The BIAB all-grain beer technique

The Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method is a brewing method that can be done using a single beer pot. The BIAB technique is gaining in popularity due to the little equipment it needs and spending on relatively inexpensive equipment.

The BIAB equipment

A fairly large cooking pot

A bag (large / strong enough to handle the amount of granules soaked in necessary)

Heat source

Scoop to mix

An all-grain recipe of your choice or an all-wheat kit

The most noteworthy part of BIAB is the minimum amount of equipment needed. All you need is a pot, a big bag, a heat source and something to mix with. Your pot must be big enough to handle the entire volume of malt mash (for the classic 23 liters we recommend the 10t Gal Brewer). These dimensions will allow you to prepare beers up to 1070 OG

The BIAB process

  Insert the malt inside the bag and hook it to the sides of the pot pouring the desired water (calculate that then you will have to boil the must then at least 26-28 lt to finish with the classic 23 lt)

Adjusts the pH of the water (recommended but not required)

Bring the mash to the temperature required by the recipe and keep it for the indicated times

Once the mash is finished, remove the bag containing the malt.

Proceed with boiling

 Cooling coil

Step 1. The overall process is quite simple due to the less equipment. The first thing you will need to understand is the amount of hot water (water) you will need. To calculate this it is necessary to know the following variables: amount of grain malt, absorption, desired finished batch size, boiling speed and pot loss.

There are a lot of online calculators, spreadsheets and software with integrated profiles to help in this calculation.

Step 2. One thing I did differently from my previous BIAB batches was to adjust the pH of my water using lactic acid. The water I was using had a reading with the pH 7 pH meter. For maximum yield in terms of mash extraction, you want your pH to be between 5.2 and 5.6. But this is all another article ...

This step is optional

Step 3. Once we have our volume of water and malt necessary, the rest of the process becomes much easier. The next step is to heat the mash to the temperature required to reach the desired temperature.

It mixes during the process, this will help efficiency

Step 4. Once the mash is finished, remove the biab bag. Squeeze it and bring the must to a boil.

Boil for 60 minutes according to the recipe and add the hops at the desired times.

Step 5: cool the must as quickly as possible with the cooling coil and when you have reached a temperature of 22-25 degrees transfer the must into the fermenter and inoculate the yeast.

To increase the efficiency of the plant we can think of recirculating the must during the mash with a beer pump.

The biab method is perfect for those who approach the all-grain technique but it must be taken into account that this equipment can be the beginning of a more complex plant with recirculation or fall, but if you are oriented on an all-in-one electric machine the pot can be used for the sparging and the coil used in any case for cooling.