BIAB in the boiler, no sparge

[MickDundee]

I know the last post was about 9 months ago but this has been a really helpful thread (along with most of the rest of the forum). The thing that put me off AG before I started posting in here was room and time. BIAB looks ideal for me - only a boiler, no sparge ticks all the boxes.

Even got buy-in from SWMBO when I told her how much grain costs compared to kits.

Unfortunately, she's on matty leave and her pay stops this week so I'll be waiting until my birthday in July before I can get a boiler!

 

[Tony1951]

I know the last post was about 9 months ago but this has been a really helpful thread (along with most of the rest of the forum). The thing that put me off AG before I started posting in here was room and time. BIAB looks ideal for me - only a boiler, no sparge ticks all the boxes.

Even got buy-in from SWMBO when I told her how much grain costs compared to kits.

Unfortunately, she's on matty leave and her pay stops this week so I'll be waiting until my birthday in July before I can get a boiler!

Congrats on the up-coming new family member. :)

I don't know if you have been doing small scale AG Mick, but the setup costs are minimal - you only need a pan and a bag or a big strainer over and above your ordinary plastic stuff for fermenting and bottling. You can make a bag of course so that'll cost next to 'nowt'. If you haven't tried AG yet, get a 15 litre pan and get going mate. You can still have the savings of cheap grain over kits so you'll soon get payback on the cost of the pan, and you will get much better beer once you get started. I still use my big pan in my brewing even though I have a boiler, so the pan won't go to waste later on.

Cheers.

 

[Covrich]

I know the last post was about 9 months ago but this has been a really helpful thread (along with most of the rest of the forum). The thing that put me off AG before I started posting in here was room and time. BIAB looks ideal for me - only a boiler, no sparge ticks all the boxes.

Even got buy-in from SWMBO when I told her how much grain costs compared to kits.

Unfortunately, she's on matty leave and her pay stops this week so I'll be waiting until my birthday in July before I can get a boiler!

Just something to bare in mind.. how much post boil wort do you want to get?

True BIAB with no sparge is a great and simple method but if you want 5 gallon brew you need to look at something like a 40-50 liter pot.

A lot of people use 30 liter boilers but due to the limited size they have to sparge which is obviously fine if you're happy to do that.. But since you would rather not do that you need something that would accommodate all the water and grain in one hit.

 

[MickDundee]

Just something to bare in mind.. how much post boil wort do you want to get?

True BIAB with no sparge is a great and simple method but if you want 5 gallon brew you need to look at something like a 40-50 liter pot.

A lot of people use 30 liter boilers but due to the limited size they have to sparge which is obviously fine if you're happy to do that.. But since you would rather not do that you need something that would accommodate all the water and grain in one hit.

It's a 33l boiler I've had my eye on, and I was hoping to do 20l batches (so just below the 5gal). I don't mind having to do a dunk sparge or whatever if I need to, but it's the full sparge with a gentle stream of water that I'm trying to avoid.

 

[Toffee]

It's a 33l boiler I've had my eye on, and I was hoping to do 20l batches (so just below the 5gal). I don't mind having to do a dunk sparge or whatever if I need to, but it's the full sparge with a gentle stream of water that I'm trying to avoid.

33L boiler with a 7L dunk sparge gets me 20 - 22L Into the fv. I don't find the dunk sparge too much faff and it certainly improves efficiency. So I'm happy to carry on doing it.

 

[MickDundee]

Congrats on the up-coming new family member. :)

Not up-coming - he's 6 months old.

I've just stumbled across a Gumtree listing from a woman selling her dead husband's home brew equipment. No pictures in the listing, and she says she doesn't know what anything is. I've emailed her and she will take a photo of everything and email me it. Hoping there's a boiler in there (although I was mainly enquiring about bottles)

 

[Notlaw]

I've just stumbled across a Gumtree listing from a woman selling her dead husband's home brew equipment

Haha, thats a good advert for home brewing!! Gumtree has some great gear on it. I usually check it every week or so.

 

[Covrich]

Not up-coming - he's 6 months old.

I've just stumbled across a Gumtree listing from a woman selling her dead husband's home brew equipment. No pictures in the listing, and she says she doesn't know what anything is. I've emailed her and she will take a photo of everything and email me it. Hoping there's a boiler in there (although I was mainly enquiring about bottles)

I hope he never passed away from dodgy homebrew

 

[Twostage]

It's a 33l boiler I've had my eye on, and I was hoping to do 20l batches (so just below the 5gal). I don't mind having to do a dunk sparge or whatever if I need to, but it's the full sparge with a gentle stream of water that I'm trying to avoid.

I do 20 + litre batches with the Burco. 24 litres plus grains for the mash then top up to the maximum level for the boil.

 

[Tony1951]

Not up-coming - he's 6 months old.

I've just stumbled across a Gumtree listing from a woman selling her dead husband's home brew equipment. No pictures in the listing, and she says she doesn't know what anything is. I've emailed her and she will take a photo of everything and email me it. Hoping there's a boiler in there (although I was mainly enquiring about bottles)

Great - about the same age as my first grandson then. He's five months. :)

Hope you get somewhere with the Gumtree kit then.

If not - the 15 litre stock pot route is open maybe....

Good luck.

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

I borrow a pot from my mate, its holds 4.5 gallons plus the BIAB full of grain, he got it on gumtree i think, looks like old army or prison surplus pot as it would feed the 5000 if it was full of food.

Means I can do a 5 gallon brew topping up the FV with cold water to the required level. But it is a bugger to left and pour in the 4 gallons approx into the FV :lol:

 

[DamsideBrew]

Just been reading through this very useful thread. I did my first BIAB recently and had a question about the mash stage: I had the mash at the correct 66C, then turned the heat off (lid was on the boiler) and left it for the hour. When I came back it had dropped 4C to 62C, now a lot of guys on here say they have 1 degree drop or less, do you leave the heat on the boiler or need to heat and stir half way though?

Thanks in advance of the knowledge share!

 

[Tony1951]

Just been reading through this very useful thread. I did my first BIAB recently and had a question about the mash stage: I had the mash at the correct 66C, then turned the heat off (lid was on the boiler) and left it for the hour. When I came back it had dropped 4C to 62C, now a lot of guys on here say they have 1 degree drop or less, do you leave the heat on the boiler or need to heat and stir half way though?

Thanks in advance of the knowledge share!

Some people wrap the pot up with a sleeping bag. I do and that keeps the heat in very well. I'm using an electric boiler and I just pull a thick old sleeping bag over the pot (with the lid on of course) and snuggle it up completely covered.

If you heat the pot with a bag in it, you need to protect the bag from the very hot bottom or it may be melted or scorched. You can use a false bottom for this, but be careful the mash doesn't get too hot by doing this. If you can get your mash temperature right at the beginning and then insulate it well, it will stay within a degree of drop in an hour.

Cheers.

 

[DamsideBrew]

That's great thanks, I have a false bottom in the boiler which stopped the bag from melting. Just to be clear you turn the boiler off once at the desired temperature, wrap it in a blanket/sleeping bag and go have a beer for an hour?

 

[MyQul]

That's great thanks, I have a false bottom in the boiler which stopped the bag from melting. Just to be clear you turn the boiler off once at the desired temperature, wrap it in a blanket/sleeping bag and go have a beer for an hour?

Yes.

Tip: If you your under your mash temp target you can still appy heat as long as you continually stir the mash. If you don't keep stirring you risk melting your bag

 

[DamsideBrew]

Great! Thanks *off to raid the linen cupboard*

 

[wfr42]

There's a term strike water in some of the BIAB calculators (that then ask for the temperature of your grain too).

The simple AG thread suggested aiming for 70 degrees and then topping up or cooling down with a final litre or two from the cold tap/kettle as required.

Doughing in 5kg plus of grain isn't quick so you will lose heat while doing this. Brewing outside I lost 6-8 degrees so will aim for a strike water of at least 72 degrees for my next brew to see if that helps.

 

[Tony1951]

There's a term strike water in some of the BIAB calculators (that then ask for the temperature of your grain too).

The simple AG thread suggested aiming for 70 degrees and then topping up or cooling down with a final litre or two from the cold tap/kettle as required.

Doughing in 5kg plus of grain isn't quick so you will lose heat while doing this. Brewing outside I lost 6-8 degrees so will aim for a strike water of at least 72 degrees for my next brew to see if that helps.

I find this calculator very useful - http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

It takes all the guesswork out of hitting the desired mash temperature. You just weigh your grain and measure the water volume and temperature properly, check the grain temperature with a probe and plug in the numbers to tell you exactly what temperature the water should be before doughing in. Also if you stir in the grain gradually and keep stirring as you add it, the formation of big lumps of semi dry glug is avoided mostly. This speeds up the doughing in. It would typically take me about a minute or less to be satisfied that all the grain is dispersed. This might be partly because I go for a mash thickness of 3 litres of water per kilo of grain. It quite easily stirs up into a sort of porridge. I'm getting about 82% efficiency doing this in combination with two sparges after draining the initial runnings from the pot. I've had to start using less grain because the beer was getting ridiculously strong.

Cheers

 

[BeerCat]

A really good thing for this method is a cover from a large fan. Lift up the bag and place it on the fan so it drains straight into the boiler. Really helps if you can suspend the bag on a rope or Bungy. I don't do that anymore. As the bag I got with the ace stands up on its own.