tricky, espescially with that much grain. If you are going exclusive brew in the bag you are going to want to remove as much as possible.
 
Buc fan in MN?!?!?!

I like the simplicity of BIAB, but 19.75# for 5.5gal at 1.078 is only 60% efficiency. Is there anything that can be done to increase the extraction?

McC
 
Buc fan in MN?!?!?!

I like the simplicity of BIAB, but 19.75# for 5.5gal at 1.078 is only 60% efficiency. Is there anything that can be done to increase the extraction?

McC

I am from Tampa FL, moved here 13 yrs ago, my wife is from here.

Many are reporting higher efficiencies, I wasnt able to get the bag squeezed the way i had wanted to. I also realized that it seems many are holding mash out temps for awhile before pulling the bag. I pulled the bag as soon I hit mash out. Not sure if not stirring had any impact, i did have the pump recirculating most of the time and figured that would be enough. Im guessing with a smaller grain bill I would have had an easier time. And honestly as easy as this was, i wouldnt worry if I only get 60 as long as its consistant
 
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