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Bunglebrewsbeer said:
I don't get what the holed foil thing is about? Call me stupid.
Click to expand...

There are a couple of methods of sparging Fly and Batch sparging.

[ame]http://vimeo.com/92204596[/ame]

Since batch sparging you need to flood, mix then drain you wont be able to do this with BIAB since its single vessel. Fly sparging requires your to rinse the sugars off the grains and a piece of foil with holes poked in acts like a sprinkler head adding water all over the grains. I had an inverted colander with no handles to the bottom of my bottling bucket to elevate the grains and move the foil around rinsing the sugars off.

here is an old pic:

wpid-2013-07-06-13-16-15-2.jpg
 
I do biab with 23l brew length.

I use a 50L pan with two 2.75kw elements fitted... Don't do what I did to start off with, and think 30L plus of water will boil on your gas hob... It might do eventually but the wait will be agonising and the boil will be ****, and you can't insulate the pot due to the gas flame.

Also, the 50L pot means it won't boil over, I can brew stronger beers (more grain) or longer brew lengths if I choose to, and it costs little more than a 33L pot.
 
MyQul said:
Takes me about 6 hours to do a full length 23L maxi-biab including clean up. I tend to clean up as I go along as there's losts of time waiting for stuff to happen (waiting for mash water to heat up, mash time, waiting for wort to boil. boil, etc)

4 hours if I do 5L
Click to expand...

Thanks MyQul - have been reading up on this and apparently some people even go so far as pitching the yeast straight into their brewpot one it's cooled to pitching temperature!
 
I think pitching straight into the pot would be a step too far for me, although I don't see why it wouldn't work. Not something I'd advise for a new BIABer to do. More for the BIAB purist, I think. The type that eschews sparging.
 
my first couple of BIAB took me about 5 hours including clean up.

Now that iv learnt a couple of litle time saving things iv got it down to 4. 3 and a half hours if nothing goes **** up.

I dont have a wort chiller so leave to cool in a vessel overnight so that's time saved for me. Looking to make a chiller over the festive period though!!
 
I'm following this thread too as I'm also very interested in moving on from kits.
Just one question for now though, could the mashing be done in a homemade plastic boiler (33l fv with cheapo kettle elements fitted) or does it need to be a proper pot?
Sorry, two questions, does anyone know a UK supplier of suitable bags or do we make our own out of muslin?
 
BruinTuns said:
I'm following this thread too as I'm also very interested in moving on from kits.
Just one question for now though, could the mashing be done in a homemade plastic boiler (33l fv with cheapo kettle elements fitted) or does it need to be a proper pot?
Sorry, two questions, does anyone know a UK supplier of suitable bags or do we make our own out of muslin?
Click to expand...

Q1) Yes. you can fit some kettle elements to a FV. Might even be a guide how to do it on the forum

Q2) I got a proper mash bag same as this: http://www.colchesterhomebrew.co.uk..._2992446-Youngs-Mashing-and-Sparging-Bag.html

but you can use a 5G paint strainer as a mash bag

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-GALLON-...Material_Paint_Varnish_MJ&hash=item564bac7a9c
 
Bunglebrewsbeer said:
So woukd you recommend a pan or a dedicated water type boiler with element in it that's just plugged in?
Click to expand...

With a pot unless you maxi-biab you need some sort of gas burner to boil all the liquid required in a 33L-50L pot, your hob just wont cope so you need to do it outside - fumes and the like. With a boiler with elements you could do it inside as long as you have the room. If your in anyway competent with electrics making a element type boiler yourself is loads cheaper than buying a pot
 
Thanks MyQul, very helpful as always. I'll have to get involved in that boiler thread and ask a couple of questions as I'm a bit unclear on one or two of the instructions (like what stops the boiler contents coming through the hole cut for the element into the electricals/)

"making an element type boiler yourself is loads cheaper than buying a pot"
You know me so well! :-P
 
Slipped that one in with you in mind ;)

When deciding on boiler/pot size bigger is better as it helps with efficiency (basically how much sugar you've managed to wash off the grains which in turn will get turned into alcohol). As the grains have more space for the sugars to get washed off. I get around this with my 20L pot making concentrated wort by doing two very thorough sparges

Also bigger pot means you can do bigger beers. There comes a point when you can only fit so much grain with the required amount of water into the pot. With my 20L pot I can only do 23L of a maximumum of about 5.5% beers because I just wouldn't be able to mash the required amount of grain of anything bigger
 
Bunglebrewsbeer said:
Evening. Quite new to this having only made a few kits but loving the results!! I am now thinking about trying BIAB style in the new year given the space needed for a full mash I think the Mrs head may pop. I was wondering that in order to utilise my 25L FV what would be the best pan size to go for to do the BIAB?
Click to expand...

50 Litre... you need enough size to hold the full brew water + all the water that will boil off + all the water the grain will absorb + enough space to get all the grain in as well !

A common mistake is underestimating just how big a pot you will actually need to do full length BIAB properly
 
Bunglebrewsbeer said:
So you'd recommend some kind of burner rather than the hob? Mine does have a large central ring on it so thought that might work?
Click to expand...


I'd recommend electric elements, although people use dedicated large gas burners too, just I thought electric was easier.

I have a range cooker with 7 hobs, including a wok burner, so I thought I'd be fine with my 50L pot on that. Wrong. I could get it over 3 of the burners, and even then the boil was weak. My two electric elements get a really thunderous boil going, and really once I've got a good hot break I can do the rest of the boil on one element.

Thing the elements, cable, plugs etc we're £50ish. You really need to plug each one into a seperate circuit to avoid overloading your wiring; I use one on the ring main and one on the cooker socket.
 
BruinTuns said:
So yours is a traditional stove-top pot, like a very large stockpot?
Click to expand...

Yes. I use the largest gas ring on my hob and get a good rolling boil with it. More than 20L and I'm pretty sure my hob wouldn't be able to cope.

Doing a full boil using a using a large enough pot/boiler is better than maxi-biab, as there are challenges you have to overcomeand you can't make 'big' beers, but it has a slight advantage in that you can use your hob/cooker.
 

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