BIAB Brewer - 12months and about 30 brews - my learning and experances!

[Brewman]

There are two typres of home brewer....

The person who does it as a hobby...

The person that wants to save money...

 

Which one are you?

 

Often you stat as one and end as another... there is a grey area... in the middle. Or do you lean left or right?... Blue or Red...those colours mark our gangs... Parliament and street gangs.

 

Right a little about me... did the home brew at 18yrs old to save money... drunk stuff that's been bottled for 12 hours.

Now a prisoner with 2 children and a nag... doing it again to save money!

BUT there is no way I am drinking that shit I did previously... I did one extract kit, and a good one and it was shit... mallowed after 6months but still shit...

 

So I started looking at all grain and came across BIAB. What follows is my experience of BIAB... after lots of brews. Seriously I must have done about 30 brews.. and I have had two infections and that was laziness.

What follows is my go at this thing called home brew.

 

First off I soon descided that a full 3 veseal system was a no go.

 

To big

To much cleaning

To expensive

To complicated

 

This is my BIAB system and I love it.

The gap in the front where the burner stick out acts as a chimney and the gauge is only warm when there are flames climbing the outside... it draws the cold air through the gap. And naturally its on wheels.

 

 

So that was luck... I had no idea that this would work like this... would I do it again.

YEP.

 

Next up is washing bottles... its a job I hate. So I made it simpler and it is. Works great and takes me about 10sec per bottle to wash them. 90deg water with sterile stuff. Job done.

 

That there is a fish tank pump.... and its very cool. That there can shoot water about 1m in the air. 5sec in a bottle its cleaned. I just turn on and off the pump at the wall.

If you clean bottles... this is a must.

 

Now the next ...my best things again was a mistake... and what a difference did it make... HUGHE.

laugh you will but this sucker dunmps a load in a couple of seconds. No more blockages, shaking and swearing... this is the shit.

This also was a mistake but this will dump a load of sugar in to your bottle real fast. Does not block up. Yep a mistake... Nag would not give me the good one.. the end was split. Then for some reason I pulled off the flapy bits,. (never do this to your wife). and what you see below is the result.

 

Would I make it again? YEP.

 

I have four beers I wanted to brew.

 

Wheat beer

Summer Ale

Lager

Pale Ale

 

I have brewed versions of these quite a few times. The wheat beer (with rice) beer was what I really liked when I started and brewed most. Larger was not worth the effort. It was nice but not WOW. Pale Ale... liked that one and now manly brew Pale ales.  I am on my 3rd Pale receipt and its good... real good.

 

Final notes...

 

Make my own bags to size. Or my wife does and they are good... made to size!

Never use a hop bag, to lazy. no problem at all.

Never measure the beer, just put it in bottles and drink it. It works. I took great care in knowing the water level of my pot before and after. I fill the pot to 110mmm from the top for a pale ale and the final volume is perfect.

I write a log... I have 3 fermenters, so I mark which one, date brewed and what it is..

 

My two failures was solved cause it was barrel 2 that had the issue, both bad beers were from barrel 2. Worth the effort.

 

So that's just a hint of my beer making skills.... I make beer to save money!

 

[Dene McDonald]

I'm sold on BIAB too. I use a 40 litre coffee urn. The advantage is that it is electric and I can do it inside with no worry of fumes, running out of gas etc... but downside is that it takes a while to get up to temp/boil, plus it has an exposed element so cleaning takes a bit longer. I'm also limted to 22-25 litre batches but this is more than enough for a keg.  Oh, the trub is a problem too but whirlpooling while cooling seems to help that.

I also like BIAB as it's easier to step mash as you can just turn the heat on again and raise the temp. I made a Porter for a competition recently and it did very well.

How many brews do you get out of a 9kg gas bottle? I'm tempted to move to gas but can't be bothered filling up the gas bottle all of the time.

[Brewman]

I get about 3-4 brews out of a gas bottle.

After about three brews I will swap it with the BBQ bottle... that happens to be empty and then I fill it up. We also have a gas bottle for the hob inside. These things seem to use a lot of gas and I seem to always be filling them up.... truth is... the BIAB get the full bottles and the hob and BBQ get what's left after three brews. AND guess who has NO idea...!

 

Yep got to love BIAB... its cheap to do, results are great and it takes up little room.

I built the stand after trying to do a brew without a stand and just the burner... yep you are correct a waste of time. Stand is a must..!

[Gareth G]

Arron, that's a very nice looking burner stand.  I've got the same burner, only used it once but it was on the concrete patio and I had to scramble all sorts to create a wind shield.

[Brewman]

I found the same thing... wind was a major.

Stand fixed that with the added bonus of not cooking my gauge even when cranked.

Brewed my fav Pale ale in the weekend...

I have an old ice cream freezer for fermenting with a fish tank digital sensor controlling the temp, freezer $50 and controller $20 and a heater from brew shop and I can maintain 18deg C all year round and do two brews at once. Well worth the $$$$. The controller can turn on a heater or turn on the freezer as required to maintain temp...

 

Thanks to everyone for viewing and your reply's..

cheers

[Crusader-Rob]

That's an awesome stand mate! how did you get hold of that? I'm with Dene, I'm still in the process of going Electric BIAB, with re-circulation as well I think. thats my plan. I'm about to write a discussion about it, to see what sorta stuff I need.

[Brewman]

 Sorry for getting back to you so late.

The stand I made it.

Can help if your in AKL... PM me.