A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[Pollux]

Best of luck my friend, may your brew day go froth with no drama and complete success..

 

[Fantoman]

Best of luck my friend, may your brew day go froth with no drama and complete success..

And likewise to you Pollux! :beerbang:

 

[Pollux]

LOL, I just re-read that post....

may your brew day go FROTH??? I should stop posting after a few beers..

Freudian slip if there ever was one...

 

[reviled]

Congrats to the both of you for taking the plunge, best of luck with your brew days :icon_cheers:

 

[Pollux]

My Urn just arrived...

Seriously I paid for it over the phone at 1pm yesterday, and at 9:05 this morning the courier arrived....

Is super shiny, now to work out how to pull the tap apart for cleaning, either that or replace it with a ball valve....

 

[eamonnfoley]

Hi, I've been having a crack at BIAB. My first BIAB brew was not infected, but noticably harsh tasting with little hop/malt flavour and severe bitterness. I havent found any holes in my brewing technique yet (discussed in other threads), but im concerned about my water. My tap water yesterday had a PH of 7.7. And it also seems to have a bit of chlorine (Maylands WA).

Could this have a significant effect on brewing a APA ? I'm planning on using some acidulated malt in the next BIAB I do, maybe 2-3%. Might try and boil off the chlorine before I start also.

Mind you, I had a slighlty different rough flavour (again not infected) with a extract brew I did as part of the troubleshooting exercise. I'm now thinking maybe this is a chlorine thing, as I believe PH doesnt affect extract brews noticeably. Any ideas?

Cheers, Foles.

Ive tried correcting two problems that I think are preventing me from brewing drinkable beer (BIAB) PH & chlorine/chloramines



Ive used treating PH with 3% acidulated malt in the mash

And treating chloramines with pinch of sodium met and sitting water overnight.



The Beer has come out rough, astringent/harshly bitter after tasting quite good in the fermenter. I suspect I havent corrected the PH properly. Im guessing the water was purged of chlormines with the sodium met but cannot be sure.



Thinking of trying the stabiliser 5.2 product. And also getting a PH meter or maybe just strips to begin with.



Is BIAB more suspectable to PH induced problems due the grist / water ratio ?

 

[Bribie G]

could be the chlorine. I get all my strike water from the solar HWS system and assume that the chlorine has been boiled out, and get smooth-as tasting brews with no harshness. Also I have started to use the 5.2 pH adjuster which can't do any harm.

While the thread is live again, two tweaks I used this afternoon with my urn / BIAB setup.

• Thanks to Pollux for the idea, I slipped a sleeping bag over the urn then overwrapped the whole thing in my feather doonah and strapped it. Mash started at 67 and finished at 66 after 90 mins. Rapt.
• I drew off about six litres of wort into a stockpot, added six litres of very hot water for a mashout, stirred like buggery, hoisted and drained bag then poured the six of wort back in for the boil. Currently on the boil and should reduce nicely over 90 mins. Be interested to see any increase in efficiency.

 

[Cannibal Smurf]

Interested in reading your results Michael, will keep an eye out for further posts tonight.

So you agree that the sleeping bag + doona combo keeps the heat in better than the doona alone? Might have to drag out my old sleeping bag....

 

[Pollux]

• Thanks to Pollux for the idea, I slipped a sleeping bag over the urn then overwrapped the whole thing in my feather doonah and strapped it. Mash started at 67 and finished at 66 after 90 mins. Rapt.

It's awesome how well a sleeping bag works huh??

I use a camping mat and a sleeping bag, I get 1-2deg losses over 90mins, and that includes unwrapping it at 60mins to give it a good stir....

 

[Bribie G]

OK i've got a camping mat.... camping mat. Sleeping bag. Doonah ... h34r: TEN HOUR MASH HERE WE COME

on topic though, it really puts paid to the "howl, wail...... I burned my bag while heating up the mash ...."

IMHO passive mashing is the only way to go with BIAB. Three vessel HERMS mashing is another story altogether of course but for BIAB, passive mashing is our HERMS equivalent.

 

[Pollux]

LOL.....

I love my camping mat, although I did notice I had bits melted to the urn after the last run....

I believe it's to do with the fact that I tried to manually lift a bag full of 5.5kg of wet grain and catch it in a bucket by myself and therefore spilt some between the urn and the mat....

It seems to have over heated the mat in spots and melt it to the urn, was easy to wash off but the mat is dead...

Time to spend another $5.....And I need a new hose, one that won't collapse under high temps..

 

[katzke]

I've tried correcting two problems that I think are preventing me from brewing drinkable beer (BIAB) PH & chlorine/chloramines



I've used treating PH with 3% acidulated malt in the mash

And treating chloramines with pinch of sodium met and sitting water overnight.



The Beer has come out rough, astringent/harshly bitter after tasting quite good in the fermenter. I suspect I haven't corrected the PH properly. I'm guessing the water was purged of chlormines with the sodium met but cannot be sure.



Thinking of trying the stabiliser 5.2 product. And also getting a PH meter or maybe just strips to begin with.



Is BIAB more suspectable to PH induced problems due the grist / water ratio ?

Water chemistry is a big involved subject that most brewers and those that teach ignore. It is not all that hard if you do some reading on the subject. Every ones water is different so what works for one person may not help you.

Yes I think BIAB is more susceptible to water problems. The entire process of mash pH depends on the malts ability to reduce the pH and if the water is tending to be alkaline some recipes just dont have enough of that ability because we use so much more water.

Get some test paper or if you have the cash a meter. But first I would do some reading and then when you know what to ask for get a water analysis for the important brewing chemicals. Using the 5.2 stabilizer will not hurt but I like to know what is going on with my water and add only what is needed.

 

[Mantis]

I managed to get my effeciency up to 70% yesterday from 60% that I have been getting.

I did two things differently.
I mashed for 90min instead of 60.
I did a mashout that involved lifting the bag off the bottom of the pot (with my rope and pully) and tieing it off there. I then turned on the burner and raised the temp to 75C and when there I dunked the bag 5 or 6 times before raising and sqeezing it.

Doing another brew today and have done the same so I hope for the same result

 

[Thirsty Boy]

turn that dunking into a proper stir, bag back in, opened up and stir it up well - and I will guess at another point or two of efficiency - maybe another couple if you don't raise the bag at all and add your heat while stirring constantly (assuming your set-up allows this) during the ramp.

It might not happen that way - But my guess is that it would do something similar at least.

 

[Mantis]

When I raise the bag the grain is still in the wort, just the bottom of the bag is off the bottom of the pot.
But turning off the heat when it gets to 75, and dropping it back in and stirring like you say is worth a try for sure

Was very happy when the hydrometer settled at 1054 I can tell you. I was expecting 1045ish like the previous attempts

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Oh - I understood what you were doing - I think you should do both and you will get better result. Harder work, better efficiency - a choice.

By the way - try measuring the temperature after you have stirred the grain bag back in - I'd say (guessing only) that the temp drops significantly lower than the 75 once its been mixed up. Still - that bit might be wrong. I haven't tried it with the bag raised, I merely speculate. I do know however that if you measure the temp during a period of constant stirring... then you know its homogeneous and the temperature of the whole system is the 75 you are looking for.

Try it with the bag raised a few times - see if that makes a difference. Then try it a few times where you have left the bag in, open and stirred a few times - see if that makes any further difference.

It might not - but I reckon it will.

Remember too - as the gravity of your beer goes up, your efficiency will go down. This isn't anything that you can do something about in a non fly-sparge system. You just have to be aware of it. At 1.054 - I would be expecting in my BIAB brewing to getting 70-75%, so in my book you aren't all that far off anyway.

 

[Pollux]

I might try a mashout next time I do a brew...

I currently do a 90min mash and thought I was doing gangbusters with the eff %...Until I realised my post boil volume was out.....

First couple of batches are sitting at 60%.....


Problem is I have no skyhook or pulley system possible... I wonder if just lifting the bag a bit more over the edges and using some of those clamps that look like oversized clothes pegs would be enough in my urn, it does have a concealed element..

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I might try a mashout next time I do a brew...

I currently do a 90min mash and thought I was doing gangbusters with the eff %...Until I realised my post boil volume was out.....

First couple of batches are sitting at 60%.....


Problem is I have no skyhook or pulley system possible... I wonder if just lifting the bag a bit more over the edges and using some of those clamps that look like oversized clothes pegs would be enough in my urn, it does have a concealed element..

The skyhook/pulley should make a difference to nothing other than the ease with which you do things.

Pop in the ever popular cake rack to keep the bag off the element - stir constantly while heating it with the bag in there - pull out bag and throw into bucket where you can do your draining and squeezing

job done

and for gods sake people - stop worrying about efficiency so much. Sure - if in 10 brew's time it hasn't gone up a few notches - maybe then, but in the meantime, try out the different variations of BIAB just because you can. Then after you have gotten done with all the different tweaks, twists and changes, you will be a much more experienced brewer, you will have settled on a technique that suits you, the way you want to brew and your system - and lo & behold... I bet your average efficiency is a bunch higher than it was before.

 

[Pollux]

I'm just interested in the concept of performing a mashout, beyond that I honestly can't be arsed IYKWIM.....

Cake rack shopping time it is, watch out golo...

 

[smollocks]

turn that dunking into a proper stir, bag back in, opened up and stir it up well - and I will guess at another point or two of efficiency - maybe another couple if you don't raise the bag at all and add your heat while stirring constantly (assuming your set-up allows this) during the ramp.

Is there any benefit to maintaining the mashout temperature for (say) 15 minutes, or do you just remove the bag as soon as you reach mashout temperature?