moophone wrote:GuingesRock: Why do you think I would regret going e-biab? Nothing more to clean other than the temperature probe. The sprinkler head is in the cover for RIMS. Nothing a little recirculated stars an wouldn't work with. This would be a dream to clean up!
I shouldn’t have really said anything, because I haven’t tried anything like an automated systems myself so I can’t compare. I did notice on the BIAB site that there was an inclination to keep everything simple. Pat Hollingdale, is on record there as saying he has a “trailer full” of what he calls “bling” different gadgets of one kind or another he has tried, and he now uses a simple pot and a bag. He doesn’t even believe in spigots. He said that any so called time saving device that he has ever seen in action has always increased labour and caused complications.
The Braumeister, is a bit similar, in that it is supposed to be “fully automated” and scares the hell out of me. It has alarms and buzzers and you have to stand by and do something many times. I posted page 12 of the instructions here:
http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... ine#p74380" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; as an example. It’s expensive.
With normal BIAB you bring your strike water to temperature, turn the heat off, put the grain in and leave it. Because of the higher mass of the mash, there isn’t any need to apply heat to the mash, and putting a blanket over the pot is optional. Walk away and get on with whatever else you have to do. Go out for lunch. Whenever you happen to get back you pull the bag, it doesn’t matter if it is 90 mins later, or three hours (some people do overnight mashes even). No buzzers and alarms telling you what to do. What could be simpler?
If step mashes are the deciding factor, then you need to decide how important that is. From my reading, I have read that they are unnecessary, but I am hoping someone who has experience on that might be able to give better advice on that. I’ve been actually doing the opposite and letting my mash cool slowly, without insulating the pot. I developed that on that BIAB site with side by side brews, and I believe that theoretically there are advantages. I called it “free range mashing” and I posted about it here:
http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... ash#p63434" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a research paper exploring a similar idea, and they called their process “reverse step mashing”. I suspect in the end, the conclusion might be that it makes no difference whether mash temperature is stepped up, stepped down or kept constant. A useful question might be to ask if the commercial breweries do it. The ones I’ve been to don’t.
BIAB isn’t less efficient than 3 vessel. Here’s a podcast by Pat Hollingdale, one of the pioneers of BIAB Down Under, it’s quite interesting: 
I do appreciate the simplicity in any design, especially when it comes to cleanup. More is not always better, and often the opposite. I get it