Best way to clean a large BIAB please

[bobukbrewer]

I just bought one and used for the first time. Amazed at how fast gin clear liquid was collected and added to boiler. but cleaning all the milled pale malt "bits" from the bag took ages. I know some of you will have developed your own methods........ thanks.

 

[peebee]

This goes for anything with grain stuck in it (false-bottoms, etc): Rinse off the worst then hang it out to completely dry completely. The remaining (dry) grain is easy to brush off.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Yeah i rinse, boil then dry and shake.

 

[bobukbrewer]

thanks folks.....

 

[MickDundee]

I rinse, then Stick in the washing machine with no detergent, then rinse again.

 

[Drunkula]

I made the mistake of using washing powder on mine and it stunk. I had a beer that tasted slightly weird and I'm not 100% blaming the bag but it was after washing powder. I swilled it about 5 times in a big tub of water and when I sucked the bag to check you could still taste washing powder. I oxicleaned and boiled it a few times before it was pretty neutral.

As above now I dump the grain, make the bag inside out, swill it and hang it out to dry. Then the husks shake off.

 

[Gerryjo]

Try turning the bag inside out before adding grain and you'll find it much easier when it comes to cleaning as the grain has a tendency to stick to the seems and in the corners.

 

[peebee]

… I'm not 100% blaming the bag …

Okay, "not 100%", so what is it you're not telling us ?

 

[Drunkula]

Okay, "not 100%", so what is it you're not telling us ?

Urghhh - I think it was also compounded by me trying about 4 different experiments at the same time. I made my own roasted malt, own crystal malt, no-rinse bleach sanitiser, on one of the beers I left about an inch of the bleach sanitiser in the fermenter. Wouldn't be surprised if I got drunk and tried to gelatine it using melted crayons....

The DIY crystal tasted amazing on its own and a later beer was good with it, so I think I can rule that out. I'm going to do that again because I liked it loads more than the real crystal malts I had. You can get it super glassy. I did it with crushed grain. You can't stew it in Ikea plastic bags, but the oven bags you get for chickens are perfect.

The roasted grain... umm, a bit acrid.

 

[bobukbrewer]

so you roasted crushed pale malt in a cooking bag to make crystal malt ?

 

[Cwrw666]

Empty the bag, turn it inside out and hose off all the bits of grain, then hand wash in the sink to get the powdery stuff out of the mesh. Hang up to dry.
On brewday shove it in a jug of boiling water to sanitise.

 

[MrRock]

On brewday shove it in a jug of boiling water to sanitise.

I don't bother with that step, I figure the wort is going to be boiled anyway.

 

[TonyCall]

I'd go along with everybody else. After I've brewed I give my bag a hand wash in the sink, trying to rub off as many grains as I can, leave to dry, then when it's dry any remaining grain falls off pretty easily. I agree with @MrRock, as long as the bag is clean the boil will sanitise it.

 

[Cwrw666]

I don't bother with that step, I figure the wort is going to be boiled anyway.

True, but it's a pretty minor thing to do and judging from the colour of the water not a complete waste of time.

 

[Drunkula]

so you roasted crushed pale malt in a cooking bag to make crystal malt ?

No. For the toasted malt I put crushed grain on baking trays and put them in the oven.

For the crystal malt I wetted grain in a plastic bag, put it in a slow cooker that was temperature controlled to 'stew' the grains - essentially a mash, then spread those on trays and dried and toasted them in the oven. There are plenty of articles on it. You keep turning it until it's dried, then cook to the colour you want.

Water ratios were a nightmare - I used Ikea bags first which leaked and let water in. I still used it but it took ages to dry - like 3 hours or something but in the end made an incredibly glassy grain that really caremelised and was gorgeous. I could eat a sack of it. Eventually I found a workable ratio that made it look a lot more like real crystal malt. Don't know where the notes are on it so I'm not sure what they were.

It's a complete faff and I did it because I went out to buy a load of grains, got excited at the sight of a 25kg bag of pale malt and ended up with that and some wheat malt and forgot everything else.

 

[bobukbrewer]

I buy light, normal, and dark crystal malt so not sure how roasting my own would be an improvement....