A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

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thanks heaps pistolpatch i just tasted my 1st biab & it is magic its a pale ale og 1050 fg 1010 without your biab post and id still be using a coopers can & dextrose your a legend
 
I know it's said to use Swiss Voille but I just popped into Spotlight and they didn't have any, that and it's around $50 a meter. Does this sound right!?

Can Muslin Cloth be used instead or is it to course?
 
I know it's said to use Swiss Voille but I just popped into Spotlight and they didn't have any, that and it's around $50 a meter. Does this sound right!?

Can Muslin Cloth be used instead or is it to course?


There has to be some mix-up Adzmax ...I got enough for two bags, and plenty left over for about 12 bucks! :blink:
 
Good on you Hair of the Dog, there'll be no looking back for you now.

Adzmax, I only paid ~$7 per metre for voile at Decorama and have seen Swiss Voile for ~$6 at Spotlight. Muslin is to coarse and doesn't allow for good drainage or good flow while mashing.
 
Yep I reckon, maybe it depends on the type of Swiss Voile. Think I'll pop down to my local Spotlight rather that the Frankston store :)

I picked up some Muslin anyhow, I'll just use that for steeping grain or hop socks :)

Cheers!
 
Someof the Voil is 100% cotton and is fancy wedding dress material... they might have thought you meant that.

You want to make sure its the 100% polyester stuff, it should be a very fine mesh, the finest they have, but you should still be able to visibly see it as a mesh (if you squint) and pick up some nice 100% polyester thread while you are there... tough stuff.

I reckon the muslin would probably work OK ... I just dont know about durabilty over repeated brews.

Come to G&G on the 22nd for the Demo; and you can run your grubby fingers over Spillsmostofit's bag :blink: so you know what to get.

Cheers

Thirsty
 
Spillmostofit....
Only done one BIAB...."Easy Peasy"...in a plastic 30 lt+ HDPE bucket..as per"cd's old electric boiler"
Google it anyone ...good advice....Have since obtained large electric ss copper..and a few other things..
Can go either way..with things i have...BUT HERE IN NOWRA CANT GET THE GRAIN...(At the right price)SO...Have to bide my time till then..
Thirsty Boy you hit the nail one the head...with my quote... :beerbang:
Will definately do another BIAB when i get the chance..It is an easy and simple way to learn..
Then maybe i will try other ways..
CHEERS
PJ :party:
 
Not so unfortunately.. I think we are just at a dead lock of intractable disagreement.
........

Long live the difference, it make the world a more interesting place I suppose.

Thirsty

I drop in here somtimes to see the same debate happening

THere are a fair few BIABers now so can someone tell me how many gongs have been picked up at competitions?

Becomes pretty hard to argue with those things.

Cheers
 
I drop in here somtimes to see the same debate happening

THere are a fair few BIABers now so can someone tell me how many gongs have been picked up at competitions?

Becomes pretty hard to argue with those things.

Cheers

I don't think anyone has owned up to winning anything with a BIAB batch.. they might have, but I haven't noticed anyone saying so.

I think a few BIABers might be entering some comps this comp season.. If all goes to plan I will be entering a few beers in different comps this year. Both BIAB and not...

If I win anything whatsoever for beers made with either method, I will probably fall off my chair.

Fingers crossed
 
If I win anything whatsoever for beers made with either method, I will probably fall off my chair.

It takes less for some people than others... :)

I think that as well as when the right season comes around, it requires people to be comfortable that their brews are worth sending into a competition. For me, I want to get rid of all the faults/issues *I* can find in my beer before I send it in for formal judging (I believe there are several issues that are just my own dickheadery rather than the method and I want to get rid of them.). Before then is pointless in my view. But, I fully expect it to start happening before too long.
 
BUT HERE IN NOWRA CANT GET THE GRAIN...(At the right price)
Er, you have postal delivery there, right? Why not get a 25kg sack from Ross at craftbrewer? Postage is like $7.50 or something.
 
I picked up some Muslin anyhow, I'll just use that for steeping grain or hop socks :)

Muslin is fine. I use a 2m piece, doubled over. No sewing required. I just drape it in the kettle and secure it to the lip with a few wooden clothes pegs.

I've never felt comfortable using something made of polyester. A quick search around the web does mention food safe polyester but I doubt polyester material in a fabric shop, designed for curtain or dress making, is going to be food safe.

I think the muslin I got was $4/m from a fabric shop on Elizabeth St, Melbourne.
 
Muslin is fine. I use a 2m piece, doubled over. No sewing required. I just drape it in the kettle and secure it to the lip with a few wooden clothes pegs.

I've never felt comfortable using something made of polyester. A quick search around the web does mention food safe polyester but I doubt polyester material in a fabric shop, designed for curtain or dress making, is going to be food safe.

I think the muslin I got was $4/m from a fabric shop on Elizabeth St, Melbourne.

I've never felt comfortable wearing something made of polyester... :blink:

I gave mine a few good soaks in Sodium Percarbonate solution and a good rinse or two before using it. I figure that polyester is polyester is polyester and the important thing is the temperature we're using it at. If we were boiling in it, I might think differently...
 
I've never felt comfortable wearing something made of polyester... :blink:

Amen to that!

I figure that polyester is polyester is polyester and the important thing is the temperature we're using it at. If we were boiling in it, I might think differently...

Yes, temp is critical in this but still, thinking it "should be right" doesn't cut it for me. So many things are found out later to be detrimental to our health. Thalidomide anyone? Sure, that's definitely OTT but you get my point.

Why are we happy to devote so much energy to defending/promoting a particular method of brewing beer but then put ourselves at risk by using potentially dodgy equipment?

Given I have a choice (muslin), I'm avoiding polyester.

That being said, I'll still enjoy the beers in the next case swap, whatever method/equipment was used. :chug:

Andrew
 
Everything that comes into contact with our bodys is bad for us, everything the scientists find out about toxins thats bad for us etc.etc turns out to be wrong in years to come.
Off food, bad beer, dirty door handles, aluminium, dog shit, dog jerms, dog slobber, sunlight , radiation from microwaves,"polyester",petrol fumes,paint and the list goes on and on and on and weve all been involved in it and yes it may be bad for us
but
im here for a good time not a long time and im sure many other people think like this as well :D
lifes to short to worry about the unknown
 
Er, you have postal delivery there, right? Why not get a 25kg sack from Ross at craftbrewer? Postage is like $7.50 or something.

Wrong. You won't get 25kg of anything posted for a start because Australia Post doesn't accept over 20kg.
Courier rates from QLD to Nowra are $20+. I know because I've paid it several times.
 
You know..its been a lot of effort for me to keep my mouth shut for the how many months on this BIAB thing and I feel that I have done well.
Now the Kraken has awoken it will spread over a couple of posts.
# 1
THere are a fair few BIABers now so can someone tell me how many gongs have been picked up at competitions?

Becomes pretty hard to argue with those things.

Cheers


I don't think anyone has owned up to winning anything with a BIAB batch.. they might have, but I haven't noticed anyone saying so.

and

think that as well as when the right season comes around, it requires people to be comfortable that their brews are worth sending into a competition. For me, I want to get rid of all the faults/issues *I* can find in my beer before I send it in for formal judging (I believe there are several issues that are just my own dickheadery rather than the method and I want to get rid of them.). Before then is pointless in my view. But, I fully expect it to start happening before too long.

Sure, there are winners at comps but the main reason for comps and the main reason for entering a comp is for feedback from the judges. If you want to make better beer then put your beers in comps, the judges are not told whether the beer is kit and kilo or a triple decoction all mash brew,let alone a BIAB, they are simply told "Entry 128, an American Pale Ale"
Most judges have had years of experience and since the successful introduction of the BJCP programme here in 2004 with our first exams in 2005 there has been an increasing number of well trained and importantly peer assessed judges, these guys and girls actually do know their stuff and are there to provide feedback on ways you might improve your beer.
You have an issue with your beer, and you have a possible solution, fine, but surely you would be helped if 3 other brewers, three other judges thought that they found the same issue and hopefully give you some decent feedback..to say "hops wrong for syle" may be true but to say "a better hop for this style is a noble variety such as Hersbrucker" is better.
Do not expect the world, those judging sheets are not very big and those judges are pretty full on assessing, but please..enter some (hopefully BJCP sanctioned) comps.

K

more to follow
 
#2
There seems to be an on-going debate over this BIAB thing.
Question:
For the BIABERS only
Do you BIAB to make better beer, and does BIAB do so ?
Do you BIAB to reduce the number of processes in brewing and does BIAB do so?
And if it does reduce the processes what are they and do you also save time?

As I understand it (and I may be wrong, perhaps my data is out of date) the BIABER has the following procedure.
The BIABER (or Full Volumer) uses a large and very strong voile or such grain bag into which the entire grist is poured.
This is suspended in a large vessel that will later be the boiler with a quantity of mash temp water (say 70 strike) that equals the total amount used by an old fashioned masher for both the mash and the sparge, allowing for losses from either method.
After 60 minutes (or Lateline in my case) the bag is hoisted up and allowed to drain (I will not mention squeezing or other possible tannin extraction routes), just drain.
Everything form here on in proceeds as a normal mash brew, boiling, hopping, cooling and such.

I pointed out, in some long and perhaps rambling, perhaps technical posts many months ago that very high liquor to grist ratio will result in a far more dextrinous wort than a standard mash (read them). NOW..if I were wanting to make a Lambic I would do all I could to produce a dextrinous mash but were I to make a kolsch then I would want quite the opposite !
I also pointed out in about my last post on the subject that you were perhaps almost there.

Forgetting efficiency (even 10% here or there makes little difference, you can concentrate or dilute if you want) there are very few reasons, so few that none come to mind, why if I were to suspend a voile sack of grain in my boiler, probably sitting on the bottom for a flatter profile so its lowered rather than suspended, into say a 2.5 or 3:1 liquor (to grist) volume of water at strike temp, do the mash thing, I would then take off the sweet wort but thats just me, add the rest of the hot liquor in one go, let it sit awhile then lift and drain the bag and possibly add the sweet wort first runnings back that I would have markedly different wort from that I may have produced from standard mashing.
Would I do it ..no, I love sparging, I love that gentle flow of wort.
Would I encourage other brewers to do it ..no..but that is for reasons rather than will it will probably work.

K
 
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