A Decent BIAB Bag

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Rowy

Drinker of Kegs, Slayer of Fish & Ruiner of Good F
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Just had a crap brew day! My bag my missus made dies last week so I used my old CB one. Like most of the CB bags it wouldn't drain properly (Sorry Ross but its a fact) so in hoisting it to get it to drain it busted. Hot wort and grain every f&%king where. I have been holding off to get one of the ones off the Irishman but he's not back on board so now I don't know where to go. I have a 70 litre pot and do double batches (6 to 7kg of grain plus water) so they need to be strong but need to drain properly. I've tried everything to get the CB ones to stay draining including PBC but they still clog all the time. Any suggestions as to where to source something decent. I am friggin jacked right off at the moment :angry:
 
Rowy said:
Just had a crap brew day! My bag my missus made dies last week so I used my old CB one. Like most of the CB bags it wouldn't drain properly (Sorry Ross but its a fact) so in hoisting it to get it to drain it busted. Hot wort and grain every f&%king where. I have been holding off to get one of the ones off the Irishman but he's not back on board so now I don't know where to go. I have a 70 litre pot and do double batches (6 to 7kg of grain plus water) so they need to be strong but need to drain properly. I've tried everything to get the CB ones to stay draining including PBC but they still clog all the time. Any suggestions as to where to source something decent. I am friggin jacked right off at the moment :angry:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/71310-swiss-voile-brew-bags-anywhere-you-can-buy-them/?hl=%2Bbiab+%2Bbags#entry1013188
 
Sorry to hear about your shitty day mate. Let me know what you end up doing. I use a CB bag and find it needs way too much squeezing for my liking. Was looking at the bags from http://www.biab-brewing.com but will see what happens. At the moment it's working but a PITA.
 
Missus just said she has some swiss voile left over from the last one so I'll give that ago again. Last one got the edge burnt due to flame and heat coming up the side of my pot. We'll make it a bit smaller I suppose and see how it goes.
 
Get a length of swiss voile and cut the largest circle from it you can. Get a hem sewn in around the circle and thread some elastic into it. I've had mine since 2008/2009 and still going strong. Not that it gets used often since I built my 3V, but it would have easily done over 100 brews with up to 10kg grain.
 
No one can sow in this house, when I biabed had a cb one but prob's with draining so just cut a big disk out of swiss voile, singed the edge and pegged to the side of the urn. Tie up like a swag and pull it out. Ended up using the the sw to filter some hi-build epoxy base that the dried lumps on the side of the tin fall in , handy stuff.
 
QldKev said:
Get a length of swiss voile and cut the largest circle from it you can. Get a hem sewn in around the circle and thread some elastic into it. I've had mine since 2008/2009 and still going strong. Not that it gets used often since I built my 3V, but it would have easily done over 100 brews with up to 10kg grain.
I do this now too after I burned an element shaped hole through my CB bag (thought I turned element off, actually turned it all the way on), I was secretly waiting for it to fail anyway re draining issues. I don't use a circle though, I use a roughly cut un-hemmed square with lose threads flying around everywhere. Rough as guts, but works a treat and much easier to clean :)
 
I mentioned him in the other thread, this guys in the US of A but it is well worth it, quality is outstanding. I think he even put a video up strength testing them with 30kg in it or something :blink:
http://www.bagbrewer.com/index.html
 
Gents I've calmed down a bit now and re read last nights thread. It was poor of me to criticise Ross' product on line without speaking to him first. No excuses shouldn't have happenned. I am a constant customer and have enjoyed numerous beers with him and can vouch for service and quality of the gear he stocks, maybe just not my BIAB bag.
 
You don't have to apologise for criticising a product with design flaws. Clearly many people in this thread have the same problem. I'm sure Ross & Co can handle a little criticism, maybe change the sorts of bags they sell. Seems like it would be in Ross' best interest to hear criticism rather than apologies, since this is not the first thread I've seen of people needing new, non-CB bags.

I buy most of my brewing supplies from Craftbrewer and appreciate that they sponsor AHB. Doesn't mean we need to censor honest concerns.
 
sadly the MM bag I got did not fair well either, though I have moved on to 2v/3v since my last biab. :wacko:
 
Guys, it is not OUR bag, it's just a model we sell. Was not designed or made by us.
We have sold literally thousands of them with very few complaints, but I will be talking to the supplier to see if we can maybe look at a slightly coarser weave.

Cheers Ross
 
I use CB bag and yes takes a bit to drain. (i leave it hanging over the pot for 20min or so) but it keeps the element cleaner and stops a hot spot.

Cheers.
 
It still surprises me that nobody here has ever put there hand up to custom build mesh baskets. I remember Punkin looked at it once, maybe it proved too expensive? If someone could weld and isn't working or has spare time there would be a few bux in it at least temporarily. I know I'd use one in my Rubbermaid cooler, would be awesome to be able to dump the grain etc.

:icon_cheers:

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I'd use one for sure!
 
I found the CB bags to be less free draining than voile but I understand that originally when the bag makers designed the product they were unable to use voile for some food certification reason, and had to use nylon.
The first few brews were good, but then two things happened: firstly the bag developed a "memory" and had ridges and flutes down the sides, then it became less free draining - almost as if the mesh had shrunk. So I'd guess that the heat, especially mash out temperatures, was affecting the materials. Nothing that Ross had any control over.

If you check out the old beer system wars YouTubes you'll see a Ross bag in action, no problems there as it was a brand new one.

Personally I use a circle of voile, I have two of them.

I'm a squeezer. However the bucket o mesh would have interesting sparging possibilities.
 

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