Hello! Has anyone ever tried BIAB using an immersion circulator? I'd like to get into brewing but with so little space and no garage/yard am considering stovetop mashing to get up to temp and then BIAB with my sous vide to maintain the temp. I really like super high gravity stouts, but am thinking it may pose more difficulty for the machine, and can I easily have it circulate in hot soapy water afterward to prevent any residues from building up in it? Thanks for any input!
If you do 3 gallon batches on your stove top you can just wrap the pot with heat proof moving blankets and a bungie for 60 minutes. No need to use a sous vide. Also if you like it they make all electric systems that are very compact and capable of boiling enough sort for a 5 gallon batch.
Interesting, just using the blankets alone will be enough for it to hold the temperature? How important is it to have the water circulating through the grain though? I thought that helped make for better efficiency. I've heard of the electric systems like robobrew and grainfather, I was looking to get in with something at a lower price tag, but I would certainly consider stepping up to one of those. Thank you for the recommendation
You can stir halfway through if you want but as long as you don’t have dough balls generally your mash will finish in an hour.
I don't think immersion circulators are meant to have bits and pieces (grist) running through them. Seems like it would get clogged. No to soapy water for cleaning; soap residue anywhere in the process kills foam. You'll want to use at least OxyClean Free, better to use PBW. Even then, you will probably get some beerstone in the coil.
Thank you both, I'll be thinking about this. Likely will avoid the circulator in favor of the blanket setup. I certainly wouldn't want to ruin the circulator for this, as well as risk burning wort.
I've used sous vide (Anova) and it works well to maintain temperature. It won't circulate your wort very well, though.
Just to clarify, I kept the Anova outside the bag, so it wasn't in contact with the malt. There's an entire Facebook group dedicated to sous vide brewing here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/137408133724544/
Another option is to preheat your oven at the very lowest setting, take out all the oven racks (or enough to be able to put the pot in). Then turn the oven off, put the mashing vessel in the oven and leave it there for the entire hour. If necessary, you can turn the oven on again for a couple of minutes after half an hour. The mashing vessel will stay at the mashing temperature fairly closely. If you have an oven thermometer, you can adjust the temperature even more closely. A remote thermometer is the best (I use the probe type with the long cord). I've used this approach several times for full grain brewing for 5 gallon batches. It should work equally well for brewing in a bag. Stirring during the mash is not necessary, although you could do so after half an hour.
