Brew in a Bag (BIAB) with your BelgeCraft Malt Kit

Introduction

In this tutorial you will make beer at home using the all-grain “brew in a bag” (BIAB) technique. This method allows you to tackle the all-grain mashing process with minimal equipment and effort compared to fly or batch sparging techniques.

Below we share the easy steps to follow in creating your very own Belgian liquid gold!

What you will need to get started

• Fermenter with airlock
• 21 litre boil pot
• BIAB bag and hop bag
• Paddle/Spoon
• Thermometer
• Hydrometer
• Automatic siphon
• Cleaner/sanitizer
• Bucket to chill your wort or an immersion chiller (optional)
• Beer bottles and crown caps
• Bottling crimper

Cleanse your equipment

It is essential that you clean and sanitise all your equipment that will come into contact with your brew.

Get Stuck In

The preparation process is essentially the same for all full grain malt kits besides the malt mix, hops, candy sugar and yeast that is different for each of the brews.

1. Bags available from BelgeCraft fits a 35 cm diameter pot. If your put is of a similar size, pull your grain bag over the rim of the pot and tighten with the drawstring. If you have a pot larger than 35 cm, first get your strike water up to temperature before as per step 2.
2. Add 14 litres of strike water to your pot and heat up to 74°C.
3. Once you have hit the target strike water temperature of 74°C, gradually add and stir the grains into the grain bag and make sure the grain is not clumping together. If you have a larger pot, you can now add your grain to the bag, tighten the drawstring and then add the bag to the pot. You are now “mashing” to create the liquid called “wort”. When the grains are added, the water temperature typically drops 7-8°C, which will bring the mash down to the target temperature of 66°C.
4. Cover the pot and allow the mash to sit at the target temperature for 60 minutes. Avoid opening the pot, which will allow heat to escape and ultimately drop the temperature of the mash. If this does happen, turn the heat on for a few seconds but be careful not to scorch the bag on the bottom of the pot. Re-heating is rarely necessary.
5. To prep for sparging, heat 5 litres of sparge water to 75°C, and keep it ready to sparge your grain. Alternatively, you can skip this step and rather boil a couple of kettles of water during the sparging step (step 7) to pour over your grain bag.
6. After 60 minutes, the mash step is complete. Carefully remove the grain bag, ensuring none of the grains escape and rest this on a rack on top of the pot. Give the top of the bag a few twists and wrap the draw cord around it. Allow the bag to drip into the pot but do not squeeze!
7. Turn on your heat to bring the wort up to a rolling boil while you start your sparging step. Carefully pour about half of the 5 litres of water over the grain bag to rinse the sugar out of the malt. You can now dispose of your used malt and leave the bag for cleaning.
8. By this stage, your wort should start to reach a rolling boil and you can add what is left of the 5 litres that you boiled for your sparge water. Once it reaches the rolling boil, start your timer for a 60 minute boil.
9. You can follow the brewing instruction schedule supplied for your specific BelgeCraft Malt Kit when adding your hops. Add your hops to your hop bag and let it rest in the wort. When the next hops should be added, just add it to the hops bag and continue this process until the last addition of hops is added. If your BelgeCraft Malt Kit requires candy as per the instructions, then add this to the pot directly and stir until dissolved.

NB:  When cooling and transferring, make sure to sanitize everything that comes into contact with your wort.

10. Once your boil has ended you will want to cool the wort as soon as possible. You can do this by using a method of your choice; either using an ice bath to put your pot in or using an immersion chiller. Leave your hop bag in the pot as this will be cooled off with your wort. Give the wort a quick stir to create a whirlpool. This promotes clearer wortby collecting the cold break solids (sediment) in the centre of the pot. Make sure to leave the wort to settle after this. Your wort should be cooled to as close to 22°C and not higher than 28°C as any higher will kill the yeast.
11. Use the automatic siphon tube to transfer the wort from your pot to your sanitised fermentation bucket by placing the tube in one corner of the pot and siphoning. Avoid the centre of the pot and any other cold break solids.
12. Once your wort is cooled to the desired temperate in the fermentation bucket, measure the Specific Gravity (SG) using the hydrometer. If you would like more info on using your hydrometer go check out our Blog article here. Using your Hydrometer. This will help you determine your Alcohol By Volume (ABV) when fermentation is complete. Sprinkle in the sachet of yeast provided with the kit. Seal the fermenter bucket and fill the airlock halfway with sanitized water or some vodka and place in the hole of the fermenter’s lid. The airlock allows the CO2 to escape the bucket without letting dirty air in during fermentation. Set the bucket in a warm place that has as stable a temperature as possible (18–23°C) and leave to ferment for 10 to 14 days. This will help clarify the brew as during this time, fermentation would have taken place and the sediment would have dropped to the bottom of the fermenter. Use a jacket or blanket to wrap the fermentation bucket in if the fermentation temperature is too cold, or place it in an ice bucket if too hot. The airlock water will start bubbling gradually within 12 hours and increase for up to 3-7 days. It will then start tapering off and eventually stop. 

NB:  When you are ready to bottle, make sure to sanitise your bottles, crown caps and everything else that will come into contact with your beer.

13. Use a hydrometer to determine the specific gravity (SG). Your beer is ready for bottling if:

• 10-14 days have passed and there is no more activity in the fermentation bucket
• The measured SG is more or less equal to the expected SG 

14. Add priming sugar to give the beer its characteristic bubbles.  The sugar can be added either into a secondary bucket or directly into the bottles. To keep it easy, and if you don't have a second bucket, add 3x 1/4 teaspoons of dextrose directly to the 440ml bottles. If you do have a second bucket, siphon the beer from your fermentation bucket into a clean secondary bucket without stirring up the sediment. Add 7 grams of sugar per litre to the beer and mix well. TIP: Dissolve the sugar in a little warm water and let it cool to room temperature before adding to the beer.
15. Fill the bottles by detaching the bottle filler from the siphon and attaching it to your fermentation bucket or use the siphon directly in your fermentation bucket leaving a bit of room at the top of the bottle as per store bought beers. After filling, seal the bottles with a crown cap and keep at room temperature (18-23°C) to get the second fermentation started.

After two weeks, the beer would have matured and will be effervescent. Open your beer, pour it and enjoy! 

You can view the Brew In A Bag Vid by clicking Here 

Cheers!

Thanks for reading this free resource. We have spent many hours brewing to make this easy for you and would be shweet if you would subscribe to our newsletter below to receive more free resources, articles, and specials.