I get the best of both worlds: I use a BIAB bag in my round cooler mash tun. Now that I have picked up a 10 gallon cooler ($44 at Home Depot) to go with my original 5 gallon setup, I have the option to do full volume traditional no-sparge BIAB or a thick mash plus sparge Mash in a Bag. When it’s time to drain the tun I only have to lift the bag the few inches required to clear the drain outlet, and I never have to worry about running off too fast, stuck sparges, a compacted or disturbed grain bed, channeling, etc. (in fact, when I sparge I add the sparge water and stir it up really well.) Efficiency is high, cleanup is easy, flexibility is maximized and the beer turns out just fine.
This sounds like my experience for the most part as well and I don’t use a corona style mill. The only thing that seems to make it work smoothly is to increase my gap to the point where I’m getting 60% efficiency which totally sucks. I still deal with it but it is definitely the most frustrating part of my brew day.[/quote]
Man, would I like to brew with you (or vice versa) and get that worked out. Mine has been so trouble free for so long that it always disturbs me to hear of other people’s problems.[/quote]
Not gonna be in Cleveland anytime in March or April are you? 
I’ll figure it out eventually (hopefully). I’ve thought about filming it and putting it on youtube or something but i brew alone and filming a video while wrestling with my mashtun doesn’t sound like a feat I would like to attempt.
hello fellow brewers, I haven’t tried a BIAB yet, but tell the newbies I’ve help along the way to check it out. With that, I don’t have problems until I do 10 gallon batch. Then I get stuck and that is my pain in the back side. I have some thought of laying a keg on its side as a mash tun. And the mess after mashing for me is very simple,walk out the back door and dump the grist in a trough, whistle, and the deer come in for a hot lunch, in the winter that is. Yes, like Denny, when I brew alone , I can bang out a Duvel style in 4 hours, when friends help…. Finish some minor cleaning the following day. Sneezles61 :cheers:
Just another tool in the toolbox
I brewed a hefeweizen about a week ago. I was done brewing and cleaning my stuff in 4.5-5 hours. The only reason I think it took longer is because I decided to do a step mash instead of single infusion. Steps were one 20 min, two 30 mins, then I drained and sparged. I’ve slowly been improving my process and getting faster. I usually prep some stuff the night before so I am ready to go the next day and not wasting time pulling stuff out and cleaning.
I think I’d probably do a BIAB if I was doing a small batch as well. I’m actually pretty sure I will be doing BIAB for small 1 gallon batches to start testing my own recipes. For the tried and true larger beers, I’ll stick to my “dennybrew” mash tun.
What is a deny brew mash tun? Is it different than a regular mash tun?
My cooler is a 15 gallon cube style with a ball valve and screen. Same principle I guess. Does the shape really matter. I usually get about 85%
If you get 85% then it must be a blue cube. 
I don’t think there IS a “regular” mash tun!
If you batch sparge, the shape doesn’t matter. If you fly sparge, it might matter.
Denny - I couldn’t find the exact part that you recommended for a braid. Would it be better, in general, to have a braid with a tighter or looser weave? There seems to be quite a bit of variation between parts, even among the same part numbers.
I think tighter is better. All that needs to flow through it is liquid. You can order one from Amazon if you want to…http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ … dition=new
Thanks, I picked one up to try but if it doesn’t pan out I’ll try the one off Amazon. The one I picked up looks pretty decent, though, so I’ll give it a shot. :cheers:
I just started doing BIAB outside of the house with a propane burner that sits about 10- or 12-inches above ground level and a 10-gal S/S pot.
I use a perforated pizza baking tray to help drain the bag. It’s basically flat with only about a 3/4 in lip. I only have to lift the bag about 1 1/2 inch above the top of the kettle and then gently lower the bag on to it. Even with 10 lbs of wet grain it’s not too heavy.
But to me one of the great benefits of my very basic and relatively inexpensive BIAB set-up is that I’m not carrying hot liquid around. After the boil is finished, I stick the immersion chiller in the pot and cool down the wort before transferring it to the fermenter.
One-pot and one bag and one chiller and no hot liquid to move around.
I realize a lot of brewers have the welded brew stands with multiple burners and pots and pumps and hoses, but I don’t have the room nor the inclination to go that route.
Cheers no matter how you brew.
[quote=“lazy ant brewing”]I just started doing BIAB outside of the house with a propane burner that sits about 10- or 12-inches above ground level and a 10-gal S/S pot.
I use a perforated pizza baking tray to help drain the bag. It’s basically flat with only about a 3/4 in lip. I only have to lift the bag about 1 1/2 inch above the top of the kettle and then gently lower the bag on to it. Even with 10 lbs of wet grain it’s not too heavy.
But to me one of the great benefits of my very basic and relatively inexpensive BIAB set-up is that I’m not carrying hot liquid around. After the boil is finished, I stick the immersion chiller in the pot and cool down the wort before transferring it to the fermenter.
One-pot and one bag and one chiller and no hot liquid to move around.
I realize a lot of brewers have the welded brew stands with multiple burners and pots and pumps and hoses, but I don’t have the room nor the inclination to go that route.
Cheers no matter how you brew.[/quote]
My brew stand is a SS work table. Nothing fancy. My equipment count is pretty close to yours. I realize that we all have our own ways to brew and BIAB is valid for some people and not for others. But I keep seeing things that supposedly make BIAB easier, yet are really not much different than what I do.
I really don’t have room for a brew table inside or a permanent brew stand. I get my brewing equipment out from several different closets or cabinets, sanitize, brew, clean up and store until next brew day.
Also since I’m 68 years old and have minor blood pressure issues, I like not having to physically carry hot liquid around. My propane stand is not far enough from the ground to drain into a mash tun. I fill the brew pot with cold water, mash, boil and cool in the same pot before draining cooled wort into a sanitized pitcher to transfer to the fermenter.
My first burner was low also so I put it on some bricks to make it a little higher. It really doesn’t have to be that high. You can use your racking cane to siphon the cooled wort into your bucket fermenter.
I’ve thought of getting bricks, but haven’t got around to doing it yet.
Siphoning would be okay until the level in the fermenter matched the level in the bottom of the pot which is possible with 5.5 or 6 gal of wort. After that I don’t think ti works that great.
Thanks for your idea about the bricks.
[u]I used the bricks and siphon technique to move most of the wort and then just poured the rest of the wort when the pot got light enough.
