A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[mfeighan]

im still pretty new to AG brewing so not too particular or fussy on beer styles (yet), i like the clean flavors i get from lagers and pilsners but have just finished a keg of tony's bright ale and dr sumuto's golden both are yum

after your advice google hit this up
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=30815

might just try that, set mash temp add grain go to uni come back and boil. may fix my lack of beer issue as i have a few empty fermenters and kegs less than half full

 

[tumi2]

Hi all

I am going to have a go at my 3^rd AG BIAB on Saturday.

I am going to use Tony's recipe in the link for Little Creatures Bright Ale clone but I will only be doing a 27 litre batch.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=301

I have adjusted my hops amounts since the AA levels I have are different to the recipe.

I am using S05 yeast as this is all I can get from the LHBS.

Is anyone out there who has done this particularly using BIAB method?

One question I have is with the 0 mins additions of Cascade and Saaz, should I put them in the cube for no-chill. And if so should I reduce it some what to compensate for the fact that the hops will be exposed to heat for about 10 hours as the liquid cools overnight. I only no chill for about 15 hours before fermenting.

Also should I dry hop some more in the fermenter or is the 0 minutes hops basically used for aroma and little more flavour?

The real LCBA is quite aromatic and has some nice medium bitterness.

I am intending to mash for 90 mins at 66 degs. Is this OK?

Another question, do I have to mash out by raising the temp to 78 degs? I have not done this before and don't really understand the reason for doing so. If someone knows where I can read about Mash out and why that would be good.

Any ideas for this BIAB day would be great.

Thanks

 

[buttersd70]

re mash out. In a commercial situation, it's done to denature the enzymes, due to the length of time it takes to lauter a batch on a commercial scale. So some people say it's not applicable to homebrewing....however, I disagree with that. raising the temperature for mashout helps to disolve sugars from the grain and into solution, and as such is particularly relevent for batch sparging and biab. As an analogy....add a teaspoon of sugar to water at ~65C.....add a teaspoon of sugar to water at 78C....which disolves easiest?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

In BIAB this step is also going to help to make sure you get clearer beer. Raising to a mashout temperature (while stirring the mash) is going to really help to make sure you convert all the starches to sugars. This will give you a "slightly" better efficiency, but more inportantly, it will stop unconverted starches getting into your kettle and maybe into your finished beer.

In a normal mash tun - the wort is much clearer and unconverted starches are mostly trapped in the grain bed - in BIAB significant amounts will get through the bag and into the kettle.

You don't need to raise the temperatures to mashout/sparge temps in a BIAB brew. It will very likely work perfectly well without it - but - Its my opinion that you are more likely to produce consistently good beer if you do raise to a mashout at the end of the mash.

TB

 

[Bribie G]

You can do a fake mashout with BIAB by running off about six or seven litres of wort into a stockpot then put six or seven litres of near boiling water into the mash, stir like buggery then hoist the bag, and then pour the wort you collected back into the boil.

Of course you end up with a bit too much wort so you need to be prepared to do a ninety minute boil to shrink it down to where it would have been with a sixty minute boil

The 'mashout' in this case gives you a bit of extra efficiency because it does a sort of a batch sparge and also raises the temp of the mash to make the sugar solution more runny and yield more fermentables.

Floats my boat

 

[Bribie G]

While I'm on this thread, a shameless plug for Gryphon Brewing's bag for BIAB

Just used one this evening, it is the bag that God brews with. Anyone looking at BIAB, the problem seems to be "what is Swiss Voile and how do I get a bag made ". My original bag was getting a bit Manky after 33 brews and I found that ordering a Gryphon bag, whilst upfront 43 bucks, (freee postage) saved me dollars over going to Spotlight and totally confusing the ladies there, then taking it to my sewing lady etc etc would have cost me more in petrol and hours of time.

no affiliation.

And it hangs to a bewdiful tear drop shape without the dogs bollocks :lol:

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

While I'm on this thread, a shameless plug for Gryphon Brewing's bag for BIAB

Just used one this evening, it is the bag that God brews with. Anyone looking at BIAB, the problem seems to be "what is Swiss Voile and how do I get a bag made ". My original bag was getting a bit Manky after 33 brews and I found that ordering a Gryphon bag, whilst upfront 43 bucks, (freee postage) saved me dollars over going to Spotlight and totally confusing the ladies there, then taking it to my sewing lady etc etc would have cost me more in petrol and hours of time.

no affiliation.

And it hangs to a bewdiful tear drop shape without the dogs bollocks :lol:

Thanks Bribie , my mum gets such a big kick out of sewing these things when I tell things like that.Funny she has never had a drink in her life, may be God does have some thing to do with the bags. :huh:
gb

 

[bum]

it is the bag that God brews with.

Being of three vessels himself I very much doubt God would be a BIABer.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Being of three vessels himself I very much doubt God would be a BIABer.

No, its The Father, The Son and The Holy Bag ! Shite I did learn some thing at Sunday school.
GB

 

[Bribie G]

Being of three vessels himself I very much doubt God would be a BIABer.

The Father, the Son and the holy bag

edit: holy not holey

 

[Dunno]

Thanks for info on that Bribie.

I take it that if time, cost, effort etc are disregarded you would prefer to use the GB bag to brew? MY current bag still has a bit of life left in it yet but when the time comes to retire it would prefer just to have the best made bag for brewing.

Cheers
Dunno

 

[malbur]

Anyway, back on topic...

Im just inspecting the exposed element at the bottom of my urn... Im thinking of getting a stainless steel colander from the supermarket like this one to pop over the top.

Is this the right way to go?

Hi Phoneyhuh
This is what i made up to protect The bag in my 45 litre Woodson Urn.
its S/S mesh, that a mate had sitting around.

 

[RdeVjun]

im sort of new to biab, got quite a few under my belt now due to the weird hours i have free i was wondering is there anything wrong with
1) mashing in the morning
2) straining bag
3) covering and leaving till i get home in the afternoon
4) boiling chilling fermenting


or... set mash @ 66 wrap in blanket and come back in the afternoon
i do double batches and when i wrap in a blanket i notice there is no need to turn on the burner during the 90 mins

however i guess it will drop to around 50deg by the time i get home if i left it this way. is this bad or can i get away with it without problems
it wont be a 8-9hr work day, usually about 5 hrs

Some opinions about longer mashes in a thread I started a while back. I've left one BIAB dunked for over four hours, no problems with the resulting brew and I'll also mash for 90 mins as a rule nowadays. I'll leave one overnight one evening when enthusiasm to finish it wanes while its on.

Oh, and top job by all the award- winning BIABers, much food for thought in all that. And as expected, there's the usual detraction, but I think the method's been mature for quite a while and this is just some more concrete evidence. I did mention in a post a while back that I saw mention of the process in a quote from a book that was written in the 70s.

Edit: clarify 'evidence'.
Edit2: the book is "Brew like a monk", but it actually quotes another recipe book. Just don't have it handy at the mo'.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

You can do a fake mashout with BIAB by running off about six or seven litres of wort into a stockpot then put six or seven litres of near boiling water into the mash, stir like buggery then hoist the bag, and then pour the wort you collected back into the boil.

Of course you end up with a bit too much wort so you need to be prepared to do a ninety minute boil to shrink it down to where it would have been with a sixty minute boil

The 'mashout' in this case gives you a bit of extra efficiency because it does a sort of a batch sparge and also raises the temp of the mash to make the sugar solution more runny and yield more fermentables.

Floats my boat

That's not a fake mashout - its as real a mashout as any I have seen. I would give it a few minutes after the addition and the stir to rest and convert ... but its pretty much going to happen in the pot anyway, so .....

Besides - its hard to argue with Bribies recommendations at the moment... he is the brewer of the hour. You could do a hell of a lot worse than to simply do everything exactly the same as Bribie G

TB

 

[Phoney]

Alright, the time is nigh! Going to LHBS and Bunnings tomorrow to pick up the last of my bits and bobs. Then ill be building a tripod with a swivel underneath for hoisting the bag.. Just one thing, could someone please do me a huge favour and checkout my beersmith file? Im not quite getting the same numbers as listed in the recipedb.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

ps: malbur; that looks great! I found a SS colander that fits over my element like it was made for it, ill see how I go with that and ill keep your design in mind.

View attachment DSGA.bsm

 

[Scruffy]

Just one thing, could someone please do me a huge favour and checkout my beersmith file? Im not quite getting the same numbers as listed in the recipedb.

What numbers? - the only thing i'd change is the 'Style' from American Amber (10B) to American Pale (10A) - then all the numbers line up (no 'bold')... :icon_cheers:

 

[Phoney]

OK done. But even still the color shows 8.0 instead of 15. IBU is 32.9 instead of 36.4 Otherwise it's close enough..

edit: sorry I think might just be too pedantic :lol:

 

[Scruffy]

Stick 100 grams of chocolate in then...!!!

 

[buttersd70]

OK done. But even still the color shows 8.0 instead of 15. IBU is 32.9 instead of 36.4 Otherwise it's close enough..

edit: sorry I think might just be too pedantic :lol:

Your colour must be set to srm....I dl'd your bsm file, and it shows 15.7EBC.....dont worry about the IBU...if you read the notes in the recipe db, smurto says that in beersmith it only comes to 31IBU.

 

[katzke]

Alright, the time is nigh! Going to LHBS and Bunnings tomorrow to pick up the last of my bits and bobs. Then ill be building a tripod with a swivel underneath for hoisting the bag..

Tripod? Not needed by a regular guy. I used the hang over a pot or bucket method for the first few brews. Lifting the bag is not a problem for the average girl. I did convert to a small timber or 2X2 as we yanks call them stuffed in the handle of the kettle I use as a stand for my burner and keggle. Just the last 2 brews and only for convenience. I used a large spring clamp that fits the wood to hold the string from my bag so I can drain it into the brew kettle now.

No need for fancy tripods or pulley systems. If you are brewing a bigger beer then you can lift you need to gain some muscle or tone down your brewing. Only strong people should drink strong beers. If my spring clamp can hold the bag then any brewer with out disability can lift the bag.