3v to BIAB

[spanspoon]

not been on the forum for a while due to expanding family and busy worklife! i have been struggling to find the time to brew but have been able to get quite a few under my belt over the past couple of years. after my recent brew day which took best part of 8 hours i am seriously thinking about giving biab another whirl. i have done a couple of biab brews using a 30 litre boiler and hated having to make numerous calculations to get a full length brew.

has anyone gone to biab and not looked back or to the contrary?

idea is to convert a 50 litre stock pot (tap, hop filter) and get hold of a biab bag? would a 50 litre pot suffice for 23 litre brew or go bigger?

[Steve B]

I do both but since moving to a place with a smaller kitchen BIAB has come into its own. I use cornies to store so I easily get 19l out of a 30l boiler - no sparging needed.

[killer]

I do both too but at home it's mostly BIAB due to space restrictions.
I don't even do calculations anymore as I m familiar with my system now. I have a 29L boiler and need about 34L water to get ~22L into the fermenter but I have large losses to hops (usually 200 - 300g) and boiler losses.
A 40L boiler would be more than adequate for 23L into the fermenter without extra liquoring etc. though 50 would give you even more room to play with.

I currently mash with 24L and about 5kg grain - pull the bag and sparge the grains into my fermentor with about 8L water. All of this fits into the boiler and I continue as normal (though it does fill to the brim !). No extra liquoring or anything during or after the boil. If you fit a timer to the boiler so that it switches on in the morning (after filling the night before) and is at mash temp when you start, you can be finished and cleaned up in as little as 4 hours on a really good day.

[timbo41]

My burco is 7 gallon,and I run off a gallon or so before filling grain bag to avoid overflow.once I dough in I add liquor back in to the Max.

When I pull bag,I use a pulley to suspend to drain,and add back any remaining liquor. Post 60 min boil,and with hop loss,I get 5 gallon just about into fermenter

[spanspoon]

I think it's the way I'm going to go, just ordered a corny set up from norm and about to have a clear out via eBay!

In terms of mashing do you guys insulate the mash tun/boiler or leave as is? How much temp loss do you normally get?

[killer]

I have a roll of camping mat around my boiler because it's made of thin polypropylene. Before I had the mat I was losing maybe 2° over the hour. The increased volume of the mash will mean you lose heat more slowly but... the boilers are rarely as well insulated as a mash tun. Now I lose about 0.5°C over an hour.

[jaberry]

I think it's the way I'm going to go, just ordered a corny set up from norm and about to have a clear out via eBay!

In terms of mashing do you guys insulate the mash tun/boiler or leave as is? How much temp loss do you normally get?

Have a look at Secue's vids on YouTube he uses an insulated box

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KfdivVbZs9w

[bigchris]

I moved from 3v to BIAB and my last 7 or 8 brrews have been this way. I use a buffalo 40L and get around 25L into the FV very comfortably. Don't notice any difference in the beer but there's less work to do on the brewday itself, the whole method seems much simpler. I have a strong hook above the boiler so lift the bag onto that to drain whilst the boiler is coming up to temperature.

[Lars]

It's madness over complicating BIAB by sparging unless your vessel is too small. Just mash with full volume