So I have done brew in a bag a few times, with some success, and some issues. The first time or two I got lousy efficiency (less than 60%), and low volume - I think there was a lot of water left to be drained from the grains, but I got tired an bored holding the grain bag up, and didn't want to scald my hands trying to squeeze liquid out. So I developed my own sparge procedure, I throw a colander in my bottling bucket, toss the grain bag in and dump water on top while I drain out the spigot. This also allows me to get on with the boil and add the last of the wort to the boil later. I'm fairly happy with this technique, on my last beer I think I got closer to 70% efficiency, and my volume was dead on heading into the fermentor. My main problem with the brew in a bag is that I seem to end up with a noticeable amount of grain husks and other particles in the wort, and therefore in the finished beer and its hard to mash at a given temperature since my kettle-wrapped-in-blankets heat loss is somewhat unpredictable. It has occurred to me that I am essentially doing the same things I would do with a traditional batch sparge, just without a cooler, or transferring all of the water out of my kettle, so I am thinking about building myself a mash tun, but at my heart I am cheap, and $30-50 for a cooler, plus a valve, plus a manifold of some type adds up (not even considering the pre-made versions that go for $150+ at the homebrew sites). I am wondering if a finer mesh on the bag (it is a muslim bag from the homebrew store marketed for brew in a bag) would help, or if there is some other way to ensure I end up with a clean beer or if a should just stop being a cheap bastard and get a mash tun. Anyone have any thoughts?
I'm cheap too...but get the best deal you can on a 10 gal cooler and a SS false bottom...spend a little more up front and enjoy the benefits long term...no bags to deal with...easy clean up and good brew...most times I go cheap...I end up stepping up later and regretting the POS I now have to sell for pennies on the dollar...
Same here. It took me weeks before i broke down and bought a 10 gal igloo mash tun because i couldn't justify the price but it's well worth it. You can still get some loose grains in the wort. You could also line the colander with pre-soaked coffee filters.
I'm the cheapest guy on earth. I've been brewing in a bag since before it was even a thing. Much like you, I've placed the bag into a large colander over a bucket and sparged through it, like old 1970s Papazian style. Unfortunately it takes a long friggin time to pour all the sparge water through the grain bed. So, today I do things just slightly different to help the brew day go a little faster. This sounds complicated but it's really not after you grasp the concepts: If you have a second kettle or hot liquor tank that's big enough, you can do a dunk sparge into ~190 F water, which combined with your 150-ish mash temperature will mash out about 170 F. Even if you have to boil water in 3 or 4 pots on your kitchen stove to get enough sparge water to almost a boil, do that and then at 190-195 F, dump it all into one bucket at dunk-sparge time. Then dunk your bag into the hot sparge water for a couple minutes, stir well, then remove, press the bag a little bit, then remove bag from colander and set bag aside. Instant batch sparge in less than 5 minutes, thus improving efficiency greatly. You still need the colander for the next step... With a spare clean grain bag, fold bag over the top of the colander over a second bucket to form a filter. Then pour all of your mash and all of your dunk-sparge volume through the bag filter and colander into the second bucket. This strains all the chunks of crap that made their way through the grain bags during mash and sparge, so that you'll have less husks & crap when you boil the wort. You'll find you need a spoon to scrape the filter bag in the colander from time to time as it will definitely get stuck from protein scum and husks, but that's fine. Scrape some of the scum aside to allow the clean wort to pass through the filter bag & colander again. Takes probably 15-20 minutes total to filter that crap out, if you care like I do. Once filtered, transfer the full volume back to your kettle and continue brewing as normal. This process combines BIAB with batch sparging and "lautering" for maximum efficiency and minimal crap in the boil kettle. Like it or not, it's what I've been doing for a while now, and it certainly works well for me. After a couple batches practice it will become like a no-brainer. And no cooler or valve manifold crap required (cheapskates, you and I). EDIT: A friend of mine does something similar but even quicker. He doesn't filter the full volume like I do, but just takes a fine mesh colander and dunks it into all the wort a few times to strain out the largest chunks of crap. Then brews as normal after that. Only takes him a couple minutes to strain out the bigger chunks, and he still makes good beer with it.
What are you using for your bag? I can't say that I've ever had problems with getting particles in the wort. I use a bag from this site: http://www.brewinabag.com/
I'll respond as if you're asking me that question, because we cheap guys need to stick together. Like I said, I'm the cheapest guy on earth, and I've been brewing in a bag since the guys who came up with brewinabag.com were probably still in middle school. I've been using the same old bag for >10 years. It's got a wider gap mesh. It ain't broke so I don't fix it. I have smaller mesh bags but they're too small for BIAB, intended for hop spiders or whatever. I dunno. Maybe I should look into it. Yet still somehow I doubt that even a fine mesh bag doesn't keep all the protein goo from seeping through. I could be wrong about this. But then it probably takes too long to drain the bag. I dunno.... six one, half dozen another.
Sorry, it was directed to the OP, but the more the merrier. I've never done BIAB with anything but the bag from that site, and I've done probably 5-6 batches with it now. I can't say that I've ever seen a single flake or chunk of anything make it through.
Sounds like you just need a better, (finer mesh), bag. I have been BIAB'ing for the better part of a year and can't see a scenario where I would switch. I can grind my grain super fine, and don't have any husks in my wort. My efficiencies are in the 80's. Another option to squeezing is to suspend the bag over the brew pot for 10-15 minutes. According to some, gravity does just as well as a squeeze, (personally, I am a squeezer!). The brew in a bag link above is an excellent bag. Also, there is another company that makes bags that would be an upgrade from muslin as well: http://biabbags.webs.com/
I'm not sure the store I bought it at closed. Something similar to this https://www.morebeer.com/products/mesh-bag-29in-drawstring.html?site_id=9
Looking at that bag, (went to a link that reviewed the bag), it appears that the weave is grosser than either the 2 links that were passed above. I believe a new bag would solve your debris issues.
I use paint strainer bags from Home Depot - 2 for $4. After mashing, I throw an oven rack on top of the pot and set the bag on there to let it drain while bringing to a boil. Most of the time I pour over another gallon or two of ~180 degree water to get to my desired pre-boil volume. Since I started doing that sparging and making sure the mash was thoroughly mixed at the beginning, I'm getting 72-73% efficiency.
Has anyone had a problem of ripping their bags on the thermometer probe in the kettle? Its probably just me not being careful, but I've ripped a couple bags that way. Damn annoying! But I do really like BIAB, that's what I use and its pretty simple for me and my setup. I also use lower volume of water in the mash and use my sparge water as top up before the boil to get me to proper pre-boil volumes. And since I don't have pulleys, and don't want to get all my neighbors to lift this big ass bag, I use less grain and use extract to get higher ABV beers.
More reasons to move to smaller batches! With my little 2-3 gallon batches, I can BIAB on my stovetop in what is basically an unmodified soup kettle with no temperature probe, and lift the bag out by hand with ease. When brewing 5-6 gallons, I use a traditional mash tun instead cuz it really is easier.
Thank you for being honest...you may have saved a few new brewers of 5 gal batches quite a bit of heartache
I do 5 gallon batches with 12lb grain bills using BIAB. I brew outside and use a cheapo pulley system from harbor freight to lug the bag out of the wort. The bag I have is stated to be able to last at least 50 brewing sessions and expect it would be hard to tear on the thermometer. It is actually kinda satisfying pulley'ing a sack of spent grain out of the wort! The only downside I can see is that I am not sure I can do 10 gallon batches as I would need most the water up front and may not be able to get it all in my 16gal brew kettle.
