Having gone from extract to partial mash I am considering the baib method. I'm wondering why is there not a sparge. I understand that the mashout is going to increase extraction but if some sparge was calculated in wouldn't it be better?
You think you could get more sugar by sparging w/ tap water? Maybe at its hottest I guess? I hadn't considered that since I thought you'd need 170* sparge water to get anything extra from the grains.
what? from where?Bulk DME is about $2/lb.
what? from where?
I do a hybrid BIAB / sparge. I use a 5 gal cooler thats unmodified (no braid or spigot etc) and a 5 gal paint strainer bag from Lowes ($2). Bag goes in cooler, grain goes in bag, strike water goes over grain, then a mash. To sparge, I just lift the grain bag out, dump my "first runnings" from the cooler, put the grain bag (with grains still in it) back in the bag and add my sparge water over the grain again. Wait 10 min then pull out the bag and dump out the sparged wort from the cooler.
Works like a charm and means that I moved from extract to all grain for $22 TOTAL ($20 for cooler, $2 for bag). No recirculation needed, and the wort comes out without any husk material at all, just as if you had vourlaufed.
I like my technique and recommend it to anyone who's lazy and cheap like me.
If your bag and vessel are big enough, you drape the edges of the bag over the walls of the pot or cooler and put some quick clamps on. Now you can stir the grain and water together as if the bag weren't there.
This is essentially what I do.
What would stop you from doing BIAB for all grain, not just partial? I'm sure I'm missing something. This is the first I've heard of BIAB.
This is essentially what I do. I use the large Austin Homebrew bag and I've done as much as 14 lbs of grain without any problem (in a 10 gallon cooler). I usually end up at 80% efficiency (+/-2%) with a double sparge of the bagged grains. I've spent a few more dollars and have a second cooler that holds the sparge water so I can drain the Mash Tun into the brew kettle and start heating it during the sparging process. This knocks about 30 min off the brew day. Another plus about the bags is that I doubt a stuck sparge is possible.
Can someone check through my all-grain BIAB thinking for a 5-gallon brew kettle?
I am thinking of using the BK as a mash tun, and my 6-gallon plastic primary fermenter bucket for sparging.
With a 10 lb grain bill, I'm going to need about 1.25 qt/lb of mash water, bringing my brew kettle up to a little more than 3 gallons of water... But after mashing, it's going to lose about a gallon to absorption by the grain. So now down to 2 gallons
If I sparge with about 2 gallons of 170-degree water into my plastic bucket, then pour that into my brew kettle, I'm boiling with 4 gallons of total wort. I could add back the water after the boil and get to my target 5.5 gallon batch ...
Does this all sound right and doable?
You can definitely get away with your 7.5 gallon. I have a 7.5 gallon pot that I mash in, and then another large pot (8 gallons? too wide for my turkey fryer) that holds hot sparge water. After the mash, I squeeze the first runnings into the mash tun/boil kettle, dunk sparge the bag into the second pot, and then combine the two. It's a standard all-grain setup but instead of a cooler, I use a pot with a bag, and I sparge in a separate vessel. I use the term hybrid BIAB.
I recently did a 5 gallon batch of 1.100 barleywine using this method. It was a very thick mash at 1 qt/lb and I probably wouldn't do it again just for all the hassle, but it definitely worked. 22lbs of grain in total. Awesome.
I do a hybrid BIAB / sparge. I use a 5 gal cooler thats unmodified (no braid or spigot etc) and a 5 gal paint strainer bag from Lowes ($2). Bag goes in cooler, grain goes in bag, strike water goes over grain, then a mash. To sparge, I just lift the grain bag out, dump my "first runnings" from the cooler, put the grain bag (with grains still in it) back in the bag and add my sparge water over the grain again. Wait 10 min then pull out the bag and dump out the sparged wort from the cooler.
Works like a charm and means that I moved from extract to all grain for $22 TOTAL ($20 for cooler, $2 for bag). No recirculation needed, and the wort comes out without any husk material at all, just as if you had vourlaufed.
I like my technique and recommend it to anyone who's lazy and cheap like me.
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