My new and improved BIAB setup

[sborz22]

When I started brewing about a year and a half ago I did not consider the shape of my mash tun when I was buying one. In fact, once my grain arrived I rushed to Wal-Mart to buy any cooler I could find that would work. So I grabbed a rectangular cooler and I was on my way. At this point, I was and still am using paint strainer bags for my BIAB. The issue was/is that the bags would not fit around my cooler so I essentially just put the bagged grains into my mash tun and stir it around every 15 minutes or so.

Up until a few months ago, I was having no issue with my efficiency. I was consistently hitting 75 percent and I was happy about that. That was until I started getting the itch to brew bigger beers. The efficiency went from 75 percent to about 55 as soon as I started shooting for anything over 60 gravity points. Although I realize that bigger beers can run into efficiency issues, I knew the culprit was my method of BIAB'ing.

So, fast forward to yesterday when I implemented my new biab method. For any LoDo people reading this get ready to cringe. I added the grain to the mash tun with the water but without the bags. I essentially was mashing in a traditional sense. However I was not using a false bottom nor was I planning on lautering the beer. After the hour of my mash pasted I went ahead and put my paint strainer bag onto my boil kettle and started scooping in my mash into the kettle with a pot. In the end all of my mash water was successfully separated from the grain and more importantly I hit about 70 percent or so on a huge beer. As I listed in this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...directly-from-westbrook-brewery.556380/page-4

I am sure people have done this and are doing this but I just wanted to give a nod to this altered BIAB method for those who may also experience similar woes with rectangular coolers.


CHEERS!

 

[IslandLizard]

BIAB can never be LoDO, but if you don't splash when scooping the mash into the kettle with the bag, the results should not be much different than doing a conventional mash or BIAB mash.

I sometimes step mash in the kettle, then use my cooler mash tun for lautering and sparging. I do the same thing as you did, except going in the other direction, transfer the mash with a long handled gallon pot. Beers turn out A-OK.

 

[IslandLizard]

Let me add...

Proper sparging is critical to good efficiency, especially at higher gravities. Pour overs are rarely efficient, a dunk sparge, blooming the grist, has a much better promise.

When mashing high gravity beers, doing a partigyle is probably the most efficient. One strong beer and one session beer.
I always use a schedule where part of the 1st runnings are also used in the smaller 2nd beer. I think it gives that 2nd beer better flavor and body than when using 2nd and 3rd runnings only.

At times I may do a 2nd separate mash or steep extra grains for the 2nd smaller beer, using the partigyle wort, so technically that 2nd beer is multigyled.