BIAB Recirculation

Just getting the equipment to start with all grain and BIAB looks like the best way to go. So here is the questions: recirculating pump or just stir it up? Obviously, just stirring up will be the cheapest but what gets the best results?

I just stir and have gotten efficiency over 80% with no sparge. How much better can you expect?

I also just stir and get close to 80 pct efficiency. I think the one advantage of a pump would be to help keep temps even, ie close lid, turn on pump, cover with blanket, return after 60 mins.

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Spent the past couple months testing this on my eBIAB system. Bottom line? Recirc pump and PID (after adjusting flow rates) keeps mash within 1 degree of set point. No recirc pump and instead just draining a quart or two from the bottom of the kettle into a pitcher and pouring back into the kettle to equalize temps then covering with a blanket results in @ a 2 degree loss over the course of a 60 minute mash. A pump and associated plumbing/hoses will add close to $200.00 to your build cost.

You decide..........

RM-MN said:

I just stir and have gotten efficiency over 80% with no sparge. How much better can you expect?

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That's impressive. I never get that high. I don't squeeze the bag though. What is your water to grain ratio?

I recirc but mainly because I have a RIMS tube. Get 81% efficiency every time. I imagine just stirring would do just as well. Even when recircing, I still stir every 20 minutes just to mix things up. But I squeeze the bag every time, and I think that is the key to high efficiency with the system. I don't get any excess tannins in my beer, as far as I can tell. Why not squeeze?

When I simply stir occasionally, do a mashout, and squeeze the bag, conversion efficiency is a consistent 82-84%.

Domes said:

That's impressive. I never get that high. I don't squeeze the bag though. What is your water to grain ratio?

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I try to do full volume mashing so whatever amount of grain the recipe calls for in 6 1/2 gallons of water. If you don't squeeze the bag you are leaving a lot of sugars in with the grains. Try squeezing it once and notice how sticky your hands become from all the sugar.

thughes said:

Spent the past couple months testing this on my eBIAB system. Bottom line? Recirc pump and PID (after adjusting flow rates) keeps mash within 1 degree of set point. No recirc pump and instead just draining a quart or two from the bottom of the kettle into a pitcher and pouring back into the kettle to equalize temps then covering with a blanket results in @ a 2 degree loss over the course of a 60 minute mash. A pump and associated plumbing/hoses will add close to $200.00 to your build cost.

You decide..........

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With your ebiab sys did you find that the bottom layer of water did not reachd the same temp as the upper layers? I spoke with a fellow brewer last nite that is doing 3v with kettle and cooler. He stated that the HLT water at the bottom would come out cold and had to draw out and then pour it back on top to recirculate. I would assume that this may have something to do with the height of the element. Will this happen during ebiab as well without the pump?

lonetexan said:

With your ebiab sys did you find that the bottom layer of water did not reachd the same temp as the upper layers? I spoke with a fellow brewer last nite that is doing 3v with kettle and cooler. He stated that the HLT water at the bottom would come out cold and had to draw out and then pour it back on top to recirculate. I would assume that this may have something to do with the height of the element. Will this happen during ebiab as well without the pump?

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My element is mounted @ 3/4" from the bottom of the kettle so there is no issues with a large volume of water under the element not being heated.

Stratification is not so much an issue with my BIAB setup, the real issue is that the bag acts as a thermal barrier. Water under/outside the bag will be a different temp than that inside the bag. The simple solution for equalizing the temperature is to mix the two by either using a recirc pump setup or simply draining a few quarts out of the bottom and pouring it into the top. Either method works (one is just much cheaper than the other).

...I sold my pump this year, it was to much effort for me with the plate chiller and all. I think you would loose too much heat with just a pump, you would be heating it all the time like some of the former posters are saying.

I am now a K.I.S.S. guy on the hot side. I do full volume BIAB brewing and loving it. I would encourage you to try it without a pump first. Take a look at my latest photos from May 2011 to present...

Life is good without a pump.

No pump here. If my mash temp. drops during the mash (it rarely does) then I just add more heat to bring it back up.

I single batch sparge my BIAB, and squeeze the hell out of the bag. My efficiency is typcally around 80%, and I don't crush my own grain. I say just stir it up.

Has anyone heard from scubasteve? He was trying out recirculating as well. He was also trying out the basket mesh but no recent posts on that.

Does anyone out there use the recirculating pump to clear out the wort pre boil? I was thinking if you pump out from under the bag and put it back in the top you can work out a mini filter bed of sorts.

I use a pump to recirculate and the wort is pretty clear by the end of the mash, nothing more to do beyond that.

I don't worry any more about putting clear wort into the fermenter because by the time I get it into the bottles it is clear anyway. Give it time to settle in the fermenter and any fine grain particles will end up under the yeast. Gravity will do that for you.

kickrjason said:

Does anyone out there use the recirculating pump to clear out the wort pre boil? I was thinking if you pump out from under the bag and put it back in the top you can work out a mini filter bed of sorts.

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Works fine until you pull the bag and squeeze the shlt out of it to get the gallon or 2 of wort back that's trapped in the grain.