No chill bladder (cube alternative)

[Moad]

Has anyone got much experience with these?

10 x 20L Hot Fill Wine/Wort Cask Bladder - Hot Cube Alternative (Irradiated)

Stop wasting time chilling home brew wort. These bladders/bags are ideally suited to brewers who want to save time and avoid chilling wort on your brew day. Simply fill with hot wort and screw on the cap.

www.kegland.com.au

I used them for the first time for a double batch and they worked well. I often knockout 15L increments on my large system then dilute when I pitch. They are probably not suitable for that as it’s a bit hard to weigh as you fill.

has anyone rigged something up to make it easy to fill them? I sat them in a Cooper’s fermenter while I filled them so I wasn’t holding all of the weight with the neck. Worked ok.

how do people store them full? I put 2 in a storage tub which was a good fit and Will let me stack a few. My main objective was to save space and that is definitely a big tick for these bags. I’m planning to ditch 20L cubes and just keep 15s unless they bring out a 15L version!

I suppose I could fill one with 15L to get an approximate idea of how much to fill them.

anyone boiled and reused?

apparently these were used before people started using cubes and it’s gone full circle

 

[MHB]

I've had a bit of a play with a couple - first impression, pretty impressed!

The only thing I would like to see is a bit better thread on the cap, the one that’s there is very fine and I'm not confidant that it will take all the tightening I want to give it.

If you look at a milk crate you will see a circular cut-out with a V shaped lead in. These are designed to hold bags of milk with same sized fittings. There are also off the shelf filling aids for bag in box, which can be handy. Price might be a bit of a shock tho.

First one on Google, from the US but you get the idea. If you visit Opalescent Signs Clyde St Islington I think they could make something up, I have had odd jobs made there in the past.

I thought about cutting one side out of a Milk crate so it would sit flat on the top of a tray with the bag lying in the tray...
Put the tray, bag and filling aid on a set of scales, hit Tare and its pretty easy to fill by weight.

I wouldn’t boil one, fair chance it wouldn’t survive, a good chemical cleaner and sanitiser should be more than enough but I have seen similar bags delaminate over 90oC.

I do small batches at home (10L BM) what got me interested in them is being able to nochill, ferment in the same bag and just bin it. At the cost I really couldn’t be bothered trying to reuse

Bit on the history. The first Coopers kits were a bag in box. Mel at ESB used something similar for a few years.
I think it’s fair to say "Similar" not the same. The quality of the bags and closers has improved dramatically over the last 20 or more years
Mark

 

[Moad]

Thanks Mark, some good info. That filling aid gives me an idea. Could probably rig something with a few coathangers...

Fermenting in the bag is an interesting idea, will you drill a hole in a lid for an airlock or just use some cling wrap and prop the bag up with something similar to the above?

The kegland page for the product mentions boiling to reuse, for the cost I probably wont bother but I went to buy more and they are out of stock.

Interestingly I think the bloke I spoke to said he had used them many years ago on a brew he did with you!

 

[MHB]

Got a couple of drilled Silicone bungs from Brewman that fit into the hole in the bag. Have to arrange the bag so its lying flat and the hole is raised and held up by the filling aid (or similar) use a blow off tube from the bung.

What is interesting is that at the end of the ferment, you can syphon by just pressing on the bag until beer starts to flow. Effectively you are syphoning from the top, do it gently and the trub all stays sitting on the bottom.
Mark

 

[Moad]

Well the milk crate idea was bang on, perfect fit.

I'll probably cut the side off and sit on top of the coopers fermenter I've been using (all on scales as you said). With this method I can probably do away with the 15L cubes I have been using too.

I did have 1 out of the first 2 expand and ferment in the bag from wild yeast or bacteria. I think the lid wasn't quite screwed on properly and something got in there. I've been using some manky old gloves to hold bags and hoses so not pointing the finger at these bags. That's another story anyway...

 

[Moad]

Worked an absolute treat. Found if I pulled the bag up to let the liquid set in the bottom after about 5L it took the weight off the lid holding on to the milk crate and didn’t have any issues. The bags seem to hold 23-24L (KG of wort so maybe not 100% accurate). I am now ditching cubes and gaining a fair bit of space in my brew area. I feel a little guilty about the waste