Hello all!

By way of a brief introduction, I'm a relatively new homebrewer from London, but I've certainly got the bug already. I've made a couple of extract brews and have got my very first BIAB brew sat in the fermenter currently.

Obviously, I'm on a big learning curve and am keen to get as much information and support from all of you as I can.

I'm a hoppy beer fan but also open to trying some new stuff. My favourite beer at the moment is Goose Island IPA, but I'm also a big fan of the Kernel brewery. I also went to New York earlier in the year and loved the beer scene in Brooklyn.

Anyhow, thanks for having me and I look forward to getting to know all!

G'day,
Grand final day and i'm on this stupid computer. As you can see i'm a South Sydney tragic,
we didn't make it this year and the two sides i hate have. What better resason to get pissed.
I'm not a big computer user, hands on sort off bloke but have a desire to learn as much as i can out of all of you. Just starting BIAB and setting up for all grain, have made a brewery for fermenting and preparion for making good beer. i'm sick of extract. If i don't ever reply forgive me i don't get on here very often.
Looking forward to reading and learning. This is a great site thank you to all involved.
Time for another beer

Cheers
Souths 13 /14------

Greetings!
Medieval single vessel, boil, no sparge, no chill, ferment in the keg.
For about 4 months, I made ‘kit’ beers in the kitchen with my daughter. We would just decide what style of beer we wanted (IPA, Porter, Ale, Lager, whatever) and buy a kit. In a large pot on the stove, we followed the directions. Easiest thing in the world: if you can make soup- you can make beer. Pour it all into the fermenter and when it cools, just add yeast and wait a week. It’s beer now so bottle it up. Wait a week, then refrigerate and drink. Repeat as needed.
Now we brew ‘all grain’ and skip the kits. Recipes for different styles of beer are all over the internet, so we have even greater variety than with kits alone. All grain brewing requires mashing, kit brewing uses malt extract. But you can’t bump up ‘beer kits’. So with all grain brewing, if you make 5 gallon batches, it is a small thing to bump up to 10 gallons. It takes about the same amount of time to mash 10 gallons, as it does to mash 5 gallons of beer.
The mash is the water and grains that are brought up through a series of ‘rests’:
Acid Rest 90*-115*-30 min
Protein Rest 115*-138*-30 min
Saccarification Rest 138*-162*-60 min
Light Body/ High Alcohol- 138*-150*
Heavy Body/ Low Alcohol- 150*-162*

Because my daughter is busier now, my oldest son is my beer partner. Some lifting is involved (and I have a bad back), so he helps me. Or maybe I’m just helping him. I probably should stay out of his way more.
We use a 25 gallon brew pot to make 10 gallons of beer. The 25 gallon brew pot fits inside a 55 gallon steel barrel and is held up by a couple of 1/2” steel rods at the 25” level. This allows us to siphon straight into the fermenter/keg. The heat source for the brew barrel is a turkey cooker burner. Getting 10+ gallons to the first rest (90F) with a turkey cooker takes about ½ an hour. The brew barrel keeps all the heat on the brew pot.
For awhile, we had trouble lautering (separating the spent grains from the sweet wort). We tried dipping the wort out and putting it through strainers. This worked but was time consuming and labor intensive. I went on the internet and found diagrams of lautering manifolds. These were designed to go into a separate pot or cooler and I wanted to keep our operation single vessel. So I made a lautering manifold to fit the brew pot and it is dropped into the brew pot at the end of the last rest.
Now we use BIAB and whirlpool the wort after flame-out. We siphon to get the wort into a keg.
We ferment in the keg because that is where the beer will end up anyway and kegs work very well for fermenters. True, they are a hassle to clean because of the krausen ring (foam that sticks to the inside of the keg), but the kegs have to be cleaned before using again anyway. We also like being able to remove the trub (sediment in the bottom of the fermenter) without disturbing the beer. Instead of racking (siphoning) the beer into a secondary fermenter, we just use some CO2 to push the trub from under the beer.
So it takes us about 4 hours to set-up, brew and clean up. We make a total of 10 gallons (4 cases) of beer for about $30 and usually call for a couple of pizzas. So it’s basically Brew in a Bag (BIAB)!
About me:
Retired in NC, USA

Hello All!

I've been doing BIAB for about a year, maybe 25 or so batches. I discovered BIAB because I was frustrated with the cost and equipment needs of switching to all grain brewing. I was in my basement putting a ball valve on on my Christmas gift cooler and realized this was just the beginning of the equipment I needed. Also, the ball valve was sitting whacky in the cooler and I needed to modify it or the cooler, which led me to my computer to search for alternative ways to brew. Oh glorious day when I discovered BIAB - thank you Aussies!

I live outside Chicago, IL in Plainfield and work from home as a business intermediary. I was recently elected as a director for our local home brew club - Plainfield Ale and Lager Enthusiasts, http://www.palebrewers.org which I've been a member for 2.5 years. You can see our Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/PALEBrewers/

The PALE members support the Midwest Brewers Fest in a big way with about 75 members participating in all levels of volunteer needs. Last year was the third year for the fest with just over 3,000 attendees.

I brew in my garage using a 15 gal aluminum pot and a Bayou burner and of course my trusted brew bag. I realized a few months ago that there was no where to buy a bag, so like most of you I made one. That led me to start a small business making bags for retail and online sales - you can see the Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/thebrewbag - The web site will be live soon and since you all are so accommodating, I thought this was the perfect place to make the first online announcement about The Brew Bag - I hope using the same tag line as this site is not a problem, but didn't realize it was the same till just a week ago. Perhaps it will become the BIAB standard tag line.

So, here's to getting started on BIABrewer.info and I hope to become a regular participant as I have done a great deal of research on the subject helping other guys in PALE get started as well.

Hi this is my first post I am based north of London. I have been brewing extract for some time and now I want to move up to all grain, the BIAB method looks a great way forward.

1. Where are you from?
I'm living in CT, USA

2. How did you stumble across the site?
Just searching for BIAB info. Sounded like a easier method for brewing and so far it has not dissappointed.

3. What you think of it so far?
It's great! I've made two beers so far, a bourbon barrel porter with an OG of 1.081 and a Patersbier with an OG of 1.047. The first was definitely a stretch given the pot I was using but I got a gravity of 1.073 and made up the difference with some extract. I'm amazed I got that close as this was my first all grain brew!

4. Have you brewed at all before. If so, for how long and what method are you currently using?
I've been brewing for a year now. Started out making hard cider, but in between apple seasons I did some extract brew kits, blackberry wine, and a couple meads. Love brewing so far and I am really enjoying the all grain.

5. Do you work? Are you retired or maybe you run a household?
engineer consultant

By the way, great site and apparently great people. I went through all the introductory information and I found it to be extremely helpful. As an engineer, I especially appreciate the calculator, although us US chaps work in those dratted english units... ;-)

Hello everyone,

Joining from the East Coast of Canada here, New Brunswick. I've been through around 8 batches of extract recipes and am ready to make the plunge to AG / BIAB. I look forward to learning and sharing on the forum!

1. I am from Austin (area) Texas
2. I googled about BIAB. I was trying to find out how to improve my technique.
3. I like it so far.
4. i have been brewing for about 10 months. After about 5 months of extract I decided to go All Grain. Becasue of the funds I kind of 'stumbled into' BIAB.
5. Right now I am a medic in the Army.

Hey guys,

My name is Chris, I'm from Leeds, England. I'm new to brewing, I've made one kit before which didn't turn out too well and put me off for a while, but recently I've really been wanting to get back into it so have been reading/watching/researching everything about home brewing that I can find and have come to the decision that with my lack of space and limited equipment, small batch BIAB is the best way forward, which led me to this forum.

Cheers!

Hi,
I'm Cleveland. I saw links to this forum on another forum and I really like this community's advice especially since I'll only be brewing my 1st BIAB this weekend.
Thanks

Hi guys first post

I'm from the North West, UK currently living in Cornwall. Worked in a craft brewery in Vancouver for a year and it really increased my love for craft beer especially North Western IPAs YUM!

Since i have come back to the UK i have been aching to get into homebrewing and after researching I thought going All Grain BIAB was a great way to get involved as i have some prior knowledge.

Probably going to start with 20l batches then work from there once i have the technique nailed down.

Cheers guys

Cheers

Hello everyone, my name is Peter and i live in Sweden. Im new to homebrewing but so far i've made 5 successful woulderfull beers with BIAB brewing. My english and grammar isn't as good as it should be but i hope it will be good enough. Got a tip about this site and brewingprogram becuse it is the best according to that guy. So here i am in search of nowledge. Have great day

Hi
Al here from Brisbane Qld Australia, so glad to stumble upon this forum, have in the past brewed extract but never entirely happy so looking forward to learning all about BIAB
cheers