My First BIAB This Weekend, Any Advice?

[chewyheel]

I got my BIAB kit from wilserbrewer and will do my first batch on Sunday, however I have a few concerns since this is my first time using this. This is my tentative plan so far for brew day, if you have any tips please share!

First of all, I am still planning on mashing in my cooler mash tun as opposed to doing everything in the kettle since I know I can maintain a consistent temp that way. To spare, I was thinking about using the pulley to hold the bag over the tun and pour the sparge water through it, then suspend the bag over the kettle to let the rest drip in. From there I would proceed as normal.

From what I have read so far it seems like many people do everything in the kettle, if you still use a mash tun I'd love to hear about your technique.

Thanks!

 

[Sadu]

BIAB is pretty flexible. Mashing all in one pot with no sparge is easiest bug generally you don't get as good efficiency as using a sparge, also mash pH might come out a little higher. But those are both small things and it comes down to personal preference.

I mash in a rectangular cooler and sparge by lifting the bag into another pot containing the sparge water. But whatever works for you.

I think the key thing to worry about is getting a good crush on your grain and finding a way to hold the mash temperature steady.

Good luck.

 

[PADave]

First of all, I am still planning on mashing in my cooler mash tun as opposed to doing everything in the kettle since I know I can maintain a consistent temp that way.

Below is a pic of what I do. Only drop a degree or two over an hour mash. Just an old winter jacket.

I think the key thing to worry about is getting a good crush on your grain and finding a way to hold the mash temperature steady.

This is key. A good consistent crush. Since I bought my grain mill, I get 74% every brew. No sparge.

 

[wilserbrewer]

JMO, If I were to use the cooler, I would just use the bag as a false bottom and drain the wort out the cooler valve. Do a batch sparge if so inclined.

The pulley is useful when mashing in the kettle where you NEED to remove the grain, with a cooler it's easier to remove / drain the wort.

Just my thoughts, of course either way will work....

 

[RM-MN]

When I started BIAB I tried to keep the temperature as steady as I could for the hour long mash by insulating the pot. With some experimentation I found that with the milling I do for the grain the conversion didn't take an hour so it wasn't as important to keep the temperature stable for that long.

The milling of the grain determines how long you need to mash and what efficiency you will get. With a conventional tun you are limited in how fine you can mill the grain because if you mill it too fine it won't drain. No such problem exists with BIAB so mill the grain as fine as you can. If you have trouble getting the cooler to drain, raise the bag a bit to expose more area for filtering.

If you have access to iodine, you can use that to find if the conversion is done. That can be really quick but don't stop the mash too soon as it takes more time to extract the color and especially the flavor from the other grains. I find that I get good results with a 30 minute mash but your results might be different. I would not recommend less than 30 minutes no matter how well your grains are milled.

 

[pretzelb]

When I used a bag with a cooler I found it very easy to batch sparge. I would drain to my kettle, add sparge water and mix, then drain again. I'd do this twice. At the end I would squeeze over the cooler if I wanted that last squeeze. It's been a while but I think last squeeze step was not having a huge impact after two rounds of sparge water.

 

[NSMikeD]

grain crush size and holding mash temperature are probably the two biggest challenges I have in BIAB. Keep track of your actual numbers - evaporation rate, grain absorption, mash ph, gravities etc - over time these will give you clues to dial in your process and recipes

Don't be discouraged if you miss the expected numbers, it's part of the process.

While there are several ways to skin the same cat, if your kettle can boil and your cooler can hold the full water volume (accounting for the grain displacement) start there- IMO keep it as simple as possible to nail down your procedures and numbers. The more steps you add, the harder it will be to determine where you are losing efficiencies (if that happens). The full volume mash does produce very acceptable results and the cooler should hold your mash temperature within a degree or two the entire time (again, IMO, the hardest part of BIAB, aside from lifting the bag for full volume brewers).

Sparging may improve efficiencies, but IMO, it also complicates the process.

Keep DME on hand with a calculator that can figure out how much to add to the final wort if you do miss your numbers and are unable to sleep at night with a lower than expected OG in the fermentor. You can always increase the grain bill the next brew.