A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[Hashie]

Congrats on your first AG Soz, I'm sure you'll have most of the little stuff sorted in no time.

As for your question on finings, I use Irish moss at the rate of 1/2 teaspoon for the last 10 minutes of the boil. I generally get 21 litres of wort from 33 starting litres and lose ~3 litres to break in the kettle. And hop socks are great.

 

[ikern]

Thanks for the advice Hashie. I've got the schwartzbier planned for this weekend so I'll pick up some Irish Moss when I pick up the grain.

Cheers,

Soz

 

[Sammus]

Hi I was thinking of trying a BIAB system because I like making stuff and also for a small brewery (<10L batches). I was reading over the intro notes in the first post about making the bag. What do people make th draw string out of? The guide says everything should be nylon, then recommends a polyester 'thread' for a drawstring - surely it has to be some kind of cord of piping or something? and nylon? can someone elaborate on this?

 

[braufrau]

PP ...when are you gonna write an article for BYO on BIAB?

 

[ikern]

Hi I was thinking of trying a BIAB system because I like making stuff and also for a small brewery (<10L batches). I was reading over the intro notes in the first post about making the bag. What do people make th draw string out of? The guide says everything should be nylon, then recommends a polyester 'thread' for a drawstring - surely it has to be some kind of cord of piping or something? and nylon? can someone elaborate on this?

I ended up using 6mm polyprop rope. Way overspec I know but I can't help it, I'm German.

Soz.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hi I was thinking of trying a BIAB system because I like making stuff and also for a small brewery (<10L batches). I was reading over the intro notes in the first post about making the bag. What do people make th draw string out of? The guide says everything should be nylon, then recommends a polyester 'thread' for a drawstring - surely it has to be some kind of cord of piping or something? and nylon? can someone elaborate on this?

Hey Sammus,

I dont think it really matters what you use, as long as you think its going ot be strong enough to take the weight; and the bags don't get all that very heavy if you use the Voile material (which is I believe 100% polyester rather than nylon)

The drawstring isn't particularly in contact with the wort and also probably doesn't get all that hot. So anything from fairly stout string to thin rope would do.

Spills is using some sort of poly string I think, not even as impressive looking as a shoelace, bt its strong enough for him to do a double batch.

Spills - what is it you are using??

Thirsty

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Spills - what is it you are using??

Polypropylene blind cord from Bunnings. I *think* it is 3mm, but you can get a size either side of that, from memory. It's dirt cheap. It's not going to survive a factor one fall, but I reckon you could hang from it, so a bag of wet grain is nothing.

In other news, during the course of my latest batch I did a couple of different things that could be interesting from a procedural point of view.

I turned off one of my two elements immediately after my first flavour hop addition. I'm wondering if a stupidly vigorous boil might evaporate (or otherwise disintegrate) the hop flavour and aroma goodness.

I put a normal fermenter tap in my NoChillCube and drained the kettle tap to tap. To watch, it was just like standing in the Mountain Goat Brewery.

I used a hop sock available from the left-most advertiser on this site. This appeared to have not much effect on the total amount of break material in the bottom of my cube at the end, although it must have (or I precipitated a lot more cold break than usual).

I tapped out of the cube into the fermenter, but *not* through the fermenter tap. Shows promise, but I made a bit of a mess doing it and ended up with a bit less in the fermenter.

 

[wambesi]

Right place, right time...
Asking about pots today planning to go BIAB I just happened to be in the right place to be offered a 50L pot not to mention some other little pieces of kit and burners etc at almost half the cost of what I was going to pay for a new stainless steel pot!

Needless to say BIAB is now within sight. The other half is a textiles minor with her studies so almost all bases are covered.
Reading through the guide again it is mentioned you can get away with a 40L pot, looks like mine will boil 40L or so pretty comfortably, so before I say the big yes wondering if people can give me their advice, is this adequate for a BIAB brew?

Cheers

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Wambesi,

A 50L pot will be absolutely fine for a normal sized batch. Plenty of room to spare.

For a batch big enough to fill two Cornies... you would maybe just make it, but your pot would be filled right to the brim during the mash and you'd have to be pretty careful during the boil.. but do-able certainly.

Dont sweat it, there are a couple of shifty ways around the problem if/when you want to brew double batches.

For batches up to about 30litres... you are sweet and easy with a 50L pot.

Go for it

Thirsty

 

[PistolPatch]

Just popped in to update the Brewer register but while I'm here, here's a post I knocked up the other day that has a few pics for you....

My New Bag

Brewed two double-batches with a new bag last Sunday and it worked a treat.

My kettle is 45cm in diameter and 45cm high so I made the bag with a 35cm diameter bottom, a 55cm diameter top and 55cm high.

Instead of a draw-string, I used elastic and this works very well to hold the bag around the kettle lip. For lifting I had 6 tabs sewn in. I had the drycleaners sew it all up and they did a superb job for about $25. The bag also took less than a minute to clean. Cool!

Here's a pic showing elastic and tabs...

Here's one showing a crazy lifting set-up using some clever devices I bought years ago. Ended up with a much simpler idea in the end (see below).

Another use for your skyhook is to suspend a hopsock as per the pic below.

Lifting Ideas

The end result of my lifting experiments (no pics sorry) was just to use two cheap SS carabenas (smaller than the one you can see in the hopsock shot above) in the manner that the diagram shows below.

Next brew, Im going to add another skyhook and carabena so as I can not only lift the bag vertically but horizontally as well. Hopefully this next diagram shows what I mean.

Back to more hibernating now and to working on a new brewing contraption.

All the best,
Pat

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hiya Pat,

nice to see you pop back in.

Spills and I did a brew the other week and we used a stand for our kettle that had castors... allowed us to just slide the kettle out from under the bag. If you have the room to do it, it would save all the palaver of trying to get your bag to "lift" horizontally as well as vertically.

Either that, or a couple of bits scavenged from a sliding door assembly would give you a jerry rigged rail hoist.

TB

 

[big d]

I don't think anyone has owned up to winning anything with a BIAB batch.. they might have, but I haven't noticed anyone saying so.

I think a few BIABers might be entering some comps this comp season.. If all goes to plan I will be entering a few beers in different comps this year. Both BIAB and not...

If I win anything whatsoever for beers made with either method, I will probably fall off my chair.

Fingers crossed

If from what i hear is true i hope you didnt hurt yourself when you fell off your chair ThirstyBoy.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I was standing at the time... and I did have to sit down rather promptly or there might have been a fall. :lol:

 

[Steve]

I was standing at the time... and I did have to sit down rather promptly or there might have been a fall. :lol:

c'mon fess up.....wadda ya win???

 

[Adamt]

He won the mash paddle koelsch! (Apparently)

A delightfully delicate beer it was too. Bewdiful.

 

[Steve]

He won the mash paddle koelsch! (Apparently)

A delightfully delicate beer it was too. Bewdiful.

CONGRATULATIONS Thirsty :beer:
Steve

 

[mikelinz]

Missed the G&G BIAB Brew day. Anyone else holding one or willing to open their brew day/brewery for us visual learners.

rgds mike

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Missed the G&G BIAB Brew day. Anyone else holding one or willing to open their brew day/brewery for us visual learners.

rgds mike

There's a fairly good chance that Spills and I will be doing another demo next year sometime. Not sure when, but we have been invited back.

Thirsty

 

[wambesi]

Make it before May, moving interstate then! :excl:

But I'll be well and truly into my own BAIBing by then, finally picked up the pot and slowly getting other little bits n pieces to help along the way and trying to get rid of my kits still in the cupboard. Still be good to turn up and see others doing it as well as meet alot of you.

 

[Maxt]

As many club/state competitions have finished and the nationals are coming up, I wonder if any BIAB have medalled?

Flame warning::::: This is a genuine enquiry, not an attempt to build up or knock down BIAB::::

So BIAB users, have you entered, and what's the judged verdict? Any comments that would support or disprove the claims about BIAB's limitations?