BIAB Do I Don’t I

[Sadfield]

With such dedication to eliminating contact with the process, surely doing kits would be a better option?

 

[MashBag]

And finally in an attempt to redeem myself..

Buy a copy of
"Brew Your Own British Real Ale" by Graham Wheeler. He got me and many others started, so you could say its all his fault

 

[Agentgonzo]

PS. It will boilover. Blow on it.. till your teeth fly out.

Or just turn the heat down a little until the foam subsides, then turn it back up. Or spray the surface with a bit of water from a household water bottle to knock the foam down. Easier than blowing your false teeth out

 

[Twopan]

Loving these replies. I made the move from kits to extract brewing and then BIAB a couple of years ago. It is simple but does take time; if you rush it you will lose efficiency. Allow most of a day for brewing and cleaning up as you go. Yes, there are periods of doing nowt but you can brew exactly what you want in the quantity you want.

My top tips are:

1. Calculate your water volumes. If I am doing a full volume boil (23L) I mash in 17L in the kettle, use another 7 -8L for the sparge and reserve some water for topping up. Don't forget to factor in grain absorption and evaporation rates.

2. Mash cooler and longer. I struggled with efficiency with a 60 min mash at 66°. I now mash for 90 minutes at 62° (beta amylase temperature) , raising the bag slightly if I need to put the burner on to keep temperature and stirring occasionally. This makes a heck of a difference in boosting efficiency, coupled with...

3. A dunk sparge - heat around 8L of dechlorinated water in a separate large vessel to 75° and immerse the bag in it
for 10 minutes. Lift and drain over the original kettle in a large colander for as long as you can to drain the bag. Give it a little squeeze.

4. Pour the sparge water into the kettle and top up to target boil volume with reserved dechlorinated water.

5. Empty the now fairly dry spent grain out and mulch your perennials with it!

I can now hit 68 - 69% efficiency using this method and brew Belgian-style beers to my taste. A couple have done well in competitions so it's clearly working.

Good luck.

 

[Sadfield]

Adding hops before boiling point prevents boil overs. One of the many benefits of First Wort hopping. When I do the occasional starter, a hop pellet stops wort climbing out of the Erlenmeyer flask.

 

[MashBag]

Or just turn the heat down a little until the foam subsides, then turn it back up. Or spray the surface with a bit of water from a household water bottle to knock the foam down. Easier than blowing your false teeth out

Who mentioned false teeth

 

[Sandimas]

Regarding cost, you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds: my setup cost about £20: a 12L stockpot and a grain bag. I already had a 15L stockpot.

Here's my process

• Mash in the 12L stockpot with the grainbag. It just fits in the oven on it's lowest setting which helps keep the temp up.
• Halfway thru the mash, start heating the boil water on the hob in the 15L stockpot.
• Stir the mash at the start, mid-point and end.
• When the mash is done, lift the bag out of the 12L pot and into the 15L pot for a dunk sparge, at the same time turning on the burner for the wort in the 12L pot.
• After dunk sparging, lift the grain bag out, turn on the heat for the 15L pot, tip in the contents of the 12L pot and top up to about 13L with kettle water.
• Boil for an hour, then add flameout hops if necessary.
• To cool, put 15L pot in the sink full of cold water and keep stirring: after 5-6 changes of water it's usually cooled enough.
• Tip into the FV via a strainer, top up with cold water to volume then add yeast.

I can just about do 2.8kg of grain in my mash with this setup, I usually supplement the brew with 1kg DME which allows me to brew around 20L. I also adjust the hops for a reduced-volume boil using brewing software (need more hops if you're boiling at lower volumes and topping up in the FV).

I mostly brew reciped from the Wheeler book, and also the Greg Hughes book. Many of them are online now.

 

[JeffDragon7]

Idle beer is probably my superpower

Defo Yes to questions 2 & 3.

Yes it can be 2 hours for the brew, but you need good technique and a bit of space.

Fill with water from the hot tap. Hot as you can. Consider turning the immersion heater up the night before brewday.

Timers are your friends.

Do the mash. Press, drain, squeeze the bag while you coming upto boil.*

Induction hobs are great, you can give it quick blast to help the mash temps. But remember the stock pot needs to be magnetic.

Do not add any thing for the first 15 mins of boil, it just makes a mess. It will boil over.

Watch the boil from 95c (@MSL) It will boil over. Manage the lid. Do not even blink until you see large snotty lumps appear.

45 min boil is viable.

Don't chill. Don't buy one, it will only disappoint or frustrate. Instead buy a pot with a good fitting lid.

Leave the lid on IMMEDIATELY after boil (and leave it alone)
You have effectively made a big tin of soup. It will be perfectly OK until tomorrow... And much cooler, if fact bledy close to room temp.. Now there's handy.

So while we are here.. top it up, and adjust the temp it you need to. Ice is also your friend.

Topping up the fermenter is much easier and quicker that boiling perfectly drinkable water and much easier that trying to work out your volume losses to steam and grain absorption. But I suggest you keep this information to yourself and not repeat it. Tell no-one.

Beer does generally commit suicide and turn instantaneously into undrinkable toilet cleaner the minute you take your eyes off it. Don't wake up sweating at 2am worrying about bleach or airlocks. If you eat off it, it's clean enough for the yeast too. Airlocks stop dead birds dropping out of the sky into your brew, as does a good lid. Fire everything wise there is CO²

Get the "kitchen timer" app for your phone to time the "next step". It's free, accurate and you can get breakfast, drink tea, walk the dog etc until you need to attend to the beer again. A himalayan trek might be a bit too long though

*Buy some thick rubber gloves. Yes these are protective, but they enable you to get on with the job.

PS. It will boilover. Blow on it.. till your teeth fly out. Teeth are not fermentable, but having to scrape up the boiling sticky goop, will leave an aftertaste.

PPS. Wait for thread to double in size, for all these suggestions of banishable hereracy.

Very informative and yet amusing reply Thank you i enjoyed reading it

 

[Rudy]

I have two Mash & Boil units (BIAB in a malt pipe) and I brew two different five gallon beers, with a batch sparge, in six hours. I can do one batch in about 4-1/2 hours.

 

[MashBag]

Very informative and yet amusing reply Thank you i enjoyed reading it

Thank you. It reads a bit easier now I have corrected a couple of typos.

 

[matt.]

Loving these replies. I made the move from kits to extract brewing and then BIAB a couple of years ago. It is simple but does take time; if you rush it you will lose efficiency. Allow most of a day for brewing and cleaning up as you go. Yes, there are periods of doing nowt but you can brew exactly what you want in the quantity you want.

My top tips are:

1. Calculate your water volumes. If I am doing a full volume boil (23L) I mash in 17L in the kettle, use another 7 -8L for the sparge and reserve some water for topping up. Don't forget to factor in grain absorption and evaporation rates.

2. Mash cooler and longer. I struggled with efficiency with a 60 min mash at 66°. I now mash for 90 minutes at 62° (beta amylase temperature) , raising the bag slightly if I need to put the burner on to keep temperature and stirring occasionally. This makes a heck of a difference in boosting efficiency, coupled with...

3. A dunk sparge - heat around 8L of dechlorinated water in a separate large vessel to 75° and immerse the bag in it
for 10 minutes. Lift and drain over the original kettle in a large colander for as long as you can to drain the bag. Give it a little squeeze.

4. Pour the sparge water into the kettle and top up to target boil volume with reserved dechlorinated water.

5. Empty the now fairly dry spent grain out and mulch your perennials with it!

I can now hit 68 - 69% efficiency using this method and brew Belgian-style beers to my taste. A couple have done well in competitions so it's clearly working.

Good luck.

Great tips.
I've just done 2 BIAB so far.
First one stayed cloudy and flat in the bottles. Not sure why.
Second one I have yet to try.

May I ask about the term ' efficiency '? How is it measured. And how important is it to know?
Thanks

 

[Agentgonzo]

It's a measure of how much sugar you get out of either the mash (mash efficiency) or the whole process (brew house efficiency). Normal brew house efficiency is 60-85% of a theoretical maximum.

For homebrewers it's not very important at all. For professionals it's important as the higher the efficiency, the less ingredients you have to put into a batch of beer (thus cost).

 

[stubrewworx]

I use the malt Miller 12l pot on my induction hob. 1st brew took 2.5hrs, that's with past experience.

Use water from hot tap, approx. 8l at 50c, 10mins to 70c strike temp. Mash in for 45mins, could be shorter. Heat to boil was probably 20mins. Boil for 30mins, cool to pitch with ic 20mins.

Ferment in kettle. Bottle straight from fermenter/kettle.

As others said, weigh grain during heating to strike. Weigh hops during mash. Tidy round when necessary.

 

[Nicks90]

I’m hoping to start in a small way with a basic 30 litre boiler with thermostat. I may get the bug and upgrade in future so the £60 outlay for a cheap set up is not an issue how ever i proceed in the future

Nowt wrong with keeping it simple.
I'm on all grain brew 143 using a £60 Chinese made tea urn and a cheapy biab bag.
And would guess 100 of those brews using a home made chiller made from some 6mm copper pipe I bent to shape around a lemonade bottle with some garden hose offcuts clamped on the ends with jubilee clips. The hose is a bit wide, so I 'gapped' the copper pipe with some electricians tape so it didn't leak.

In fact I bet my all singing all dancing Bluetooth temp probe (which I actually got for BBQ/smoking) costs more than my entire brewing setup.

Grain doesn't care it's mashing in a £1200 all in one wonder vessel or a £15 second hand stock pot, the chemistry is still the same, and the results will be the same if the process is correct.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Well did my first 60 litre brew today (brewery pilot) took 5 hours in all. I actually enjoyed it whilst the sparge was happening I cleaned everything including the fermenter the boil was spent with pint in hand occasional hop additions and after that cleaning the boiler one of my favourite pastimes on a day off.

 

[matt.]

It's a measure of how much sugar you get out of either the mash (mash efficiency) or the whole process (brew house efficiency). Normal brew house efficiency is 60-85% of a theoretical maximum.

For homebrewers it's not very important at all. For professionals it's important as the higher the efficiency, the less ingredients you have to put into a batch of beer (thus cost).

Thanks. I'll not be bothering; as you say, it's not so important for small home brewers like me. But out of interest; how is it calculated?

 

[JeffDragon7]

With such dedication to eliminating contact with the process, surely doing kits would be a better option?

Not wanting to eliminate contact with the process, but A i am retired and cannot justify £600 to £1500 for the full system. B spending 6 to 8 hours brewing 40 pints is not really my thing, the process is enjoyable but there are limits

 

[JeffDragon7]

Thank you. It reads a bit easier now I have corrected a couple of typos.

It was still good to read

 

[Agentgonzo]

In reality , we all use calculator. There are ones built into apps like brewfather. There are also online calculators like here.

They just use a formula. Each type of grain has a certain amount of starch, which can theoretically be turned into sugar. This is measured in PPG - points per pound per gallon. ie, if you put one pound of that grain into your brewpot, magically turn all of its starch into sugar and then dissolve all of that sugar in 1 gallon (hmmm, UK or US? ) it'll give you that many SG points. eg, say your pale malt has 37PPG. Mashing 1 pound, extracting 100% of its potential sugar and dissolving it in 1 gallon of water will give you wort at 1.037 SG.

The calculator will multiply up your weights of your grain bill by each individual grain's PPG, then compare this to the total amount of sugar you ended up with (your SG x your final volume), then compare the two and tell you your efficiency.

 

[JeffDragon7]

I use the malt Miller 12l pot on my induction hob. 1st brew took 2.5hrs, that's with past experience.

Use water from hot tap, approx. 8l at 50c, 10mins to 70c strike temp. Mash in for 45mins, could be shorter. Heat to boil was probably 20mins. Boil for 30mins, cool to pitch with ic 20mins.

Ferment in kettle. Bottle straight from fermenter/kettle.

As others said, weigh grain during heating to strike. Weigh hops during mash. Tidy round when necessary.

I have induction but it has this weird thing where it only allow you to put the correct size pot on the correct ring, i have an expensive SS stew pot and my hob decides its bigger than the ring diameter and does the “Computer says No?” Thing