The Brew Bag Blog — BIAB

All Grain Brewing - Three Tier VS Brew In A Bag

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In a recent article discussing different methods of brewing, the author differentiated "all-grain" from Brew In A Bag. I had to read the sentence twice. BIAB does not use extract, does not come in a kit, (although Brewer's Best is now offering six BIAB kits that include the hops, grain, priming sugar, yeast, and caps) and utilizes the same mashing schedule as the "all grain" method. Now here's the kicker - to make beer using a brew bag you start with grain, that's right, BIAB uses nuttin but grain! I'll tell you what's happening across the USA - new and...

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Hop Spider VS The Brew Bag

BIAB BIAB making brew in a bag efficiency of beer hop spider hop utilization how to brew making beer voile wort

The utilization is influenced by the vigor of the boil, the total gravity of the boil, the time of the boil and several other minor factors. The vigor of the boil can be considered a constant for each individual brewer, but between brewers there probably is some variation. The gravity of the boil is significant because the higher the malt sugar content of a wort, the less room there is for isomerized alpha acids. The strongest bittering factors are the total amount of alpha acids you added to the wort, and the amount of time in the boil for isomerization. Understandably then, most equations for IBUs work with these three variables (gravity, amount, and time) against a nominal utilization. As mentioned earlier, the utilization for alpha acids in homebrewing is generally accepted as topping out at about 30%.

 

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-4.html

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Water to grist ratio - is any one method correct?

BIAB brew in a bag efficiency of beer fly sparging home brewing mash tun sparge water to grain ratio

Why, yes Wilbur, there can be too much water in the mash tun. But can there be too little as well? Let's start by listing the ways wort can get into the boil kettle. In no significant order: 1. Batch sparging - mashing at water too grain ratios of ~1.25 per pound and then adding water in large batches to rinse the wort into the boil kettle - faster than fly sparging - no arm or pump needed.  2. Fly Sparging - a spinning arm held above the wort delivers water in an even composition so as to gently wash...

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