Am I mad?

[Cozzyb]

Can anyone tell me why I stopped doing BIAB and bought a mash tun, after doing my first all grain at the house I am living at currently, the word ballache comes to mind. I have to filter my water outside, bring it in, mess about with warming mash tun up with this water and then mashing etc etc. Or I could just put a bag into my kettle full volume, so back to BIAB for my dubbel I intend to brew tomorrow, why I ever let someone convince me mash tuns were the way forward I have no idea, as the beer didn't seem clearer to me which besides efficiency seems to be the only gain.

So fellow BIAB brothers, seeking some tips, no matter what I am doing full volume 15ltr boil for a 11ltr into fermenter, so top tips to improve efficiency (besides crush as I can't change that now). I mostly topped out about 60-65% when I did BIAB before and would love to hit the 70s is I can.

Thanks again all.

[Goulders]

Do a sparge of the grains after the mash with a couple of kettles of water or use more malt. I used to gef over 80% efficiency with BIAB

[Goulders]

Oh and I forgot. I found using a potato masher rather than stirring to agitate the mash helped too

[jimp2003]

Do a sparge of the grains after the mash with a couple of kettles of water or use more malt. I used to gef over 80% efficiency with BIAB

I would agree with the sparging (make sure if you use a kettle that the water is not straight off the boil though).

Would not agree that using more malt is going to help with efficiency. You would add more malt to make up for low efficiency in order to hit your targets.

Getting a finer crush in future brews would help and stirring the mash a few times will also help.

[Beer O'Clock]

Try to "Mash out".
I found that raising the temperature to 85 degrees and leaving at that temp for 20 minutes increased my efficiency by about 10%.

I can see no point in going to 3V when the results I get from BIAB have given me fantastic beer and great value.

[Goulders]

Would not agree that using more malt is going to help with efficiency. You would add more malt to make up for low efficiency in order to hit your targets.

Agreed, it is not a technique for improving efficiency, but will help hit his targets if he is not adjusting a recipe which is based on a higher efficiency? The potato masher is great though. I read about it somewhere and then used it myself, and obviously mash out which I forgot to mention.

As for going 3V, I bought a mash tun (only 2V - Buffalo 40l as HLT and copper) because I intended to Parti-Gyle. Haven't done that yet , but certainly nothing wrong with BIAB, although I get less spillage down the side of my boiler nowadays as the boiler used to be pretty full with 5%ABV recipes.

[Cozzyb]

Try to "Mash out".
I found that raising the temperature to 85 degrees and leaving at that temp for 20 minutes increased my efficiency by about 10%.

I can see no point in going to 3V when the results I get from BIAB have given me fantastic beer and great value.

Ty for this I will indeed mash out for longer next time.

Also thanks to everyone else I will try everything stated, will mash with 13litre and have a couple of litres of filtered water into kettle so I have some sparge water.

[simco999]

I agree with the kettle sparge at the end of the mash. Also always mash out - I do 80 degrees. I'm a bit worried about going higher.

My results are very good - 80% efficency - why use a mash tun?

[john_drummer]

I do a kind of sparge using a couple of litres of the wort rather than clear water. don't know if that would help

[Bribie]

A couple of years ago I constructed a "lauter tun". The idea was that I would do a normal BIAB in my 40 litre urn, then hoist the bag and tip all the grain into the lauter tun with its false bottom, followed by the wort already collected in the urn when lifting the bag. I would start running off from the lauter tun until a grain bed was established, jugging the wort back into it all the while until it ran clear. Then at the end I would sparge to flush out any more useful wort.

Then tip all the collected wort back into the cleaned-up urn and do the boil, 90 minutes as opposed to my normal 60 minutes to boil off the extra sparge water.

Apart from adding a good extra two hours the the brew day I didn't find any improvement to my beers whatsoever, although a slight lift in efficiency, so went back to normal, sane, easy BIAB (which just got me second in a big Sydney competition).

Sold the false bottom fairly quickly to the next mug in the game

[TenbobdaN1]

Having returned to home brewing after 25 years I am unfamiliar with some of the terms. What is BIAB please?

Currently drinking - Dave Line's "Crystal Bitter" from his "Big Book of Brewing " page 221. Tastes great but has a chill haze. Any ideas?

Anyone got a recipe for a golden bitter like "Deuchars"? Best wishes and happy brewing.

[simco999]

BIAB = Brew in a Bag. e.g. all the brewing takes place in one vessel. You mash (the grain is in a bag which is removed after the mash) , then boil then cool the wort in one place.

3V = 3 vessels - a heater for the mashing water - a mash tun for mashing - a boiler for (er) boiling!!!

I do BIAB - mainly because I don't have the space or the cash for 3V.

[EoinMag]

Having returned to home brewing after 25 years I am unfamiliar with some of the terms. What is BIAB please?

Currently drinking - Dave Line's "Crystal Bitter" from his "Big Book of Brewing " page 221. Tastes great but has a chill haze. Any ideas?

Anyone got a recipe for a golden bitter like "Deuchars"? Best wishes and happy brewing.

Chill haze can be dealt with in two ways, you can use something like Polyclar on the beer as a finings or you can simply chill it for a while in the fridge, if you chill haze it and hold it with the haze suspended it will settle out with time.

[timbo41]

Got to admit..biab is less farting about. As my only real interest is tasty beer,despite having made a mash tun + manifold, I will prob go back to one vessel,the old burco. Does the job,easy to clean,less space. Horses for courses of course, no insult intended to 3v brewers.
quick question if I may. Never understood the liquor back instructions on biab Brewer...is this just if your boiler isn't up there volume wise

[TenbobdaN1]

Thanks for the info guys. Moving the free mashed grains from the boiler to the grain bag is messy and time consuming. If I mash with the grains inside the bag, will this not affect the brewing efficiency?
Cheers
TenbobdaN1