BIAB - Custom Bags: For Coolers/Kegs/Pots/Etc.

[Jimmy]

whats your guys' process for brewing in a bag?

Mine is as follows:

Add full volume of water being used, beersmith has a BIAB option for this. The one I'm doing today calls for 31.5L of water for a 10.5lb grain bill.

Bring water up to ~156 to reach a mash temp of 152*

Add bag & grains, and mash as usuall.

After 60 min mash, raise temperature to 168*, then pull bag out (you probably only want to do this if you have a false bottom). It's hit or miss on the internet as to burning the bag. I guess if you don't have a false bottom and have some way of keeping the bag directly off the bottom, it would work

Hang bag with grains over a 5g bucket to collect the extra runoff while boil is starting, then add to boil

Continue as normal

[pet lion]

I thinking I'll request one of these for my small small set up. One that would fit my 14 L insulated beverage cooler. I imagine it will be way better than trying to use those mesh bags NG supplies as I did last night.

[Jimmy]

I thinking I'll request one of these for my small small set up. One that would fit my 14 L insulated beverage cooler. I imagine it will be way better than trying to use those mesh bags NG supplies as I did last night.

Sure, just give me a pm with the following dimensions of your cooler:

1) Height - from inside bottom of cooler to the highest edge
2) Outside edge circumference
3) Outside edge diameter

Also let me know if you want handles or not.


Jimmy

[Jimmy]

Just a heads up guys, these bags can be used as hop bags for the boil kettle as well. You can have one made that will fit around the whole keg, drop your hops in during the boil, then just pull it out when you're done.

[derek]

whats your guys' process for brewing in a bag?

Mine is as follows:

Add full volume of water being used, beersmith has a BIAB option for this. The one I'm doing today calls for 31.5L of water for a 10.5lb grain bill.

Continue as normal

My longstanding (i.e., I invented it at about 10am today!) procedure calls for using only about 2/3 of the total volume of water in the mash. My kettle is somewhere around 55l when full to the brim, and for 40l finished product I need at least that much water.

So then I haul the bag out of the kettle with a ratcheting pulley, and let it drain straight back into the kettle. When I have my system properly redesigned, I'll just raise the bag a few inches to get it off the bottom, and then put the burner on to get it up to 168F, then raise it high enough to drain and top up with the remaining cold water, bring to boil...

[sleepyjamie]

So i did two bbiab brews. my first went pretty bad as my levels were all messed. My second which I brewed yesterday yielded approximately 79% efficiency. I was able to brew a 5.5 gallon batch in about 3.5 hours start to finish. Minus the clean up time in the end.

A few things I noticed when i was doing the BIAB.

Pros:

1) One thing I love about this BIAB is how little cleanup effort was required compared to my 70qt coleman extreme cooler. I simply lifted the bag, dumped the spent grains in the green bin. Unlike the bags from noble grape, the material from Jimmy's bag (yeah that sounds a little gross if you dont know the context) makes cleaning the spent grain an ease.
2) Was really easy to take gravity reading. I took numerous gravity measurements during the entire mashing process. 5 - 20 - 30 - 60 min. Was able to monitor the gravity quite easily during the entire time. Looks like the full conversion ended around 30 min.
3) No more stuck mashes. I had a stuck mash when I made my Rye IPA and it was an absolute nightmare. BIAB I won't have to worry about this anymore.
4) With my new blichman burner and the BIAB I can bring the temp from 152 F to 212 in under 15 minutes. Making the entire brewing process take much less time.

Cons:

1) I had to re-heat the mash a few times due to temp loss. Pretty easy to bring up the heat with my blichmann burner
2) I don't have a false bottom so when heating the kettle I held the bag off the bottom. Anyone have any suggestions for this?

Notes:

1) I wasn't really sure what my efficiency was going to be so I stirred the mash frequently during the 75 min mash. Also stirred and rocked the bag during mash out.
2) I used to do 10 gallon batches and I am hoping that my kettle will still allow me to do BIAB 10 gallons. I haven't done any measurements yet.

Looking forward to brewing more batches with this method! Jimmy i owe you a few pints.

[mr x]

Yeah, the 10 gallon question. BIAB only saves time for me if i can do 10 gallon batches. I'd like to hear more on what the guys with this system think of this....

[Jimmy]

Jamie, glad to hear it's working out for you.

Some people use a dinner plates as a "false bottom", or even a kitchen strainer... Anything that will keep the bag from coming in contact with the area that is being directly heated by the flame should work.

As for the 10g batches... I'm guessing it's possible with lower gravity brews. Some people will mash with part of the total water needed, then top up for the boil. I haven't really looked into it much though.

[RubberToe]

If I can do 5 gallon batches in my 19L kettle then we can do 10g batches in a 15g keggle. It's just a matter of math. Jamie, when we do our next brew together we should try a 10g batch biab. I'll crunch the numbers; I wrote a python program to calculate my max water volumes based on kettle volume and grain mass, along with strike water temperature.

[mr x]

That would be great.

[derek]

That would be great.

My first BIAB Pale Ale isn't going to be winning any awards, but I really don't see a problem with brewing a ten gallon batch in a keggle. Next batch will be decisive!

[derek]

I wrote a python program to calculate my max water volumes based on kettle volume and grain mass, along with strike water temperature.

Can I have a copy of that program, please?

[CorneliusAlphonse]

I use a voile bag in my cooler instead of a manifold.. i could definitely do a 10g batch, if I had a slightly bigger pot to boil in. but I have to clean cooler, pot and bucket, so I'm not really getting the cleanup advantage of biab, haha. actually, I'm not sure if the stitching in my bag would be strong enough with 10g of wet grain in it..

[sleepyjamie]

If I can do 5 gallon batches in my 19L kettle then we can do 10g batches in a 15g keggle. It's just a matter of math. Jamie, when we do our next brew together we should try a 10g batch biab. I'll crunch the numbers; I wrote a python program to calculate my max water volumes based on kettle volume and grain mass, along with strike water temperature.

I'm pretty sure we could do a 10gal biab batch. There was quite a bit of space left in my labatts kettle.

[Jimmy]

I'll have a couple of these with me at the meeting tonight if anyone is interested in checking them out.

[RubberToe]

I wrote a python program to calculate my max water volumes based on kettle volume and grain mass, along with strike water temperature.

Can I have a copy of that program, please?

Sure, I'll make a new post about it.

[homebrewcrew]

pm sent

[pt109]

PM sent

[Jimmy]

Also available are ones to fit corny kegs. I use one when transferring dry hopped beer from secondary to keg..less worries about picking up hops/yeast and it making its way into the keg.

IMAG0206.jpg

[sleepyjamie]

you could make a killing if you can convert these in baby diapers. lol

[Jimmy]

you could make a killing if you can convert these in baby diapers. lol

hmmmmm

[sleepyjamie]

i turn 30 this year so ill probably need one soon

[bluenose]

My longstanding (i.e., I invented it at about 10am today!) procedure calls for using only about 2/3 of the total volume of water in the mash. My kettle is somewhere around 55l when full to the brim, and for 40l finished product I need at least that much water.

So then I haul the bag out of the kettle with a ratcheting pulley, and let it drain straight back into the kettle. When I have my system properly redesigned, I'll just raise the bag a few inches to get it off the bottom, and then put the burner on to get it up to 168F, then raise it high enough to drain and top up with the remaining cold water, bring to boil...

I'm guessing this is due to the volume of the grain bag and the water level falling as you remove said grain bag?

[derek]

My longstanding (i.e., I invented it at about 10am today!) procedure calls for using only about 2/3 of the total volume of water in the mash. My kettle is somewhere around 55l when full to the brim, and for 40l finished product I need at least that much water.

I'm guessing this is due to the volume of the grain bag and the water level falling as you remove said grain bag?

The grain absorbs water, too (though I've never cared too much to work out how much), so it typically takes about 60l water for me to make 40l with my 3-keg method, plus I leave some liquid in both the mash tun & boil kettle (about 3 l), because it's below the manifold level. When you do a BIAB you're only going to lose half as much there (and there's nothing in that last 3 l after the boil that I want in my beer )

[Jimmy]

I'm going to use a second, full sized BIAB bag during my boil today to see how it works as a hop sack. Hopefully hop utilization will be equal, or close to equal to throwing directly in boil.