My understanding of BIAB is it was designed as a good method for new brewers to make an all-grain beer with a minimum of headache over equipment and technique, both big hurdles for anyone who is new to the game.
My first point, good methods for beginners:
My first grain brew was a partial mash in the kitchen; 2.5kg of ale malt, some Perle and a Grumpy's XXXX masterbrew. Mashed in a 6-pack esky, first runnings collected with a jug & sieve and the same again for the sparge. Boiled on the kitchen stove in a twenty dollar pot from whatever cheap shop was local at the time. It had all the limitations of a partial mash brew but was a solid introduction to brewing with grain at the same time. The only thing I actually bought for this exercise was the cheapo 17L pot, everything else was in my kitchen already (including a 9L pot for heating hot liquor, even that's not too far out of the norm). As far as cheap, simple and easy goes, I think there are methods that are at least the equal of BIAB.
My second point, better methods for experienced brewers:
There are a lot of points here, that cover different categories. I guess it's easiest do differentiate them as what's good for the brewer and what's good for the beer. Some or all of these points have been raised already, no doubt.
Liquor:Grist ratio. Sure, it'll work ok with a "full volume" mash (ie you'll get conversion), but is it going to work ok for every brew? What if i you use a high proportion of adjunct? What if your malt is old and slack? What if you're after that extra level of fermentability? Are your enzymes going to cope? Note, this is assuming that brewers in a bag are mashing with their full liquor volume, my understanding of the process is this is how it's being done. Merely using a bag to mash/lauter is a different kettle of fish.
If the bag doesn't prevent particulate matter being removed as it would in an ordinary vorlauf, then I'd see that as an issue. I guess that would depend on your bag though?
Flexibiity. High gravity, low gravity, thin mash, thick mash. Decoction. Partigyle. Cold steeping. Double brew day. Triple brew day. All strange words that scare new brewers.
When it comes down to it, flexibility is the one that concerns me the most. I'm not brewing at home solely to make beer. I'm brewing for the sake of it, and you can't tell me that brewing with me grain in a bag will afford me the same level of flexibilty as the method of my choice will.
When it comes down to it though, it's all about the beer. I'm putting down my first and only BIAB this weekend and I'm looking forward to every minute of it
But see you illustrate my point.. only a few pages in the thread back, most of your points were addressed.
oh and BTW, I did my first BIAB (not partial mash, AG) in the kitchen for a total cost of $3.50 for the 1meter of voil... which one of us wins?. who cares really. Besides, remember, there was no argument about there being several different and good ways for a new AG brewer to go. I tried several of them out and I think BIAB is the easiest. But that doesn't make any of the others hard.
L:G ratio has been done to death I'm afraid... unfortunately the people who use it as an argument against BIAB cant decide whether the beers wont convert properly (they do) whether they will be overly dextrinous (they aren't) or whether they will be too thin and overly fermentable (again, they aren't) The overriding result of the actual beers produced.. is that the main influencing factor is, as it is in other forms of brewing, temperature. I mash at 1C lower when I BIAB to compensate.. and that allows me as much control over wort fermentability when I BIAB as I get when I use my HERMS.
You are right about it perhaps not being right for "every" brew, and its a point that has been made by several of the more verbose BIAB proponents, that brews at the "extremes" will be playing to the potential weaknesses of the method.
-
Very high levels of Adjunct that require conversion
might be an issue (up to 25% is OK, I've tried it, but haven't gone further)
- Slack grain... c'mon, no matter what system you have, you wont produce your best beer with bad grain. Would you really advise someone to change brewing systems to cope with slack grain? or would you tell them to brew a beer with it (maybe mash a little longer) take what they get, and try to turn their grain over a little more regularly?
- The one you missed that might also be an issue, is trying to do a single infusion at temperature extremes... right at the limits of Amalayse activity.. and you might bump into the "line" a bit earlier with BIAB than with another method. Dont really know if anyone has tried it out in a decently constructed side by side.
Particulate matter in the boil.. yep. There is more in BIAB. But then again, there is more in the boil of someone who simply vorlaufs a few litres and drains, than there is in the wort of someone who recirculates their wort for the entire mash.. I have yet to hear a convincing and unchallenged argument that says that clear wort is actually a precursor to better beer.. even the professional texts don't uniformly agree. It seems to be mainly that brewers "prefer" a clear wort.
It
could lead to long term stability issues.. but I think that its been made clear that we know that. We are waiting till there is a bit of a body of actual evidence built up in some aged beers.. if its an issue, then we need to start flagging it as a limitation in the method. At 6 months.. we know we are OK... longer term, we are waiting to see.
- "Flexibiity. High gravity, low gravity, thin mash, thick mash. Decoction. Partigyle. Cold steeping. Double brew day. Triple brew day."
Well thick mash/ thin mash would obviously take some significant juggling of the original method, possible once you have been playing with it for a while, but lets just say that thats out. Fair enough.
Partigyle, not necessarily out (been giving this some thought) it could be done and would actually result in you brewing with a far more traditional L:G ratio.. use your imagination.
High/Low grav. Well I've brewed a Barley wine and a Scottish 60. Decoction, done it, easier than from my mash tun, you just pull up the bag a little to access the thick portion of the grain. Cold steeping, of course you could, double, triple brew days, of course you could. I've also done a cereal mash and a sour mash. I step mash every BIAB brew I do and have done a comprehensive right through. Dough-in, acid, Beta Glucan, low protien, high protien, Beta, Alpha and mashout... its a PITA, but it is on my normal AG system too.. I actually hit rest temps a little more accurately with the BIAB, but thats probably because I do smaller batches.
So the flexibility is there..
Its all about little differences, some methods are better for some things, some are better for others. Thats all I am trying to get across... BIAB isn't a better, nor is it a worse way of making beer. Its just
another way of making beer. I think its a particularly attractive one for new AG brewers, but I also think its a perfectly valid brewing technique in its own right.
I'm glad you are actually going to try doing a brew.. but I really hope you give it more of a chance than 'one and only'. It might not turn out so great, but if you completely changed methods to a non-biab technique, would that not also be possible then? Like all the other methods, it takes a couple of goes to finese.
If your just trying it for a lark, fair enough and good on you too, don't bother with more than one; But if you are seriously trying to evaluate it as a method.. give it a bit more of a run. Trust me, the beers will not turn out so badly that you will need to tip them or anything.
I appreciate the response you made to my last post.. if all the posts were like yours.. then things would have been much more civilised around here lately.
Cheers and good luck with the brew
Thirsty
