Here's a substantial post to try and cover some of the questions on equipment etc.
Firstly, Mr Bonj! How goes it mate? Hope you haven't got scared of the BIAB thread! The guys here are actually very open-minded but as we only rely on one thread, it is very hard for guys like yourself to be able to get a thorough overview of the discussions and debates previosuly held here. This means that to date, many of the same questions have been answered multiple times which gets a bit frustrating. BTW, 5kg of malt with BIAB weighs only around 6kgs. So, it is not as heavy as anyone reckons. (I know you will have questions on 1kg of grain absorbing 1 lt of water but I won't go there now.)
The other hard thing about BIAB is that only a few traditional brewers have ever tried BIAB. The most obviously active ones being myself, ThirstyBoy and Goober in the US. I have never entered a comp but Thirsty is an accomplished competition goer (gettin last year's mash paddle with one of his traditional brews) and Goober acheived 47/50 in the US for one of his BIAB brews. There is another multi-medal winner over here that brews BIAB as well as traditional but he is maintaing a quiet front until he has had a chance to enter some BIABs in some comps. (I have tasted his BIAB beer and I think he has no worries!)
We also have Nev from Gryphon Brewing who is the highest formally educated and experienced brewer I know. He has multiple golds and awards in the lager and pilsner sections (plus many other sections) of God know how many comps. He and I are going to brew one of his gold medal recipes side by side next weekend and throw them in a comp next year to see how they fare. He has tasted many of my beers and he can't see any problems with this idea so this is a good sign for me! Because of this and and many other reasons, I no longer even question BIAB. All I focus on now is recipes.
So old mate, these are the reasons why the some of the best and most essential contributors to this thread quickly try and dampen down old discussions and already resolved debates. These guys spend hours contributing here and experimenting with beers (Spills has brewed more styles than in BJCP I think!) and their communication skills or willingness to pass on their experience are amongst the best I have seen on any forum. I'm struggling to think of any better to tell you the truth. Unlike PistolPatch, they rarely slip up in their communications. Thirsty may have slipped up a tad when he wrote, "How many times do I have to say..." but he only writes like that when he wishes to emphasise a point. I know exactly where he is coming from...
Before Thirsty thankfully turned up here, I used to be the main, "answerer," and it does take countless hours. I laugh on the rare occassion I can see Thirsty get a bit frustrated and actually send him an email taking the piss. At the moment for example, he is formulating a really interesting experiment that relates to BIAB versus traditional brewing and this takes up yet more of his time. So, his mind is looking at more advanced stuff whilst still, like some others, he is diligently trying to make sure this thread stays as accurate as possible.
Hopefully me writing this will help you understand the graceful and most helpful place he and others are coming from. He and others write extrememley well and certainly their intention is just to be of benefit to other brewers. Unfortunateley in life, this is a concept that some people, thankfully not too many, just cannot understand.
A real passion about something can be either a very dangerous or very helpful thing. I think brewing is a pretty harmless thing to be passionate about and I think being passionate and very informative about a system of brewing that really has no downsides that can be identified in over two years is a very good thing. In my books, a productive idea is one that helps people to expand their thinking. BIAB is a great area for all brewers from those with little experience to great experience.
The best thing though that I have seen re BIAB of late is some newer BIABers starting to answer questions. Man! Have we been waiting for you! I haven't sent an email to ThirstyBoy yet but I reckon he will have been as pleased as I am to see you guys pop up. Wambesi and you others, please keep up your top work. Answer everything you can and, as you have been doing, keep an eye out for any random BIAB threads. These get missed way too much.
If you see a question that you reckon is out of your depth, then PM it to me and I will answer it or if it is too technical and hard I will handball it to Thirsty
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As for mash tuns Bonj, old son - LOL! I actually had a vigorous debate on this subject about a year ago in this thread. I won't go there again but mash tuns are way more complicated and messy, in so many ways than BIAB, that I don't know where to start. The only messy bit of BIAB is dumping the bag (which can be 20 second process) and then cleaning the bag. Compare that to emptying a mash tun of grain along with possible stuck sparges. Agh!
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Whoops! I have written way more than I thought but Bonj is a good old QLD brewer (where I started to do real brewing) and he runs the Brewerhood emailing list of which I am an honorary out-of-state member so I thought he deserved a bit of an explanation of this thread as we all know that it has become too large.
I was going to write about Equipment in this post but the above is enough for now. Tomorrow I'll write what I meant to say in this post!
Suffice to say that I'm re-writing the BIAB Guide in a wholly new format which I am, at last, happy with. One of the first sections is on Equipment (including thermometers!) so hopefully tomorrow I can give an indication to brewers like Damien44 who are starting out as to what equipment they should initially aim for and be confident with. Finding the right stuff has not been an easy task. It sounds easy but has taken well over a year (probably more like two) of discussions with everyone from inexperienced to highly experienced brewers as well as retailers ranging from subtley intimidating to totally supportive and enthusiastic.
Anyway, I am finally really happy with the list of equipment. Very pleased in fact.
So Bonj, we are making progress. I reckon that in about two to three months, we will have things laid out really nicely so that others like your good self will be able to quickly see if we already have an answer to your question or whether your question is a new one which we can all discuss and explore in the same manner as has been done in almost the totality of this thread, that manner being, humourous, openly explorative, friendly and always totally aimed at helping other brewers out. Any exceptions to this are usually attributed to me and on a few occassions this has been accurate - lol.
I think PP has had one too many BIAB Pales. I better go!
Spot ya,
Pat
