A Guide To All-grain Brewing In A Bag

[marksfish]

in "real" brewing you would add gumboots

 

[hsb]

Now we just look like nutters discussing shoe additions to BIAB. For the record, there was a madman selling Gucci Shoes a few posts back, honest.

 

[Newbee(r)]

Now we just look like nutters discussing shoe additions to BIAB. For the record, there was a madman selling Gucci Shoes a few posts back, honest.

I amm about to purchase my crown urn (40l) etc from craft brewer, and wanted to know without searching 97 (!) pages of narrative if the commercial chillers will fit in the urn, such as the chillers sold on grain and grape? In my partials I have found chilling the wort makes a real difference and would prefer to ensure a solid cold break after mashout.

Cheers

Jake
(drinking pale ale with a generous dose of nelson hops)

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I have the biggest chiller from G&G and it fits in my 40L urn easily... But its not a crown urn. I really dont imagine you will have any trouble though. Most of the smaller chillers from G&G would do fit in it nearly twice.

If you have trouble, you can always opt for a plate chiller - no issues with fitting in anything then.

 

[Newbee(r)]

Awesome, and thanks for the quick reply. I have a watertank behind the garage so will just pump it through and back into the tank I've been doing partials for long enough and biab seems the ideal solution instead of forking out multiple bucks for a pretty herms.

 

[Newbee(r)]

picked up the grain and grape smaller chiller and bumped my wort from off boil to 24 degrees in 10 minutes. One verry happy customer :icon_cheers:

 

[JestersDarts]

hey babbers -

I have made a quick video of my brewing process when I brewed last Friday - Its just an outline of the basics so someone who is trying to get their head around the BIAB process, or even just brewing all grain beer, can see it. I tried not to waffle, so its pretty concise Its my first video too - so, of course, i think its awesome.
and yes, I don't boil in my urn - I transfer to another kettle - so its another take on BIAB i guess.
Anyway - I hope its useful to someone!



Cheers - Jack

 

[brendanox]

Great video!
Really helps me get my head around the method.
Do you you do your brewing at a brewery? How do you get access?

 

[Damian44]

Hi peoples, my paint stirrer is past its use by date and im after a food grade replacement. Any ideas?

In my last brew i forgot to put in whirfloc in, will i be able to reuse the yeast?


TYVM Damian

 

[Bribie G]

So did you end up getting a fair bit of trub into the fermenter? If so then your "yeast" cake would probably only be partly yeast. You could take a smallish amount and culture it up then pitch that to give you a better cell count into the brew.

Was your paint stirrer plastic / flaking? One of these is everlasting.

 

[Damian44]

Bribie i did get a lot of trub into the fermenter. Ill get new yeast next time.

My paint stirrer looks like yours but the silver is peeling off the stem and it has a horrible metallic smell.

 

[craigo]

just wondering how you do a high gravity biab to make a 23 litre batch of beer in a 19l stock pot on the stove?

 

[Bribie G]

just wondering how you do a high gravity biab to make a 23 litre batch of beer in a 19l stock pot on the stove?

here tis

 

[pyrosx]

Wow... that's just ******* special

 

[davo4772]

BIAB on Brewing TV

Linky

 

[kelbygreen]

like how he says it takes a hour longer. It is also one reason why I dont do BIAB it is not faster from what I thought when I started. But if you dont have the space or the money then it is a good way to brew. Its not a thing for me but I appreciate the system like any other but I find the easiest and best mothod for me.

 

[Bribie G]

An hour longer than what? In my case (around a 4 hour brew day) if there's a 3 hour option, please let me know

 

[kelbygreen]

maybe he said a hour shorter as he said it was just over 3 hours. Mate as we know you can make the most out of your time! still cant believe I done a double and a single side by side with a decoction in the pils and both fly sparged, from cold water in the HLT's (used 20lt pot as my second HLT) to all the gear drying after wash up just over 4.5hrs.

I aint knocking BIAB I started on it and didnt like it from word go it wasnt me. I was doing 21lts into fermenter in 4.5hrs BIAB but I was just starting so it was a shit fight. My last brew day was a shit fight I had to make my HLT into a kettle on the day by bending some more copper so it was picking up from the side not the centre and I used hop cones in the HLT and it kept clogging up. Also took the QD off the double kettle and didnt turn the tap off :S that hurt! and fly sparging when you are heating a decoction mash isnt the best idea.

I didnt think I would get it done in under 5 hrs I dont know how I did, I think the clocks stopped lol. But having 2 burners and being able to heat both mash water and boiling both wort at the same time is prob the main gain.

It depends what you want and what you can afford I bought my gear over years and its paid for its self. If you go doubles get a pump as lifting a kettle from the floor to a burner is not good and few sessions at the chiropractor will soon pay that off lol

 

[Brewman_]

No matter what your process it will take a number of runs to understand how it all works and how to best optimise it.

 

[RdeVjun]

They're interesting guys, but FFS their 'number one challenge' in heat loss, has a number one answer: insulation. I'd also suggest that anyone trying this at home without overcoming that challenge could try to distribute any added heat throughout the entire mash, not just the liquor.
I think it takes him an hour longer compared to extract brewing, that seems to be the implication.
Sparging is an 'option' all right, but deciding to sparge isn't equivalent to just using conventional 3V equipment (16:24), there's many other benefits- did anyone notice how hard it was to lauter and how few pieces of equipment there were? Sparging doesn't take longer either, I can't understand why that keeps coming up on the cons, the sparge step takes place while the kettle is coming up to the boil, it actually takes advantage of the time where you would ordinarily be standing around picking your nose anyway. However, in the stock/ no- sparge BIAB, which I'd suggest novices should be doing first, it becomes moot.
Nevertheless, I'd recommend the video to interested brewers as an intro with a demo and discussion around BIAB. :icon_cheers: