Biab In Fermenter - New Method?

[Acasta]

Yeah, was just a thought, but then again, the bag isn't that much of a hassle.. Just kinda wanna DIY something haha.

 

[matr]

You can multi step with BIAB. The big boys don't use eskies either.

Yup, Did one today for a Dunkel. The mash schedule was actually taken from Tony's recipe!!

Cheers, Mat.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Goat pretty much said it - seems to me that you have just invented the "mash tun"

And at the end of this process - you still have to manhandle the bag full of wet grain to get it out of the fermenter, which you now have to clean before you can ferment in it? Defeating the point of doing it in the first place.

Nothing wrong with what you are doing - but it isn't BIAB or anything even vaguely resembling it, it is just plain old multi vessel mashing, and you'll probably find your day easier and your beer better, if you just let go of the BIAB mindset and start thinking like a mash tun brewer and use a few of the techniques that they have tried, tested and proven over many years.

 

[Acasta]

Assuming your talking about my thought TB,
Tthats what im getting at, making a cheap and easy mash tun. I wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, this thread kinda gave me the idea of using the fermenter because of its shape and ease. I am fully aware of 3v brewing and am definitely sick of the bag of grain.

 

[Bribie G]

TB's right there.
There are several hybrid systems out there - but at the end of the day when you evaluate them and weigh the pros and cons the faffing around usually totally defeats the purpose. Most hybrid systems such as stretching a 19L pot to do 40L batches or doing a dunk sparge on the side with a full size BIAB brew or trying to juggle two vessels when a third one is really the sensible choice... although they may produce a good brew, they usually revolve around someone not having enough money (or desire, or availability where they are) to kit themselves out with a suitable vessel or vessels and just making compromises that sort of work, often by the skin of their teeth. Either go full on BIAB which is now tried and tested and produces good and award winning beers, or go full on 3V or HERMS or RIMS which are tried and tested and produce award winning beers

having said that there's nothing wrong with experimenting and who knows someone may stumble on a hitherto unguessed holy grail in the future, brew in a hot air balloon or something :huh:

Edit: Acasta got in first: I find that with a skyhook and simple hoist, a big black garbage bag with ties - swing bag to one side straight into the garbage bag in a baby bath on the floor, tip grain, extract bag and rinse and straight into the washing machine, tie off black garbabe bag and off to compost or bin, and Bob's Yer. Almost trivial part of the process. After watching guys at 3v brew days scooping and scraping and spilling spent grain out of eskies and cleaning up braid and false bottoms ...
It is actually possible to avoid spent grain altogether as I'll be doing next brew:

 

[eamonnfoley]

I'd be worried about melting the fermenter - isnt BIAB with one stainless vessel easy enough?

 

[felten]

Sick of the bag? sacrilege!

brew in a hot air balloon or something :huh:

The altitude would totally screw with your boil...

 

[mje1980]

Can't believe the arguments are still going 3v vs HERMS vs RIMS vs BIAB. ALL of them involve the basics of beer, mashing, sparging, boiling, cooling. As long as those 4 steps are involved, what f*cking difference does it make whether you have electronic setups, 6 vessels, cloth bags, or even little slave kids to do the work, it all produces beer.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Assuming your talking about my thought TB,
Tthats what im getting at, making a cheap and easy mash tun. I wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, this thread kinda gave me the idea of using the fermenter because of its shape and ease. I am fully aware of 3v brewing and am definitely sick of the bag of grain.

Nope, I meant the OP's idea, not yours - You are just talking about making a mash tun out of an old fermenter - been done, works. Only thing wrong with it is that fermenters are actually pretty expensive for their size, and you might find you can get yourself a nice pre-insulated eski, bigger, probably easier to fit out - for around about the same money or maybe even cheaper. And there is the advantage of about a million pre existing examples to steal ideas from.

BIAB is only easy, if you find it easy. If the bag shits you, build a mash tun - they're easy too. The thing i find weird and a bit pointless, is people who keep tweaking and changing BIAB to make it more closely resemble a mash tun based system - removing most or all of the advantages of the BIAB method, but not actually gaining very many of the advantages of using a mash tun. Its been done reasonably well by a few people - but honestly, mostly its a bit of an abortion and people would be better off just letting go of one paradigm and embracing the other.

Bit like the flying car - one day someone will come up with one that does the job properly - but mostly its just someone who has bolted some wings and a prop onto a Fiat. The person who built it thinks its the best thing since sliced bread and admittedly, if it will actually fly and doesn't kill them, they're pretty clever for making it work. But in the cold light of day, what they actually end up with is something that is both a pretty crappy plane and a now a fairly shit car too.

 

[brettprevans]

Isn't this just a variation of 'bucket of death'
For some reason I can't do a search. But if u search bucket if death you'll get the results

My main issue with ur proposal is ur using non hdpe plastic (ie plastic that's not heat rated) over and over again increasing the chances of chemical leeching

 

[manticle]

I thought fermentors were HDPE?

 

[brettprevans]

I thought fermentors were HDPE?

Didnt think they all were. Could be wrong. Still all tge issues with bucket of death would apply here I'd think.

Dude just pony up for a big stainless or ali pot. Nothing wrong with BIAB but use tge right equip for the job (IMO)

 

[manticle]

Just checked a couple of mine - number 2 recycling symbol (HDPE)

 

[Bribie G]

Can't believe the arguments are still going 3v vs HERMS vs RIMS vs BIAB. ALL of them involve the basics of beer, mashing, sparging, boiling, cooling. As long as those 4 steps are involved, what f*cking difference does it make whether you have electronic setups, 6 vessels, cloth bags, or even little slave kids to do the work, it all produces beer.

+1, don't know why these arguments are still ricocheting around either.

Quality beer production:


Selection of barley varieties
Growing the barley and transporting to maltings in good condition
Malting
Hop growing, drying, storage and transportation
Supply of all fresh good quality ingredients to brewer
Sound storage practices at brewery
Recipe formulation
Grain and ingredient preparation
Water adjustments

wort production

Wort cooling
Sanitation and sterilization
Yeast selection, propagation and handling
Temperature control
Fermentation scheduling
Secondary fermentation, cold conditioning and lagering issues
Packaging and storage of the beer
Serving methods


Two methods of wort production: mash then remove the wort from the grain or mash then remove the grain from the wort. With the small lengths we brew, we now have the option of doing either.
But it's only one step on the journey of a grain of barley from the paddock to the brain.

 

[hopcycle]

The only reason that I posted my comments is that I thought it may be useful to someone out there. I helps me because I do not have a large pot (only 2 x 15L) and it frees up one pot for the production of saprge water....does that make sense?

It made my brew day easier which is what BIAB is supposed to do...correct?

Well, for my gear specifically .....it made it easier..

It is a bit surprising that one post such as this is a catalyst for such ranting and raving....

I guess there are just lots out there who are passionate about beer which is not such a bad thing

happy brewing

 

[Bribie G]

hopcycle, now you make perfect sense - what you are doing is a perfectly acceptable 3v system with one pot for hot liquor, one vessel with a bag as mash tun, and one vessel for boiling. - as for ranting and raving, that's what forums are for, aren't they ? B)

 

[Bizier]

I think the main similarity between your setup and BIAB is the full volume mash, roughly maintaining temps without much equipment.

For the record, I found it easier to step mash with direct-fired BIAB than I do with my current Esky.

On a paranoid side note, if it is just a standard fermenter, I would probably get another to dedicate to fermenting, or ensure you continually clean this one within an inch of it's lfe if it is to be the only one. I might sound like I am overreacting, but mash tuns generally don't make for the best fermenters.

On a second side note. I wished I played with a vorlauf while I was BIAB, I could have probably reduced the trub in my cube. Hehe, that rhymed.

 

[gone_fishing_]

Just a quick question:
Did you ferment in your mash "vessel"?
GF