Geez, to be perfectly honest, this is a much more postive response than I was expecting.
Bub wrote
I don't see why you had your panties (or knickers) in a bunch about us saying it won't work...
Well, Boob. There was a bit of virtual shouting on the AHB board when this was being floated. Plus a fair bit of... "well if you morons insist on makng bad beer, I'll leave you to it" people werre insulted and egos wre dented. I did some of it..... The idea was only ever supoorted by a few experienced brewers. It was them and a bunch of new AG brewers who pushed it along.
DannyW wrote:If you (or someone else) are worried about L:G ratio (and it sounds like there is no need) then perhaps you could tie up the bag a little tighter, or hold it partially lifted out of the kettle during the mash to reduce the effective volume of the bag. Kind of like a giant steeping bag.
Seems like a good idea at first, but when people have tried smaller bags, conversion and efficiency have headed south dramatically. The enzymes spread through the whole
liquid portion of the mash and if you pull the solid proportion of the mash togeher, it loses contact with most of the converting power. Just exactly why you pull the "thick" part of the mash for a decoction; to preserve the enzymes.
BeerMan wrote:The one question I have is why not use a proper water to grain ratio for the mashing process and add top off water or better yet use hot tap water to sprinkle sparge the bag of grain.
You could mash at normal L:G and then top off. But then you would need a HLT. One of the points was to NOT need extra equipment. Sprinkle sparging with hot tap water would (I guess) work too, but then you would need to have your tap water connected up to a Carbon Filter or something to get rid of chlorine etc. The bags also dont sprinkle sparge very well unless you put them in a bucket or something, then you might as well dunk sparge them (which does work!) but once again, extra vessel.
There are a few variations that work to one degree or another. If you are already an AG brewer and already
have the equipment. Then there are LOTs of variations. But think like a new AGer.
Bub and Rob wrote:bub wrote:
Though I don't see where you get 1.5-2.5 hours savings (over batch sparge), perhaps 20 minutes.
BUB
Cleaning is a biggie. Only have to clean one vessel.
Rob got it in one. Its a bit of a combination. Less prep, less time in the brew, less clean up. Thats 1-1.5 hrs saved (thats what it saves me anyway) the 2.5hrs is actuall more like 3hrs and comes if you get radical and also adopt the No-Chill idea. Whirpool, drain hot wort to no-chill cubes. Go to the pub.
mmadia wrote:
Could a 7.5 gal kettle handle a smaller batch, like 2.5~3gal?
I just made 9.5litres (1.042 wort) in a 16 litre pot. So thats 2.5gallons in a 4.2 gallon pot. That was about my limit. My last small batch BIAB was a 1.061 Wit and I was able to make 8litres (2.1gal)
SAo I think your 7.5gal kettle will handle small batches easily and could probably stretch to full size batches if your grain bill isn't too high. You just have to juggle the numbers till your total mash volume is less than your kettle volume. Once you pull the bag, there is plenty of room to boil without boilovers.
Keep the questions and comments coming guys. I'm really pleased that everyone was so open minded... (Thirsty cautiously lets gaurd down a little)
Brew Strong
Thirsty
