BIAB legacy podcast

[Crusty]

Crusty got a mention :beerbang:

The light really turned on for me when Pat explained the reason for a 90 min mash. I occasionally do a 90 or even 120 (plus a few custom ones like Hochkurz) but more often than not just set the timer for 60. So I'll be doing a 90 as my standard mash now. Thanks Pat.

I echo Crusty's comments. And not just the USA, hop onto any of the UK forums and BIAB is now a well accepted method. Go back only a couple of years ago and senior forum members there were resigning rather than put up with this silly new Australian nonsense :unsure:

MIAB Mash in a Bag - doesn't quite have the same ring, sounds like a cranky cat you accidentally trod on.

I think you were the Urn pioneer Bribie. You got a mention in the interview that Pat did with Brad from BeerSmith a while back IIRC.
It's certainly a method that hasn't let you down with all those brewing awards mate. God help us fancy brew rig brewers at the Grafton show comp............
I'm not expecting to place but really looking forward to the judging notes.

 

[S.E]

S.E. I think what was original about BIAB was not so much the bag but more the fact that it was a full-volume, single vessel method. I'm sure many people would have done full-volume mashing in a bag before but I'm pretty sure it was not really out in the public arena at all. Any popular method in the public arena, including the braumeisters, always involved an active sparge. So I think the hidden sparge / full volume / single vessel bit is the real key. Correct me please though if I have this wrong. If we could re-name it, maybe we would call it full-volume mashing, hidden sparge, single vessel all-grain method - lol!

Hi Pat, yeah the whole brewing in a bag process and full volume mash was well known and documented.

The electrim bin I bought and used in the UK was a purpose built single vessel brewery with a thermostatically controlled kettle element that could maintain mash temperature etc.

I suspended the bag and sparged with a couple litres of warm water, but my Uncle did not sparge in his, he mashed full volume. He also fermented in his and used the thermostat to keep it warm in cold weather so his was a true single vessel brewery.

I have also seen a bag and I’m fairly sure it was full Volume mash used to make poteen in Ireland.

I think what you achieved with the help of AHB and the internet was getting the methods far more widely known especially here where it apparently wasn’t well known.

Cheers Sean

 

[S.E]

Crusty got a mention :beerbang:

The light really turned on for me when Pat explained the reason for a 90 min mash. I occasionally do a 90 or even 120 (plus a few custom ones like Hochkurz) but more often than not just set the timer for 60. So I'll be doing a 90 as my standard mash now. Thanks Pat.

I echo Crusty's comments. And not just the USA, hop onto any of the UK forums and BIAB is now a well accepted method. Go back only a couple of years ago and senior forum members there were resigning rather than put up with this silly new Australian nonsense :unsure:

MIAB Mash in a Bag - doesn't quite have the same ring, sounds like a cranky cat you accidentally trod on.

But grain bags and electrim bins were available in HB shops in the UK and all the all grain books I read used the method, why would they consider it silly new Australian nonsense?

 

[malt and barley blues]

I can remember my Grandmother brewing over 60 years ago and the smell of the hops through the house, there was no other way of brewing then except for the muslin bag, there was no fancy taps or false bottoms on the pots, it had to be the bag.

 

[Bribie G]

But grain bags and electrim bins were available in HB shops in the UK and all the all grain books I read used the method, why would they consider it silly new Australian nonsense?

I had a Bruheat (identical to electrim) in the UK and brought it to Australia, it died in 1982.

However they are only around 20L and need a sparge step. The grain bag was really to make it easy to dispose of the spent grain.

So it wasn't a one vessel full volume system. However when I decided to go all grain and discovered urns, the light bulb came on.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

At least we discovered the meat pie in Australia

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

And Thongs !

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Are we talking ladies underwear?

 

[Bribie G]

Flip flops.

Had meat pies in UK for centuries

Simple Simon met a Pie Man going to the fair.....


However you can't beat a Manning Valley Pie Company pie on a cold Taree morning steaming in the dawn on your way out to Wingham. About to burst into tears.

 

[manticle]

Also we invented mateship and fairness.

 

[Yob]

And the stubby cooler...

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Vegemite?

 

[manticle]

Lamb chops

 

[S.E]

I had a Bruheat (identical to electrim) in the UK and brought it to Australia, it died in 1982.

However they are only around 20L and need a sparge step. The grain bag was really to make it easy to dispose of the spent grain.

So it wasn't a one vessel full volume system. However when I decided to go all grain and discovered urns, the light bulb came on.

Hang on, if you had a Bruheat and knew grain bags were available in the UK why didn’t you mention it to Pat when he believed he had just thought of the idea was trying to work out how to make one?

My Uncle used his electrim as a single vessel and also fermented in it, you can brew less than 20L you don’t need a sparge step at any size batch. I don’t understand why you would think that.

As for the grain bag only being to make it easy to dispose of the grain, that’s certainly not what we used them for.
We used them to contain the mash in the electrim bin, we didn’t have a false bottom. How can the bag make it easy to dispose of the spent grain?

Did you use a new grain bag to throw the grain away in every brew, surely you can’t mean that?

Cheers Sean

 

[S.E]

I can remember my Grandmother brewing over 60 years ago and the smell of the hops through the house, there was no other way of brewing then except for the muslin bag, there was no fancy taps or false bottoms on the pots, it had to be the bag.

Where was your Grandmother brewing, was it in Australia?

 

[Bribie G]

Hang on, if you had a Bruheat and knew grain bags were available in the UK why didn’t you mention it to Pat when he believed he had just thought of the idea was trying to work out how to make one?

My Uncle used his electrim as a single vessel and also fermented in it, you can brew less than 20L you don’t need a sparge step at any size batch. I don’t understand why you would think that.

As for the grain bag only being to make it easy to dispose of the grain, that’s certainly not what we used them for.
We used them to contain the mash in the electrim bin, we didn’t have a false bottom. How can the bag make it easy to dispose of the spent grain?

Did you use a new grain bag to throw the grain away in every brew, surely you can’t mean that?

Cheers Sean

I was only interested in filling my five gallon pressure barrel so the output of the Bruheat including the spargings went into my bucket style fermenter. I tipped the contents of the grain bag down the toilet, a bit at a time as I was living in a flat. Yes indeed it would have been wonderful if BIAB had occurred to me at that time.

 

[thedragon]

Sounds like someone has a chip on his shoulder.

 

[S.E]

I was only interested in filling my five gallon pressure barrel so the output of the Bruheat including the spargings went into my bucket style fermenter. I tipped the contents of the grain bag down the toilet, a bit at a time as I was living in a flat. Yes indeed it would have been wonderful if BIAB had occurred to me at that time.

OK, I think I must be an idiot. I still don’t get what’s different about BIAB. I’m sure you posted somewhere before that you BIAB but sparge. So what are you doing differently now that you didn’t do in the UK? Apart from the toilet disposal method.

What part of brewing in a bag had not occurred to you at that time? I really don’t get it.

Cheers

 

[malt and barley blues]

My Grandmother was born bred and buried in the UK my Grandfather was Irish, not only my Grandmother brewed with a bag but as I got older I helped our next door neighbour brew with the same method, I remember we used bakers yeast on slices of toast to ferment the beer in earthen ware pots, never came across infections, except when the beer was left to long in the fermenter then the vinegar fly was the culprit of any infection.
I miss those days, and I wish my Grandmother was around for me to talk to, it seemed my whole life revolved around a pram, which I got off a Gypsy rag and bone man as a reward for holding his horse, I would collect wool and take it to get weighed and I was paid for the weight of the wool, ( to this day I still wander what they did with the wool ) on my way back home I would door Knock for beer bottles to take back to the pub and collect threepence a bottle.
By the way this was a six mile walk round trip for a young lad of 6 or 7, but I wouldn't change anything for the world.

 

[manticle]

How far was it for an eighteen year old? Still six miles or a bit less?