Brew in a bag

chuck 2012-04-16 15:08:22 UTC #1

I just finished my third batch and it worked out great, this way works for making 2.5 or 3 gallon batches but in my opinion not 5 gallons unless you have a crane to lift that bag this recipe was pushing the limit.

I brewed a 3 gallon batch of the Lake Front Fixed Gear recipe 9.5 lbs of grain in 6.25 gallons of water and ended up after an 80 min boil with 3.25 gallons into the fermentor at 1.070. That's 4 or 5 points higher than it should be but at 79% efficiency I won't complain.

Start to finish took 4 hours that's from setup to tear down and cleaning not bad looking forward to doing it again.

dobe12 2012-04-16 15:14:47 UTC #2

I do 5 gallon BIAB batches all the time. Just did one yesterday. I am limited to about 13-14lbs of grain, but that's due to the size of my pot and the amount of mash water needed. So for big beers, I either have to do partial mash and add a little bit of extract or what I normally do is just cut the recipe down to 3 or 4 gallons.

shadetree 2012-04-16 15:31:25 UTC #3

For bigger batches, you can split the grain into multiple bags - 5lbs per 5-gal paint-strainer bag works well, giving enough slack to easily stir and material at the top to hold onto for draining, and each bag only weighs about 10 lbs wet.

chuck 2012-04-16 17:04:48 UTC #4

I may be 6'4" and weigh 260 lbs but I'll be 71 in a couple months and I'm not as strong as I use to be so the smaller batches work better for me.

And now I have to lug every thing up and down stairs no walkout at this house I don't need to do a header.

porvida 2012-05-03 04:50:09 UTC #5

What size brew kettle does one need for a three gallon BIAB recipe? I'm an extract brewer who would like to try BIAB and am trying to figure out what equipment I'll need.

shadetree 2012-05-03 14:37:22 UTC #6

For four gallons of wort at the start of the boil and eight lbs of grain to put three gallons ~1.070 wort in the fermenter, you would need a 6-gal kettle to do a no-sparge batch with a little room to spare. So if you're planning on pulling the grain and sparging, a 26-qt turkey fryer setup would give you plenty of room and it would work for no-sparge too.

mplsbrewer 2012-05-03 16:03:34 UTC #7

I have a four gallon pot that I do 2.5 gallon BIAB batches. So far I've only done a few of them in between the bigger batches but it has worked out alright. Still trying to pin down my method and figure out efficiency but I'll get there. It seems like way less work

stormybrew 2012-05-03 16:10:37 UTC #8

Mash AG in a 5 gallon cooler on the kitchen counter, then drain into a 5gallon extract pot. that's what i do. It works very well.

http://public.fotki.com/TTQ2K2/brewing/beer-2/

cheers.

porvida 2012-05-08 04:04:35 UTC #9

Stormybrew,

As stated earlier, I am considering giving all grain brewing a try. I thought BIAB (as demonstrated a few months back in Northern Brewer TV's monthly episode) may be the easiest way to transition into AG. However the method demonstrated in your slides how looks good too. Where can I find a step by step set of instructions for your style of AG brewing?

stormybrew 2012-05-08 16:15:25 UTC #10

You got PM.

:cheers:

porvida 2012-05-10 04:12:01 UTC #11

StormyBrew,

Thank you for the information (pm). Much appreciated.