Who invented BIAB?

[Bizier]

I started all grain brewing with BIAB. Was directed to the Biabrewer forum from this one. Followed all the beginners guides and calculators that Pistol Patch et al had worked hard on and hit all my numbers the very first batch.Maybe they hadn't pioneered BIAB but they sure refined it and made it not only a painless entry level method into AG but a thoroughly researched and independent method in it's own right. Still remember the taste of my first biab (amarillo pale ale) and wondered how I'd wasted so much time with kits.God bless you Patch. May your bag never burst.

I'll step forward and admit that BIAB got me off the kits early in the piece and allowed me to brew AG out of an apartment and it literally changed my life. I'll credit Pat for at least being the evangelist of a simpler way.

 

[Camo6]

We could do a BIAB vs 3v...



Oh....wait......Stu that would be a dumb idea

"C'mon. Do it Stu. You know you want to."

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Not sure about re-hydrating that argument....I feel I could be sprinkling a dry argument

 

[simplefisherman]

Not sure about re-hydrating that argument....I feel I could be sprinkling a dry argument

Yep there's enough arguement in the pack already ffs.... Hic

 

[Robbo2234]

Actually the earliest reference was found in some of the medieval writings of the famous scholar St. Grogginus, often known as the arse-faced monk (for reasons best not discussed here). It is believed that St. Grogginus was one of the first of the scholastics to shift away from the Aristotelian-infleunced/neo-Platonic Christian metaphysic in favour of brewing heavily hopped West Coast IPAs. Although the translations are contentious, the academically accepted translation of Reflections of a God Fearing Man upon the brewing of a Shit-Hot IPA by the Grace of the Almighty (circa 1472) by Booby & Bumspittle is rendered thus:

"...and lo upon reflection, it seemeth to me - as lazy a man as God hath ever created - that I could be rid of this horrid pale blue 70 litre icebox which doth plague me with it's presence and causeth much grief to me without an adjustable twin roller mill and simply use my night-dress as a primitive filter to containeth my grains..." (pg. 156)

and later in the same volume:

"...woe to he without the pleasing sound of the gulls to soothe his mash bed, and rejoice verily for he that doth dunk his cereals wrapt (sic) herein the garments that once girded his loins...for even though thine losses to trub be mighty, thine step mashing with an adequate paddle blessed by the Father be a job done in an angels fart (translators note - this last saying was a common one at the time and through a mistake in translation by the original Professor Dontwantnuthinbutagoodtimehowcaniresist was eventually rendered as 'in the blink of an eye')..." (pg. 212).

It is worth bearing in mind that although 3v was well entrenched at the time, the invention of HERMS by the Spanish sailor and inventor Jose Wheresamyshipgone was still months away (and of course that famous tale involving the clydesdale, three sheep bladders and a local three legged goat named Pepe need not be recounted here haha!).

Back on topic.
St. Grogginus famously created recipes with measurements that called for "enough hops so that the aroma shall be experienced even by those in the holy land" (Man is Nought but Hops in the Whirlpool of God circa 1478) and was once quoted as saying "surely if Christ himself did strike me in the throat with his notably skilled Shaolin-trained Iron Palm, this be the level of bitterness that a good brew should contain" (Liars and Paederasts: Famous Medieval Scholastic Drunkards, Glammetalwasfun & Whathappennedtoblackielawless, 1984, pg xi).


But of course the above replies are more credible in terms of recent innovations. The original biab threads are a hoot to read. And if you think this post was long, wait until you read PP's!

champagne comedy! ******* classic

 

[dagryll]

Thanks all for addressing the question with such ... gusto. Sounds like this Pat chap needs an OAM. I had no idea it was such a recent revolution either. I would have thought people did similar things in the past with muslin, or cheese cloth.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thanks all for addressing the question with such ... gusto. Sounds like this Pat chap needs an OAM. I had no idea it was such a recent revolution either. I would have thought people did similar things in the past that muslins did with sheep

 

[Bizier]

Muslin countries are very strainge.






Please don't anyone follow this with a racist joke.

 

[wbosher]

We also invented the pie.




And lamb chops.

We invented pavlova...and Phar Lap is ours... h34r:

But back OT. I remember posting a question on Pats BIAB website expecting a nice, easy, short reply. Pat came back with a 200 word essay. :lol:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

ONLY 200 WORDS.....Tiny esay for him

 

[wbosher]

It probably was a lot more than 200 words, filled up two or thee screens. :lol: MASSIVE help though for anything BIAB related, and I think his site is a must read for anyone getting into BIAB.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

On some American forums, it's referred to as "the Aussie BIAB method".

The poms might have soaked a blanket or the like in some turbid water, but it took brilliant Australian ingenuity to develop this concept into something that will bring happiness and prosperity to the everyone in the world.

Won't be long and NZ will be claiming it as theirs.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Pretty sure Pat wasnt born in un zed

 

[wbosher]

Yeah but the great great grandfather of the brother in law of the owner of the dog who's breeder was related to the maker of the first BIAB bag may have been a Kiwi...that makes BIAB ours.

 

[S.E]

Considering this method was virtually unheard of here in Australia, and America by the sounds of things for that matter, I would have thought that the information resource that has been gathered here on ahb and also the BIAB forum is a vast improvement on the information that was available before.
We are also lucky enough to have an AHB member who developed brewing software specifically for and because of the BIAB testing that was done here. I'd have thought that an improvement.

I guess we are a bit provicial and behind the times here which is why we were not fully aware of it's popularity in the U.K, and yes it is a simple method but it took the work of Pistol and associates to really bring it to the fore and convince brewers here that it would work well.

Fair enough. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful to Pistolpatch or his associates, anything that promotes an affordable and easy way to help get people started in brewing is good.

I don’t understand why they had trouble convincing brewers here that it would work though, early all grain writers like Dave Line and C.J.J Berry wrote about and illustrated the method in their books are these books only recently available in Australia? Or what books were available pre AHB?

It doesn’t completely surprise me though that pistol had trouble convincing some brewers here that such a simple and cost effective method could be employed. I suggested that cubes could take a fair amount of pressure and can be used as casks (Dave Line also used semi rigid polythene cubes) but a few members on here got very upset by that and insisted that beer should only be dispensed from kegs under hydraulic pressure.

To my mind BIAB and cask conditioning go hand in hand and are a great way to get started. You don’t need a 3v system to brew or a keg system if you want to avoid the tedious task of bottling.

Who knows maybe I will go down in AHB history as the inventor of cask conditioned ale.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Welcome to AHB where the earth is flat, our yeast is re-hydrated and beer may only be dispensed from kegs....

 

[AndrewQLD]

Fair enough. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful to Pistolpatch or his associates, anything that promotes an affordable and easy way to help get people started in brewing is good.

I don’t understand why they had trouble convincing brewers here that it would work though, early all grain writers like Dave Line and C.J.J Berry wrote about and illustrated the method in their books are these books only recently available in Australia? Or what books were available pre AHB?

It doesn’t completely surprise me though that pistol had trouble convincing some brewers here that such a simple and cost effective method could be employed. I suggested that cubes could take a fair amount of pressure and can be used as casks (Dave Line also used semi rigid polythene cubes) but a few members on here got very upset by that and insisted that beer should only be dispensed from kegs under hydraulic pressure.

To my mind BIAB and cask conditioning go hand in hand and are a great way to get started. You don’t need a 3v system to brew or a keg system if you want to avoid the tedious task of bottling.

Who knows maybe I will go down in AHB history as the inventor of cask conditioned ale.

I don't think so, I'm pretty sure they've been doing that for years in England. :lol:

 

[S.E]

I don't think so, I'm pretty sure they've been doing that for years in England. :lol:

Oh well there goes my claim to fame. I moved to Ireland when I was a boy and have a vague memory of seeing a neighbour with a net curtain containing barley. After he died we found a poteen still in his shed so maybe BIAB started with Irish poteen distillers.

 

[mje1980]

Maybe the thread topic should be changed to "who refined BIAB?". Because though pistol may indeed have brought BIAB a very long way, and credit to him, it seems pretty clear that brewers have been using bags for quite a long time. Regardless of how less "fancy" it may be, they have still been doing it a lot longer than Aussie h'brewers.

 

[S.E]

Maybe the thread topic should be changed to "who refined BIAB?". Because though pistol may indeed have brought BIAB a very long way, and credit to him, it seems pretty clear that brewers have been using bags for quite a long time. Regardless of how less "fancy" it may be, they have still been doing it a lot longer than Aussie h'brewers.

Well you might as well just change it to “Aussie h'brewers refined BIAB” and be done with it.