The idea was to come up with a way to brew up 20 gallons of wort in a timeframe not much longer than a 10 gallon batch on those days I have company. Four of us could each take 5 gallons & pitch a different (or not) yeast strain. But first I needed to get my feet wet on the procedure; so I experimented with a 5 gallon batch by myself. I've carried enough wet buckets of spent wort out to the compost pile to know how heavy it can be; so my first purchase was a 1/4 ton ratchet chain hoist, a 4' piece of thick walled gas pipe threaded on both ends, a six ft piece of cable with loops on both ends, & a custom sewn tapered bag with handles to fit my pot. The garage has 10' walls with rafters on two foot centers. I bolted a couple pieces of 2x8 about a foot long to the rafters & drilled a hole big enough for the pipe to go thru & screwed a cap on each end. The result is a sturdy piece of pipe 4' long suspended from the ceiling slightly below the rafters allowing me to throw the cable over & hook the ratchet to. The cable slides sideways far enough to clear the brewpot; so the full bag can be lowered into a container for a trip to the compost while the wort is boiling.
On my first try I decided to do a 5 gallon full volume batch of pale ale & used my favorite recipe. Ground grist the same; profiled & used the same amount of water, & mashed at the same temp as normal. The pots are Bayou Classic, and a basket is available with a nice sturdy handle; so I ordered one thinking it would work great. Only problem is... when resting in place it sat about three inches above the bottom of the pot & the water wouldn't cover the grain in the bag. I removed the basket & lowered the bag onto the false bottom & it worked great! The basket works better for sparging as I found out on the second batch. In the end the pre-boil gravity was high, so I added enough hot water to reel it back in a bit before boiling.
On the second try I had some help from some other experienced brewing friends & together we decided to do a 10 gallon pale ale BIAB in the boil pot & sparge as needed for pre-boil volume. One of the guys wanted to do a Barley Wine; so while the BIAB was soaking we prepared the water & ingredients in the mash pot for a 5 gallon batch of Barley Wine with a real big grain bill. When doing all grain on this system I use 1.33 qts water per pound of grist with the false bottom installed. We used the same amount in the 10 gallon BIAB to start off with. After an hour we hoisted that bag out of the water; let it drain a while; lowered it into the basket I was talking about earlier with the sturdy handle; clipped the bag around the handles to open it up & let it hover just above the desired pre-boil water level. It hung too high for a gravity sparge; so I took a pitcher & used it to sparge with the 170 F water from the HLT letting it drain into the boil pot until pre-boil volume was reached. We lifted & then slid the basket w/bag out of the way; stirred the wort real good & took a gravity reading using a refractometer. Looking for a pre-boil gravity of 1.052 it came in at 1.054...
The third batch was done with a friend who has never brewed before & will be joining the BIAB community in the near future. We did another 5 gallon full volume batch of an easy drinker & nailed the pre-boil spot on. However, after boiling I had to add hot water & re-boil for a while as the gravity was higher than desired. So far... on the three batches of BIAB I've experimented with; I'm impressed & give it a big
.The fourth experiment is going to happen this upcoming weekend that will involve brewing up 20 gallons of a dark & hoppy ale. Ten gallons sparging the BIAB & then ten gallons an hour or so later using the standard all grain method. If this goes as well as the first three experiments; then I will consider purchasing a 100 qt boil pot. In my mind I would be able to do a full volume 10 gallon batch of wort using the BIAB method while mashing a standard all grain at the same time. Drain bag; and transfer simultaneously. Add hops & boil. Thoughts?
Hope I didn't put everyone to
A few pics to put everything into perspective...Cheers,
grem
.
.
