Continuous incremental improvement - my BIAB Process

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Hopplehammered

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Apr 29, 2015
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North County Dublin
Continuous incremental improvement is used in many industries to achieve ground breaking improvements over time. I’m sure many of you work within such systems already, but for those that don’t these improvements can be in efficiency, quality, cost, safety, removal of potential error etc. When employed well the improvements can transform processes and businesses. So, here’s my story of where a few dozen brews over the last few years have taken my brew day.

My first AG brew (BIAB) took over 7hrs to run and clean up �" it was chaos, but the beer was good (A HBC mashkit). I’m now running less than half this time (brew day alone) and the beer is better. The individual changes I’ve made since then have been relatively small. Nothing has been a fundamental shift in my equipment or process design, or high cost. A second boiler and coil was bought for 60 euro with a mash kit, when the HBC had a sale, but most other items have been added for a few quid or bodged together in garage.

Some of the improvements I’ve made came directly from discussions on this site, member’s ideas, articles, freely available publications etc, others from my own assessment of the process, but as you’ll see, nothing that I’ve implemented has been that innovative, technical or difficult. I’d like to share these with you, mainly so I can get more ideas to further improve, and hopefully to show you where little changes can take you.

If you make one improvement between each brew, no matter how small, these cumulative effects add up. You can focus on efficiency (time & system), quality, safety, cost etc, or as I’ve done, a mix of all potentials.
I know this approach isn’t for everyone, if you like a less regimental more relaxed brew day, I get it. Strangely I get relaxed by the regimented order of things. Tbh, I couldn’t justify brewing as often if I couldn’t speed it up, and I wanted to speed up my own system rather than just buy a Grain master or similar.

My process is still BIAB, but the approach can be relevant to other methods.

Mashing & Boiling
I have my boiler on a timer so it’s ready in the morning (or when I’m back from work). On for 40 mins usually does the trick to take me to a temp of 71ish. The first two layers of insulation are already in place from the night before. Worst case, I need to add a litre or so of hot or cold water to get it to temp. I have a kettle of water ready by the boiler so I can do so with minimal delay. All items I need for the mash phase are laid out the night before.

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NOTE - the brewday in some of the photos took 12 hrs due to a visit to A&E, not brewing related tho!

Recipe and timings on a white board �" no pfaffing about in books or web when in middle of a brew.

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I have an ingredient inventory system �" I can quickly check I’ve all I need for my chosen recipe �" nothing worse than mashing in, and realising you’re out of the required hops. Ensure it’s updated real time, and you won’t have a problem.

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Grain is placed into a bucket and suspended from the roof to enable one handed addition. Eyelet at bottom of bucket to enable tilting into the vessel one handed. I weigh grain out the night before and place in a PU bag so I’m straight into the mash within a few minutes of entering the shed. (and the eyelet is handy for routione storage so the bucket doesn’t collect dust).

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I use a stirrer on a drill to mash in. It’s a non painted plaster stirrer. The drill is supported loosely from ceiling to enable one handed use. This is painless �" just keep the speed of the stirrer and the rate of addition aligned so there’s no dough balls or splashing. It doesn’t take much practice but start slow with the drill, or you could wrap the mash bag around it. I can dough in in less than 2 minutes, in a very controlled fashion, with all grain well mixed.
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I have insulation under the boiler, with a towel to ensure it doesn’t stick to the boiler should I want to lift the boiler to transfer into the FV later. Initially I didn’t have this towel intermediate layer and it’s a pain to free the boiler from the mat post cooling.
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False bottom on boiler �" this is my newest addition and is for quality of product, not reduction in process time. It’s slowed the time slightly, see later wrt transfer to FV. I’ve yet to do enough with it to assess if there has been a product quality improvement, if it looks like a goer, I'll get rid of the spider.

I use forceps on bag to prevent slippage (caution, they get hot later) of the bag and reduces the risk of scorching the bag on the element. A couple of quid online.
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6 layers of insulation using three different media �" 2 x layers camping mat on bottom, outside and top of boiler, large rectangular sleeping bag (forms three layers when placed over, up and over again) and final layer of HWT insulation. Both sleeping bag and HWT insulation and bungeed tight for maximum effect. Temp losses of 0.5 degree with this setup over 90 mins, so it can only assist quality. I’d like to get the HWT insulation shaped to fit directly over quickly in one piece, but with the temp retention I have it’s low priority, and this step isn’t on the critical path as mash time starts when mashed in.

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Post mash, I support mashing bag from above to let it drain using a baking trivet for a few minutes �" it can be left alone with the support, but I found without the support it’s a bit precarious.
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Silicone gloves to lift mashing bag and squeeze it when on the trivet (I don’t squeeze at the higher temp dunk sparge) �" got these online, I find these much better than thick rubber gloves, better grip and quick to get on and off.
Hop spider and bag (undyed nylon curtains from Ikea - ��£6 a pair, dozens of bags). Cable tie bag onto spider. Cable ties are always to hand for the spider, dispensing materials and other activities.
CANT FIND THE PHOTO OF THE GLOVES :oops:
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Next post continues
 
Strangely I get relaxed by the regimented order of things. Tbh, I couldn’t justify brewing as often if I couldn’t speed it up, and I wanted to speed up my own system rather than just buy a Grain master or similar

Pity about the photos! I can relate to the above, I enjoy the brewing process, so much so I've downsized to 14L batches so I can brew more often. But 5-6 hour brew days are not for me. With a few tweaks to process I've got this down to about 3.5 hours, and feel in general things are becoming more "efficient";

- Mill grains, collect/treat water the night before
- Clean, and sanitize FV while strike water heating
- 45 min mash
- Cold sparge (I'm still getting 80% efficiency with the right grist crush)
- Ramp up the kettle temperature towards boiling while still sparging
- 45 min boil
- Collect hot water from counterflow for cleaning - hardly any goes down the drain now
- Compost grains/hops!


...O.C.D. Brewing? :lol:
 

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