BIAB question for a noob

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I think the hbc do the full job...boiler,chiller etc....and a grain kit to get you started. I still haven't decided on my new kit yet.....

Cheers

Clint
 
so wait i thought biab i didnt need another heater for mash water ???? and whats fv? chiller will have to wait i cant afford one



You will need a way of sparging the grains, this can be a cheap fermenter with an amount of hot water in at 75C which can come from a combination of your domestic kettle and tap. Dunk the grain bag in a couple of times and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes.


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If you do a 23 l batch how will you chill it down to pitch temp? Partial mash ,under 15 l,I found quick and easy by putting the pan in the sink full of ice. Moving a bucket of boiling wort isn't something I'd try...especially a plastic bucket...
Smaller amounts of sparge water is easy in a large pan or fv but as said getting the temp right and maintaining it is a bit of a faff.

Cheers

Clint
 
hmm i see i think ill have to give this a miss then its getting expensive im up to £211 now cant really do that much guess im stuck with kits for now
 
so wait i thought biab i didnt need another heater for mash water ???? and whats fv? chiller will have to wait i cant afford one


You can heat your mash water in the bucket no problems, and you could no-chill your wort as many on here do. You will need a FV (fermenting vessel) to ferment the wort in though.
 
Hi!
I believe that the original idea of Brew In A Bag was to mash the grain in the full volume of water and squeeze the bag after it had been lifted out of the mash tun. I believe that the grain bill had to be increased to get the required efficiency.
Some home brewers experimented with a mash in less than full volume and then sparging the bag after it had been lifted out of the mash tun, either by pouring water over the bag or by doing a dunk sparge - dunking the bag in another container containing the sparge water.
Once the wort has been boiled it needs to be chilled immediately using a wort chiller (surprisingly).
Many home brewers use a no-chill method - transferring the boiled wort into a polythene Jerry can, sealing it and allowing to cool.
If you go BIAB without a sparge, the equipment you're considering will be fine; choose the Ritchie's bag option. The only other kit you'll need is a Jerry can for no-chill - about a tenner.
 
hmm i see i think ill have to give this a miss then its getting expensive im up to �£211 now cant really do that much guess im stuck with kits for now

You also don't have to sparge with BIAB, but many of us do some sort of sparge to increase efficiency a bit - I just pour approx. 5L of water heated on the hob over the grains (still bagged) in a fermenting bucket.

Apart from a mash bag and a fermenting bucket you don't need anything else. A few extras would be desirable but you could add these later.
 
hmm i see i think ill have to give this a miss then its getting expensive im up to �£211 now cant really do that much guess im stuck with kits for now

If you do BIAB in 10 litre batches you will only need the following

A 15l stock pot
A bag
A thermometer

You can sparge from a kettle using 3 litres of water into any container and add this to you stock pot and use a colander, if you wish
 
The only equipment you need for doing 23L BIAB is the following:

1. Boiler. Like the one you first suggested. I have a 30L Ace boiler and so far, 2 years in it's been... ace.
2. Biab bag. Get a nice big one that fits your boiler. I'm still using the first one I bought so it's lasted 2 years to date and cost £11 if I remember rightly.
3. Cheap mixing bowls from Tescos for weighing out your grains.
4. Kitchen scales.
5. Fermenting bin. They're about a tenner from Wikos.
6. Thermometer. Don't trust the dials on your boiler. The one on mine is accurate give or take 10 degrees.
7. Something for stirring. I use a long aluminium inch wide strip I got from B&Q. Or you can buy a special long spoon.
8. Hydrometer.

You can do No-chill so saving the expense of a chiller. Just be aware that it will take 6 to 8 hours for 23L to cool to pitching temperature. Look it up on the forum - lots of us do no chill successfully.
Good luck, mate - you'll find BIAB brewing gives you beer as good as anything you'll buy from a pub, and often much better. And so cheap too. Most of my brews work out at between 35p and 50p a pint.
 
You don't actually need to sparge with BIAB - that's the whole point. I actually picked up a 30l electric boiler with a built in thermostat for a song so I literally do the whole lot in one vessel. I pre boil the water to remove chlorine, add salts and let it cool to about 70C while I grind the grains, sterilise, etc, throw in a steamer basket as a false bottom, then the bag, and add the grains, wrap it in a woolen blanket and set the thermostat for my mash temp, stirring occasionally, then lift the bag and tie it to a door handle over the boiler to drain, bring it back to the boil and when done use a $50 chiller which gets it cool quick enough to achieve cold break - or you can use the no-chill method as mentioned.

I have tried sparging, but it made no detectable difference to my efficiency so have gone back to squeezing, except on dense mashes where stuff like torrified wheat or oats tend to hold the liquid.
 
As others have said get one of the BIAB starter kits from HBC or Geterbrewed, both come with all you really need above the basic fermenting kit you probably already have and a bundled grain recipe kit, all for around a £100, I bought the Geterbrewed kit and it's been great so far.

You only get the basic Peco bin not the fancy digital controlled one, but to be honest beyond having a thermometer or two you don't need it.
 
Whilst you don't need to sparge that much you can still do it with just a basic kettle and a few litres of boiled water down thru the grain bag if you rest it on top of the boiler on a basic adjustable wire grill oven shelf, this will also allow you to adjust your pre boil volume to exactly where you need it to be.

There are lots of ways of doing things and corner cutting that doesn't effect the end product in any discernible way, a lot of times cheapest is best if you are prepared to do the extra bit of work/research on it.
 
hmm i see i think ill have to give this a miss then its getting expensive im up to £211 now cant really do that much guess im stuck with kits for now

Hey, these guys are right. If you are already doing kits, everything you need is in this bundle, for less than the price of the boiler you linked to. It even comes with your first AG ingredient kit. This is how I started AG, and either I didn't sparge or I just did a small sparge with water heated on the stove in a pan.
 
Whilst you don't need to sparge that much you can still do it with just a basic kettle and a few litres of boiled water down thru the grain bag if you rest it on top of the boiler on a basic adjustable wire grill oven shelf, this will also allow you to adjust your pre boil volume to exactly where you need it to be.

There are lots of ways of doing things and corner cutting that doesn't effect the end product in any discernible way, a lot of times cheapest is best if you are prepared to do the extra bit of work/research on it.

spot on...more ways to skin a cat etc
 
You can do the Maxi-biab method where you use a cheap 19 litre stock pot and a bag, you start with say 5 kg of malt in the bag put the bag in the pot then fill the stock pot to the brim with water give it all a good stir and leave it to mash. Pull the bag and squeeze the bejesus out of it, top up to fill the pot and get the boil on. At the end of the boil you'll have a wort that is way above gravity and about 16 litres in volume. Chill the pot in the sink then pour into the fv top up to 23 litres and add yeast. I did at least my first 50 brews like this. It works perfectly and is really the whole point of the BIAB method its simple, cheap and makes good beer. Check out the biabrewer site in Oz they have a step by step guide, software to calculate grain, hops, water and helpful brewers.
All told you should only need a 19l stock pot, a bag (mashing and sparging bags work) and a fermenter and if you've got a fermenter you shouldn't need to spend much north of 30-40 quid.
 
hmm i see i think ill have to give this a miss then its getting expensive im up to £211 now cant really do that much guess im stuck with kits for now

WOW! That's a lot of unnecessary dosh!

How about a bit of DIY?

Wilco 25 litre FV £10
Element from Argos Kettle £5.50
Tap for boiler £5
That's the boiler sorted for £20.50 (plus about an hour checking out You Tube for a "How to Rip a Kettle Apart" and then a couple of hours DIY.)

The rest of the gear you need can also be made, just search for it on the Forum.

Whatever else you do - DON'T GIVE UP! :thumb:
 
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