A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[flattop]

I fart alot since i HB anyhow, i think it's the yeast....

 

[RdeVjun]

I fart alot since i HB anyhow, i think it's the yeast....

Seconded flattop, not just a lot, but, at times, one helluva lot! Spousie is none too impressed, I just shrug my shoulders and say, well, will I go back to drinking [insert random expensive commercial here] and be near broke all the time. Can't argue with saving money. :icon_cheers:

 

[Sentry459]

LOL glad I'm not the only one. I had a bottle of the brew before bed last night, and this morning I'm having quite the shocker. :unsure:

 

[Mantis]

LOL glad I'm not the only one. I had a bottle of the brew before bed last night, and this morning I'm having quite the shocker. :unsure:

I would like to but think it would be risky h34r:

 

[Damian44]

I was just wondering how much wort every ones losing to the grains after a good squeze of the bag?

 

[Bribie G]

I know where you are coming from, compared to batch or fly sparging, theoretically there's more goodness and sweetness left in the spent grain with BIAB. Hard to calculate, but I have minimised this somewhat by doing a sort of mashout by drawing 6 litres of first runnings out of my urn at end of mash, pour 6 litres of near boiling water into the bag, stir like buggery and hoist the bag. Then after draining and squeezing I add the 6 litres back into the urn and do a longer boil to get the wort level down again.

Another thing I have been doing is using adjuncts such as rice and maize in some styles (Cerveza etc) and note that the adjunct grains nearly all 'disappear' during the mash so all that is left is the husks of the malt plus whatever proteins etc are left over and the resulting bag of spent grain is fairly small and can be squeezed almost to dryness quite easily (and I'm no Sumo wrestler )



That yellow stuff is some spent component of Polenta used in the mash.

Don't have any difficulty in hitting reasonable OGs for the styles I have been brewing.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I was just wondering how much wort every ones losing to the grains after a good squeze of the bag?

I lose about 0.5l/kg of starting grain - thats is the grain bill is reasonably small, the more grain in the bag, the harder it is to squeeze well.

Still - even if you just let it drain out till it stops dripping (no squeeze at all) you only lose around 0.7-0.75L per kg of starting grain bill.

so - 30L of starting water and 5kg of grain.. I would expect 26.5-27.5L of wort after I pull , drain and squeeze the bag

TB

 

[QldKev]

One concern I have had with the idea of hanging the bag to drain is HSA, or is it such a small quatity it doesn't really matter?

QldKev

 

[katzke]

One concern I have had with the idea of hanging the bag to drain is HSA, or is it such a small quatity it doesn't really matter?

QldKev

HSA is not a problem.

 

[reviled]

HSA is not a problem.

Does it even exist?

 

[katzke]

Does it even exist?

Lots easier to just say it is not a problem then get into a discussion.

Yes it does exist but not on any scale that home brewers need to worry about. For one we all get it if we mash grains, 2 not anything we can do about it, and 3 unless you store your beer in a hot car for weeks at a time not much to worry about.

See what I mean, lots easier to just say it is not a problem.

 

[reviled]

See what I mean, lots easier to just say it is not a problem.

:lol: fair enough mate

 

[Bizier]

I want to say my congrats for BIAB maying it into BYO mag.

 

[Bribie G]

Where do you get BYO mag from? Do you have to subscribe?

ON topic I drop into a couple of UK forums and they also tend to put the word 'myth' after every occurrence of HSA :lol: . I would be more worried about DMS personally.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Katzke has it - HSA is real, you cant deny oxidation, it just happens. Whether it is a significant problem in homebrew, who knows.

Thats not the question, the question is - why would HSA be more of a problem in BiaB than in Batch sparging??? So sure, it might be an issue... but if you think good beer free of issue from HSA is possible to make using a batch sparge, then its also possible from BiaB.

decide for yourself

Bribie - how is BiaB related to DMS issues?

 

[katzke]

Katzke has it - HSA is real, you cant deny oxidation, it just happens. Whether it is a significant problem in homebrew, who knows.

but if you think good beer free of issue from HSA is possible to make using a batch sparge, then its also possible from BiaB.

See that is my point. HSA does happen when we mash. I am sure I had a post about it a while back. An enzyme is involved and that enzyme is only active up to 140 F. I recall it is denatured just like any other enzyme above that temp.

So HSA needs the enzyme, O2, and heat but not over 140 F. The enzyme is in the grain. O2 is in the water as well as the grain. We add the heat when we mash.

So in regards to BIAB any HSA will have happened (just like in any mashing method) and stopped before the bag gets pulled.

So it is not a problem any more then it is in any other brewing method. HSA takes time to show up because the O2 is released slowly in the aging process the beer goes through as it, well gets old and starts to break down. Breweries worry about it because they can not control what people do with the beer once it is out of the brewery. Maybe the delivery truck breaks down and sets on the side of the road for a few days in the hot sun. Maybe the beer sets on the shelf in a hot store for weeks or months. Home brew lives the life of luxury compared to factory beer.

HSA is one of the things home brewers got a bit of info from the pro brewers and we have no need to worry about it as we can not do anything about it. Not only can we not do anything about it but it does not even effect most all home brewers because we take better care of our beer or drink it before any effects will show up. From what I read most of you have half or more of your beer drank before I ever get around to kegging mine.

 

[reviled]

Just did a blog post here detailing my last brew with some BIAB changes.

Namely utilising Spills' dunk sparge technique and noticing how much more effective it was than the shitty sparge I was doing, plus adapting caramelisation of 1st 'drippings' for BIAB B)

 

[Bribie G]

Bribie - how is BiaB related to DMS issues?

Got my wires crossed here, was thinking more about alleged DMS when cubing but of course that's not BIAB specific. Sometimes I forget I'm doing BIAB, to me it's just become 'brew session' as a continuous process between grain and cube and I get tunnel vision

 

[hairyson]

I got some bag material yesterday, and thought I'd report back to the thread.

I went to Spotlight on Sydney Rd in Brunswick (Melbourne) and went out to the back building. Asked for Swiss Voile, they took me straight to the stuff, but there was some discussion on what *they* thought I needed. First it was coloured, then cotton, then something that felt like cotton but which the salesperson assured me was polyester, with a price of about $22/m. The uncoloured 100% polyester stuff was there as well, for $7/m.

I also asked for some thread to sew it with, and they suggested Gutermann poly thread, so I took some of that as well.

If I'm motivated enough I'll try using the wife's sewing machine tonight to put a bag together. Is there any need to get into any fuss about the design of the bag?

Ben

 

[Damian44]

benny i went with the round bottom design, and im very happy with it. Just make sure the circle is bigger than your pot.