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

[Jimmy]

Wouldn't recommend the full sized bag as a hop stopper. I used it today, and though it did work great to prevent the hops from entering the carboy, it was hell to drain all the wort through the bag. The hops just held it all in.

Also, I'm thinking a 10 gallon brew might be a bit difficult with these. I had a 15lb grain bill today for my Arrogant Bastard clone, and though the bag will hold it, and there was room in the keg for more water/grains, it was tight pulling that bag out through the 13" opening in my keggle.

[homebrewcrew]

Gonna give the bag a try today will let you know how it is.

[sleepyjamie]

brewed up an amber ale yesterday with BIAB.


Amber ale by sleepyjamie, on Flickr

[sleepyjamie]

when you guys are doing BIAB do you typically squeeze the bag after the mash out? i heard this can produce unwanted tannins in the wort.

thoughts?

[derek]

when you guys are doing BIAB do you typically squeeze the bag after the mash out?

Yes.

i heard this can produce unwanted tannins in the wort.

thoughts?

I drink 2 liters of very strong black tea every day. My dental hygienist asks me if I smoke every time I see her, because my teeth have tea stains. I laugh at tannins!

[RubberToe]

i heard this can produce unwanted tannins in the wort.

thoughts?

That's a myth. Tannins are mostly caused by your ph being off. If it is, and you squeeze, then you may get some. Same with too high mash out temperature I think.

[homebrewcrew]

I squeeze the bag when I have it draining. Used one of Jimmy's customs bags yesterday the bag worked great had 15 pounds of wet grain in the bag hanging and there was no problem with the bag holding the weight. Also the bag can be easily cleaned by hand after each use. Very good bag worked well.

[Jimmy]

No squeezing on my part, but mostly due to laziness. Maybe I should start.

homebrewcrew, good to hear the bag worked out well.

[RubberToe]

No squeezing on my part, but mostly due to laziness. Maybe I should start.

Yeah It's actually quite a bit of work.

Sleepyjamie dropped by when I was doing a biab batch last weekend and I also showed him my super secret patented splash the grain and colander back down into the wort technique. So be careful... not my brightest moment.

[homebrewcrew]

Hahaha that would have been nice too see. Did it splash a lot of the wort out?

[CorneliusAlphonse]

i squeeze a bit (would do more if i had heat and waterproof gloves, haha). tastes fine to me.

[Matt]

How well do you guys find the grains 'swim' in these bags? I'm using a jumbo straining bag from NG. It doesn't quite fit around and over the rim of my tun like the one pictured in the OP, so I tie off an end and let it hang over the rim. The result is that the grains tend to get compacted into a football shape on one side of the tun. My efficiency in my BIABs have been somewhat low - around 65%. Despite grinding finer and doing a dunk sparge the second time, no change, still 65%. My hypothesis is that the compacted grain 'ball' isn't letting water flow through as well as it could, so efficiency is suffering. The compacted ball means I can't get my paddle in to stir, either - only hopelessly poke the side of the ball to try to get some circulation going.

I'm wondering if this design would allow for better water circulation through the grains, and make it easier to stir as well.

Thoughts?

[RubberToe]

Matt you are right on about the swimming comment and the grains being more compact in the NG bag. I used an NG bag before I got one from Jimmy and I had fits trying to get the lip around my pot. His bags are custom sized and he makes sure they are large enough diameter for your pot (to fit into actually) so your grains can take full advantage of the size of your pot. I've noticed an improvement in efficiency with my setup after using the new bag.

[Jimmy]

As RubberToe said, these bags are the full size of your pot..I take the measurements of the pot, and make the bag a bit bigger. With this configuration, you have the full space of your pot and the grain doesn't "hang" in a compact ball.

[LeafMan66_67]

So I'm thinking about boing to BIAB in the near future. One of the issues I can see for my setup is the lack of a method to "hang" the bag over the brew pot as it drains. How is everyone else out there doing it? Are you hoisting and hanging or simply pulling out the bag and giving it a bit of a squeeze? I brew on my back deck and have nothing overhead from which to hoist and hang a bag of grain. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

Thanks,

Derek

[mr x]

What kind of pot are you using?

[LeafMan66_67]

X - Got a 58L keg last week to convert to brew kettle. Will also be looking for weldless bulkhead fitting and valve over the next couple of weeks.

[Jimmy]

I started using a stainless bbq grilling wok (with holes in it). I sit it on top of the keg, then sit the bag on it to drain.

Something like this: http://m.chefsresource.com/bbq-grilling-wok-rsvp.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Matt]

So I'm thinking about boing to BIAB in the near future. One of the issues I can see for my setup is the lack of a method to "hang" the bag over the brew pot as it drains. How is everyone else out there doing it? Are you hoisting and hanging or simply pulling out the bag and giving it a bit of a squeeze? I brew on my back deck and have nothing overhead from which to hoist and hang a bag of grain. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

Thanks,

Derek

Hey Derek,

As we discussed last week, I don't use any kind pulley system either. After you mentioned pot lids to squeeze the bag, I tried something when brewing Sunday that seemed to work fairly well. Once my ten minute mashout was complete, I pulled the grain bag and held it over the tun for about thirty seconds or so. It's heavy, but I just wanted enough time to let most of the wort drain off. I had a pre-sanitized 30L bucket ready next to me (which is later used as a primary fermenter), and set the bag down in there. At this point I cranked up the gas to bring up to boiling. While waiting the ten minutes or so to reach boiling, I used a pot lid to press down on the grains, pausing every couple of squeezes to lift the bag and dump the run-off back into the kettle. By the time I was at boiling, I found the grains to be pretty much dry.

After doing a bit of research, it seems like the jury is still out on how much benefit squeezing really has, or if it's a good thing or not. Some say it releases a husky astringency into the wort, some say it doesn't. Me, I'm out to get as much efficiency as I can, so I squeezed the hell out of it. FWIW, I still fell a few points shy of my target OG, so it may not have helped as much as I thought. Who knows.

If you had a sturdy colander you could position over a second pot, and let the grains sit on that while you waited to reach boiling, I think that would work pretty well.

[know1]

I hang it over a bucket from a 6 foot A-frame ladder to drip while heating up the keggle. Last time, I wrapped some rope around it a few times and pulled it tight repeating a few times progressing lower towards the bottom of the bag. I got about 3-4 liters total, (~13lbs dry grain) which I added to the boil.

[Dirt Chicken]

[quote="Jimmy"]I started using a stainless bbq grilling wok (with holes in it). I sit it on top of the keg, then sit the bag on it to drain.

Something like this: http://m.chefsresource.com/bbq-grilling-wok-rsvp.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[/quote

Is there a lot of you doing BIAB now to cut down on propane usage? X, thoughts? not sure other the advantages other than not having a mash tun and saving on propane, and not turning off the burner during the process.
To sum it up, I' curious to hear from the group the pros/cons of both methods. And if BIAB is better for some/all types of beer then it would be good information to have.

[mr x]

I'm sticking with regular 3 vessel brewing, electric. Biab will be good for some people, but it's not versatile enough for me without heavy exract additions.

[LeafMan66_67]

I'm sticking with regular 3 vessel brewing, electric. Biab will be good for some people, but it's not versatile enough for me without heavy exract additions.

I've been doing partial mash with extract and near full boil volume for a bit now and am happy with the results. I'm looking at BIAB as a way to break into all grain without going the 3-vessel route. It has to do more with space constraints than anything else at this point.

X, you mention the lack of versatility without heavy extract additions - are you typically making bigger beers?

To anyone else out there, what type of efficiencies are you getting from BIAB? I think I recall someone mentioning 72% to 78%?

Thanks,

Derek

[Jimmy]

I'm sticking with regular 3 vessel brewing, electric. Biab will be good for some people, but it's not versatile enough for me without heavy exract additions.

I've been doing partial mash with extract and near full boil volume for a bit now and am happy with the results. I'm looking at BIAB as a way to break into all grain without going the 3-vessel route. It has to do more with space constraints than anything else at this point.

X, you mention the lack of versatility without heavy extract additions - are you typically making bigger beers?

To anyone else out there, what type of efficiencies are you getting from BIAB? I think I recall someone mentioning 72% to 78%?

Thanks,

Derek

BIAB is a great, inexpensive way to get in to all grain...had I known about it when I started, that's probably what I would have done. I do however, have a single tier, 3 vessel system (that isn't being used right now)

I like the simplicity of BIAB, as well as the limited amount of space required. I'd say the biggest constraint for BIAB is batch volume vs specific gravity. If you plan on doing 5g batches, there isn't much of a limitation..10g batches are a different story though.

RubberToe would be the guy to ask about that though, he's made a high gravity wort in small volume, then topped up with water to reach desired gravity and volume..

[mr x]

X, you mention the lack of versatility without heavy extract additions - are you typically making bigger beers?

To anyone else out there, what type of efficiencies are you getting from BIAB? I think I recall someone mentioning 72% to 78%?

Thanks,

Derek

Bigger beers, and occasional high gravity brewing.