BIAB please explain

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PawsOfEvil

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I have noticed a few posts about boil in a bag, without trying to sound stupid can someone please explain to me how this differs from a 'normal' all grain setup? What are the advantages/disadvantages? I have been using mashing bags for my 1 gallon setup as I find it helps in keeping everything clean/clearer wort is this what people mean by BIAB?
 
I am no expert on brew in a bag. But simply it is producing the wort in one single vessel.

You use a big mesh bag in a pot to heat the grain and water to the desired temp and then remove the bag and grain. This allows you to remove all the grain easily. Just like using a giant tea bag.

Boil the resulting wort with hops and your done.

Have a search about the forum I think a walk through is knocking about somewhere.

Hope this helps.
 
Hello fellow 1 galloner!

My set-up is effectively BIAB - it just means that your mash tun is also your boiler (link to my brew page below)
 
In short,

BIAB is easy, but it's hard to brew beers with strong ABVs, or a lot of beer at once as you need to lift the bag. Not impossible, but harder. It's also somewhat difficult to do step mashing (used in german beers) and the suchlike without a seperate lauter tun, but again, not impossible.

the coolbox/HLT/boiler method will basically give you the option to do anything. I guess for the super serious brewer it's a must, but I'm certainly producing great quality all grain beer on a single vessel :thumb:
 
I use biab to brew but slightly differently. I still use the bag but once the mash has been completed I move the wort to my boiler. Purely because it's a baby burco so much easier to boil in that than on the stove in the house where the Mrs is watching my every move!
 
BIAB is relatively straight forward. Firstly its "Brew" in a Bag not "Boil" in a bag. I made this error on my first foray into BIAB. Basically you put all of your grain makings into the bag which has been deployed into your boiler at around 72*C - be careful to stir it in as it might clump and form dough balls, this is because of the sugar contained in the malted grain. Once you have added all the grain, t this point I switch off the power to the boiler, this allows the temp of the liquor and the grain to drop to about 66*C which is generally the ideal temp for mashing in BIAB. Leave for 90 mins - the temp will drop a further few degrees but if you have insulated your boiler the drop will not be too much - my experience indicates this is around 62*C after 90 mns. I have left it for longer when it dropped to 58*C after 4 hours - I don't find this is a problem.
I then remove the bag, as has been said its heavy and this is not easy especially if you are brewing on your own to either get a pal along to help or organize some mechanical assistance like a pulley arrangement above where you are brewing to enable the lifting out of the bag. I leave it suspended above the Wart to drip out, once the drips reduce move the bag into a clean bucket with some sort of elevated platform in it to allow the bag to continue to drip.
You now need to bring the wart back to a boil as quickly as possible, you will also find that in removing the bag you have also removed some of the liquid out of the boiler, y9u can replace this progressively during the boil by adding boiled water and the recovered wart from the bucket where the bag is sitting.
I generally have another small kettle with boiling water standing by to enable me to do a quick sparge of the grain filled bag by trickling hot water (around 72*C) over the bag to rinse out any remaining sugars.
The rest of the process is pretty much the same whichever approach you take (BIAB or mash and sparge). The wart needs to boil for 90 mins then cool quickly down to around 25*C so you can pitch your yeast starter, this quick cooling helps to some extend by nt allowing any nasty yeasts into the brew. Once at around 25*C you can pitch your yeast starter and cover so the brew can get underway. If its a good going starter that you pitched it should show signs of fermentation fairly quickly.
It wont show much activity it you just sprinkle the yeast on the wart for possibly up to 48 hours, the yeast needs to grow to start converting the sugars into CO2. I don't recommend doing this I like to see a good going starter with a good covering of foam before I pitch it.

Good luck with your brewing and hope it works out for you. You know where to come if you have any questions.
 

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