A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[PistolPatch]

Jimmysuperlative has just done his first AG and his first BIAB. You might have missed his thread on it (very-well written.) You can find it here

Superb post Jimmy!

Pat, I didn't leave the bag in for the boil.

Maxt: Thank God for that! You had me worried there!

I wouldn't worry about a too vigorous boil. From what I have read, you should maintain a vigorous boil. I've never seen anything written that discourages this. Makes sense to me.

I'm not too educated on no-chill. I just get snippetts here and there. Some people will pitch the next day and others weeks later. I think your bathtub idea was great though. You didn't have a chiller and didn't waste any water while still cooling things down ASAP. As I said, use this to your advantage.

Are you kegging Max? i.e. Can we expect a taste test soon? Let me know so I can add your beer to the BIAB list.

Cheers
Pat

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Guys,

As I mentioned (at least I think I did), couldn't use the hydrometer, as I've lost my sample tube (old decorative olive oil jar or some crap).

I fear my efficiency may have been down again this time, even though I had a loose enough mash, kept within temps and agitated often

I guess it must be just over 24 hours since pitching the US-56 and I'm seeing pretty much what I saw last time with the "horrible efficiency" first attempt...plenty of bubbles rising from the yeast cake, but only scum and a few bubbles on top...no foamy krausen <_<

Should I just tip it out now?

PZ.

*edit* - I even did a small sparge this time...a real one with around 4-5L of 75deg water :angry:

 

[PistolPatch]

Should I just tip it out now?

No way! From what I can tell you've done everything correctly so don't worry about it.

Not sure if I have an answer for you here though. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe it's just the recipe? I wonder if a search here on krausen would give you some answers? Or, maybe the krausen has even been and gone already. Any marks on the fermenter?

Sometimes beer behaves badly for no good reason - just like an old girlfriend of mine.

If it doesn't taste any good, I'd try a different recipe on the next run.

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Yeah, I had a look just before bed last night and there seems to be an indication (gunk up the sides) that maybe it has come and gone...but I never saw it :blink:

PZ.

 

[hughman666]

Did my first BIAB on Saturday. This was the recipe:

Pale Ale

5kg Pale Malt (Weyermann)
600g Caramunich II (Weyermann)
250g Carawheat (Weyermann)
25g Chinook [13.00%] (60 min)
25g Cascade [5.50%] (15 min)
25g Cascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop 24 hrs)
25g Chinook [13.00%] (Dry Hop 24 hrs)
1 Pkgs US56 Yeast-Ale

The dry hoppings were added after transferring to a cube for the no-chiller method overnight.

The mash temps were a bit all over the place initially but settled out at 67-68c.

Bubbling away right now and smells great. Will report back upon tasting! :chug:

 

[PistolPatch]

Good on you HMan and congratulations on being the first WA BIAB Brewer!

With your keg set-up you should be hooking into that in a few weeks. Perfect.

With the wandering temperature you mentioned in another thread...

1. Heat your strike water to 1 degree above the mash temp you're aiming at and make sure you've given the strike water a good stir before taking the temperature reading.

2. After flame off and adding the grain, stir for a few minutes as the thick bottomed pots retain a fair bit of heat. If you do further heat applications during the mash, stir during the application and a little while after for the same reason. Also give a good stir before taking temp readings of the mash.

Doing the above will keep your temps pretty much on track.

I'm really looking forward to tasting your produce when I get over.

:beer:
Pat

 

[Adamt]

Just cracked the first bottle of my highly botched, AG-cherry poppin BIAB!

As expected from the crappy mash, it has the aroma of rich caramel sauce and quite a bit of the caramel taste came through too! Does'nt have any of that classic homebrew tang and I'm loving the fact that I have real hop bitterness!!

Pity it's a midstrength, anyway, I wish the damned courier would hurry up with my supplies so I can do a big, meaty American IPA with a proper BIAB bag! (I finally lashed out and went to Spotlight Pat!)

I'm a happy chappy!

-Adam

 

[PistolPatch]

Donya Adam!

Glad to hear that came out OK and especially pleased to hear about the new bag - lol. The next one you do will be a breeze.

My apologies to you and Phrak as well for not doing the work I promised on the spreadsheet or booklet for that matter as yet. I really need at least a full day on it and who knows when that'll happen?

Hopefully if Max and Hughman are any indication, at least it's good enough to get people under way for the moment.

Be good to see an IPA on the list Adam. I must update the first threads here too with these new beers.

Well done mate,
Pat

 

[Phrak]

My apologies to you and Phrak as well for not doing the work I promised on the spreadsheet or booklet for that matter as yet. I really need at least a full day on it and who knows when that'll happen?

Nah mate, no worries. To be honest, I haven't had a chance to do any spreadsheet work (let alone brewing!) lately either, but hopefully that'll change in the next two weeks.

In fact, I KNOW it will change on Sunday 29th October (can you tell I'm counting down the days? :lol. The wife and daughter are being shipped off to my cousin's baby shower and I'll have the whole day to brew - And hopefully achieve a number of "firsts" along the way. :super:

I'm planning to brew a nice, safe Golden Ale style beer (with Amarillo and Simcoe yumm). Not only will it be my first AG and BIAB batch, but I'm going to have a crack at doing a DOUBLE-BATCH BIAB

Fingers crossed...
I'll be aiming for about 45L into the fermentor, enough for two 19L kegs after fermentor losses, etc.

Now for this brew, I have one major concern - That the amount of grain I'm going to use will be too heavy for the violle bag to support. I'm yet to get the material to build my bag, so I have no idea what the tensile strength would be. The grain bill works out at roughly 8.5kg of grain!

I have consididered a few options if the grain bag is too small/too weak -

• Make a Double-layer bag + use a nylon rope as the neck string.
• Doing a LARGE partial mash style boil i.e. cut-down the grain-bill and add Dried Malt Extract at the end to increase the grav to the right level (how I work the amount out, I have no idea!)
• Split the mash into two lots and mash the second lot in the "runnings" (for want of a better term) of the first lot. I'm less fond of the split-mash idea than the DME addition because it will effectively double my mash time.

So what's everyone reckon? Doable or dreamin'?

Regards,
Tim.

Edit: Stupid calendar got the month wrong

 

[James Squire]

In fact, I KNOW it will change on Sunday 29th September (can you tell I'm counting down the days? :lol.

Next year!?!?!?!?!?! :blink:

JS

 

[James Squire]

So what's everyone reckon? Doable or dreamin'?

Regards,
Tim.

How about.... Don't use a bag. Drill holes in the bottom of a 20L bucket instead. Tie the bucket to a rope and use a double pulley system to hoist the heavy bucket back out at the end of the mash. Easy! What do you think?

JS

 

[Phrak]

In fact, I KNOW it will change on Sunday 29th September (can you tell I'm counting down the days? :lol.

Next year!?!?!?!?!?! :blink:
JS

Doh - I meant 29th OCTOBER! Original post edited.

 

[Phrak]

How about.... Don't use a bag. Drill holes in the bottom of a 20L bucket instead. Tie the bucket to a rope and use a double pulley system to hoist the heavy bucket back out at the end of the mash. Easy! What do you think?

JS

Hmm, yeah potentially a go-er. I'll have to have a read up on how you bucket guys go with getting water to the whole grain bed. Got any tips or links to save me time researching?

 

[hughman666]

just took a hydro reading of BIAB Pale Ale from the weekend

OG 1047
currently sitting at 1028 and I pitched the yeast on Sunday morning.

I took the hydro reading out of curiosity as this is biggest ferment i have ever seen! after 3 days of bubbling away madly there is still a thick layer of foam (approx 2 inches) on top. it's been sitting at 20c throughout the ferment and i'll rack this on saturday as i need my fermenter for BIAB # 2 which will probably be either a pilsner or a golden ale - still deciding.

go BIAB!!! :super:

 

[James Squire]

How about.... Don't use a bag. Drill holes in the bottom of a 20L bucket instead. Tie the bucket to a rope and use a double pulley system to hoist the heavy bucket back out at the end of the mash. Easy! What do you think?

JS

Hmm, yeah potentially a go-er. I'll have to have a read up on how you bucket guys go with getting water to the whole grain bed. Got any tips or links to save me time researching?

Best I can do is tell you my own experience. I make 21L batches in my 40L urn with a 20L bucket as a submersible mash tun. Usually around 5Kg grain placed into bucket which is then submerged into around 33Litres of water in the urn. This is kind of a psuedo underletting method too so not a lot of stirring is required either. During the entire mash I recirculate the water from the bottom of the urn to the top of the grain bed (using a cheap pond pump) to give an even temp. After the mash I simply lift the bucket slowly to allow most of the the wort to drain from the grain (without splashing!).

There is a small amount of water that is trapped between the outer wall of the bucket and the inner wall of the urn however I don't find this to be a problem due to the high water:grain ratio. If anything it just helps to further insulate the mash temps from ambient... The temp will be higher in the mash than in that dead space area though so keep that in mind.

All my pics can be seen in the link below but I think for such a large quantity of grain like you are talking of I reckon you will need a 25L+ bucket rather than a 20L. Feel free to ask q's.

Here is the link

Good luck and cheers,

JS

 

[James Squire]

Oh yeah,

Well done hughman, sounds like your pale is definately on its way to greatness!

JS

 

[PistolPatch]

Hughman - Looks like things are going perfectly. I suppose whether you do a pils or an ale depends on your brewing schedule/equipment. The pils is going to steal your fermenter for two weeks so I reckon build your stocks up first - after all, I'm coming over soon Can you keep your fermenter at 9 degrees at your house?

Phrak - Good to hear from you. Interesting question which I was only thinking about last night funnily enough. I like the ideas you've come up with. Here's some thoughts...

1. Tensile strength of bag is no worries but lifting 10 wet kilos will require a pulley system I reckon. When I move to my next place I'm hoping I can install such a thing even for the single batches. If you suspend using the drawstring, which would be simplest, the weakest point of the bag would be your stitching so, if you go that way, stitch well.

2. The bucket - Good to hear from James as well. Cheers mate - good post too. I reckon you would have no problems with a bucket in the mash volume arena even without a pump if you used a masher like mine - the paint stirrer shaped like a potato masher. With a double-batch, I'd concentrate on agitating a fair bit for the first 20 minutes of the mash and then relax as most of the work has been done. To decrease the risk of an inefficient mash, as James said, I'd imagine the bigger the bucket the better.

3. With the bucket (or the bag), you can also pour the grain in after the bucket is submerged. I have never had any doughballs from this method.

I have some questions though which James and others should be able to answer or may already have...

Q1 What size holes should Phrak drill? Would he have to use mesh as well?

Personally, although the bag gives a very clear wort, I've learned that a cloudy wort can actually be beneficial so this is not a major point to worry about.

Q2 What method do you use to stop the bucket getting near the bottom and sides of the kettle.

I'm just thinking it might melt if it got too close! Probably a stupid question but it's something I'd be worried about.

Finally Phrak, do you have to start with a double-batch on your first AG? I'm just thinking that a single batch might be safer to start with. 70 or so litres is a lot to heat up and boil first off. How big's your kettle and how big's your burner baby

LOL
Pat

 

[James Squire]

Hey there Pat! Have to be quick mate but here goes....

I drilled sh1tloads of 2.5mm holes in the bottom of my bucket and then mesh on top of that. You could go one way or the other really, im just an extreme bucket masher! :beerbang: 1.5mm to 2.0mm holes will pretty much keep all the husks in the bucket so no need for mesh, or bigger holes with mesh as seen in the link below is fine also.

To best answer about the second question I'll just show you pics again of Wobbly's setup. I do the same but don't have photo's handy. The bucket is kept off the bottom using S/S bolts for standoffs.

Gotta fly now so hope this helps!

Cheers,

JS

 

[PistolPatch]

Donya James. Love your extreme bucket masher comment!

Funny how you forget stuff. The obvious answer on what size holes to drill without mesh is exactly the same size holes you would drill in a mash tun manifold that being 1/8" or a No 30 drill. Doh!

When we get a few more people doing full volume brewing, we'll have to start a fighting thread, "Bag or Bucket," or should I say, "Bucket or Bag!" LOL.

Don't worry though mate, I'm still thinking through the bucket. There's something there that keeps nagging me - in a good way though. I'm almost positive there is another advantage to it we haven't discovered as yet.

For the moment though, as Jimmysuperlative would say, "Bag it man!"

LOL
Pat

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Well I'll have first tasting reports a bit later this morning .. as I unload this truck .. oh boy am I looking forward to today...

mmmm real beer

:beer: