Greetings everyone!

First, let me start off by expressing my sense of awe over this site and forum. The amount of information, expertise, dedication and good-natured people here is truly amazing and actually quite humbling. Thank you!!

I've been an "observer" for a short while now (stumbled upon the site through Homebrewtalk), and figured I ought to make an account and join in on the fun. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute with what little I know here and there!

I'm from Oslo, Norway, basically lived here my entire life (now in my mid-twenties). I've been brewing for roughly 4 years now, most of that time with a 51L (13.5 gal) Igloo cooler as a mash tun and a 36L (9.5 gal) kettle. For the past year or so I have however switched to the glorious no-sparge BIAB-setup (SMS, if I remember the abbreviations correctly) using the same kettle. I usually aim for 18-19L batches (about 5 gal). I consider myself to be a somewhat intermediate brewer with a pretty good grasp of the basics and then some, but miles away from any form of "expert". And of course a born-again BIAB brewer, I just love it!

My main occupation is the sweet (and at times hellish) student life (within psychology), and I work part-time both at a hospital and at a local brew supply shop. Gotta love those discounts! (and the job is awesome, I feel I should add)

Not sure if there's anything else to mention at the moment, feel free to ask me anything that might tickle your fancy, rock your boat etc. etc.! I look forward to being a part of this great community!

Streamer wrote: ↑

8 years ago

Hello Eariebird. This group is so knowledgeable and members are so willing to share! Glad you joined. So great to have brewers from literally around the world contributing.

Thank you!

Hi all,

I've been homebrewing for a little over a year. My first seven batches were partial mash/extract batches and while I was mostly satisfied with how most of them came out, I've been wanting to go to all grain since about the 3rd batch I did. Rather than invest in more kettles and sparging equipment, etc. I bought a BIAB and brewed my first BIAB batch a couple of weeks ago, a pale ale. Brewing process went pretty well as far as the BIAB goes. Haven't tried it yet since I just bottled it last week and it still needs some time.

I've been living in Sacramento, California for the past 2 years and I came across this site via an article on Brulosophy when I spent a day researching BIAB articles online. Looks like this site is a great resource.

Hi Guys,

New user here. Joining the BIAB band wagon, coming from cooper kits and extracts. Was referred here from a AG brewing mate, he said this is a great place for all the facts and guides.

Cheers,

Fewbrew.

Cheers guys. Will be in touch.

Hi All,
What a great site you have built.
I have been brewing on and off for over 40 yrs, starting in the '70s when I was in the RAF. Like most people I started with extract brewing using sugar as stated on the tin. I cannot say they were good beers but they were mine. Over time I progressed and improved. When I was posted to an area where the local beer was good, my own brewing took a back seat. If the local beer was not to my liking I would concentrate my brewing on perfecting the beers I liked. For 3 yrs I didn't brew at all as I was transferred to Germany where I found much to whet my appetite.
In 1988 I moved to Australia with my family and within a short time was brewing again. At that time it was near impossible to find a good beer. I started all grain brewing in the '80s and built a 3 vessel rig out of old kegs, I remember it being very time consuming, quite hit and miss as far as temp control ( my inexperience no doubt). I was brewing regularly in the 90s and won best beer at the 1993 BeerFest competition held at Grand Ridge Brewery. The stout I produced for that competition was then brewed commercially by Grand Ridge and is still available today.
In 2007 I decided to finish work, sell the family home and go off sailing. The 3 vessel rig had to go, sold for pennies on ebay. On board the boat, brewing was relegated to a small corner of the galley (tried to post a photo but couldn't) and I reverted back to extract brewing.
Now back on land after 8 yrs at sea and have just built a home in Gippsland Victoria Australia. I have nearly finished the shed, a part of which will be sectioned off as a brewery. My initial intention was to build an automated HERMS system based on the many impressive designs I have seen out of the USA. I was aware of BIAB but initially disregarded it because it was just wasn't flashy so couldn't be as good. After listening to a podcast explaining the pro's and not too many cons of BIAB I found this web site. I really like Patch's philosophy of "keep it simple" and this is how I intend to proceed.
Despite my many years of brewing I still consider myself a beginner compared to many of the members of this group.
I look forward to being an active member.
Thanks

Hi everyone,

I'm a long time on and off extract brewer. I remember doing my first brews whilst watching the 2003 cricket world cup, so it's been quite a while. As per most Australians (Brisbane, specifically at the moment), I thought K-Mart was the place to get your home-brew supplies and did kit&kilo brews using sugar and the kit yeast. Results were fair, but I often found that my homebrew wasn't terribly liked by others. So I usually had quite a bit of average beer with no-one willing to share it.

Recently I was wondering about why, and I tried changing up a few things as per recommendations floating around the internet. So I tried dry hop additions to the kit and kilo, changed to using DME instead of sugar and tried to buy different yeasts. The results were pretty good, but I feel like much better results are possible.

I wondered about experimenting with things like doing full boils and all grain style (why I'm here, via google). But having batch sizes of 20-25L, that's a lot of swill if things go terribly wrong.

A few weeks ago I tried doing a small batch (~4L) full boil with Light DME. The fermentation is mostly done but I haven't bottled it yet. After the boil the colour was very dark (eyeballing it at 15-20 EBC) which made me research the darkening of boiling extract and one avenue I looked into was all grain style brewing. But most methods you see require lots of equipment and seem like a general pain, except BIAB. And if no-chill is an option, even better!

So my plan tonight is to bottle my dark light DME brew and just see what happens. But I want to prepare for another small brew but this time BIAB. My aim is to do a SMaSH type brew with US-05 yeast. I have Galaxy Hops already, so I'll probably use that and I'll get about ~1kg of Pilsner Malt (maybe this one) and a bag trying BIAB. Open to suggestions and ideas on ways to improve and things to experiment with. I find that there is a heap of data to record, so I'm interested in suggestions for how to keep track of that too.

PS I think I answered questions 1-4 above. RE Question 5:work, yes. I work and have kids and how I have time to think about this stuff is beyond me.

Greetings, salutations, peace to all nations etc.
A Brit going by Ajay here, from the Cambridge area. Before me is everything I need to brew an all-grain first with my brother in law (our kids are finally old enough to give us a decent chance!).
I've done a few extract kits in a Cooper's crust bucket, one of which was pretty damn good! However, we are now keen to get serious and have gone in together on a mash tun/boiler hybrid and ingredients for a basic USA IPA. I have a few hundred cones of Cascade on the fence and 6 bags of various hop pellets.
Hoping to gain some knowledge from all you BIABers; appropriate doffing of the cap going to the Aussie fathers and mothers of the skill!

Greetings.

Been brewing off and on since the mid 90's. Mostly extracts with some partial mash tossed in here and there. I am the only beer drinker in the house, so I do 2.5 gallon batches for the most part.

Getting back into the hobby once more and BIAB seems to be the perfect fit for what I want to do. Looking forward to good brews and fun times.

Howdy. From the Southeastern US. Been brewing for a little over 2 years with 25+ brews. Switched to BIAB about a year ago and will never look back. Erases over an hour off my brew day, requires much less equipment (and cleaning of that equipment), and the resulting beer is fantastic. Been looking for specific BIAB information and it appears I have found it!

Hi there,

I registered 4 years ago and then stopped brewing before making my first post. I am slowly getting my gear together again and hoping to be back brewing soon.

I am from Northern Alberta, Canada and really enjoy German style beers.

Thanks

Hey Everyone,
Iv'e been brewing for about 8 years. I brew with my son which makes for a great father / son activity. I'm recently retired and live in southwest Michigan on 10 acres of beautiful wooded hilly land populated with lots of deer and turkeys. Started BIAB brewing about 2 years ago, before that I batch sparged. I love the simplicity and time savings of BIAB, plus my brews are better than ever. Always looking for new ideas and refinements for my system, it looks like biabrewer is the place to be for that. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into this site.

Hi Guys (waves)

Here is my introduction/de-lurk/de-n00b-ing post

1. Where are you from?

Irish, currently living in London.

2. How did you stumble across the site?

been aware of it for about as long as I have been brewing, but do most of my foruming closer to home geographically.

3. What you think of it so far?

Dense. Hoping I can get top shelf answers to some of the issues I face here, and less friend-of-a-friend answers. Specific BIAB problems.

Example: 80L total liquor. Minimum 12Kg grain. No winch or pulley.

4. Have you brewed at all before. If so, for how long and what method are you currently using?

Experienced brewer. Long since stopped counting (do joint brew days/friends kit count?). Been brewing beer constantly since 2013 or so, managing 10-15 brews a year. Upgraded my brewlength recently, and upgraded the family too, so I brew less frequently now, and brew larger (maybe 8 brews a year is my current limit).

Been BIAB single vessel, voile bag the whole time.

2 years ago I made the jump to a 65L Brewtech conical.

1 year ago I made the jump to a 100L conical that can actually fill it in one brew.

9 months ago I made the jump to temp control of the FV so the beer actually ferments & clears properly. :facepalm:

Currently chairman of London Amateur Brewers http://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk

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

I work in technology/computers. Been describing it that way to my mum for nearly 20 years.

Hi guys

Just returned to home brewing after many years away ( for a multitude of reasons). I have a work history in the brewing industry in a variety of roles.

Living in the beautiful Scottish Borders and recently starting working for a local Craft Brewer

Have mostly done All Grain brews in the past and like the sound of BIAB process having read about it on Internet.

Cheers steve

Hi Scott,
the clear terminology page was very useful, and the explanation of Volume Ambient Wort was an eye opener.

When I was using a 40L urn fuzzy recipes were fine: volume calcs went from practical rules of thumb (33L total liquor + 6Kg grain = 25L finished wort) and hitting my numbers within a point or two (which was acceptable for me).

On 100L urn, its more important to get recipe precision, and liquor/volume calcs are really important. There is also an imperative to boost efficiency - 12-13 Kg dry grain is about the limit of what I can do solo without an effective hoist. 55L x 1.045 (VIF) at 70% is my peak output I think, as measured last weekend - so if I want to do recipes with bigger OG I am going to need a few tricks up my slieve as I cant just throw grain at the problem.

In order to improve that target I need to be measuring against a proper baseline. So unambiguous terminology, precise measurements and good note taking are the order of the day.

Lastly, I need information that is very BIAB specific, and which has gone
through a rigorous community peer review. Even correct, well researched advice from multi-vessel brewers comes up short in some BIAB scenarios.

Hello homebrewers!

I'm brazilian and a noob at homebrew.
I did my first batch (2 months ago), an Irish Red Ale (single vessel All-grain), and now I'm on my second (20L of a Dunkelweizen inside fermenter / WB-06).
I'm fascinated about this universe and enjoying a lot to study the biochemistry behind the process of making brews.
I'd like to have tips from experienced members and acquire knowledge to develop my own recipes and (soon) use wild yeasts.

About my first batch, I've made a mistake when calculating the total water volume, which resulted in a more concentrated wort. But at the end of 3-4 weeks bottled, I found that the beer was pretty good in taste and head, besides a little bit over the style specifications.

Cheers from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)!