Biab or change to mashing

[Phoney]

puzzled.

if you are doing a 1.075 wort with 3 vessel you can pull a very strong first runnings to ferment into your RIS. Then a lot of the fermentables are trapped in the remaining grains and need to be sparged out. So then you either use the spargings as a second runnings (partigyle) or you combine them back with the first runnings then boil for an extended period to get the OG back to 1.075.

No different with BIAB. The beer I referred to that got a gong in the NSW comp was actually a RIS at around 10% ABV and was done in one session with BIAB, with a sparge and a prolonged boil. No probs.

edit: the extra sparge "pot" was a plastic washing up bowl if you want to class that as juggling

Whats the most grain you've fit in a 40L urn? I put in 8kg yesterday and got 1.076 OG. I've done 9.5kg and only hit about another 12 points, and then I had to reserve 5L, heat it up on the stove, hoist bag up a bit and pour it through the bag otherwise with 32L of strike water it wouldn't fit.

I have NFI how I can get a 1.100 OG without using a secondary vessel or an epic long boil and smaller volume. Granted this would be easier if I just had a larger vessel.

 

[hotmelt]

Slightly off topic, but what do BIABers suspend their pulleys from? My garage has nothing other than the brackets that the garage door rolls along & I doubt they are strong enough. Anyone have any brilliant solutions?

I think your garage door would be heavier than a bag of wet grain so it should be ok to hang a pulley off.

I don't bother lifting the bag out now,I just drain into two buckets then lift it out to drain in another bucket while heating up to the boil.It adds about 20 mins to the brewday but the wort stays clear compared to when I used to lift the bag.I'll get another vessel and pump it over one day.

 

[slcmorro]

Lifting the bag out on a pulley works great for me. Means I can squeeze it over the keggle (the bag that is!) and get more preboil volume out of it before a sparge to full volume. All the crap stirred up by lifting the bag should *mostly* be contained except for the minute particles anyways, and what is leftover should whirlpool out and/or settle into trub in the cube or fermenter.

 

[Bribie G]

Phoney re #41
Yes the 40L urn size is a constraint due to urns being designed for catering and not for brewing. Inconsiderate bastards.

However that's not a BIAB downside, just a vessel size downside. I'm a mechanical feckup and don't mind admitting it. When I was poor and had to change 4 spark plugs in my bomb I'd buy 6 because I knew I would crunch 2 as well as skinning my knuckles.

But If I was starting again I'd seriously consider going 50 or 60 with elements and ball valve.

Least stressful way of doing high grav in urn is to aim for say 15L that's almost a kegful. I'd guess most guys doing RIS or barley wine might be vintaging in glass anyway.

 

[Phoney]

Fair point. When I'm doing a big beer I aim for 18L and keg in 2 x 9L corny's. One for now and one for later

 

[Eagleburger]

I nearly went the urn. The turn off for me was the low wattage, more time for temp change. I got a 80L pot and glad I did as I now do 45L brews for two cornies. Always good to have plenty of swill on hand for guests and a chaser for a stout.

 

[jkirky]

Seems to be a few BIAB'ers here that sparge, I would have thought that adds an arguably unnecessary step. I just got an 80% mash efficiency on the weekend due to having a new mash paddle and realising I must have had dough balls previously, doing a temp stepped mash with a protein rest at the start and using a swiss voile bag now (better drainage). I had anticipated 65%... the czech lager is going to be a strong one. Will shoot for 75% next time but yeah, after the weekend I can't see the need for sparging unless its because of pot size restrictions to full volume mash?

My efficiency with BIAB was about 65% until I realised that I was getting 'balling' with the grain- this improved a fair bit with better stirring and through slower, more careful introduction of the grain to the strike water. Its an easy thing to look past and not realise that its happening, but will definately effect efficiency...

 

[poggor]

How so?

moving large volumes of wort from vessel to vessel without pumps either involves:
1) lifting very heavy vessels of hot fluid
2) pouring very large vessels of hot fluid or
3) having large vessels of hot fluid above should height

all are dangerous

g

 

[slcmorro]

moving large volumes of wort from vessel to vessel without pumps either involves:
1) lifting very heavy vessels of hot fluid
2) pouring very large vessels of hot fluid or
3) having large vessels of hot fluid above should height
4) using gravity to siphon from stable and strong purpose built platforms

 

[manticle]

Any objections from the OP if I change the title? BIAB is a mashing process so I would change it to something like 'BIAB or change to 3v?'

 

[Kingy]

Gravity fed is so yesterday.

 

[poggor]

moving large volumes of wort from vessel to vessel without pumps either involves:
1) lifting very heavy vessels of hot fluid
2) pouring very large vessels of hot fluid or
3) having large vessels of hot fluid above should height
4) using gravity to siphon from stable and strong purpose built platforms

obviously not impossible. potential for accident is still higher than vessels all at work bench level using pumps. ladders also introduce element of danger. I have seen bad things from vessels of hot water and ladders (although not combined!).... bad things.

 

[slcmorro]

Gravity fed is so yesterday.

And the day before that, and the day before that etc etc back to when brewing began

 

[anthonyUK]

When I brew with a mate on his 100l 3v system we transfer in 3-4 batches. Not had any issues or accidents as yet.
What is the reasoning that all the wort has to be transferred in one hit?

 

[poggor]

When I brew with a mate on his 100l 3v system we transfer in 3-4 batches. Not had any issues or accidents as yet.
What is the reasoning that all the work has to be transferred in one hit?

efficiency

 

[Flash_DG]

I burnt my leg really bad when I was doing BIAB, never had an issue with my new 2v set up, oh and not doing my back in lifting a wet bag of hot grains out and trying to squeeze it over another bucket and not get hot wort on myself. Yeah BIAB was hard on my body, needed a good lay down afterwards. That or I'm getting old

 

[anthonyUK]

efficiency

Well 3V isn't as efficient process-wise which I think is what you mean so by the time you transfer the first runnings then sparge it has basically split your transfers anyway.
It is not something I worry about though as it just works for us.

Regarding the clarity non-issue there is an article on Brulosophy that is worth a read - http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[Yob]

moving large volumes of wort from vessel to vessel without pumps either involves:
1) lifting very heavy vessels of hot fluid
2) pouring very large vessels of hot fluid or
3) having large vessels of hot fluid above should height

all are dangerous

g

My HERMS system can run gravity fed if required, hardly dangerous at all, open tap, done.

 

[RdeVjun]

Seems to be a few BIAB'ers here that sparge, I would have thought that adds an arguably unnecessary step. I just got an 80% mash efficiency on the weekend due to having a new mash paddle and realising I must have had dough balls previously, doing a temp stepped mash with a protein rest at the start and using a swiss voile bag now (better drainage). I had anticipated 65%... the czech lager is going to be a strong one. Will shoot for 75% next time but yeah, after the weekend I can't see the need for sparging unless its because of pot size restrictions to full volume mash?

Yes, for Full- Volume BIAB a Sparge step is unnecessary, however in certain circumstances where the desired Brewlength or Fermenter Volume is greater than the Kettle Volume then a Sparge is vital. It is seen commonly with 23L Brewlength in a 19L Stockpot, aka MaxiBIAB, that's not recommended for beginners but nevertheless pretty straight forward.

The issue of served beer clarity up above is fairly simple to tackle no matter what the process- substances such as Brewbrite, Whirlfloc, Coppafloc, gelatine etc, plus a dash of patience during post- ferment cold conditioning seem to make all the difference, while filtering is in the arsenal as well if you can be arsed. A relationship between wort (or even runnings) clarity and the final served beer clarity isn't that strong AFAIK, pleased exclamations about bright, exceptionally clear wort (my own included) are novel but perhaps misguided, there's a heap more particulate generation, precipitation and flocculation to happen once yeast is added to the process.

 

[sp0rk]

Am I the only one that actually enjoys lifting a big heavy bag of wet grains out of their BIAB vessel?
Saves me from a trip to the gym...