katzke wrote:. . . . I will most likely just do the first brew with a hook on a beam over my burner. After the wort drains it should not be so bad to handle. . . . .
Its funny how most people think that the bags are going to be so heavy, they really really just aren't. I think I might have said this before in this thread... but at the last demonstration brew for BiaB that Spillsmostofit and I ran - I lifted the bag out of the pot and attached it to the hook;
with one hand. Now I'm only 5'9" and I'm no great he man or anything, so if I can do it one handed, that bag is just not all that heavy.
Most people do the sums as follows -
5kg of grain, which absorbs 1kg of water for every kg of grain, so thats 10kg - plus it will have all that wort in it that needs to drain out - so probably another 5-10 kg..... so thats 15-20kg or 33-44lb
Except its not -
Almost all the liquid drains out immediately, and in BiaB you probably only absorb 0.5L of water per kg of grain, and you have to remember that a lot of the grain that went in, has been dissolved, turned into sugar and rinsed out.
My guess is that you will need to be able to lift 8-10kg (17-22lb) to shoulder height and hold it for around 5 seconds. If you can lift a carton of beer from the floor to the bench, you can most likely lift a BiaB bag without any gear at all and with very little trouble.
Of course, thats only if you use the right sort of bag material. And if you are using a voile, then you are. The main recommendation on the Aussie site is for 100%
polyester, not nylon, but then again, I know that people are using nylon, and also just plain muslin, and that it works, so a blend will be fine. If however your bag is too tight a weave, then it will hold the liquid in and it will be too heavy.
Its actually probably a good indicator of your choice of material. If you are a normal sized male type person, and you have trouble with lifting the bag, then you almost certainly have the wrong sort of material.
I've offered before (and even delivered once) but if people would like me too, PM me and i will post over a little swatch of the correct sort of material for you to take to the fabric store. OR - alternatively, you can have a look at one of the paint strainer bags that Jamil recommends for doing partials in his book (note the similarity to BiaB !!!) and go find the fabric that most closely resembles that. Those bags themselves would be just fine if they were a bit bigger - if you were doing smaller than 5G batches, say 2-3G, I'd just get one of them rather than sewing.
Good luck with your brewing katzke, have fun surprising you LHBS owner with a glass of your finest AG beer, that you made with one pot and a bit of drapery.
Cheers
Thirsty
