Do you rinse your grains when mashing with BIAB?

I'm curious about this as someone mentioned it a post about BIAB.

I would appreciate it if you could post how many BIAB's you've done and how often you use it as your main method of mashing. By how often I mean 25%, 50%, etc... And whether partial mashing or all grain.

By rinsing I mean dunking or pouring fresh water over the grain bag after the mash.

2 BIABs under my belt. 3rd this weekend. I do it full volume no sparge/dunk/rinse
73% efficiency

I don't even know how many BIAB brews i have under my belt but a lot and I've rinsed a couple time and I haven't noticed anything significant. I have done a parti gyle with pretty good results.

Maybe we should include our efficiency? Although I don't think it matters as much as consistency when building recipes.

About a dozen or so 10 gallon batches and I am 100% a BIAB brewer.

I dunk three times and get 80% efficiency

Oh and I'm a bag squeezer.

I dump my grains in a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom that fits in my keggle opening before rinsing every time. Probably 12 BIABs under my belt, average 72-76%.

a bunch (over a dozen), AG, and every time.

I double batch sparge and rinse in between steps (1-1.5L/lb total), average at least 75% efficiency

I grind fine then wring my bag without dunking or rinsing I get 80 to upper 80's. But usually right around 80.

ryan0914 said:

I grind fine then wring my bag without dunking or rinsing.

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I'm a BIAB brewer 100% of the time. Have about 10 batches under my belt. I do rinse my grains and get about 70-80% eff, this varies depending on the vender I get my grains from. I have no LHBS in my area so I order online, and the crush is different from vender to vender.

5 batches, dunk 100% of the time, average mid 70s efficiency.

I've done 3 batches, two without rinsing and one with and all 3 have come out at ~78%. I do squeeze every bit I can from the bag. I do have a Scottish background.

13 batches; full volume, no rinsing/sparging, what ever you want to call it. 75% eff. This is the procedure I use - http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/ I don't know why any one would want to make this any more difficult than needed, 75% eff is good enough for me.

About a half dozen all-grain, full-volume, no-sparge BIABs. I never rinse, but I do stir the heck out of the mash a few times, and I squeeze the bag. Efficiency has been 75-80% with a fairly fine crush.

BIAB for 6 years, about 20-40 batches a year, always rinse my grains.

I use DeathBrewer's BIAB method, and I dunk and stir (10 mins). Mid 70s effeciency. About 8-10 batches.

BIAB for 2 years. No rinse or dunk. ~70% eff

BIAB for last 4 batches, 5th coming this weekend :rockin: I rinse my grains just slightly if I need to get to my pre-boil volume, sometimes not at all and get 70-73% efficency. I still dialing my process though, temperature control, volumes, grain crush, technique, equipment, etc. I expect to get higher efficency after I get a hang of it

djt17 said:

I don't know why any one would want to make this any more difficult than needed, 75% eff is good enough for me.

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I agree. Like I said in the other post its really a minimalist approach. I was getting 75% - 80% before my recent efficiency problems. Not sure when I'll be able to brew with the new mill. We got a bunch of snow yesterday and its been kind of cold.

Does anyone ever take a gravity reading before dunking/rinsing in fresh water, and a reading after to see how many points the dunk/rinse is getting?

I'm also curious about the water volume during mash when sparing, and if the anyones sparging has tried using the full volume and not sparging.

I only rinse to get my volume on track.

djt17 said:

I don't know why any one would want to make this any more difficult than needed, 75% eff is good enough for me.

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The kettle plus water is a limiting factor on you OG. You can improve on this a bit by using two kettles. Efficiency goes down with OG. 86% for a 1.046 brew and 72% for a 1.087 brew. So I guess we could argue the 'if needed' part. Even with lower gravity beers and a brewpot almost twice my batch size I think having a pot full to the rim is a bit burdensome. I like to be able to stir and adjust my temp since I do stove top.

bigjoe said:

Does anyone ever take a gravity reading before dunking/rinsing in fresh water, and a reading after to see how many points the dunk/rinse is getting?

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Not personally, but I have read 10 points.

Hermit

I had a small kettle when I started BIAB. I'd mash with what ever amount of water and grain I could get in the kettle, which varied from brew to brew. I'd add top off water as it evaporated during the boil. During the mash I didn't worry about the volume in the kettle too much. I was only stirring it ever 15 or so. Once I removed the grain I could get a decent boil after the initial hot break.

Most of these beers were 1.050-1.065 and I'd generally get 75-%-80%. So it sounds like our numbers are similar I just never rinsed or dunked.

"the crush is different from vender to vender"
You might want to invest in a Corona Mill for somewhere in the $25 range on Amazon, etc., especially since you're doing BIAB. Since there's no issue with stuck mashes, you can tighten the plate on the mill for a finer grind and perhaps get better, and more consistent efficiencies. In addition, cranking that mill for a 1/2 hour or so is great exercise and puts you in touch with the Zen of the grain.

i use the dunk sparge method when doing BIAB. i regularly get 75-80% efficiency in the mash (before adding extract). i've tried just rinsing with sparge water, got efficiency in the low 70s, tried dunking and then rinsing, high 75-80% efficiency, and just dunking, 75-80%. so i just go with the dunk, hold it at ~168 for five or so mins, works great and i get consistent, good results doing this.

I've just started BIAB brewing, and am in the process of fine tuning my process. For my most recent test (2lb of 2-row mashed in with 4L @ 154F for 75min), I had a 79% efficiency. Following a 10 minute dunk sparge at 175F, that increased to 91%. Are there any drawbacks to such a high efficiency?

There was also a large amount of trub in the wort (it looked like miso soup). About 2 inches of trub settled out in my hydrometer jar after 45 minutes. Have any of you used a pre-boil cold rest to remove some of the trub (i.e. siphon off the clearer wort, leaving the trub behind)?

ShakerD said:

Maybe we should include our efficiency? Although I don't think it matters as much as consistency when building recipes.

About a dozen or so 10 gallon batches and I am 100% a BIAB brewer.

I dunk three times and get 80% efficiency

Oh and I'm a bag squeezer.

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Also dunk three times, also a bag squeezer, but between the dunks and the squeezing, I let it sit in the sparge water for 10-15 minutes. Fairly consistent at 82% efficiency through three batches (same efficiency with double crush and regular crush, interestingly enough)

nufad said:

I've just started BIAB brewing, and am in the process of fine tuning my process. For my most recent test (2lb of 2-row mashed in with 4L @ 154F for 75min), I had a 79% efficiency. Following a 10 minute dunk sparge at 175F, that increased to 91%. Are there any drawbacks to such a high efficiency?

There was also a large amount of trub in the wort (it looked like miso soup). About 2 inches of trub settled out in my hydrometer jar after 45 minutes. Have any of you used a pre-boil cold rest to remove some of the trub (i.e. siphon off the clearer wort, leaving the trub behind)?

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the trub is normal.. just boil the beer and you'll get an amazing hot break followed by a cold break when you chill. I used to rack off the post boil wort carefully trying to leave as much behind as possible... now I just dump it all into the primary. the beer settles like normal leaving crystal clear great tasting beer.

nufad said:

I've just started BIAB brewing, and am in the process of fine tuning my process. For my most recent test (2lb of 2-row mashed in with 4L @ 154F for 75min), I had a 79% efficiency. Following a 10 minute dunk sparge at 175F, that increased to 91%. Are there any drawbacks to such a high efficiency?

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Nope. As long as you're not extracting tannins in the process, 91% is perfectly fine. I consistently get 85-87% on a LHBS crush and cannot notice any ill effects (FYI, I dunk sparge for 15 minutes).

This topic came up on a recent thread. 91% efficiency is perfectly normal and even a little low for most commercial microbreweries. Just adjust recipes to account for the higher efficiency and also remember that high efficiency doesn't apply to most specialty grains. So as a general rule, decrease your base grain from a homebrew recipe (which often assume 75% efficiency), but don't adjust the specialty grains.

Last half dozen brews or so I've had 79% on the nose. Crush with rebel brewer mill, mash with 6 gallons and do not do a mash out. I do squeeze but don't get carried away. Maybe ill try a mash out on my next batch to see if efficiency changes.

I did one BIAB and was amazed at my 85% eff. I felt my process was a PITA though and went back to my mash tun. I have come up with some new ideas though, and am ready to try again.

Can someone explain what the "dunk" method is? Where are you dunking? Surely dunking gives you no more as the grain has already been sitting in the liquor for ages during the mash?
I've done a handful of BIABs, all ~75% efficiency. I squeeze a bit and then rest the bag of grain in a large collander above the pot to drip a bit as I'm brining the wort to the boil.

I mash in pot 1. Meanwhile I heat the BK with sparge water to 170 Ish. When mash is over I transfer the bag to the sparge water (and add hops to the liquor if I'm first wort hopping). I stir the grains well, and the pull the bag, let it drain etc. Dump mash pot contents into BK and boil.

SpargePervert said:

Can someone explain what the "dunk" method is? Where are you dunking? Surely dunking gives you no more as the grain has already been sitting in the liquor for ages during the mash?
I've done a handful of BIABs, all ~75% efficiency. I squeeze a bit and then rest the bag of grain in a large collander above the pot to drip a bit as I'm brining the wort to the boil.

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The difference between the mash and the dunk sparge is the gravity or the wort. During your mash, your wort gravity will be pretty high by the end of the mash. When you dunk your grain bag in fresh water, your gravity is in the single digits even after the sparge.

I recently found this podcast with Brad Smith (Beersmith) about BIAB. They basically state that if you are doing a full volume mash then you are sparging and mashing at the same time because all of the liquid is coming into contact with the grain. So basically they are only considering it a "no sparge" if you are adding some liquid that hasn't had contact with the grains. Pretty interesting interview....

http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/so...+Bag+(BIAB)+Down+Under+–+BeerSmith+Podcast+10

SpargePervert said:

Can someone explain what the "dunk" method is? Where are you dunking? Surely dunking gives you no more as the grain has already been sitting in the liquor for ages during the mash?
I've done a handful of BIABs, all ~75% efficiency. I squeeze a bit and then rest the bag of grain in a large collander above the pot to drip a bit as I'm brining the wort to the boil.

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if using a pot that won't allow for the full volume of water. mash with a portion of the water in one pot and the remaining in a second pot. after your mash place the grain bag in second pot. dunking like a tea bag (optional) or stirring.. let rest 10 minutes, remove and drain/squeeze

it is strictly there to rise the grains of any remaining sugar IF you can't do a full volume mash. It is yet another way to achieve the same goal and isn't better or worse than rising or doing full volume.