#2
There seems to be an on-going debate over this BIAB thing.
Question:
For the BIABERS only
Do you BIAB to make better beer, and does BIAB do so ?
Do you BIAB to reduce the number of processes in brewing and does BIAB do so?
And if it does reduce the processes what are they and do you also save time?
As I understand it (and I may be wrong, perhaps my data is out of date) the BIABER has the following procedure.
The BIABER (or Full Volumer) uses a large and very strong voile or such grain bag into which the entire grist is poured.
This is suspended in a large vessel that will later be the boiler with a quantity of mash temp water (say 70 strike) that equals the total amount used by an old fashioned masher for both the mash and the sparge, allowing for losses from either method.
After 60 minutes (or Lateline in my case) the bag is hoisted up and allowed to drain (I will not mention squeezing or other possible tannin extraction routes), just drain.
Everything form here on in proceeds as a normal mash brew, boiling, hopping, cooling and such.
I pointed out, in some long and perhaps rambling, perhaps technical posts many months ago that very high liquor to grist ratio will result in a far more dextrinous wort than a standard mash (read them). NOW..if I were wanting to make a Lambic I would do all I could to produce a dextrinous mash but were I to make a kolsch then I would want quite the opposite !
I also pointed out in about my last post on the subject that you were perhaps almost there.
Forgetting efficiency (even 10% here or there makes little difference, you can concentrate or dilute if you want) there are very few reasons, so few that none come to mind, why if I were to suspend a voile sack of grain in my boiler, probably sitting on the bottom for a flatter profile so its lowered rather than suspended, into say a 2.5 or 3:1 liquor (to grist) volume of water at strike temp, do the mash thing, I would then take off the sweet wort but thats just me, add the rest of the hot liquor in one go, let it sit awhile then lift and drain the bag and possibly add the sweet wort first runnings back that I would have markedly different wort from that I may have produced from standard mashing.
Would I do it ..no, I love sparging, I love that gentle flow of wort.
Would I encourage other brewers to do it ..no..but that is for reasons rather than will it will probably work.
K
