Why move from BIAB to 3-vessel?

[bondra76]

I meant to write something earlier but didn't have a chance.

Regarding the poster above about people defending their processes to death, I totally agree. I think it's imperative that there isn't a "right or wrong" way to brew beer, and there shouldn't be. We all boast this hobby as "craft" or "home-brewed" beer but the industry tries to take it to a science shoving more creations and inventions down your throat every day to capitalize on the hobby's interest.

What's lost in all that is this is a hobby, and the "craft" of brewing came from people making beer on farms, in monasteries, and just about everywhere else where science was not involved. Let's not turn this "craft" into Monsanto. Sure there's a bunch of us science geeks out there that love electric & that love building the unthinkable. But I would say great beer can be made in a multitude of ways and definitely not always with the latest and greatest technology. I want to move to a 3 vessel myself, but I certainly don't scoff at my many BIAB batches that I am making right now and sucking down with my friends/family.

 

[rossi46]

Well said bondra76, I agree with you. I've done 3v for the last 4 years and right now I am drinking my 2nd biab batch. There is no absolute when it comes to systems, brew the way you want. As of now, I do both.

 

[kh54s10]

I could not vote... Other... I have done and will probably do some more BIAB. But I really don't like messing with the heavy, hot, wet, sticky bag of grain. For me 3 vessel is more fun and easier.

If I worked on a BIAB setup I could probably make it easy, but, for me, I don't see any advantage.

 

[stevedasleeve]

I'm not 3 vessel, I'm 2 since I batch sparge. I did BIAB a few times for small batches. It worked but like others I found it messy and sticky and hated cleaning the bag afterwards. I much prefer my cooler + boil kettle because it was:

cleaner - less spilled wort

Faster clean up for me - I clean as I go, so while the wort it boiling my mash tun gets cleaned and put away usually before the first hop addition.

I can do higher gravity beers much easier.

I'm never concerned about burning the bag with direct contact to the bottom of the kettle.

I realize there are solutions to the issues, like building a pully etc. but frankly why on earth would I go to that bother over my simple efficient igloo cooler and separate 10 gallon kettle?

My €0.002

 

[ong]

Weird, I don't really get all the animus towards cleaning the bag. It takes about 30 seconds. Same with lifting the bag, etc.... Of all the things I find annoying about my brew day, it's stuff like feeding 11 lbs. of grain one at a time through my crappy mill, lugging a pot with 9 gallons of water down a flight of stairs, waiting for-freaking-ever for my wimpy immersion chiller to get the job done. Lifting, cleaning, draining the bag all seem like trivial things that each take some bare fraction of a minute. Each to their own, I guess.

 

[stevedasleeve]

No animus, I just f^cking hate doing it!

 

[Gavin C]

No animus, I just f^cking hate doing it!

I just put the bag in the washing machine with the rest of my laundry. Same with cheese cloth for making stock and paint strainer for my hop spider. I don't like washing either.

 

[Aerohead93]

At our Brew Shop my father and I started out brewing with a 3 vessel 10 gallon eHerms system. After a few stuck mashes I employed a large BIAB bag to the MLT so that I could eliminate that. So far this has worked very well. Meanwhile at home I started brewing using standard 5 gallon BIAB. After a while I started gravitating back towards 3 vessel electric (no HERMS) and I mash in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler which I added another couple layers of open cell insulation to. I still use a bag in the cooler for mashing. I use my old Northern Brewer BIAB kettle (7.5 gallons) as my HLT to which I have a PID controlling. And for the BK I use a 15 gallon Bijou Classic controlled by the same PID (just switch probes). The beauty part about my setup at home is that I could do either BIAB or 3V very easily depending on the situation.

Hopefully that gives you a little different angle.
CHEERS!

 

[Lost_Arkitekt]

I started extract. Then, I moved to the Charlie Papazian's igloo cooler and two bucket lauter tun. Then, I made a manifold and just used the cooler as mash/lauter tun. Next, I moved up to a 3 vessel, gravity fed system with two massive burners and a chugger pump (with self designed and welded brew tree).

Then, at NHC last year, I went to Rex Slagel's BIAB seminar. I'm now a full-on BIAB brewer. I've done double decoction, multiple infusions, a steinbier, etc. I guess you could do party-gyle by filling up 2/3 of the brew pot volume draining it into a different brew kettle, and then filling that up with the left-over 1/3 volume.

Right now, I am using a keggle and do 10.5 gallon batches (10 gallon into kegs). I am selling my keggles and mash/lauter tun because I want to upgrade to a larger kettle (20 gal).

I have barbecue gloves (insulated pvc gloves...just shorter than brewery gloves), and I find the only thing that is messy about BIAB vs. 3V is the fact that the rim on my keggle squeezes about 1/4 cup (max) of wort out of the bag as I'm raising it. I'll take walking to a trash can/composter with a bag of spent grain, dumping it and rinsing the bag out over taking a mash/lauter tun (heavier) to the same spot and trying to get all the crap out of it. THEN, you have to clean out the mash tun. Forget it.

I've found that I can make a single tier sculpture (like a 3V system) and do two batches within an hour of each other (gives me time to transfer to fermenter on the first one).

If you have a 3V system and don't want to get rid of it because of all the money and love of gadgetry, just modify your sculpture and make two/three batches at a time with a BIAB method.

I'm not going back to 3V. I might modify my BIAB with a RIMS tube to do step mashes, but that's it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Right now, I am using a keggle and do 10.5 gallon batches (10 gallon into kegs). I am selling my keggles and mash/lauter tun because I want to upgrade to a larger kettle (20 gal).

is the fact that the rim on my keggle squeezes about 1/4 cup (max) of wort out of the bag as I'm raising it.

Well put LA, I agree. This is not the first time I have heard of people starting BIAB w/ a keggle, only to move on to a kettle later on.

I feel it noteworthy that if one is dead set on a keggle, best to remove the entire top eliminating the rim for ease of bag removal. I guess I just feel a keggle is not the best choice overall, for an additional 50-60 dollars one can get a new 15-20 gallon SS kettle and be much better served for the little additional money spent.