BiaB sparge volume

How critical is the volume of the sparge? Is there an accepted ratio to use?

I'm trying to figure out how much grain I can work with.

basically go with 1.25qt/lb on your mash, subtract (.15gal/lb) as absorption, or guesstimate how much wort you have after your mash, then set your sparge volume to make up for that.

even with a big grain bill you should still have at least 3 gallons to sparge with.

O.O you're actually displacing the sugary water, now inside the grain, with sparge water. Makes sense, thank you for that.

I can see too little sparge water has obvious reprecussions, but what about too much?

The Aussie method of BIAB; uses full volume. I have used this method twice now; very good results.
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/04/14/brew-in-a-bag-biab-all-grain-beer-brewing/

IIRC there is no separate sparge with BIAB method. All the water for the mash and sparge go in together with the grain for the full amount of time. When the mash is done, you remove the bag with the grain and start the boil. I've never done it but it sounds super easy and many people say it works great. The catch is you need a very big pot to fit everything at once. I think a 10 gallon pot is recommended to make 5 gallons of beer.

maida7 said:

IIRC there is no separate sparge with BIAB method. All the water for the mash and sparge go in together with the grain for the full amount of time. When the mash is done, you remove the bag with the grain and start the boil. I've never done it but it sounds super easy and many people say it works great. The catch is you need a very big pot to fit everything at once. I think a 10 gallon pot is recommended to make 5 gallons of beer.

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I was thinking of doing the method where you have a second pot of "sparge" water that you use to soak out the goodies... but I'm unsure how much water/space is needed.

Edit: sorry I didn't realise there were so many BiaB methods

Finnagann said:

I was thinking of doing the method where you have a second pot of "sparge" water that you use to soak out the goodies... but I'm unsure how much water/space is needed.

Click to expand...

Check out the thread on stove top all grain. That's what your doing. He has a full step by step tutorial with pics. The sparge should be as big as possible. Basically make the sparge whatever volume you need to add to the mash to make the full preboil volume.

Example: you need 6.5 gallons of wort preboil and your mash results in 2.5 gallons of wort. Make the sparge the other 4 gallons.

maida7 said:

Check out the thread on stove top all grain. That's what your doing. He has a full step by step tutorial with pics. The sparge should be as big as possible. Basically make the sparge whatever volume you need to add to the mash to make the full preboil volume.

Example: you need 6.5 gallons of wort preboil and your mash results in 2.5 gallons of wort. Make the sparge the other 4 gallons.

Click to expand...

Yikes I guess I will need bigger pots, thanks for the input.

Finnagann said:

Yikes I guess I will need bigger pots, thanks for the input.

Click to expand...

you'll need an 8 gallon pot to do full boils for 5 gallon batches.

Check out this thread

For that method you need a second pot 5-6 gallon size.

I wouldn't say there's any "standard" for Brew-in-a-bag. Yes, usually it's full volume mashing where you just remove the grain bag and start boiling but it does require a large pot vs. finished batch size. You can squeeze a bit more OG out of a given batch by increasing grain bill, mashing with MOST of the water in the kettle, then dunk sparging in a smaller vessel of water. That volume then gets poured back into the main kettle which will now have more headroom since the grain has been removed.

This is still BIAB but it adds a sparge step.

I do BIAB with a sparge. So its called BIABWAS I guess?

Basically, I use a 5 gal paint strainer as my "bag" but use normal mash water levels, including a sparge. So a typical 10lb batch for me is 14 quarts to start with, then I drain the cooler and add 12 more quarts at 165F as a sparge. Works great. No stuck sparges ever, plus I get efficiencies in the 80's% consistently.