Philbrew
January 23, 2018, 4:15am
21
Pope of Dope:
Have been doing BIAB since my move and the birth of my daughter, with less time, and my equipment packed in boxes and some missing. But make no mistake, it’s JUST AS GOOD as my three-tier setup ever was, actually I think in some ways better, and is now the only way I brew. I have my setup dialed-in, using a custom kettle, whirlpool (just throw the hops right in), and a nice voile bag. The whole set up sits inside a steel storage rack that I had from Costco, made it into two levels, burner and pot elevated off ground about 1.5 feet on bottom level, and then the top shelf, about six feet above, is fitted with heavy duty carabiner and nylon rope to hoist up the bag. It’s portable, all done in one pot, cleanup is about a third of the time (I’m throwing my grain into compost and hosing down the reusable bag while the wort is reaching boil). Recipes need to be modified a bit, but I find only small amount of additional grain is needed. I fly sparge, generally about .5 to 1 gallon of water (in 5 gallon batches) pouring water directly over the bag, then squeeze out the juice.
I like how spartan the set up is and it makes me feel closer, more involved in the brew than before when I had more equipment. For me, the simpler feels better. And, take a look at these commercial BIAB setups, https://www.cobrewingsystems.com/collections/complete-brewing-systems . Imagine a batch done on this scale, BIAB method. There’s just something I like about that.
Pope,