Limitations Of Biab

[Thirsty Boy]

Mate you're the one who called it a "nil all draw". I'm not measuring anything or claiming one method is better than the other, I'm disagreeing with a couple things you wrote.

Sorry Kai - I didn't mean for my thread (or that part of it) to sound like it was aimed at you - it wasn't - I could just sense things perhaps degrading into a slagging match rather than an exchange of ideas and made a probably poor attempt to head it off at the pass. Should have more clearly separated the junk waving bit of my post from the bit where I responded to your points. Apologies.

Yeah, cheap shop stock pots are cheap and good for decoctions if the dedicated kettle is unsuitable. You don't need a separate burner though, as you stated earlier.

Fair point, no arguments

Once the first wort is in the kettle, small beer wort can stay in the mash and be lautered out after the first boil is complete with no real detriment to quality.
Alternatively once the first wort is in the kettle, sparge liquor can be added as a batch sparge then second wort run straight back into the now-empty HLT where it can be boiled if the vessel is suitable.

For a two wort Partigyle - I see what you mean, you certainly could do it that way. I tend to think of Partigyle as the whole "Big Beer - Normal Beer - Table Beer" thing, so three worts; and thats what I had in mind. Doesn't really matter, as you pointed out, the whole thing can be done either way using a fermenter that we all have about the place anyway.

Do you understand I meant two separate batches, not a batch double in volume? So on a three vessel system it's second mash in the tun shortly after runoff is complete, in BIAB it's second brew in when first brew is completely finished. That's a big difference in time (unless you have two BIAB systems, eh Pat).

No I didn't understand that - I missed it in the context somewhere. Most times (on AHB at least) when people say "double batch".. they mean double volume not consecutive brews. When we were discussing pot volumes etc and were talking about double batches earlier in the thread.. thats what we were talking about, I thought you were too.

For consecutive brews - you are way right. The more vessels you have the easier it is to do end on end brews. For instance at work we have 7 (main) vessels. Hot Liquor, Cold Liquor, Mash Tun, Lauter Tun, Wort Receiver, Kettle, Whirlpool - And can have 3-4 brews in the system at once and get 10 brews per day out of a plant.... and we have two plants. Now thats how to do multiple brews in one day!! Especially in a system where the mash is conducted in the kettle (like BIAB); consecutive brews take comparatively forever.

Anyway - I had meant to leave this post alone - I think the OP has all the info he needs to make his choices by now. But when I realized that I had inadvertently insulted Kai, I thought I had better try to make amends for my lousy communication skills. Last thing I want to do is look like I am having a go at one of the people here on AHB who I really do think knows what they are talking about.

Sorry about that

Thirsty

 

[notung]

This thread couldn't have come at a better time for me. For a number of reasons I am planning to downsize my brewing operations to smaller batches (around 12L) and I have been wondering if I should go in the direction of a mini 3 tier rig or BIAB. A 3 tier rig in littler pots has sex/bling appeal and is more traditional but strikes me as waaaay more expensive and heaps more tinkering to build/clean/maintain - for what seems like the same brewing opportunities as BIAB. Plus I already own a 30L Birko urn.

Quick question though:
What sort of clarity would one expect from their wort using BIAB? I'm wondering if a whole bunch of proteins, etc drop into the wort as you lift the bag up. Does recirculating make a difference? Do the whirlfloc tabs take care of it? This is really the only thing I'm unsure of.

 

[RdeVjun]

This thread couldn't have come at a better time for me. For a number of reasons I am planning to downsize my brewing operations to smaller batches (around 12L) and I have been wondering if I should go in the direction of a mini 3 tier rig or BIAB. A 3 tier rig in littler pots has sex/bling appeal and is more traditional but strikes me as waaaay more expensive and heaps more tinkering to build/clean/maintain - for what seems like the same brewing opportunities as BIAB. Plus I already own a 30L Birko urn.

Quick question though:
What sort of clarity would one expect from their wort using BIAB? I'm wondering if a whole bunch of proteins, etc drop into the wort as you lift the bag up. Does recirculating make a difference? Do the whirlfloc tabs take care of it? This is really the only thing I'm unsure of.

Quick answer: Wort (and beers) are just fine, no such clarity problems. I use whirlfloc and gelatine when I can be bothered.

The bling setup doesn't clean up after itself or pack itself away when you're done, whereas a stockpot and a bag are pretty easy to tidy up and tuck away somewhere.

I like the idea of not forking out a heap of dough to scale up or down. My AG conversion cost me about $30, just a stockpot and a bag, have to say it was the best $30 I ever spent! :icon_cheers:

 

[Cocko]

This thread couldn't have come at a better time for me. For a number of reasons I am planning to downsize my brewing operations to smaller batches (around 12L) and I have been wondering if I should go in the direction of a mini 3 tier rig or BIAB. A 3 tier rig in littler pots has sex/bling appeal and is more traditional but strikes me as waaaay more expensive and heaps more tinkering to build/clean/maintain - for what seems like the same brewing opportunities as BIAB. Plus I already own a 30L Birko urn.

Quick question though:
What sort of clarity would one expect from their wort using BIAB? I'm wondering if a whole bunch of proteins, etc drop into the wort as you lift the bag up. Does recirculating make a difference? Do the whirlfloc tabs take care of it? This is really the only thing I'm unsure of.

I did 38 BIAB's and never had a real clarity issue... but never had a 'bright' brew. That said I didn't crash chill or use isiglass etc...

THE ONLY REASON I WENT 3V = was to up volume.. went to 100L batches. I can't lift 20kg of wet grain in a bag due to my desire not to.....

My recipes upscaled to 3V and nothing much more changed... I picked up some efficiency and now only have to brew every 3-4 weeks rather than every week [Brewing for 3]

Clarity: I bought a filter a couple of weeks ago and have since filtered 3 kegs.... best money I have ever spent!!


Not trying to start a new OT argument just saying... If you wanna a truly bright beer, how many additives are you gonna try and extra effort when you could take just one step!

Ha.