I have a 15 gallon brew pot with a false bottom I use for mashing. I have to use the same kettle for the boil. After collecting the runnings, I take my kettle to the edge of my yard and hose out the grain then remove the false bottom. I return the kettle to the burner then continue with the boil. I can do this while there is no snow on the ground, but in the winter I need to come up with a better method of removing the grain from the kettle. I have been thinking about using a grain bag during the winter months thinking that the bag would make it easier to remove the grain from my mash kettle. Are grain bags a pain in the fanny to use when mashing? What size mesh should be used? Any thoughts?
A 5-gallon nylon paint strainer bag will comfortably hold five lbs of grain with room to allow stirring and will only weigh about 10 lbs when you pull it out (five for the grain, five for the wort in the grain).
I have a grain bag that I bought just for biab but only used it a few times for that and partial mash. I went to regular AG mash after that.
It is convenient, but it seems that it actually takes more fuss to clean out the bag than to clean out the tun.
I’ve thought of using it during a normal AG mash, but it isn’t any real bother going without it.
I haven’t had to traverse any huge amounts of snow to get to my compost pile with the spent grain yet.
I may give a grain bag a try, if I find it to be a big fuss, well I’ll only be out a few dollars. The only other thing I can do would be to scoop out the grain. Then rinse the kettle into a bucket through the ball valve. I see that the grain bags come in different mesh sizes. Would the finest mesh be OK to use?
The finest would be best but it may not be big enough check the sizes.
I did do 3 gallon BIAB and used the biggest one I could find and then placed the finest one i could find inside it, the finest one is to small to use on it’s own, at least with my system.
Did maybe 3 or 4 batches that way then got rid of it to much of a pain.
We who BIAB have to clean our bags all the time… No big deal, give a good rinse and the let it completely dry. Shake all of the grain off and your good to go.
