I always read all threads with a grain of salt. When I was a wee lad, I had a conversation with the father of a friend of mine. We were discussing motor oil and he professed that motor oil XXX was the best stuff made since pharoah. I knew he happened to be the regional salesman for motor oil XXX, and I figured I would get a little lesson on motor oil chemistry, so I asked "why is it better?". He looked at me, stunned. Then he shrugged his shoulders and said " I don't know, it just is". Needless to say, I never took automotive advice from that particular man again. The point is that if someone chooses to post information here, I listen critically and look for the answer to the question "why?" If someone is willing to engage in an intellectual conversation, I will listen. If not, i usually remove myself from the thread and move on my way. I started with extract and steeping grains, and made very good beers for quite a while. This past summer I switched to AG BIAB for many of the reasons listed above. There are drawbacks, which anyone that has done a 10 gallon BIAB batch already understands. Personally, if I choose to add a mash tun to my equipment list, I will most likely line it with a bag, not a manifold. That's my choice. Since I haven't done it yet, I do not choose to offer that as a viable alternative. Once I have facts on the method, I may elect to share them here, if i believe it will be helpful to others. To those "traditional" 3 vessel brewers; I have read and learned a great deal from your AG threads about protein rests, to mash out or not, etc., I have yet to find experiences in 3 vessel AG that did not directly translate to BIAB. To me BIAB is "real AG brewing", its just a different way of separating the grains from the wort. I am a bit weary of the discussion of "real AG" vs "BIAB AG" To me we're all brewers, whether we use extracts, bags or 3 vessels. We all have much to learn from each other's successes and mistakes. That's what this forum is for, and quite frankly, threads like this is one of the reasons I will most likely never join a local brew club.