New Project - Operation "No More Busted Bags"

[fattox]

Hey guys,

As a couple of the local Too SOBA guys know, I had a BIAB bag blowout the other week while pulling out my maibock - this isn't something I'm overly fond of happening a lot, and when I do higher gravity brews I end up having to try drag a reasonably heavy bag out by hand and almost pulling muscles!

So I've been working on something at home, it's currently in development and essentially has taken the idea of a malt pipe, much like that in a Braumeister, and adapted it for BIAB in my 40L crown urn.

So here's what I've come up with so far:

Pic shows a quick layout of how it's been done inside an urn - I'd probably change the size of the lip but nothing else




Updates coming as the design goes further

 

[davedoran]

looks good.
Have you a hoist? Might end up heavy when full of grain.

 

[Beerisyummy]

The idea's been done plenty of times mate. It does work well from my experience.

I would suggest keeping the sides of the pipe solid so you can use the grain bed as a filter. Drain a bit of the cloudy stuff and pour it back over the grain bed to clarify.
You can even drain the urn totally, into a spare container, and then add more water to do a sparge.

 

[Fat Bastard]

You can even drain the urn totally, into a spare container, and then add more water to do a sparge.

This is exactly what I used to do when I brewed in a 2 bedroom flat. Add a little urn for sparge water and a brown pump and you have a 2.5 V recirculating brewery! My bag was canvas sided though, and could easily create an air space around the element if you ran the recirc too fast, but that shouldn't be a problem with your design, even if you went for a solid sided malt pipe, as long as there is a decent gap between the pipe and urn walls, you'll be able to see when it's about to suck the dead space dry.

 

[breakbeer]

This is what I'm using, hoisted with an electric winch

Had it fabricated from perf' stainless, but he stuffed up the dimensions & it's too small to hold enough grain for a double batch. Can fit around 9kg of grain in it though. Cost me 2 slabs of mega swill

 

[Beerisyummy]

9kgs not enough for a double batch?
What sort of OG are you aiming for, and what volume would you consider a double batch?

Nice looking basket.
I really need to find a mate who's good at welding stainless and understands the beer economy.

 

[breakbeer]

9kg would be pushing its upper limits & could spill over. I usually go with between 5.5kg - 6.5kg for a single batch, so double that I guess

 

[davedoran]

I'm working on a similar project at home. Will have some drawings soon. Looking at incorporating a stiring paddle into the lifting handle.

 

[fattox]

Breakbeer - that's basically the idea with mine actually, I think being an engineer I'd overcomplicated it but that would be a good way to go, perf stainless. It's mainly to hold the BIAB bag in place and the winch is an ideal situation.

Cheers!

 

[blekk]

Why not just use the basket without the bag?

 

[Bribie G]

I once made a malt pipe for my crown urn out of a Handi Pail with a false bottom constructed from a metal kitchen strainer and some voile. It worked well on hoisting, and allowed some recirc just by jugging. But it trapped too much wort in the spent grain as opposed to a squeezable bag.

A simple hemmed circle of voile is in my opinion far better than a bag as there are no weak spots and cleaning it consists of:

Take full bag out to garden bed
flap flap shake shake
rinse under tap and into a bucket of perc.

for around ten bucks.