Why Not Biab

[np1962]

I've got a 3v system and also BAIB Until i read about, and tried baib, i would have had my doubts,Not any more.It makes a bloody good beer ,although i find i don't get the same depth of malt character in my Alt as a sparged version Horses for courses i reckon.99% of beers i'd happily make baib My time is important to me ,and if i can shave 3 hours off my brew day ,i'm wrapt(and not compromise on quality,of course)Baib is in no way an inferior method,it works,from my experience anyway :beer

How is BIAB 3 hours faster than 3v brewing?
You mash for the same time, boil for the same time etc etc...
OK I see some saving from lifting a bag as compared to sparging but 3 hours?

 

[Thunus]

Bingo! That's the only reason I'd change. And no I'm not, no way, not unhappy in the slightest. I've had some pretty decent 3V beers, that I grant you, but nothing that makes me want to change religions.

BTW, step mashing isn't any different for BIAB compared to other methods, you can infuse it, decoct it or direct heat, which BTW is something you can't do with an esky!

I am a BIAB'er and quite happy with my beer but recipees that require step mashing are MUCH easier on a mates HERMS system, no heating etc just program the herms and sit and watch.

 

[Cocko]

I used to BIAB and now 3v.

Only reason for the change was the same as MXD, Batch size.... if you are looking for an answer why 3v makes better beer you probably will be stretched to find it.

Along the road to 3V I really enjoyed the making of equipment side of things too, making a copper manifold, tapping my kettle, temp gauge in HLT etc.. really gives you some pride when it works. I spose you would get the same enjoyment from making anything... but it is good fun to build a 'brewery'... sewing is not my strong suit!

But one thing I have found is efficiency is up big time. with BIAB I would float around 70%, now with 3V I hover in the high 80's.... which makes sense I guess when doing proper sparging and rinsing the arse out that malt...

Simple answer: If you are happy with your beers, no reason to change. If you wanna brew more than a bag than handle, you need to change... Or of course for the thrill of the chase!

It takes me the same time to do a 100L batch 3V as it did to do a 25L batch of BIAB so I don't get the time argument.

2c.

 

[haysie]

How is BIAB 3 hours faster than 3v brewing?
You mash for the same time, boil for the same time etc etc...
OK I see some saving from lifting a bag as compared to sparging but 3 hours?

+ 1 h34r:

Done both, maybe the cleaning is a little more of a pita with the bag for me, sticky, messy and hot hot, tried it and didnt like lifting and things. I had the room and inclination and moved on to a 3v/no herms. No doubt any all grain beer made with a little thought goes along way. Tasted great baggers and shit RIMS and vice versa. I have all the gear to go full herms but get very good beer out of my current ice cream bucket set up not to bother fix the wheel that aint broken. The Braumeister jiggy is the one for me, all 200 ltrs :wub: . Thats on the horizon for a friends restaurant.
The operator come recipe maker plays THE BIGGEST part in any brewing system IMO. i.e great system but shit yeast control normally find you out every time.

 

[black_labb]

with 3 vessels you can make triple biab batches of different beers!

I'm actually somewhat using a hybrid biab system. my element in my 30L urn burnt out so I made a keggle (legal keg ect) but the top still comes in as i'm considering making it into a "water purification system" as well as a keggle. so i'm essentially doing the biab in the urn, then draining into the keggle to boil and doing a sparge in the urn while the first runnings are heating up. It should get better efficiency than basic 3v as you can squeeze the bag I'm in the mid 70's at the moment as i'm still experiementing (most of the recent beers have been high gravity as i want to make beers to age)

 

[Nick JD]

Why not? Because I went out and spent thousands on my RIMS system, that's why.

The more you spend the better the beer is. That's the rule.

CUB has very, very expensive gear. Some day I too will be able to make beer of the same quality as VB.

 

[Cocko]

Why not? Because I went out and spent thousands on my RIMS system, that's why.

The more you spend the better the beer is. That's the rule.

CUB has very, very expensive gear. Some day I too will be able to make beer of the same quality as VB.

If it was a question of how to make good beer cheap than I see your sarcasm but I think the OP is asking a different question...

Unless I am confused.

 

[manticle]

Well, the only reason i see to switch is if you're unhappy with your beers? or just want to go through a whole lot of stuffing around for nothing?. Possibly double batches as well, but if you had a big enough kettle and bag, you could do doubles.

They are all just different roads to the same place IMHO. I've tasted some very bloody nice BIAB beers, and some very bloody nice 3v beers. Really, even amongst people who brew with the "same" method, everyones setup is slightly different, and once you know your system, whatever process you use, you'll make great beers.



Cheers

This I would agree with the most. I brew 3 V because that's how I approached getting set up (vessel acquisition here, vessel acquisition there) and I'm a bit traditional about some things (although how olde worlde is an esky really?) If you're making good beer then no need to change: if you're not it's probably not the fault of BIAB. Change because you find a cheap SS pot somewhere that you think would look nice with a tap in it because you like tinkering or because you feel like it but whatever system you use, getting to know it and making it work for you is the best approach.

 

[Bribie G]

Brewing with a BIAB system is like riding a moped, it will get you where you want to go, but you won't want your friends to see you doing it.

I regularly have people around to BIAB brew days and they are invariably impressed with the simplicity and lack of messing around. I don't see why anyone has problems with 'messiness'. In fact it's just a case of lowering the bag of spent grain straight into a big black garbage bag with ties, reach in and grab the bottom of the bag and pull it out of the garbage bag, leaving the grain inside and an almost clean BIAB bag that goes into a bucket of Napisan then rinsed and hung on the line. The black bag goes into the bin or round to the mate with the chooks whatever. Now I've seen some plug ugly esky scooping-out sessions :lol:

Stepped mashes are dead easy, as is a mashout. I can see the attraction of a HERMS, but the fairly typical 3 vessel system balanced on milk crates with the Nasa roaring and the poor sweating bugger busier than a one armed painter with the crabs is a sight to behold. And then oh no the stuck mash

 

[haysie]

:lol:
These days things ARE your cock is smaller than mine. GEEZ, what a bang this place is.

 

[matt white]

Why would I switch to something else?


UMMMMM,.....aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.......................mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Nup, cant think of any reasons at all.

BIAB on brother.

100+ BIABS and I'm still fit, fat and fartin....love it!!!!

 

[Bribie G]

I've gone 2 vessel

 

[aussiechucka]

Why would I switch to something else?


UMMMMM,.....aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.......................mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Nup, cant think of any reasons at all.

BIAB on brother.

100+ BIABS and I'm still fit, fat and fartin....love it!!!!

+1
Not as many BIABs under my belt but very happy so far with how easy it is to get a very tasty beer for not to much outlay. I tried my borther-in-laws K& K the other day and could taste the difference. All he needs is a bit of guidance on adding some spec grains and extra hops and then I am sure he will be on the way to AG.
Cheers
Chucka

 

[unrealeous]

3 Vessels or 1 BIAB.... What about a 2V system.

My next brewery (pipe dream perhaps) is going to produce 150 litres and initially I was thinking about doing something like the Braumeister, but now I'm think 2 Vessels is the go. I already have 2x180 litre stainless pots...

I've been making 45 litre batches of beer out of the 3V system which I build before knowing anything about BIAB and of course am very happy with it. When I heat up the mash water, I just fill the mash tun directly with cold water and run the HERMS until it hits temp, and only use the HLT to get my sparge water hot. So I've often thought that you could easily get rid of the HLT and have just a mash tun and a kettle.

And now I've just moved into a house with a 'just in time' hot water system - it heats water as you require it. Now it's set at 55 degree's maximum, but I'm sure you could easily build a unit to crank out 80 degree water with a flow rate fit for sparging. This means you could get rid of the HLT.

As far as I can tell, the main benefit of 3V over BIAB is that you can obtain slightly higher efficiencies which start to matter as your batch size increases, and 2V might be simpler (for a 150 litre batch) as won't require a crane and basket setup.

Has anyone done something like this?

 

[Tony]

March Pump

Your not a real brewer until (very old AHB joke)

 

[argon]

So i recently gave up BIAB and moved to 3V linky

My main reason was so that i could do bigger beers and maintain efficiency, but I've found other benefits.

not having to bother with lifting/squeezing/draining bag... PITA for me
Double batches, as above, bigger beers maintaining efficiency
I now get better efficiency jumped from 70 to 75+
I now get clearer wort into the kettle... not sure if this equals better beer though

I've also found that the brew day takes just as long as with BIAB... so no diff there. I was surprised cause i thought it'd take longer.... it actually takes less time for me now cause i've automated the HLT... but could have done that with the BIAB anyway, so that doesn't really count.

Somehow i find it less troublesome to do 3V... dunno why but i definitely feel more relaxed during a 3V brew... maybe that's experience though... not sure.

As for quality of beers... no conclusion yet.... i did score well recently in a mini-comp for a BIAB beer... so immediately questioned the move. So if i don't maintain quality i'll be having a quiet word with myself.

One thing for BIAB though...when i do a large proportion wheat beer or rye beer i will probably be doing BIAB... although probably just lining the mash tun with the voile bag in case of a stuck mash... just for insurance.

 

[~MikE]

lets face it, BIAB and 3V without recirculating has its limitations in mashing control compared to RIMS/HERMS, but are not without their own advantages. what threads like this go to prove is that there's too many people too worried about what other people think, like to oversimplify the situation and turn it into a mud slinging contest and there's not enough people that can objectively compare different breweries.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Brewing with a BIAB system is like riding a moped, it will get you where you want to go, but you won't want your friends to see you doing it.

I ride a motor scooter too damn you....

Short of wanting to make unusually large (bigger than double) batches, there are no reasonable beer related reasons to change from BIAB to another style of brewing, neither quality nor flexibility. So you would change if for some reason you are not happy with your current beers and have reason to believe that BIAB is to blame, or you don't like your current process, or if you just want to.

 

[Scruffy]

Define regular.

Try not to use words like 'probably' in an argument...

 

[dpadden]

...I already have 2x180 litre stainless pots...

:icon_offtopic:

Sorry OP, but Unrealeous where did you get ur 180L pots? I'm currently trying to source some....