Homebrew Beer: Brew in a Bag

[Chris Hennes]

Has anyone here tried this technique? What are your go-to resources? Home brewing is such a vast topic, I don't have a good handle on where to even start!

[gfron1]

Not sure if this is "a thing" that I don't know about. If you mean, beer kit, I use them regularly. And by kit, I mean you buy a specific recipe that comes all milled and in a bag ready to go. I use Austin Homebrew primarily, and find their instructions the best. I used to use Northern Brewer but found their instructions a bit confusing.

[mgaretz]

I had not heard of this until you brought it up, so of course I googled it.  If what you are talking about is the technique of doing an all grain mash in a bag with the full volume of water you need for the finished wort, then that's what I found.  It's a very similar idea to what we were doing back in the 70's and 80's called batch sparging.  Batch sparging works very well and only requires a beer cooler with a modification to the drain and some copper pipe inside (a manifold) to collect and filter the wort.  (These days people seem to be using some stainless braid from a sink connection instead.) The idea was that you put your grain in the cooler and added your mash liquid and let the mash rest for a time (about 30-60 minutes) to allow for good conversion, then you added all the sparge water to the cooler in one big batch and then drained it into the boil pot.  So all you needed was this cooler and the pot, no other equipment.  I brewed this way for many years.

 

I assume you brought this up because you want to play with your new toy (Oliso Smart Hub) to do the mash.  For me, I think it's overkill and you're going to end up with a lot less beer for the same amount of work.

[Chris Hennes]

54 minutes ago, mgaretz said:

 

I assume you brought this up because you want to play with your new toy (Oliso Smart Hub) to do the mash.

Exactly  

[MCDForm]

I BIAB (Brew in a bag) and have brewed everywhere from 1-2 gallon stove top to 10 gallon on a natural gas burner.  I've often thought of purchasing something similar to the Smart Hub since my home stove is terribly weak.

 

The website I use the most is : http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/

 

Great calculator for many things BIAB.  Even though the website is great I find myself mostly using Beersmith software.  BIAB is great and don't believe negative things that people say about clarity, body, etc.  I've brewed everything from a Munich Helles to an Imperial Stout.

 

Also with your set up you can brew quick sour beers if that's your thing.  I make mine using a primitive sous vide method utilizing a big igloo cooler and giant ziplock bags.

[MisterKrazee]

HomeBrewTalk Forums is a really good place to start. Their search function is Google based so it's pretty user friendly.

 

Brew In A Bag (BIAB) is a way to do all grain batches without having to use a mash tun. The difference between using a mash tun and BIAB is that a mash tun has a filter and spigot at the bottom of the container to drain the wort from the grains while BIAB is just what it sounds like, you have the grains in a mesh bag that you just pull out to separate the wort.  

 

You'll probably see a lot about sparging, most people with BIAB do not sparge and just squeeze the bag. 

Best bet is to get a ingredient kit from somewhere like Brooklyn Brew Shop. They have a good selection of 1 gallon batches.

 

My biggest piece of advice when starting home brewing is to not worry about the small things as much as you think you should. Practice basic technique until you get the hang of it.

 

Sanitization and temperature control is key.

 

 

Edited January 12, 2016 by MisterKrazee
corrected link (log)