Brewing your First BIAB AG Beer

[calumscott]

Awesome, thanks.
Having a big clear out of old bits and bobs that I don't use any more to raise some money for the kit needed.
I'm back and forth on kit at the moment, was going 'Shiny' to start with but had a roof problem that ate up a lot of cash, then was going to go for a cheaper plastic electrim bin but people don't see to rate them as much, so now back to Shiny! lol

Hopefully will be able to start getting some of the kit next week.

Will be sure to post up some pic.

Thanks again.

[calumscott]

Electrims are small is the problem. Remember with BIAB you need space for:

1) the finished beer
2) the boil off volume
3) the grain
4) the volume absorbed by the grain (it doesn't get absorbed instantly!)
5) the volume absorbed by the hops
6) the volume lost to the crud at the bottom on draining the boiler

I have a 70l pot and only *just* squeeze in enough to get 40l to the FV.

Yes, that was the main problem, I didn't want to have to mess about with topping up etc.

I'm going to go for a 50l pot as I will be looking to aim for 23l into the FV so a 50l should be perfect for the job.
I'd rather get the kit I really want than go cheap and then end up upgrading sooner or later, just means saving up for a bit longer.

[calumscott]

That was where I started from.

But then I realised that the investment in time brewing AG made it more worthwhile to brew bigger lengths more often.

I was intending to go 3 Vessel but haven't finished the brewery yet (two years later... ) and BIAB is still working out just great for me.

Nice one, just need to be good with money for a while now

Does give me plenty of time to keep reading up on things, so hopefully come brew day, I wont completely balls it all up.

Ah cool, I downloaded the BIABacus the other day and entered the Rookie recipe you did, so its all loaded, just need the kit now to have a go. Cant wait to get going.

Fantastic guide which has swayed me to BIAB, so I'll start my list of equipment, with a 50l stock pot and a gas burner. Anyone point me in the right direction to a decent burner?

[Moley]

Hamilton's Gas Products

http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/L ... _Ring.html

With a

Brilliant guide.

Back in the early days when home brewers became dissatisfied with the kit beers of the day such as Tom Caxton or Edme, good though they were, and all grain brewing was explored then quite obviously the way to go was to make a miniature version of the tried and tested Victorian Tower Brewery model that had served us well for a century or two.

encyclopedia brewing.png (172.97 KiB) Viewed 14830 times

That model has until recently been the "given" solution and gave rise to the 3 vessel system. BIAB thought outside the square and came up with the brilliant solution that you didn't need to remove the wort from the grain, you can remove the grain from the wort and still end up with the wort.

Couple of points:

BIAB is perfectly suited to using an electric boiler such as a Buffalo 40 litre model so with the addition of a bag you have a "turn key" brewery out of the box.

You don't need a bag as such, a hemmed circle of Swiss Voile material gathered together and hoisted with a hangman's noose gives you not only a perfect teardrop "bag" when hoisted, but has no seams and is virtually everlasting, and is cheap.

Cheers

Calum, Many thanks for this guide. I used it on Thursday to complete my first BIAB, and it was a god send guiding me through the basic principles of this method. I used the method to make the Dennis King Galaxy Delight. I have put the wort into the FV today and look forward to sampling it in due course. As this has went fairly well I am looking for a couple of other recipies to try out using BIAB. I have got the Greg Hughes book Home Brew Beer, and I am going to use the recipes in this Amarillo Single Hop ale, and East Kent Golding Single Hop ale for my next brews. Have you tried any of these recipes or can you point me towards others you have tried using BIAB. I have a 50 litres pot and am looking to make 23 litres batches.
Once again many thanks,

[calumscott]

I haven't tried any of the Greg Hughes ones as I don't have the book.

I have however done some of Graham Wheeler's ones and they're excellent.

I do have to bugger about with the efficiency and volumes and stuff to get them to work but Beersmith is superb for that.

I did a few 23l brews in my 70l but the boil off rates will be very different I guess... How well did your numbers work out?

I got just under 23litres from an initial 35 litres, I didn't remove all the wort from the kettle, as it was very, cloudy/ sludge. Also I left a litre in the cube as that was similar. Whether brewing on Thursday in the hot temperature had some affect on my evaporation rate I don't know. Hopefully on my next brews I will get better efficiency rates.

Great guide calumscott - was really helpful for walking through my first BIAB.

I used a Buffalo 40l (with a tap similar to rpt's How To...), and made a recipe from Graham Wheeler BYOBRA book. Despite many reccommendations I didnt use BIABarcus in the end, and stuck with BrewMate software. After I have done a couple of brews im going to revisit BIABarcus to see if it will be more useful in the future.

Hi,

I am brand new to the Forum, and pretty much brand new to brewing. Already, the BIAB method has been suggested, and someone was kind enough to point me in the direction of this thread. Very helpful thanks, although all still a bit daunting!

MBC

[calumscott]

so the mash is done on a stove etc

I got myself a 50 pot and a burner so I can avoid all the wailing and gnashing of teeth associated with brewing electricaly in a shared kitchen. It's like a brew BQ having to have everything outside on the patio and then last weekend it started raining just as I was getting my boil on. Sitting under a patio umbrella next to my brew pot in the rain was a way to bond with my new kit. Think I need a shed

No Brewzee - you need an opensided roof over the patio ;^)
I built mine over 30 years ago when I was one of those horrible smokers who was banned from doing it indoors. Stopped that in 2000 but now I can brew in the dry no matter what the weather is. Only drawback is that SWMBO also dries washing under there so we have to have close co-ordination so that her clean washing doesn't stink of boiling wort.