Unfortunately my grain bag isn't big enough to close with 5 Kg of grain in it - didn't expect it to expand that much when I opened the vac pack!
Cheers,
Morrie, cracking my AG cherry! :super:
Ah! It's all good fun Morrie!
Didn't realise you had an esky so good call on using that except for the bag bit - lol! (Anyone following this who wants to brew in the bag needs to make sure their bag is big enough to 'line' the vessel they are using.)
Bloody proud of you Morrie (and you others) who are leaping in with enthusiasm and with no direct guidance. I can't imagine doing my first all-grain without help. You guys are pioneers and we have all learned a lot from you.
Morrie is the most recent I have learned something through a PM he sent me last night and that I replied to this morning. And I've just realised something else now. It looks like there are a few more possibilities to BIAB than I thought before for those with small pots though there is still a time cost.
For example, if you only had a 20 litre pot, but had an esky with a tap, you can just make a bag for the esky and mash in that. Drain into your 20 litre pot and do 2 boils.
I won't write much more tonight on this as I've had a few beers with my concretor mates :blink: however, for those with very small pots who are desperate to give AG a go, then reduce your mash time to 30 minutes* instead of 90 and your boil to 60 instead of 90. It's not a big issue.
What I might do for those who are interested and only have access to small pots is copy Morrie's and my correspondence below and see if any of you guys get some better ideas. (Hope Morrie doesn't mind me copying his PM. It's something I don't normally do Morrie! )
Cheers
Pat
*I have more to say on this but not tonight - you can even get a better beer I think???
Morries Correspondence on Small Pots...
Thanks for the advice Pat - I know I can't afford a larger pot ATM, so I may have to look at another alternative if you think the small pot will piss me off too much. I have a mate who is a caterer, so I could grab some large buckets off him - would I be able to get away with doing single batch in a large bucket, wrapped in a camping matress to keep the heat in, and pray to the beer gods that I won't need to heat it up at any stage? I guess I could add hot water if required, but from what I've read the temp seems to be stable with this kind of setup, and the critical time is the first bit. Anyway, I appreciate your help and look forward to what you think.
My Usual Long Reply (5:00am this morning!)...
I reckon that's a good idea Morrie - like the way you're thinking! Get a 40 litre bucket (60 might be easier).
1. Chuck your bag in the bucket (Edit: make sure it fully lines the bucket!) Heat up as much water as you can in the 20 litre pot to mash temp plus one degree and then jug or syphon this into the bucket until it's safe enough to lift and pour.
2. Throw in all your grain and give it a good mix up on and off for the next 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat another lot of water in your pot to mash temp plus one degree. When ready, just add this water to the large bucket and repeat the on and off stirring for 20 minutes. Time your 90 minute mash from when you added the first lot of water. This method should save you mucking around with insulation etc and should work fine.
You'll still have to do 2 boils with half the hops in each boil unfortunately. You could knock the boil down to 60 minutes instead of 90. This won't matter much and will mean you won't have to use as much top up water at the end.
Put some thought on how you are going to transfer the wort back into the pot etc as the mash bucket is going to be bloody heavy. In other words, see if you can get the mash bucket higher than where the pot is going to be sitting.
If the mash bucket has a tap, just attach some hose to that to drain it into the kettle. The good thing about this is that you won't have to remove the bag at all - cool.
Etc...
h34r: 
