Gearing up for BIAB

[Dazzbrew]

At the moment i'm gathering all the gear that i will need to make the step from can brewing into BIAB.

So far i have these things;
keggle; with ball valve, 90 deg elbow and barbed fitting
burner; i bought a burner from Country Brewer which comes with a stand (305mm high) and adjustable high pressure regulator
no chill cube; i have a bmw 20 ltr jerry can style which holds roughly 22.5ltrs
1 metre of food grade silicon hose (for cubing)
grain bag with draw string (from Country Brewer)
5ltr measuring jug
fermenter; the one that comes with a coopers home brew start up kit.
spoon; long plastic spoon (start up kit), would this be ok or should i buy a metal one?
Hydrometer
bottles, caps, sugar measurer (for bottling)
Iodophos, should i buy some Starsan also?
9kg gas bottle
fermentation fridge; the fridge is sitting in my wreck of a garage which is dirty, dusty and sadly does not have lights or power. we are however aiming to get a new garage in a couple of months (still need to submit a DA for it)
gloves; i bought a pair of gloves with pvc coating from bunnings today, not sure if they will do?

i still need to get these things, any tips would be appreciated.
temp controller; i bought one on Ebay the other day, i just need to wait till it arrives from Hong Kong and get all the parts to rig/wire it up.
fermentation fridge heat source; coming into winter i may need some sort of heat source to help with fermentation temp control, someone suggested i use a light bulb (which would be easy to rig up) or i could fill the crisper tub with water and use one of my aquarium heaters (i thin that would work) or should i just buy a heat belt?
burner stand; i will need some sort of stand or platform to raise my burner up on whilst in use so that i will have enough height to clear the cube, not sure if i should use some sort of bricks/blocks or get someone to weld up a metal stand?
thermometer; i bought one from Country Brewer which has a digital diplay module and a probe on a metal wire. This will be taken back to the shop as it is widly inacurate! i wanted one of these because i thought it would be handy to have one with an alarm which i could set to tell me when i'm nearing mash in temp.
hop sock; not sure if these are necessary or i should just throw the hops loose into the boil
recipe; haven't decided what to brew for my first BIAB yet.

is there any thing else i need to add to my list? or any tips on the above?

Dazz.

 

[potof4x]

Pretty good list there. You'll need some insulation to maintain your temps while mashing. I use 4 big old beach towels held in place with elastic and a cut out camping mat for a lid. Temp drop is 1.5C an hour and easy to clean.

Also some form of hoist for your bag. I've just got an awning pully secured with a eye bolt to a rafter. Apparently some guys lift their bags by hand, but no way I would even try.

 

[CrookedFingers]

Agree with potof4x, on the list mate. You seem to have all the stuff you need.
I have an old doona to wrap the urn.
I lift by hand, gets pretty annoying when you have 7 or 8 kg's of malts in there !!!
I will move to a hoist eventually fore the ease.

Get brewing dude !!!!

CF

 

[Dazzbrew]

Thanks guys, i'll add lagging and a pulley to my list.
any suggestions on which style of thermometer is best, what to use as a burner stand and which would be best for heating in my ferm fridge?

 

[spog]

Thanks guys, i'll add lagging and a pulley to my list.
any suggestions on which style of thermometer is best, what to use as a burner stand and which would be best for heating in my ferm fridge?

BIAB for the first time go with the bare essentials .Pot,burner ,bag. Get to know the procedure and how your basic system works.
Using a gas burner for the first time you will be constantly f,ING around with the flame to keep the temp correct,same with electric if you are not constantly monitoring the temperature using a thermometer.
As you asked about a thermometer ( immersion type) try the Vacola brand which is used in home preserving,try the hardware shop if they carry preserving gear or the local organic or kitchen ware shops .
Tie some string to the top of it so you can lift it out to monitor temp so you don't scald your fingers.
Throw the hops in and let them do their thing,I don't use ( used to ) any type of hop sock or similar,grab a set of 3 graduated kitchen strainers from the cheap shop , with all 3 stacked together use to strain the wort when transferring to the fermentor,as one fills with hop material etc it will over flow into the second sieve and as that begins to fill and over flow whip the first smaller one out empty it and put it back,the third strainer will catch any excess while you quickly empty the first ( hope that makes sense),I use the 3 strainers as a substitute to a false bottom it works well and I don't have to remove a false bottom to clean it then fix it back in place.
3 strainers cost about $4.00 and are much easier to clean.
As for a stirring spoon I use a pasta scoop as it is easier to stir the mash with and the fingers on it cut through the grain easier.
Sometime back someone here referred to the plastic spoon as a Coopers snapomatic,how true it is.
Hope this helps. Cheers....spog....

 

[Matt Browne]

Looks like you've got it all. I use a heat pad in winter and sit the fermenter on top of it in my fermenter fridge. Do you have scales to weigh grain?

 

[CrookedFingers]

For heating I use a reptile heater pad I bought off ebay for about $14.
It sits between two sheets of core flute in the door of the fridge.
Hooked up to the stc1000 it seems to do the job well.


CF

 

[Dazzbrew]

Hey guys, thanks for the tips and feedback. Im going to do a bit more research on thermometers now. And hopefully my stc1000 arrives soon.