Biab Hoisting Or Pulley System?

[spog]

ahhh "lateral thinking"......cheers.....spog..

Another tweak, I sit the urn on a wooden board on a tool trolley so when I'm doing a double batch with 2 urns, the trolley moves along but the hoist stays at the same location, I run the 2 batchs half an hour apart. Also handy for doing a side sparge in a nappy bucket, which I do occasionally with a very high gravity brew such as Midnight Train or a massive AIPA. Hoist bag and do the 'main' drain, move trolley along, lower bag into nappy bucket sitting next to urn, sparge, lift & drain while the urn comes to boil..................


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[mwd]

So how do you squeeze the bag or do you to get the liquid out ?. When I steep grains a whole load of liquid comes out when I tighten up the bag and press the sides and that is only about 300g of grain.

 

[kyleg]

Hi guys, just wondering how much my bag will weigh after the mash is done, im brewing tomorrow with about a 14kg grain bill, set up a pulley system today, tested it with the dry grain and wasn't too bad but im worried that after the mash it will be way heavier and i will drop it and ruin everything..

 

[argon]

Typically biab retains about .75L water/kg of grain. So you can add another 10.5kg to it for a total of 24.5kg.

 

[Cocko]

Haven't BIAB'ed for a while but grain will absorb .7-1L per kg of grain...

So at a rough guess, a litre of water being 1kg, I am thinking 14 kg of wet grain would be about 25-28 kg.

First thought, others will know better.


EDIT: See argon above.

 

[kyleg]

hmmm, guess ive got my fingers crossed!

 

[leiothrix]

it will be a lot heavier than that though when you first pull it out. the bag itself will be full of wort, and it'll take a while to drain.

i use an electric winch to lift mine . . . and i'm only doing single batches.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

it will be a lot heavier than that though when you first pull it out. the bag itself will be full of wort, and it'll take a while to drain.

i use an electric winch to lift mine . . . and i'm only doing single batches.

It shouldn't be....

I am fairly easily able to pull the bag from a single batch BIAB (say 5kg of grain) with one hand and I do so at most of our BIAB demos to prove that things aren't as heavy as most people seem to assume they're going to be. We dont even have a pully at demos, just a hook hanging over the pot and lift the bag up to hang on it. I'm only 5'9" and no weightlifter.

I suspect i "could" pull the bag from a double batch by hand, although I would certainly need both hands and i question the safety of doing so. You'd certainly be better off with a pulley of some sort, but there should be no need for winches etc... Just a rope over a sturdy hook would get the job done in a pinch.

If your bag is retaining liquid to the extent that its very heavy, then I suspect its made of less than optimal material or perhaps you are crushing your grain way to fine. I've had this happen once or twice, but only on brews where i used a massive proprtion or rye or raw wheat in the grist and the wort was very viscous and sticky.

 

[QldKev]

I'm a pretty well build bloke, I woudn't want to be lifting a bag with 14kg of grain in it and trying to hold it until the main juice has run. I've done it with a 10kg batch and that was enough. A 10kg batch seems to weigh 4 times a 5kg batch when your standing there holding it. Also I don't think I would like to trust my bag with 14kg of grain, I think it would be the limit for it. For my big batch I use 2 bags side by side and put half the grain in each. Here is the thread on it Here

QldKev

 

[leiothrix]

My bag is the standard polyester Swiss voile, though not really a bag as much as a 1.5m^2 sheet.

With 5kg grist will retain 2.5->3 L of water, but there would be at least double that initially.

Still easy to lift with one hand, but that would mean climbing onto the bench, and i don't want to stand there holding it for 30 minutes to drain.

I did have a single pulley and cleat before, but I'm lazy and the winch is much easier. Plus there's the bling factor

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Fair enough, but you made it sound as though you "need" an electric winch for a single batch - and its obvious that you dont.

People also need to remember that while your spent grain holds perhaps 0.5-1L of water for every kg of grain you started with... You are leaving behind 70+ percent of that weight of grain in the tun as sugar.

For a 5kg grist, assuming you are sensible about how you pull the bag out, the peak weight of the bag is about 12kg.

Now while i definitely think people should organise themselves a hook or pulley of some sort as it makes life a lot easier, for single batches you simply do not need one. For double or bigger batches... Get a pulley, but it doesn't have to be a block and tackle, the bags simply are not all that heavy. Give yourself a 2:1 mechanical advantage and you will be able to hoist the bag with one hand without putting down your beer.