So I've been brewing for about 3 years and have lived in a pretty small apartment the whole time. I always did extract because space constraint but after hearing about the BIAB technique decided I was bored with extract and ready to go all-grain. So far I've basically stuck to converted all-grain recipes from the brewing classic styles book. My first batch was an APA. I had a very difficult time keeping the mash temperature in the range I wanted and ended up with a very thin beer. I brewed an octoberfest last month and adjusted my method by wrapping my brew pot in towels I've warmed in my dryer, then securing them around the brew pot with binder clips (I barely lose a degree over an hour). Just tried the first one tonight and it's hands-down the best quality beer I've ever brewed. I'm very much looking forward to trying the milk stout I brewed last weekend. I'm enjoying the BIAB results and am looking forward to the day I can build my own mash tun. The BIAB technique sort of limits me to the 4-6.5% abv range.
Welcome to the fun world, i have never did BIAB but i mash once in a mash tun with a bag, it was an experiment on saving time cleaning the mash tun. Why BIAB technique limits to 4-6.5% abv ?
Well, BIAB doesn't, but the size of my brew pot does. It's been fun. I also started baking breads incorporating spent grains. Obviously couldn't do that when brewing extract.
That sounds similar to what I did for my last batch, which was my first full size all-grain. I call it the modified BIAB. Using the grain bag, I mashed in my bottling bucket, keeping the top of the bag open (lid on for the mash) and sparging more or less as usual, running the wort out the spigot at the bottom. At some point soon I will invest in the cooler rig, but for right now this works well. The Stout I did that way came out great. Really happy with that one.
No reason to delay in building a mash tun: it's easy, and cheap! You can make a mash tun out of an old cooler for ~ $40, or less if you can get used cooler on craiglist. And it won't take you more than an hour or so. Anyway, congrats on pulling off your first successful AG batch.
if you're doing full-volume boils now then you can very easily switch to using a mash tun. having done partial mash biab myself, i know how frustrating it is to keep an eye on the temp, and a mash tun is way easier. as long as you can boil the full batch, you should be fine.
Question to the OP: can your brewpot fit inside your oven? If so, simply place your brewpot inside the oven and set the oven temperature at 150°Fand let it sit for an hour. Set it and forget it! Cheers!
My present oven has a digital setting so I can set an exact number. As to what tolerance the oven operates I cannot definitively say. I do ‘monitor’ the temperature within the pot with a digital thermometer with a long wired probe. I am able to maintain a fairly constant temperature (e.g., 150 ± 1° F). There is a lot of thermal mass with the grains/water so as long as you maintain a fairly stable ambient oven temperature it won’t swing too much. My previous oven had an ‘old fashioned’ analog temperature setting. I was able to maintain 150 ± 1° F with that oven as well. Again, I think the thermal mass of the grains/water was the key here as well. Cheers!
That makes sense, essentially that the air so long as it isn't room temp or 200F will keep the mash fairly close due to the specific heat of that water... That said I have never used my analog control for anything other than a vague "keep warm" and have no clue how the first time I would dial it in.
It definitely could. But our apartment's oven has no 150 setting and I've tested the "warm" setting and it's not consistent. The oven at our apartment is crap and it typically is much hotter than what the dial reads. We've had to learn to either lower the temperature or decrease the cooking time in order to cook food properly.
It's not so much the cost or difficulty, but the space. Our storage closet is at capacity and the closet in our second bedroom is already half full with brewing equipment (other half is filled with my suits and equipment from my wife's hobbies). My wife and I came to an understanding about a year or so ago that we just couldn't fit any more brewing equipment in the apartment until we move.
My wife (she was my girlfriend at the time) had an oven that did not produce a temperature as per the oven’s control. She learned to cook in that oven using a simple oven thermometer. I would recommend that you get one for all of your cooking needs (roasting a chicken and mashing). http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Precision-5932-Classic-Thermometer/dp/B0000DJUYR/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1345303765&sr=1-3 Cheers!
Looks like it ain't broken, so why try to fix it? Nothing wrong with your method, as far as I can tell. I also do all grain (not BIAB, but that is irrelevant here) and I wrap my SS mash tun in towels for insulation. Works great for me also. I will make two other observations: (1) As the heat capacity of the towels is much less than than your tun/mash, heating them doesn't really do that much for the process (although it doesn't hurt), and (2) even if your mash temp drops a few degrees, if won't' really make any difference in the final product. Have fun!
