How is the wort stirred below the false bottom when brewing all-grain? I’m wanting to have a mesh bag made to fit my 11.5" x 17" kettle. I’ve found a false bottom that will fit with just a little slop. I have a 300-micron hop spider. The bag, if I can ever find a company that makes them in sizes wanted by just one person, will also be 300 microns. I read that BIAB bags cannot touch the bottom of the kettle, so a false bottom is required.
Assuming there is no way on all of God’s green Earth that a mesh bag for my needs simply cannot be made, will muslin hop bags also do the trick? What problems would I face if I used two bags instead of one? Would a longer boil be required if two bags were used? Maybe more hops if two bags are used but boiling time to remain at 60 minutes?
Do the muslin bags do a good job at containing the hop slop? I’ve never used bags before. I have several bags, made by different companies. I have ten each that are 5" x 15"; no info supplied as to how large is the mesh.
Would I be helping the hops to escape the bag if I tied it off, threw it in and gently stirred the wort for an hour (no suspending the bag in the middle of the kettle)? Do I remove the bittering hops’ bag when comes the time for a second introduction of hops?
Yeah that’s what I used to use before I started throwing them in lose. Work great, and they’re cheap. Yes, you can throw the bag in loose, but it’s easier to suspend it. No need to stir or remove hops. Bittering is figured on them being in for the whole boil. Are you using cones or pellets?
Maybe I’m reading your post incorrectly but it sounds like you’re looking to boil with your brew bag. Brew bags are for mashing so there is no problem with the bag touching the bottom of the kettle since there is no flame.
I use “medium” sized muslin bags. I tie them off using butchers string and dangle the bag in the boiling wort. I do limit, however, the quantity of hops to 1.0 oz., per bag.
Understanding that this approach my not yield the full potency of the hop, I have adjusted for the discrepancy in my BrewSmith software. No false bottom required. Works great!
I recall that the Brew in a Bag maker had a suggestion in a video to simply rinse the bag after mashing to use it for a loose hop bag in the boil. I suspend it regardless of bag size, so as to avoid issues of scorching on the bottom. It works fine for me. the bag discolors over time, but I don’t sweat it.
If it’s helpful, I’ve been using 5 gallon paint straining bags for hops for years. They don’t generally bunch up too much and are easy to clean.
As others said you do have to up your hope charge a bit, but it makes removing hops after everything is finished so easy it’s worth it to me.
The company Brew Bag makes custom bags to fit your kettle dimensions. I’ve had mine for 6 years now and it was custom sized for a 30 gallon kettle.
I do use a false bottom for the reasons you’ve described. I did this so I could raise the temp in the mash without trying to lift the bag. Due to the weight, I use a pulley system and I’d rather not mess with it just to raise the mash to a mashout temp.
The bag from https://www.brewinabag.com/ has been a great purchase for me. I’m shocked that it holds the weight it does, and I put it threw a tough regiment by squeezing it during drainage.
I was on their site the other day, clicked on a link to size a custom bag and landed on a gray page with three large circles on it. I was just there just now, and I’m seeing stuff I did not see several days ago. I see I need the 32 to 42-quart size at $30. I also need the false bottom unless I use several binder clips to hold the bag above the bottom. I can get tons of those at Walmart for a far better price than four from BrewBag. I want to throw my pellet hops right into the wort so all that hoppy goodness gets all through the product that eventually goes into the bottles. That was one of the things that had me give-up making beer for twenty years: Separating the hop sludge from the boiled wort. I’d never heard of “brew bags” until not too awfully long ago. I didn’t know much about homebrewing in 1990 - 2001, so they may have existed. I never knew about them if they did…
BIAB Is a mashing method. A false bottom might not be a necessary component in that method. But if the brewer is adding heat during the mash, then a false bottom and recirculation is needed to distribute the heat through the mash bed. If a bag is in use, I’m not sure that a false bottom needs to be anything more than some sort of spacer or grid to create a space at the bottom of the tun to prevent bag scorching and enable wort flow.
I think the diameters are limited to four-inches, six-inches and eight-inches. Lengths can be up to as deep as your kettle. My 4 x 10 strainer is 300 microns and holds back the hop sludge pretty well. If I ever order a really tall strainer from these blokes, it will be in 300 microns. For now I’m thinking of muslin bags suspended from a dowel across the top of the kettle, said dowel having holes drilled in it to secure it to the handles on the kettle. The muslin bags will be hung from the dowel on s-hooks made from hard-drawn wire, and will be on paracord of such length to have the weighted bags just about an inch or so off the bottom of the kettle. I see myself being able to stir the wort for the entire hour with the hops being deeply submerged. Mmmmmmm! I can taste that Pale Ale already!
The topic “False bottoms” reminded me of an old Seinfeld reference about things that might be false. Just to be clear, my bottom is real and it is magnificent.
I would assume they don’t cost an arm and a leg, like would a “five-gallon hop straining bag.” I expect we can find these at Lowe’s, Home Depot and similar places…
Arborfab has completed my 4" x 16" hop spider and I have paid the invoice to have it shipped. The problem now is for the carrier to deliver it to the address I’ve had for maybe as long as six years. The story is too long to tell, so I’ll just say I had to collect my last amazon order at my local Walgreens. I had trouble there because the shipper spelled my name wrong. It’s 2024 and we’re having these little screw-ups. How in helsinki did we ever get to the moon in 1969?