Going AG, Thinking of BIAB?

I do All Grain, and I don't have a tiered stand, or use pumps to move wort. I do have a mash tun made from a Coleman XTreme cooler. Very easy to build.

brewing.lustreking.com/gear/mashtun.html

I don't do BIAB, so I won't comment on that.

 

At that price (I am assuming you are looking at the brew in a basket setup) I would say just go all grain with a cooler fitted with a ball valve. That's most, if not all, of the equipment that you would need that you don't already have to go all grain (maybe a cheap mash paddle too). You don't need anything 3 tier, any pumps, nothing fancy. I've been brewing all grain in apartments for 3+ years now with no issue. Use a cooler and a countertop and you are good to go! Everything I use uses gravity for transfers and I batch sparge.

Then again, if its more about the time spent brewing, there is no doubt that BIAB is faster than regular all grain brewing.

 

I considered getting into the game with BIAB. I ended up going for the cooler method. It is not that difficult or expensive. You don't need tiers or pumps. I have the pump because I wasn't going to try to lift 12+ gallons of hot wort in a kettle onto the burner after draining the cooler. I also didn't want to lift the kettle post boil onto a table to gravity feed into my fermentors, and I was tired of lugging full fermentors from the kettle to the fridge. With BIAB you still need something for draining the wort in the grains. Some people hang it from a ladder over the kettle, others (like in the link you provided) put it into a cooler which esssentially creates a 2 vessel mash and lauter instead of one which is part of the point behind BIAB.

All the forms of AG brewing can make great beer, some just require more work, others save on the labor and effort in one area but create extra cost and cleanup (pumps)

 

I typically get around 80% efficiency from my BIAB setup. I also do a series of rinses by dunking the bag back down into 170 degree water and moving the grain around with my mash paddle. I mash at 1.25 qts /lb and use the rest of the water I need to batch rinse. The best thing about this is you can start all grain with virtually no new equipment other than the bag.

 

I do BIAB 5 gal batches in a 15 gal kettle.
Efficiencies are in the upper 70s consistently, the beer is quite good and I have no complaints.


If you BIAB, get a mill (if you don't already have one). You'll thank me later....

 

With BIAB there are no stuck sparge concerns, so you can go with a very fine crush. Your LHBS may be able to do that for you, but when I've bought crushed grains online I did a secondary crush on brew day.

I picked up a Barley Crusher mill that does the trick - though it seems kind of cheaply made.

 

I second this.

 

I brewed All-Grain on a 3 tier gravity system for about 4 years and loved it. I had two burners and cooler mash tun. Made some really great beers. In the past year I moved to BIAB 5 gallon batches (after 1 gallon experiments) and like it as well.

The reason I switched had nothing to do with quality or efficiency (brewhouse) but had to do with reducing time brewing (so I could brew more often) and reducing the footprint of my brewing equipment. I've had to make adjustments to get my recipes tasting the same but more important than the way you handle mashing/sparging is fermentation temp control and sanitation.

Also, I just put a weber bbq grill on top of my kettle and set the BIAB on it after taking it from the kettle. The good thing about BIAB is that you buy a 15 gallon kettle then you can switch to any other form of all-grain brewing in the future by adding equipment instead replacing equipment.

 

I have 1 large cooler and 1 large pot along with a natural gas burner. I usually mash with 1.5 gallons/pound and then add the appropriate amount of water at the right temp for a mashout (no sparge). Very easy, I get around 70% efficiency. One benefit of this vs BIAB is I don't have to deal with lifting a heavy, hot, wet bag of grain out of my pot, but I get the same simple (cheap) setup.

Also, a 5 gallon brew day takes about 4.5 hours if I clean as I go.

 

<== highly skeptical any BIAB system gets above 70% brewhouse efficiency.

 

Why would you say that? What in BIAB would limit efficiency?

 

I did my first BIAB brew on the spur of the moment two weeks ago.

I got a disused curtain (voile) and sat down and hand stitched a bag from it.

I then brewed a 2 gallon APA in a 3 gallon pot plus a dunk sparge in a smaller pot using my trusty bag on the stovetop.

I got 67% efficiency. I bottled it yesterday.

Aside from a higher FG than expected things seem okay so far.

Give it a go. It is really simple.

 

I went extract to BIAB to cooler mash. I don't regret my stop at BIAB, as the process did get my feet wet. I do though believe I saw improvements in cooler mash all grain brewing vs BIAB. Assuming you batch sparge, if your heat your sparge water while mashing and boil wort while sparging, I do not think the time saved it all that much.

I do believe any type of all grain brewing is a much more gratifying way to brew overall.

Good luck either way.

 

Why?

 

I consistently got 77% efficiency while mashing BIAB, probably 15-20 batches.