BIAB Question

JCB

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I'm sure this is answered somewhere but to be honest I got lazy after the search results looking too daunting to go through. Anyway, I'm a long time herms AG brewer but I got really tired of the long days and cleaning. So I'm hopefully simplifying my life with my new BIAB. I've yet to use it and its doing a wet test now. To finally get to my question does the recipe builder not have a calculation for full volume boils. It would be nice to have a total water calculation. I thought I could create a BIAB profile but I didn't see anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm pretty stocked its tiny compared to my last creation...

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This is all I do. My gravity is usually as predicted.
 

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Looks good !
You can still sparge with BIAB , i use a few stacked buckets or a spare fermenter bucket .
as far as water goes there's a tab called quick water calcs so if you're not sparging just use entire volume in mash
 
I pull the grain bag and set it in my old 6.5 gallon fermenter which has an upside down colander in it. Sort of a false bottom. I pour sparge water over that.
 
I believe the BIAB setting assumes no sparge when it does the water calculations. I set it to all grain, even though I BIAB, and it seems to work out fine.
Glad to see another person going a bit simpler route to good beer
 
Yep keep it simple. I use water calculator linked from recipe. Once you know your estimated losses your good to go. One or two brews and your away.
 
Thanks All. I'll kick the tires on it this weekend. Here's hoping to an easier brew day.
 
Just a quick question you biab in this right?

How will the bag go that.close to the element it looks close on the.top down shot or am i seeing things?

Eg if step mash heating tun with sugary wort in it that close to bag may burn a hole in it ?
 
sorry crazy week. Ok. So I looked again and now I see the BIAB option. I swear it wasn't there last I looked. Then again I had quite a bit of "quality controls" with my beer when I was doing it... All is good now.

Yes I'm using this as biab. I have the false bottom with about half inch gap between the element and bag. they should not touch. I can raise it if I need to. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
 
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Are you going to be circulating during mash ?
I generally turn element off during mash and just wrap my keggle ( urn ) in a few blankets and gently apply heat to mash out and have similar screen set 2 1/2 inches off the 2200 w concealed element
 
i plan on it but we'll see how it goes today. I'm sure I will need to tweak my planned process depending on what does and doesn't work.
 
Hey i kust realized you cut the bottom off that keg not the other way around . A different way to go about it. I was wondering why that keg looked odd its upside down.
 
I wanted to incorporate the top as the bottom drain so I cut the base off and then cut out the bottom. I had to be a bit surgical with the cutoff wheel but it wasn't too bad. much lighter as well.

So I must admit today was my best brew day yet. I'm not sure why I waited so long to go this route. Super easy and everything went as it should. The bag was fine and nothing burned. I did have to turn the pump down a bit as it was pulling faster than it could drain through the bag. No big deal. I just watched the site glass as I dialed in the valve. I got close to my numbers as I read 1.040 and it was supposed to be 1.045.

I have a few tweaks but I'm really stoked to use it.
 
I wanted to incorporate the top as the bottom drain so I cut the base off and then cut out the bottom. I had to be a bit surgical with the cutoff wheel but it wasn't too bad. much lighter as well.

So I must admit today was my best brew day yet. I'm not sure why I waited so long to go this route. Super easy and everything went as it should. The bag was fine and nothing burned. I did have to turn the pump down a bit as it was pulling faster than it could drain through the bag. No big deal. I just watched the site glass as I dialed in the valve. I got close to my numbers as I read 1.040 and it was supposed to be 1.045.

I have a few tweaks but I'm really stoked to use it.
Great ti hear your having a win and most of all enjoying the brewing process. Im working on bettering my sparge technique atm usually hoist bag on pully then trickle water through but that can get messy. I just went out and bought a bucket im gunna drill.some holes in it and plop grain in there bagnand all and sparge through that.

Howd your Efficiency go first run?

Welcome to the easy biab world;).
 
that would work. I think I'm going to take the route of full volume no sparge and just add grain to makeup any efficiency issues once I figure out what that is.

Unfortunately I only captured my OG into fermentor. I think I need pre-boil too right. Either way since this is a more relaxed process I should have time to capture all of that going forward.

Thanks.
 
that would work. I think I'm going to take the route of full volume no sparge and just add grain to makeup any efficiency issues once I figure out what that is.

Unfortunately I only captured my OG into fermentor. I think I need pre-boil too right. Either way since this is a more relaxed process I should have time to capture all of that going forward.

Thanks.
Yep I've done full volume mash I get around 70-73% efficiency if I sparge I can get up and above 80% actually best ever on the weekend 85%. I soaked the grains overnight in the kettle then kicked off brew day from there I'm not sure if this is why better efficiency but will definitely try that method again.
 
Investing in a grain mill and crushing the grain twice on the lowest setting increased my BIAB efficiency tremendously. I typically get 75 to 80% brewhouse efficiency.
 
Investing in a grain mill and crushing the grain twice on the lowest setting increased my BIAB efficiency tremendously. I typically get 75 to 80% brewhouse efficiency.
Yes thats my next tip.

Guess what i mill mine in a thermomix speed 8 for 10dec at 500g increments pretty fine not flour but a course type problem ive found is dough balls and pour sparge from compact grain bed. But yes increased efficiencyand dont worry aboit clarity ive found get bright beers so hasnt affected this.
 

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