I have done my 1 gallon brews in both ways, kits and own recipes. I totally understand what you are saying, like I said it might just be in my head why I don’t like BiaB.
I might just take it slow, keep doing 1 gallon all grains and 5 gallon extracts for a while. Save up some money to buy the bigger brew pot, build my own lauter tun, and get a burner possibly (if my stove can’t cut it). To avoid buying a burner right away, I might halve the recipe and brew 2 batches, each 2.5 gallons worth, and then just combine into one carboy for fermenting. I don’t know how that would turn out, but it would be interesting to find out!
First I’m not insulted. OK well maybe a little but only because you clearly don’t understand BIAB and are making uninformed judgments. BIAB isn’t in the middle of anything. Plain and simple it is all grain brewing.
I haven’t bought a kit in over 3 years. I develop or adapt all of my own recipes and buy 50 pound sacks of base malt along with pretty large quantities of specialty malts which I mill at home. I have about 20 pounds of hops in the freezer at the moment as well. Having said that plenty of people make great beer from kits. It’s all about your knowledge and process.
The only difference in my 2 vessel system and another 2 vessel AG system is the filter medium. Some use a false bottom in a kettle or a bazooka tube in a cooler MT. BIAB brewers use a fine mesh bag in their MT/kettle or cooler.
I just threw out the idea of BIAB because it’s generally speaking a less expensive way to start AG brewing. It’s not for everyone. Usually because it’s too much work lifting heavy things. Certainly not because it’s taking short cuts or relying on anyone else.
Yea, I think you’re all over the board, and mixing concepts.
Extract versus All Grain is one choice.
Brewing kits versus your own recipes is another choice.
BIAB versus false bottom is a third.
BIAB is just a mash technique. It should really be called “Mash In A Bag”
I weigh my base malt from a 50lb sack, and add speciality grains from a couple of smaller bags. I crush them in my mill. The only way to get more hands-on the process would be to hand-crank the mill. That’s independent of how I mash the grain.
In the end, brew what you want to drink using whatever process works best for you.
The only difference is you skip the lauter and all that does imo is set the grain bed. Most of the Biab ERs I know started with a tun and once the figured out how to brew they switched to Biab. Nothing wrong with the tun method if you want to be traditional but then don’t batch sparge you’ll need to spend some coin and get a three kettle three burner system setup. That would be fun to but I wouldn’t bother unless I was doing at least 15 gallon batches.
Me still switch back to extract brew once a while. And create nice beers. Do all grain when i have a full day off. Extract. When i feel like brewing at night unexpected. I did buy a propane burner. Long time ago. Seems to create more heat. Than using the stove
I personally do BIAB because it was a cheaper way for me to get into all grain brewing. I didn’t need to buy 3 separate pots, pumps, etc. BIAB can be done with 1 pot and a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. Cheap and efficient. I built my own corona grain mill for less than $30 and bought a $10 scale to measure ingredients from grain to hops. Along the way I saw a great sale and bought a 8 gallon stainless pot for $35 so now I use that as my primary BIAB vessel and then heat my dunk sparge water in my 5 gallon pot. IMO a decent propane/NG outside burner for $50 (SP10 on amazon) would most likely be the last burner you would ever need, without a huge investment. I used to think that my time wasn’t that valuable and using the stove was okay, but as soon as I got the outdoor burner my thoughts completely changed. It only took 15-20 minutes to heat to boil for extract and even less than that for “strike” water. For me getting a 5 g batch done in 3-4 hours (even less with extract) is perfect and I don’t have to be tied to my kitchen/house all day.
Ya I wish I got the 15… Once you put 7.5 gal in for the boil in the 10 there is not much space left…
We did another all grain batch today , my son had a recipe for some kind of saison. I have to say this time the nozzle connection on the mash tun cooler gave me a hard time. Leaked a bit with the cold water I used to test before starting the brew, found one o- ring not quite seated… Then got it right… Then started a slow drip when the hot water and gain stirred in… Managed to pretty much stop that after a while. Just don’t feel like screwing with that at such a critical time.
So my next little upgrade will be to get the stainless insulated mash tun from SSBrewtech. I have their brewkettle and love it. The coolers just need a more robust gasket/ sealing idea.
