A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[mondestrunken]

Tip: A Ladder leant up against a wall over your bag is a portable skyhook.

Great tip, thanks. But I can't cope with ladders leaning up against walls since The Ring.

 

[stux]

Get the pink stuff, you will be ok. (unless ya mates see you)

The mocha one should be okay, the bag will end up that colour after your first stout anyway

I went for ivory

 

[Spinniker]

The mocha one should be okay, the bag will end up that colour after your first stout anyway

I went for ivory

Thanks pink it is. Only color they had. Guess it will be fine. Will test it first. Guess if I clean it in bleach it might end up white anyway.

 

[Crusty]

Another Biab complete yesterday. I did a JSGA clone with great results again.
If you are using BrewMate, it's pretty important to test the temp of your milled grain & adjust strike temp accordingly.
I had my grain temp set at 20.0deg & the actual grain temp was 31.1 so I ended up over shooting my strike in temp by almost 2deg.
Aiming for 66deg & ended up at 68deg so frantically aerated the mash & around 5mins later it settled at 66.2deg. Lid on & covered for 90mins.
Mash out after the sacc rest & hoisted the bag. I was aiming for a finished volume of 23lt @1.048 & ended up with 23.5lt @1.048 giving me 81% efficiency into the cube.

 

[Bribie G]

Agreed about the grain temperature, it varies a lot during the year and the grain temp feature in BrewMate is really good. It's particulary important in BIAB because when you have doughed in, as it's full volume and what you've got what is youv'e got, it's very hard to adjust temp quickly, especially to cool it.

 

[Crusty]

Agreed about the grain temperature, it varies a lot during the year and the grain temp feature in BrewMate is really good. It's particulary important in BIAB because when you have doughed in, as it's full volume and what you've got what is youv'e got, it's very hard to adjust temp quickly, especially to cool it.

It's a great feature & I have found all expected gravities, volumes & temps are spot on. I just got side tracked getting everything ready & didn't even think to check the grain temp. Temperatures here have been nearing the 40deg mark so it was bloody hot in the shed yesterday. I don't think the beer fridge has switched off in the last couple of days with my beer temp set @3deg.

 

[Crusty]

Just completed another Biab with a recipe I found on the net.
I measured my crushed grain this time & nailed my mash temp spot on.
Marris Otter Ale Malt, Dark Caramalt & a touch of Special - B.
I'ts an APA using Magnum, Centennial & Cascade. Yeast is Denny Conn Ale, 1450.
Recipe called for 23lt @1.054. I ended up with 23lt @1.056 giving me 82% efficiency into the cube.
Smells & tastes really good so looking forward to fermenting this one.

 

[tonyt]

Hi all,

I jumped into biab a couple of weeks ago after barls was kind enough to let me watch him brew 3v,and was pleasantly surprised how painless it was. My efficiency was only 67% but at that stage I was more interested in the process rather than understanding what I was actually trying to achieve. The chilling part was a Pita

Skip 2 weeks and some kind info from Crusty my second biab was a recipe crusty sent me which I did yesterday and hit 81% efficiency! What did I do different?

1. Asked brew shop to run grain twice through mill.
2. Made sure temp was back up to 66 after adding grain
3. Checked temp after 60 min and brought back to 66 while stirring then let rest another 30 min
4. Mashed out a little more vigorously to reach 78
5. Lifted bag and squeezed more than first biab
6. Held back 5 litres from start and did a dunk sparge.....I don't think this did much though as liquid that this yielded was almost clear........I don't think I'll bother with the sparging in future was a paid anyways

I swapped my immersion chiller for the larger one, used the rainwater tank, stirring every 10 min and got to pitching temp in 50 min

So I am happy I sorted out the efficiency and chilling issues and now look forward to some good beers!

Cheers

 

[fletcher]

well done mate.

can i ask how long you kept your pot at mash out temp before increasing to boil?

i did my second biab and got about 77% too after mashing out at proper temps, squeezing a bit, and batch sparging with correct temp water...was amazing. i love biab...so easy.

what's the basics of a dunk sparge? (yes i know i can look i'm just being lazy)

i think a big part of my increased efficiency for my second biab was the sparge; basically put the grain bag on a mesh plate, over a bucket and heated my 2L of water, then slowly poured it over the top, covering all the bag slowly.

 

[tonyt]

Hey Fletch,

As soon as i got to 78 i hoisted bag up and cranked up heat to start boil. I held back 5 litres from start water and heated to 78, put bag in 20 L bucket, opened and poured water over grain than closed and dunked bag up and down in liquid a few times, lifted and squeezd out water and added to kettle.
Dont know if thats a " proper" dunk sparge but thats how i understood it when i read it somwhere. Don't know if the sparge was worth the effort though, as i said the water it yielded was almost clear.

Cheers

 

[Oakers]

I too saw an increase in efficiency when, after receiving advice on here, I did mash-out at 78 as tonyt describes. I also run my grain through my mill twice, make sure i do a bit of vigorous pumping of the mash with my mash paddle (the ol paint stirrer) at least once during mashing, and give the bag a good old squeeze once i have it in a bucket. I also agree that I don't reckon sparging is worth the effort as I'm now achieving efficiency in mid to high 70s without it. IMHO it's much easier to add just a little extra grain. The most important thing is to understand what factors affect your process so that you can get consistency, especially if you really want to nail your OG. Of course most of the time a few points of OG either way won't matter.

Oakers.

 

[fletcher]

Hey Fletch,

As soon as i got to 78 i hoisted bag up and cranked up heat to start boil. I held back 5 litres from start water and heated to 78, put bag in 20 L bucket, opened and poured water over grain than closed and dunked bag up and down in liquid a few times, lifted and squeezd out water and added to kettle.
Dont know if thats a " proper" dunk sparge but thats how i understood it when i read it somwhere. Don't know if the sparge was worth the effort though, as i said the water it yielded was almost clear.

Cheers

ah yeah similar to what i did except i didn't dunk the bag up and down; i felt as though the grains might still soak up and contain some of that sexysugar...have no scientific reasoning to back that up though haha. mine wasn't clear when i just trickled the water through. i wonder if that might make it better for you? i'd be interested to know if that helped me at all...the liquid was quite brown and 'worty' looking when i did it *shrug* probably a bunch of things helped the efficiency so it's hard to say i suppose.

I too saw an increase in efficiency when, after receiving advice on here, I did mash-out at 78 as tonyt describes. I also run my grain through my mill twice, make sure i do a bit of vigorous pumping of the mash with my mash paddle (the ol paint stirrer) at least once during mashing, and give the bag a good old squeeze once i have it in a bucket. I also agree that I don't reckon sparging is worth the effort as I'm now achieving efficiency in mid to high 70s without it. IMHO it's much easier to add just a little extra grain. The most important thing is to understand what factors affect your process so that you can get consistency, especially if you really want to nail your OG. Of course most of the time a few points of OG either way won't matter.

Oakers.

very true mate. i might consider trying without it next time, although to be honest, it didn't take all that long and wasn't much of a hindrance (might be in future if i'm looking to stream line the process). i was happy with 77% with it. when would you add the extra grain if you were too far below your OG? and how would that be calculated?

 

[yum beer]

Stick with the rinse step Fletch, I get about an extra 4-5% eff increase when I do it, gotta remember you arent rinsing the grain with a long sparge as you would 3V,plenty of goodness to get out
of the grains.
And squeeze the bag well when finished, you'll need gloves but there is a lot of 'sexysugars' still in there.

 

[Truman42]

@Fletch..Hes talking about adding extra grain in your original recipe instead. Set your efficiency lower in brewmate say 70% instead of 75% and it will increase the maltbill.

i always did a batch sparge when doing BIAB as it allowed me to top up my boil ketle with the water lost due to grain absorption. But minstead of just dunking the bag in a bucke of water i would open the bag up and stir the grains with my mash paddle every couple of minutes for about ten minutes. Then drain the bag into the bucket and pour this into the boil kettle. It would take my boil volume from 12 litres up to 18 litres whch was the capacity of my urn.

Often I would do this a second time if I still needed more volume.

if your only getting clear water from your dunk sparge as tonyt is your not doing it right or your bag is the wrong material and the holes are too tight.

 

[fletcher]

@Fletch..Hes talking about adding extra grain in your original recipe instead. Set your efficiency lower in brewmate say 70% instead of 75% and it will increase the maltbill.

i always did a batch sparge when doing BIAB as it allowed me to top up my boil ketle with the water lost due to grain absorption. But minstead of just dunking the bag in a bucke of water i would open the bag up and stir the grains with my mash paddle every couple of minutes for about ten minutes. Then drain the bag into the bucket and pour this into the boil kettle. It would take my boil volume from 12 litres up to 18 litres whch was the capacity of my urn...

that's almost like a mini-secondary-mash hey. I like the sound of that, it doesn't sound like too much additional work; particularly if you can easily hit OG with that. I was pretty happy with my set up for sparging but I might adapt it to that one. cheers for the idea.

@yumbeer - sexysugars is where it's at

 

[sp0rk]

Just on the topic of using gloves to give your bag a good squeeze *wink*
what does everyone use?
I can't decide between a new pair of washing up gloves or big thick chemical handling gloves
I'd assume both would give off a nasty rubbery taste/smell, wouldn't they?

 

[fletcher]

Just on the topic of using gloves to give your bag a good squeeze *wink*
what does everyone use?
I can't decide between a new pair of washing up gloves or big thick chemical handling gloves
I'd assume both would give off a nasty rubbery taste/smell, wouldn't they?

I've just done it bare-handed mate (lol at the connotations here haha), and not squeezed the bag per se, but just above it, kinda pushing down onto it through a rubber coated muffin/cake cooler that sits atop my pot. I twisted the bag a good few times too which helped with the squeezing. I'm sure there's a better way but I don't wanna risk the rubbery or whatever smell from using gloves (although that's just me being pedantic).

 

[Amber Fluid]

When I used to squeeze the bag, I just used washing up gloves and never had any issues. However, I no longer squeeze but just shake it a bit.

 

[tonyt]

I used two saucepan lids like symbols

Cheers

 

[wbosher]

I used two saucepan lids like symbols

Cheers

I used to just use my hands, but after seeing someone else post this method somewhere else a while back (possibly even you tony), I do this now. Painless and easy.