How to go from Extract to AG for < $10.00

[FSUplumber]

I picked up my material from Joanne Fabric. It was a shear polyester curtain fabric. sold with all the other curtain and upholstering material. I believe it was called Voile.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/prod ... xprd986476
My wife sewed a flat bottom bag that my kettle fit into and hung over the edges. A pillow case shape will work as long as it is sized to hang over the edge. Have fun with your shorter brew day. I plan on using BIAB more.

[Kbar]

Hard to be manly looking at that website

Sitting in a PDX brewery drinking beer while looking at Joann's Fabrics on the laptop..................

[FSUplumber]

They should be able to understand your obsession, But it is embarrassing.

[Thirsty Boy]

Just a bit of a plug for any Australian BNers out there, or more specifically ones from Melbourne. My usual brewing partner in crime and I will be doing a BIAB demonstration brew at Grain & Grape on Saturday the 25th.

Start at 9:30 - wort in its NC cube by 1:00pm

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/

For address and contact details etc. Free, no need to book and there will be beer from a previous demo to drink. Come along and see how its done first hand.

Cheers

TB

[Pazza]

I use exactly the same system with a thermomitor screwed into the lower part of the keg.

I never could see the need for the extra containers…..


cheers

[glivo]

I'm a returning brewer after 20 odd years of buying beer. What a waste of money. I've been extract kit brewing now for 6 months and have decided to get back into AG and I've just been looking about the net forums at different home setups, gear, methods etc. How things are working and what people are doing.

Let me tell you that there is nothing new about this BIAB method. Back in 1969 my father used to cut a leg off my mothers nylon pantyhose and pinch my glass marbles (I was only 8 yrs old) to make a whole liquid, one step wort in his crab cooker. No fancy gear and multiple vessels. Just the crab cooker on the stove and his fermenter (a large lidded bucket with an airlock).

The nylons were the bag and the marbles went in to keep the thing down in the liquid. Every weekend the home smelt like the Tooheys Brewery (Sydney, Australia). He did many experiments and test batches and when we had to move house in 1973 he had nearly 100 dozen longnecks crated up for future consumption. Everything from light lagers to dark ales, browns, stouts and a corn beer that would send people into an anaesthitised state for 10 - 12 hours in less than 4 schooners.

I've actually gone out and bought the gear to make a Mash Tun with copper manifold and it starts today. I will however give the old BIAB method another go at some point.

[virtualpaul]

I read most of this very long post and learned/laughed...

I am wondering if a large stainless steel filter (of ? microns) could solve a lot of the sediment passing through issue?

I was thinking of a large pot in stainless steel with filters only on the side (starting at 1-2 inches) so that the sediment could stay at the bottom and the rest could mix freely?

[Thirsty Boy]

I read most of this very long post and learned/laughed...

I am wondering if a large stainless steel filter (of ? microns) could solve a lot of the sediment passing through issue?

I was thinking of a large pot in stainless steel with filters only on the side (starting at 1-2 inches) so that the sediment could stay at the bottom and the rest could mix freely?

Nah, doesn't really work. If the filter, be it metal or cloth, is fine enough to give you good wort clarity, its fine enough to clog very quickly indeed. It works OK, if you have multiple hours spare to stand around and wait for the bag to drain. Earlier in the thread someone started out using a very tight weave polyester cloth - clear wort, very long drain time.

Having the sides a "loose" mesh and the bottom a tight one is a nice thought to try and beat it, but really, your solids and stuff are all through the wort, that solution may well be a little "better", but I seriously doubt it would give people who are nervous about cloudy wort a result they would be happy with. worth a try, but expensive if it ends up not doing the job.

Its just not really a problem though, I know people assume its "flour" but its not, its mostly protein. Just bog standard break material that would normally be trapped in the grain bed of a mash tun. Do your boil and leave it in the kettle with the rest of the muck. You'll still be getting total efficiency as good or better than the average batch sparger.....

I've tried quite a few "variations" of the simple BIAB method over the years - In my experience, all of them make your life harder & none of them make your beer better.

edit - I just realised that you are (i think) talking about a mesh filter for the post boil wort rather than a replacement for the bag. That would work... but not really any better than say some of the current wort filters out there like the hop stopper (which btw I can see no reason would not work as well in a BIAB system as any other) and seems a lot more expensive and intrusive an option. At any rate - as in any other system you can just do a whirlpool. It all depends on just how much you begrudge the extra litre or two of wort that will cost you vs the best you will be able to do.